The Philadelphia 76ers exercised their options to extend the rookie contracts of Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, and Ben Simmons over a month ago, on October 26th, 2016. At the time, the move was simply the jurisprudence of an NBA locking in their discounted options for young players.
76ers Exercise 17-18 Options On Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Nik Stauskas: https://t.co/0oHPI2WTgA pic.twitter.com/8GRvwbGbS1
— RealGM (@RealGM) October 27, 2016
But that was then, this is now.
After the Philadelphia 76ers had success at pairing Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor on the basketball court simultaneously when facing the Orlando Magic recently, the importance of that harmless move has grown considerably.