According to Shams Charnia, another of the Sixers’ player option dominoes fell today with forward Kelly Oubre Jr. picking up his option for the 2025-2026 NBA season. He will now be paid $8,382,150 for the upcoming year.
This news comes just a day after Andre Drummond picked up his $5 million player option. This just leaves Eric Gordon as the last player on the Sixers yet to make a decision on his player option, which will come by the end of the day today.
Oubre signed with Philadelphia for the 2023-2024 season on a minimum contract, where he showcased enough to earn a two-year contract worth $16.4 million with a player option for the second year.
This past year for Philadelphia, Oubre appeared in 60 games, starting in 57 of them. He averaged 15.1 points and 6.1 rebounds while shooting a career high 47.0% from the field. Oubre, since joining the Sixers, has also appeared to really buy in on the defensive side of the ball, something that some have critiqued him for in the past. He averaged another career high of 1.5 steals per game this past season.
While he is not an efficient shooter from beyond the arc, as evidenced by his 29.3% from three, he has been one of the Sixers most consistent players. With almost the entire team dealing with injuries at one point or another last year, Oubre ended up starting the most games for the Sixers this past season.
With so many questions and expectations for the Sixers and their upcoming season, retaining a player like Oubre Jr. on a fair deal like this should be seen as a win.
