So far, there is not a whole lot to complain about here.
The Sixers are 2-0, Joel Embiid made considerable progress in his second game of the season, and all of the key bullet points the team spent its training camp and preseason discussing have been implemented.
Neither game has gone as planned, but in both contests the Sixers have picked themselves up off the mat, erased a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter and found a way to win.
With a successful first half-week in the books, the time has come to kick off the first full week of the 2025-26 Sixers regular season with 5 Sixers thoughts:
Early returns on three-guard lineups
Of any combination of three Sixers, the third-most used grouping is Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes. Much of the offseason was spent anticipating how Sixers head coach would juggle those three guards and Jared McCain together; once McCain returns from his thumb injury that foursome of young and dynamic guards might represent four of the six best players on this team.
The earliest of returns – 35 minutes across two games – bode well for the Sixers, as they have outscored opponents by 16 points with Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes all on the floor. Some of the numbers:
Statistic Maxey-Edgecombe-Grimes lineups
Minutes 35
Points scored 105
Points allowed 89
Team field goals 34-64 (53.1 FG%)
Team three-point attempts 15-29 (51.7 3P%)
Assists 20
Some of this – particularly the ridiculous three-point efficiency – will not be sustainable. But Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes have all played with a level of speed, confidence and decisiveness that can constantly drive an offense.
Maxey's play has been the most outstanding and Edgecombe's has been the most memorable, but as the biggest of the group, Grimes is actually the key to all of this working. The entire arrangement depends on his ability to defend wings, keeping Maxey and Edgecombe on guards where they belong.
Even once McCain is back, there are no guarantees that the 21-year-old can coexist defensively with both Maxey and Edgecombe. But pick any two of Maxey, McCain and Edgecombe, then slide Grimes up to the three, and the Sixers could have a quality unit on their hands.
So far, Nurse and co. have every reason to believe that lineups with Grimes at small forward can be viable on a consistent basis. That would do an enormous amount for the Sixers offensively if it holds true.
THE SIXERS ARE 2-0
Sixers beat Celtics on opening night | Sixers come back vs. Hornets in home opener
A launching point for Justin Edwards
After an injury allowed him into the rotation in the second half of Saturday's win, Edwards knocked down three important triples to keep the Sixers afloat and enable their eventual comeback. Edwards did nothing of note in Summer League and struggled so much in preseason that he lost his rotation spot to two-way signees Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker. But, he said, those shots were not boosts for his confidence, because his trust had not gone anywhere.
During the preseason, Edwards talked about his improvement in separating the shots he is taking and the plays he is making from the results that show up in a box score. He felt that he was taking the right shots and making the right plays, and that the tangible results would eventually follow. It is not an easy mindset to adopt, which Edwards admitted. But it did him and the Sixers a whole lot of good on Saturday.
"That's what they expect from me," Edwards said, "and I was just ready when my name was called."
Expect Edwards to be in the rotation on Monday, with Embiid and Barlow joining McCain, Paul George and Trendon Watford on the sidelines. Many of his minutes could come at power forward, and while the Sixers want to establish some better positional size across the board these days, it is not dissimilar to Grimes at the three: if Edwards playing the four proves to be consistently viable, crafting a 48-minute rotation plan will become enormously easier for Nurse and his staff.
After Saturday's game, Nurse highlighted how important the rotation cameos were for Edwards and another late addition to the mix.
"I think it great for both Justin and Drum, because I think we're trying to figure out where they fit in and where they help us," Nurse said. "We obviously needed both of them desperately tonight, so it was great for those guys to play that way, and they're going to have some confidence now."
Andre Drummond saves the day. Is there more to come?
Yes, "Drum" refers to Andre Drummond, whose 2024-25 campaign was so brutal that many Sixers fans completely wrote off the idea of the veteran center being a valuable contributor to this team at any point in 2025-26.
Well, he has already swung one game in the Sixers' direction.
In the game to help eat minutes after Embiid's minutes restriction ended his night, Drummond turned into the dominant force on the glass he has relished being over the course of his NBA career. He converted a few timely baskets, made some important passes and even had a handful of impressive, perhaps game-saving moments as a defender.
Drummond was super-charged with emotion; he has certainly heard the doubt. But Drummond speaks passionately about staying ready even when it feels like his name will not be called. It paid dividends for him on Saturday, when what could have been a brief spurt turned into nearly 16 minutes of uninterrupted play. Drummond credited the team's extremely physical play during unofficial workouts – he coined it "Prison Ball" – for his ability to withstand such a prolonged stretch of play at such a tempo.
MORE: How the Sixers became 2-0, from Embiid's odd cadence to Drummond's heroics
Even if Drummond does not supplant Adem Bona as the Sixers' backup center on a full-time basis (Bona has had two very quiet games to begin the season), he will be a central figure in this puzzle when Embiid is out.On Monday night, it will be interesting to see if Nurse decides to start Drummond over Bona, partly for the sake of riding the hot hand and partly for the sake of keeping the team's bench rotations normal as often as possible. Nurse could do that and still play Bona considerably more minutes. But Drummond is probably not that far off from making it a real competition for minutes.
Two standouts from Saturday's film
Grimes has expressed plenty of excitement about the idea of sharing the floor with Embiid so the two can form a dynamic two-man game, and early in the second quarter of
One of the more encouraging plays of this game, as the Sixers look to hone in on Edgecombe's potential upside as a ball-handling decision-maker, was this example of the 20-year-old's court vision. Watch as Jabari Walker recovers the loose ball for Edgecombe to point at an open Grimes down the floor. Walker does not see the pass and instead throws the ball to Edgecombe, who has no hesitation making the hit-ahead pass:
Edgecombe has looked every bit like an NBA veteran in his first two games in the NBA. How impressive is it?
"I don't get excited for VJ," Drummond joked. "He's been a professional his whole life. He's been playing with the Bahamian national team, since he was, like, six."
After the laughter subsided, Drummond relented.
"But, in all seriousness, VJ is very, very good. I'm not surprised by the way he's playing and just his confidence level," Drummond said. "He's been playing against grown men for as long as I can remember. So I think now it's just sustaining it and taking care of his body, because I think the rest will take care of itself."
Sixers' NBA Cup court revealed
Last week, the NBA unveiled all of the special courts that teams will use for NBA Cup games. Here is the Sixers' court:
The Sixers' first NBA Cup Group Play game will be on Friday night at home against the Celtics.
MORE: Dissecting the film from Sixers' win in Boston on opening night
Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam
Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice