There was never any doubt that the Sixers would re-sign Maxey after his rookie deal. It was widely reported last offseason that Maxey would wait to sign his extension so that Philly could keep cap space open. Daryl Morey said that Maxey is one of the few players who will definitely be back next season. After an All-Star and Most Improved Player award-winning season, there’s no reason for Philly to do anything but sign him long-term.

Since the Sixers have Maxey’s bird rights, they can go over the cap to sign him. The order of operations is to add the talent around Maxey and Embiid using their loads of cap space and then sign the young star guard. When the time does come for Maxey to get a new deal, he’s going to be rewarded handsomely.

Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Sixers are “expected” to sign Maxey to a five-year contract worth $205 million in total. That’s a maximum deal and one that is well worth it.

76ers expected to sign Tyrese Maxey to max contract

Maxey deserves to get a huge payday anyway for his talent and hard work but he also deserves it because his patience has allowed the Sixers to have all this cap space.

While fellow 2020 draftees Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, LaMelo Ball, Desmond Bane, Jaden McDaniels and Devin Vassell all got lucrative five-year extensions last summer, Maxey decided to wait for his. The Sixers were never in danger of losing him because he is now in restricted free agency but asking him to wait for his new deal after making improvements in each of his first three seasons was a major request.

Maxey waiting to get his deal paid off — literally. It wasn’t certain if he was worth a max contract after the 2022-23 season, where he was a very good role player but hadn’t yet shown for sure if he could be an All-Star. Now that he has proven to be a great second option behind Embiid, he’s undoubtedly getting maxed out. Even though he missed out on being on an All-NBA team, and thus his max deal will be worth roughly $40 million less, he’ll be getting a big contract — likely the first of many in his career.