Sixers Offer Ben Simmons 5-Year, $170M Contract Extension: Report

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Former Rookie of the Year and 2019 All-Star Ben Simmons will be a Philadelphia 76er for the forseeable future, putting an end to the ceaseless trade rumors that have surrounded the team's towering point guard over the past few seasons.

Simmons is expected to sign a five-year, $170 million contract extension with Philadelphia, the maximum amount available, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report on Tuesday afternoon.

The deal is not yet official.

>>76ers Trade Jimmy Butler, Sign 5-Time All-Star Al Horford

The deal comes just after a flurry of moves made by the Sixers after NBA free agency began at 6 p.m. Sunday evening.

The team has also extended starting shooting forward Tobias Harris to a five-year, $180 million extension. They then signed and traded All Star Jimmy Butler to the Miami Heat to add the younger, better defender in Josh Richardson. And they also added the 2018 NBA Defensive Player of the Year in Al Horford, signing him to a four-year, $109 million deal.

Superstar center Joel Embiid is with the team through 2023. That means that with the recent flurry of moves, the Sixers have locked up their starting five for the forseeable future.

It's a defensively powerful group, much more so than the 2018-19 iteration of the team that was eliminated by the eventual NBA champion Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference semifinal. The team features a pair of monstrous defenders in Embiid and Horford, and has the 2019 NCAA Defender of the Year, Matisse Thybulle, coming of the bench.

Horford and Richardson effectively replace Jimmy Butler and JJ Redick from last year's starting five. They are losing a pair of excellent shooters, but the team is now more imposing physically, and could be the tallest starting five in the league, with the 6 foot, 10 inch tall Simmons helming the point.