2024 NBA Free Agency: Report: Kelly Oubre Jr. will re-sign with Sixers

Surprisingly, there were people who were upset when the Sixers brought in Kelly Oubre Jr. on a minimum deal.

Now the veteran winger has received a raise. Oubre will re-sign with the Sixers on a two-year, $16.3 million deal with a player option for 2025-26, a source confirmed to Liberty Ballers. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report the news.

Oubre’s deal would likely fall under the Sixers’ mid-level exception, meaning it wouldn’t eat into the team’s salary cap space. As Brian Toporek explained, Oubre could get less money now to secure a bigger payday with the Sixers next season — similar to what happened with Bobby Portis and the Bucks.

The roller coaster has fewer twists and turns than last year for Oubre. After his market dried up last summer, he opted to sign with the Sixers with a minimum of veteran players. He parted ways with agent Torrell Harris and looked to capitalize on his new opportunity in Philadelphia.

And he did exactly that.

Oubre has gone from being a secondary player to a staple of the Sixers’ lineup. There were accidents along the way — when Oubre fractured a rib when he was hit by a car in November or when his Lamborghini crashed after a playoff game — but he eventually showed his value to the team. With Joel Embiid out and Tobias Harris struggling, Oubre proved to be the Sixers’ second-best player behind Tyrese Maxey to close out the regular season.

The 28-year-old acquitted himself well in his first postseason appearance since 2018. He played great defense against All-Star guard Jalen Brunson, who probed and pushed himself away from Oubre in all six games for the Sixers-Nix First-round series. Oubre was also the team’s third-leading scorer against New York behind Embiid and Maxey.

Oubre was vocal about his desire to start last season. It will be interesting to see where he fits into the starting lineup when Philadelphia completes all of its free agency deals. Woj’s reference to Oubre specifically as the team’s “starting point guard” seems intentional.

After the Philadelphia Sixers lost Game 6 to the Knicks, Oubre praised head coach Nick Nurse and his overall career with Philadelphia.

“Ultimately, I want to go to a place where I’m respected and loved,” Oubre said at the time. “It’s been nothing but love here, of course. So at the end of the day, I feel like there’s unfinished business and a lot of things to do — a lot of work to improve ourselves and get us back here past this point and this threshold that Sixers fans have wanted to cross for so long. I feel like I kind of failed because we didn’t cross that. I just have to think, talk to my family, sit down and work on what the next steps are here.”

Unfinished business seems to be a theme for the Sixers. Now, Oubre has a chance to finish what he started building in Philadelphia.