At 3:30 a.m. ET on Monday, the Sixers agreed to a four-year, $211.6 million max contract with Paul George. Five hours later, they took care of their other biggest piece of offseason business.
ESPN Sources: Philadelphia 76ers All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey has agreed in principle on a five-year, $204 million maximum contract extension. pic.twitter.com/rBT8Tpkvg8
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2024
With the 2024-25 salary cap officially landing at $140.6 million, Maxey’s starting salary will be $35.1 million. He’ll earn $203.6 million in total over the life of the deal, which notably does not contain a player option, according to Wojnarowski.
Order of operations will be the key here. The Sixers and Maxey have agreed to a deal, but nothing can become binding until July 6. At that point, the Sixers will keep Maxey’s $13.0 million cap hold on their books until they spend the rest of their cap space. They’ll officially have Maxey sign his extension after that.
If Maxey signed his extension right when the July Moratorium expires on July 6, his $13.0 million cap hold would jump up to $35.1 million. That would close off the Sixers’ path to full max cap space, which means they wouldn’t be a realistic landing spot for George anymore. By timing their moves this way, they can now create more than $60 million in cap space, which would leave them with nearly $13 million to spend even after landing George. (That isn’t taking Andre Drummond into account.)
To some extent, it was surprising that the Sixers could get Maxey and his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, to buy into waiting on an extension in the first place. However, Maxey had an all-time bet-on-yourself season, finishing with a career-high 25.9 points, 6.2 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 3.0 made three-pointers en route to his first All-Star nod and the league’s Most Improved Player award.
Maxey gave himself even more leverage in contract negotiations with his performance against the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs. He averaged 29.8 points on 47.8 percent shooting, 6.8 assists, 5.2 rebounds, 3.7 made threes and only 2.2 turnovers in 44.5 minutes (!) per game. His 46-point, nine-assist masterclass in Game 5 both temporarily helped the Sixers stave off their imminent demise and conclusively proved that Maxey isn’t only an 82-game player.
Considering the stratospheric leaps that he’s made since entering the league, it’s easy to forget that Maxey is only 23. The Sixers are locking him up through at least the beginning of his prime, and if he continues upon his current trajectory, his contract will wind up being an outright steal. The NBA’s new national TV contracts should send the salary cap soaring in the coming years, so Maxey will take up a slightly smaller percentage of the cap with each passing season.
To wit: Maxey is set to earn $46.4 million in the final year of his new extension in 2028-29. Beginning in 2025-26, if the cap continues to jump the maximum 10 percent that it can annually, it will break the $200 million barrier in 2028-29. Maxey’s salary would take up only 22.5 percent of the projected cap that season, whereas other stars of his caliber will be earning well north of $60 million annually.
In Maxey, the Sixers now have their present and their future locked up. It’s now on team president Daryl Morey and the rest of the front office to surround Maxey, George and Joel Embiid with a championship-caliber supporting cast.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.