The Sixers’ star center is extension-eligible until the start of the regular season, and signs are pointing towards something happening.
As far as NBA cap sheets go, the Philadelphia 76ers are more locked into the core than many other NBA teams, at least as far as the top end is concerned. This summer, the team lured Paul George away from Los Angeles with a four-year, $212 million max contract in free agency that will keep him with Philadelphia through the 2027-28 season (although that last year contains a player option). Shortly thereafter, Tyrese Maxey was inked to a five-year, $204 million extension that will keep him a Sixer through the 2028-29 season.
The other member of Philadelphia’s new big three, Joel Embiid, isn’t exactly walking out the door tomorrow. His current contract keeps him in the City of Brotherly Love for three more seasons (although the 2026-27 year is a player option). Still, he became extension eligible on July 18. Our Bryan Toporek wrote around that time about the potential three-year $192.9 million extension the Sixers could offer. Embiid would have to decline his player option and a new extension would take him through the 2028-29 season. He is only eligible to sign an extension up until the start of the regular season.
On a recent episode of The Lowe Post podcast, ESPN NBA Insider Bobby Marks mentioned the following (around the 1:09:40 mark):
“I would expect a deal to get done with Embiid in the near future here, and I certainly think it will be at max money.”
Marks, off the cuff, calls the extension number 3-for-190 or says Joel could opt into his player option and sign for 2-for-132, earning himself an additional $2 million.
Unlike the previous Maxey situation, with Tyrese and Paul George already signed long-term, there’s no real cap-related benefit to waiting on an Embiid extension here. It probably makes sense to lock him in now before the cap continues to rise even higher in future years. Based on that logic and Marks’ remark here, it seems like we should anticipate something happening on the Embiid contract front within the next month.