Philadelphia 76ers sign Joel Embiid to a three-year extension. Here's what it means

The Philadelphia 76ers announced this morning that they have signed Joel Embiid to a three-year, $192.9 million contract extension that will keep the star big man under contract through the 2028-29 season.

“I started a Sixer and want to be right here for the rest of my career. I had no idea when I was drafted as a 20-year-old kid from Cameroon how lucky I was to be in Philadelphia,” Embiid said in a press release issued by the team announcing the signing. “Through all the ups and downs, this city and the fans have been everything, and I am so grateful for how they’ve embraced me. I want to thank Josh, David, and the entire organization. Philadelphia is home and it’s time to bring this community an NBA championship.”

Embiid, selected by the Sixers out of Kansas with the third overall selection in the 2014 NBA draft, is a 7x All-Star, 5x All-NBA Team selection, has led the league in scoring twice, was the 2023 NBA MVP, and just recently won a gold medal with Team USA in the 2024 Olympics.

Note: You can listen to an emergency podcast where Devon Givens and I reacted to the news here.

Here’s a quick explainer on some of the details of the contract.

Contract length

The deal is being billed as a 3-year, $192.9 million contract, but it only extends Embiid for an addition two years beyond what he was already under contract for.

The reason for that is because under Embiid’s previous deal the 2026-27 season was a player option. In order to extend Embiid that option has to be declined, with a new, guaranteed season in its place. So one of the the three seasons in the three-year deal is really just a slight modification to a season that Embiid was already under contract for.

Here’s a breakdown of the contract that Embiid was previously signed to, compared to what he is now signed to. (P) indicates that the season is a player option. The rest of the seasons are guaranteed.

The final three seasons are based on salary cap projections

The 2026-27, 2027-28, and 2028-29 seasons are currently projections, and can change slightly depending on what happens to the salary cap between now and when the new deal kicks in at the start of the 2026-27 season.

Essentially, the new extension starts in 2026-27 and at 35% of the salary cap, whatever that ends up being. Currently, the cap for the 2026-27 season is projected to come in at $170.112 million, and 35% of that is $59.539 million, which we are using as the starting point of his new deal. The 2027-28 and 2028-29 seasons then increase by 8% off of the base year, good for annual raises of $4.763 million.

The rising salary cap
Seeing Embiid scheduled to earn upwards of $70 million at the end of this contract will create a lot of sticker shock for fans, especially since Embiid was making less than half of that ($33.6 million) just a season ago.

But it’s always important to remember that it’s not the dollar amount that impacts a team’s flexibility, but what percentage of the salary cap that a player takes up. And the cap, which stood at just $94 million when Embiid made his NBA debut back in 2016, is projected to be more than $200 million at the end of this new contract.

In fact, because the salary cap is projected to increase at a faster rate than the 8% max raises that players can negotiate, Embiid will take up less of the salary cap at the end of the deal than he currently does.

Which isn’t to say that there are no concerns with the Embiid contract, as he is a 280-pound, oft-injured big man with a long list of lower body injuries who will turn 35 years old during the final season of this contract. But in terms of flexibility under the salary cap, it’s always important to look at the new contract in relation to the salary cap, as the consistent, year-over-year increases to the cap will present a lot of sticker shock over the next few years

A really expensive core of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George
The impacts of the new luxury tax system, the apron, and second apron, on team building are beyond the scope of this article*, but it’s important to acknowledge that this core is going to be really, really expensive.

* Note: I detailed the impacts of the revamped, and far more punitive, luxury tax system, along with the team building limitations that the apron and second apron rules place on high-spending teams, in a series of Diehard articles over the summer. Those are worth checking out if you want to get deep in the weeds of what this all means.

• Part 1: Detailing the Sixers’ cap space, tradeable draft picks, and more
• Part 2: The new CBA and its impact on the Philadelphia 76ers’ pursuit of a third star
• Part 3: Is it realistic for Daryl Morey to build the Sixers around a Big 3?

That means that Daryl Morey has to get creative to field a capable team of role players around them, and that Josh Harris is going to have to put his money where his mouth is to keep this team competitive throughout the rest of Joel Embiid’s prime.

Here is a quick table displaying how the contracts of just Embiid, Maxey and George put the Sixers in relation to the projected salary cap, luxury tax, and apron thresholds over the next four seasons, of which all three of the Sixers’ tentpole stars will be under contract.

Expressed another way, here is what percentage of the salary cap, luxury tax, apron and second apron that just the big three will take up in their four seasons together.

None of which is to suggest that you should shed a tear for Josh Harris, as the rising salary cap is only happening because revenue is increasing across the league.

But this is an ownership group that has paid the luxury tax just twice in their 13 years of ownership, and have never footed a luxury tax bill of more than $16 million in a season. They could have seasons coming up where the tax bill is 10x that.

The franchise that Harris and Co. bought for a reported $280 million back in 2011 is now valued at upwards of $4.3 billion in the latest Forbes estimate. It is time for Josh Harris to step up and prove that he is willing to do whatever it takes to fund a championship caliber roster.

This morning’s emergency pod