Sixers center Andre Drummond has decided to pick up his $5MM player option for the 2025/26 season, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). The move locks in Drummond’s salary for next season and lines up him to return to the unrestricted free agent market in the summer of 2026.
Drummond initially signed a two-year, $10MM contract with Philadelphia last offseason. The Sixers made him a priority in free agency after coming to terms with Paul George on a maximum-salary contract because they wanted to make sure they had a reliable veteran backup for Joel Embiid.
As it turned out, Embiid played just 19 games in 2024/25 due to a knee issue, but Drummond battled health problems of his own, with a nagging toe injury limiting him to 40 appearances, including 23 starts. He averaged 7.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 1.0 steal in 18.8 minutes per game.
While Drummond, one of the NBA’s all-time best rebounders, continues to grab boards at an elite level, the Sixers struggled during mightily during his minutes this past season, posting a net rating of -15.5 when he was on the court. Of course, Philadelphia had a poor season all around in ’24/25, but the team had a more respectable -4.3 net rating when Drummond didn’t play.
Drummond is one of three Sixers veterans holding player options for next season. The team is still waiting on decisions from Kelly Oubre ($8.4MM) and Eric Gordon ($3.5MM).
Philadelphia now has five players on guaranteed salaries for 2025/26. Those five players – Embiid, George, Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, and Drummond – will earn a combined $154MM, which is right around where the salary cap is projected to come in.
Yippie 😳😢
Just collecting a paycheck.
Has there ever been another NBA player with his strange career arc? He was All-NBA at 22 yrs old, and twice an All-Star at 24 yrs old. Possibly the best pure rebounder in the modern era. Seemed like a future HoF’er on the expected trajectory.
And then he seemed to give up. 7 straight years of backup C level productivity and bottom-tier compensation. And it didn’t seem to bother him.
He’s still only 31 years old. When he retires, he will have left at least $300M on the table, maybe twice that.
Since then, absent any serious injury, he’s been content
I don’t know about him personally but I always assumed he was another huge kid that never really liked basketball very much. Eventually it all gets boring but the $$ Is too good to quit.
Same thing happened with Andrew Bynum. He said recently that he never enjoyed playing basketball.
That’s a totally bizarre assumption.
Why did Morey sign so many of these guys with player options? It couldn’t have been because he was that sought after.
I know. Oubre, Gordon, Drummond.
Yuck
My calculation
Current team payroll $186 mm
(Including #3 and 2 roster charges)
Tax line $188 mm
If signing Grimes, they need to dump Oubre and Gordon salaries $12 mm
$174 mm + Grimes
$174 mm + $15 mm?
He’ll probably log twice the minutes Embiid does.