Joel Embiid Lost Out On A Lot Of Money By Not Being Named First Team All-NBA

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It is sometimes easy to forget that Joel Embiid’s five-year contract extension with the Philadelphia 76ers was something of a risk for the organization at the time of the agreement. The uber-talented center was tremendous during his first season of action, averaging 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game in 2016-17, but Embiid appeared in only 31 games over a three-year period and that inspired the Sixers to build in some interesting contract language with regard to future injury.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2018 and there are far fewer concerns about Embiid’s future, simply due to the nature of a season in which he played 63 games at an obscenely high level. However, that performance wasn’t quite good enough to land the now 24-year-old on the first team All-NBA squad and that will cost Embiid quite a bit of money.

Dan Feldman of NBC Sports brings word that Embiid’s placement on the second team will ultimately cost him $29.3 million over a five-year period. In short, the Sixers will now attribute only 25 percent of their salary cap to Embiid for the first season of the extension (2018-19) and, as a result of that, his eight percent raises will only provide “The Process” with $146.5 million over the life of the deal. Had Embiid reached the first team All-NBA threshold, triggering the “supermax” provision, the five-year pact would have paid him $175.7 million in total with a starting salary of $30.3 million, instead of the $25.3 million he will earn in 2017-2018.

Obviously, this is the definition of a first-world problem for Embiid, who is not in any sort of financial strain. However, the loss of nearly $30 million is nothing to sneeze at and, from a salary cap perspective, this also allows Philadelphia to work with an additional $5 million in salary cap space during this potentially pivotal summer.

There were other contract ramifications to the release of this year’s All-NBA squads, including that of the Warriors duo of Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. However, Embiid’s financial situation was likely impacted in the most significant manner and, given the salary cap fallout, it will be quite interesting to see if the Sixers can take full advantage of their sudden windfall.

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