Report: Kelly Oubre Jr. picking up player option to return to Sixers

In what felt like an inevitable decision, Kelly Oubre Jr. will reportedly pick up his player option with the Sixers for the 2025-26 season.

The dominoes are falling as expected so far for the Sixers.

ESPN’s Shams Charania has reported that Kelly Oubre Jr. is picking up his $8.3 million dollar player option to return to the Sixers.

It’s been reported for a while that Andre Drummond is picking up his $5 million dollar player option to return to the Sixers as well. That just leaves Eric Gordon’s decision on picking up his $3.4 million dollar player option (or perhaps opting out and signing a new minimum deal which will give him a pay bump and save the Sixers some money).

The expectation was that Oubre/Drummond/Gordon would opt-in so this does not come as a surprise. Not only had that been reported, but Daryl Morey said as much in a recent interview.

While this news is basically a formality, our resident cap expert Bryan Toporek made a compelling case for how Gordon opting out benefits both the Sixers and Gordon.

With Drummond, Oubre and Gordon back, that puts the Sixers current payroll at $180.9 million dollars. That is $26.3 million over the salary cap. That gives them just $7 million dollars to work with before the luxury tax and $15 million dollars before the dreaded first apron.

And of course, they still have a decision to make on restricted free agent Quentin Grimes. All reports indicate the sides will find common ground on a new deal. The only other free agent of interest is forward Guerschon Yabusele, who is reportedly being wooed by the San Antonio Spurs, among other teams.

NBA free agency unofficially starts Monday at 6 p.m. at which time teams are allowed to negotiate with free agents.