On Sunday, July 26, the news of LeBron James signing with the Sixers on a veteran's minimum contract was so fresh that it went largely unnoticed that the player the Sixers made a massive investment in this summer is officially eligible for an extension.

Jaylen Brown, already owed $185 million over the next three years, is now eligible for a one-year contract extension which would be worth 35 percent of the salary cap in the 2029-30 season. Cap projections vary this far out, so the exact value of the deal is unclear, though it would fall closer to $70 million than $65 million.

With Brown entering his age-30 season – and eligible for a three-year extension next summer should he not get a deal before the start of his first campaign in Philadelphia – should the Sixers pull the trigger and cement another year of control?

In this week's 5 Sixers thoughts, diving into the merits of a potential extension for the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, then touching on other Sixers notes:

Jaylen Brown is eligible for a one-year contract extension

There is certainly not a rush for the Sixers to extend Brown, with three years left on one of the largest contracts in the NBA. A major reason Brown was moved by the Boston Celtics, and a key factor in the Sixers' ability to acquire the five-time All-Star for an underwhelming package, was that Brown is owed so much money over the next three years.

A strong argument exists that Brown's deal is one of the more onerous ones in the NBA; his teammate Joel Embiid still holds the crown there given his availability concerns. But James taking a minimum contract is the get out of jail free card the Sixers needed from a salary perspective; Embiid and Brown making a combined $115 million might be problematic, but Embiid, Brown and James making under $120 million looks like a bargain.

Given how long Brown remains under contract and the fact that the Sixers inherited his Full Bird rights from Boston, there is really not any upside on the team's side in offering a one-year extension. At 35 percent of the cap, a player typically has to be a full-blown superstar to definitively return positive value on their deal.

The Sixers are clearly comfortable betting on Brown paying off his massive salaries right away – especially compared to what they would have gotten from Paul George at a similar cost – but why rush a bet on 34-year-old Brown now? The Sixers have Embiid, Brown and Tyrese Maxey lined up; each player has three years remaining on their max contracts and the combined obligation to those three players exceeds $500 million. The first year of VJ Edgecombe's second contract will be the first year none of those major commitments are on their books.

For now, the Sixers should be more than content to play out the year with Brown and revisit extension talks next summer. A three-year extension next summer would certainly be appealing to Brown should he enjoy his first season in Philadelphia, but could be a fairly daunting proposition for the Sixers. That is part of the responsibility they took on by trading for him.

MORE: Dominick Barlow 'willing to play wherever' to help new-look Sixers

Get ready for national television

The 2026-27 Sixers are going to be appointment viewing. And they are expected to have the maximum 34 games on national television, according to Front Office Sports:

This is far from a stunner after James' decision to end his career in Philadelphia; James has recently sounded like a player interested in playing at least two more seasons but it has not been officially announced that the upcoming season will not be his farewell tour.

James is a staple of the NBA's five-game Christmas Day slate, and the Sixers will definitely be in action on Dec. 25 this year. It would not be remotely surprising to see them at Madison Square Garden to open the season watching the New York Knicks raise a banner and put on championship rings.

Beyond the NBA's landmark dates, this team will be one of the larger attractions in the recent history of the league. In most arenas around the league, the highest-priced tickets of the season will likely be for nights the Sixers are in town. After the team's precipitous decline in terms of national buzz over the last two years, it is a stunning and jarring turnaround.

Evaluating the Sixers' decision on Johni Broome

New Sixers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey's second trade as a lead shot-caller was not quite as exciting as his first.

Last week, the Sixers set the table for their Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signing by dumping Johni Broome, the No. 35 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft whose rookie season was as disappointing and rudderless as one could have imagined. Broome went to the Los Angeles Clippers along with a 2027 second-round pick for cash considerations.

The pick going to Los Angeles will be the second-most favorable of the following choices currently owned by the Sixers:

• Sixers' own 2027 second-round pick

• More favorable 2027 second-round pick of the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns

• Most favorable 2027 second-round pick of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers

It was not a massive price for the Sixers to pay to clear enough room under the first apron to finalize the roster by signing Caldwell-Pope, even if using a second-round pick to dump the salary of a second-round pick from a year ago is a rather disappointing outcome.

Had they not found a trade they deemed to be fair, the Sixers could have still saved the requisite money by letting Broome go via a waive-and-stretch. He would have been on their books for about $300 thousand in each of the next seven seasons. Clearly, even at that minuscule number, the Sixers were motivated to avoid incurring a seven-year run of dead cap hits.

Every dollar matters in today's salary cap environment, and the Sixers likely view those three second-round picks as filler assets more than anything else. The Golden State/Phoenix pick has a good chance of being a premium second-rounder, but the other two look like back-end seconds.

SIXERS FILM STUDIES

Jaylen Brown's strengths | Jaylen Brown's weaknesses

Anfernee Simons | Dean Wade | Ariel Hukporti

Finalizing one of Daryl Morey's final trades

Broome's exit wraps up one of former Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey's last deals in Philadelphia. It was a trade with the Dallas Mavericks which remains a clear win for the Sixers, but will no longer be remembered as a heist the way it appeared to be a year ago:

Had the Sixers received zero value for Caleb Martin at the trade deadline in 2025, the trade would have been a win. He has proven to be a non-rotation player and was in the first season of a four-year deal worth over $35 million. Like shedding the final two years of P.J. Tucker's contract in the trade sending James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers, it was an example of Morey's willingness to cut bait early on in an investment.

Last summer – when the Sixers had Grimes entering restricted free agency after a post-deadline breakout and were armed with an early second-round pick – they had a chance to make this one of the more lopsided trades in recent NBA history: a negative-value asset being traded for two positive assets.

Instead, they will settle for a strong win. They got 105 solid games out of Grimes, but he ended up dissuading the Sixers from anointing him as a long-term piece. They only got 55 minutes out of Broome, whose rookie season was so ominous that he did not just fail to pay off being selected in the second round, but the Sixers had to part with another second-round pick to dump his salary.

The Mavericks paid Martin approximately $9.6 million last season and will pay him about $19.4 million over the next two years. The Sixers, even if Grimes and Broome did not pan out for them, will not be doing that. It remains a successful trade.

Josh Richardson retires

Josh Richardson, a member of the 2019-20 Sixers, announced his retirement from the NBA last week.

When the Sixers decided to let Jimmy Butler and JJ Redick depart during the 2019 offseason in the service of signing former rival Al Horford, they rounded out their starting five by executing a sign-and-trade of Butler to the Miami Heat. It netted them Richardson, at the time viewed as one of the better young two-way shooting guards in the NBA.

The fit, of course, turned out to be a disaster. Richardson was a small part of a roster which was flawed to a massive degree. At his very first chance, Morey did not just trade Horford and a distant first-round pick for Danny Green, but also dealt Richardson for Seth Curry.

Richardson never captured his Miami form again, but 10 years, 554 games and nearly $63 million in career earnings is nothing to sneeze at.

SIXERS SIGN LEBRON JAMES

James' decision | Projecting Sixers' rotation | James' impact, on and off the court