With the draft in the rearview mirror, NBA teams now shift their focus to free agency as team can begin negotiating with free agents this week and contracts can become official on July 6. As many know by now, the Sixers options in free agency are limited thanks to all the salary they have tied up in Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey. Bryan Toporek did a good job explaining the finances behind what’s next for the Sixers and the decisions they’ll have to make involving their own pending free agents.
The two most important decisions the Sixers will have to make before exploring external options are what to do with Quentin Grimes and Kelly Oubre. If you’re ready to move on from Grimes after a drastic decline in production in 2025-26, no one can blame you. But the decision on what to do with Oubre is more complicated. Let’s dive in.
Why to bring Oubre back
Oubre’s first season in Philadelphia was 2023-24, which lined up with when Nick Nurse arrived. In three seasons as a Sixer, Oubre has appeared in 178 regular season games and started 150 of them. He’s also started all 17 playoff games he’s appeared in spread out over the 2024 and 2026 postseasons. We all know about the availability concerns surrounding Embiid and George, but Oubre has been the opposite during the last three seasons.
Furthermore, when the Sixers do have everyone available, Oubre has shown he can round out the starting lineup well. In Game 6 against Boston in this past spring’s first round, Oubre played 38 minutes. He scored 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting, added nine rebounds, while also contributing two blocks and two steals and was a +23 in a comfortable 106-93 victory for the Sixers. The optimistic view on the Sixers during the 2026 playoffs was that their starting lineup was one of, if not the best starting five in the NBA. Oubre was a part of that starting lineup and as he prepares for his age 31 season, could certainly help in a similar way for a few more years. Nick Nurse would know what he’s getting, and it’d be a pretty functional starter.
Why not to bring Oubre back
Financially, things get a bit complicated if Oubre returns. Bryan noted that re-signing Oubre and/or Grimes would put the Sixers past the first apron and that if they opt for the taxpayer mid-level exception, they would be hard-capped at the second apron. The timing of what’s out there for Oubre and what the Sixers want to do with the rest of their offseason might not work out. Should interest in Oubre be robust, Mike Gansey and the rest of the Sixers front office are going to have to decide if bringing back Oubre is worth narrowing their options for the remainder of the offseason. Therefore, a world in which Oubre sits around and doesn’t get what he’s looking for and has to take more of a team-friendly deal in August or September is probably better for the Sixers. But if Oubre ends up being the one holding the better cards, Philly might have to fold and move on if it has a few alternatives that it would be barred from pursuing if Oubre were to return.
Once you start plugging in actual scenarios of what the roster looks like without Oubre in 2026-27, the less sense it makes to bring him back. Players like John Collins or Rui Hachimura as non-taxpayer MLE options are a couple years younger than Oubre and therefore probably more intriguing. Even in the scenario in which Oubre waits around for a deal that doesn’t come and has to take less than what he desired, a strong argument can be made that the Sixers should be giving those kinds of cheaper contracts to younger players with more upside than Oubre. If you want Gansey and company to have more flexibility in a time in which they don’t have much to begin with, saying goodbye to Oubre makes the most sense.
Conclusion
The entire decision on what to do with Oubre can be traced back to the most common discussion about the current state of the Sixers. The franchise is trying to juggle two different timelines. As much as many fans would like to wash their hands of the current timeline that involves George and Embiid, it’s unlikely that Philadelphia will be able to move either contract this summer. Therefore, you might as well try to compete with the two veterans while they’re on the roster and being paid so handsomely. Retaining Oubre helps the Sixers do that. That’s not to say they couldn’t be competitive in other ways next season without Oubre, but there’s something to be said for the continuity that Oubre would provide the starting lineup.
However, the more important timeline for the Sixers is the one that starts when Embiid and George are gone. It’s imperative that the franchise shows Maxey especially that it can build a contending team for the late 2020s and early 2030s to ensure that Maxey will want to spend the duration of his prime in Philadelphia. Even though it’s still 2026, proponents of prioritizing the future would tell you that every decision the Sixers make in this offseason and next offseason should be about building the best team they can for 2028 and beyond. There’s really no scenario in which Oubre fits that timeline so what sense does it make to retain him to begin with? If there are a few other players that can be brought in that are younger than Oubre and come even a minimal amount of upside to be a part of this team’s long-term future, those are players that should be prioritized over Oubre.
So, with all that said, which side of the fence do you land on?
