Report: Danuel House Jr. picks up player option for next season

Per reporting from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Danuel House Jr. will pick up his player option for the 2023-24 season and remain with the Philadelphia 76ers:

The move was fairly obvious from House’s perspective, as he would be very unlikely to receive as much as $4.3 million in free agency coming off a down season. Signed to a 2-year, $8.5 million deal last summer, House was out of former head coach Doc Rivers’ rotation for much of last year. Expected to be a stabilizing 3-and-D presence off the bench, he instead shot just 33.6 percent from three during the regular season, his worst mark since getting limited time with Phoenix in 2017-18. His 14.4 minutes per game were the lowest of his career, if you exclude the one minute he played as a rookie in Washington.

However, we did see glimpses during the postseason of the player the Sixers were hoping to have signed. Philadelphia’s Game 5 win against Boston could rightfully be dubbed the Danuel House game. He scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting in 15 minutes in that contest, flashing end-to-end explosiveness that the Sixers often lack. With new head coach Nick Nurse doling out minutes next season, it’s possible we could be seeing a lot more House on the court. Nurse certainly loved deploying long-armed wings in Toronto, and the 29-year-old still hypothetically fits the mold of who you want out there during playoff basketball.

From a salary cap perspective, House returning further drives home the point that Philadelphia will be an over-the-cap team next season, barring unexpected significant changes to come. I’ll let our resident cap expert Bryan Toporek lay it out:

While Year 1 of Danuel House in Philadelphia would not be deemed a success, maybe a change on the sidelines could mean a different outcome in Year 2. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for more bow-and-arrow celebrations in the upcoming season.