Well, it certainly can’t be any worse than last year’s Big 3.
What tier the Sixers fell in wasn’t surprising, but the Big 3 Bontempts chose for them was. Philadelphia was put in the seventh out of 10 tiers. It was one called “changing course,” and the only team they share it with is the Memphis Grizzlies. That certainly feels like the right spot for both of those franchises, as they each could be pivoting away from the stars they’ve built their team around for the last half decade in Joel Embiid and Ja Morant.
The Sixers’ Big 3 that got tiered for this year though was not their Big 3 they went into last season hoping to win a title with. Next to Embiid and Tyrese Maxey was not Paul George, but the most recent third overall pick, VJ Edgecombe.
It is hard to tell if this is more about belief in Edgecombe, and how impactful he could be right away, or if it’s just a reflection of how much George’s stock has dropped in the last year. Bontempts correctly pointed out that the availability of both George and Embiid are major question marks, but Embiid was still listed on the core despite his health being the less reliable of the two and perhaps a scarier long term outlook.
This would hardly be the first list that moved George down quite a bit from where he normally stands as a top player in the league. In ESPN’s top 100 players list, he plummeted 33 spots from the previous year’s ranking, going from 21 in 2024 to 54 in 2025.
The glass half full look at this though is that the Sixers are not just excited about what Edgecombe can become, but have hopes that he can meaningfully contribute from day 1. From how Nick Nurse has talked about him in preseason so far, it sounds like he will be a prominent member of the rotation on opening night, perhaps even in the starting lineup.
Tier lists and rankings are certainly not gospel, but the Sixers certainly didn’t imagine this is where their core would line up when they made their big splashes in the 2024 offseason.