Today is Monday, which means the time has come to begin the week with 5 Sixers thoughts.
On the heels of a loss to the Detroit Pistons in a game that went down to the wire, there is a whole lot to hit on today. Let's not waste any time:
Who should be closing games moving forward?
As Paul George gets closer and closer to making his season debut, the Sixers' need for a two-way stabilizer on the wing and in the frontcourt is apparent. While some are concerned about George detracting from the Sixers' fast-paced offensive style, the bigger focus needs to be tightening up a poor defense.
So, after a loss in which the Sixers could not score enough points down the stretch, it is worth thinking harder about how they will close games moving forward. It has oftentimes been Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre Jr. and a center out there to finish games, but George is coming and Trendon Watford earned a starting and closing role on Saturday when he posted a triple-double.
Maxey will always close games for the Sixers. When George is back, the same will almost certainly be true for the nine-time All-Star. There will be a center in there; the Sixers hope more often than not that is Joel Embiid. It leaves two spots up for grabs, with Edgecombe, Oubre, Grimes and Watford appearing to be the primary candidates due to Jared McCain's very slow start (more on that soon).
Edgecombe is slumping. After a stellar six-game stretch to begin his NBA career, the 20-year-old has made only 15 of his 50 field goal attempts over the last four games (the good news: Edgecombe is averaging 7.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game during that period).
But the tremendous nature of what Edgecombe accomplished in the opening two weeks of the season cannot be forgotten, and as Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has said ad nauseam, the more minutes Edgecombe plays the more successful his rookie campaign will be. The guess here: Edgecombe will always remain locked into a role starting and closing games for this team unless another option becomes dramatically better. If it is anywhere close, Nurse will give the nod to Edgecombe.
With Maxey, Edgecombe, George and a center locked in, is there an argument for keeping Grimes in games for closing time? He is far and away the best three-point shooter of the remaining options and also a quality perimeter defender with some positional versatility. The Sixers' three-guard lineups have been excellent. Grimes has had several crucial late-game moments on both ends of the floor across a few close Sixers victories. He has a real case.
The boldest call would clearly be Watford, even if he is the only one that enables the Sixers to field a normal-sized lineup. But it limits the team's optionality on defense, and Watford's suspect three-point shooting could be placed under greater scrutiny in high-leverage moments – particularly because he is going to have the ball in his hands much less frequently when sharing the floor with the team's best players. Watford's minutes are best when he can be a primary or secondary ball-handler.
Frankly, it is bizarre that the case still has to be made for Oubre to close games with the way he has played all season long. Oubre struggled from the field on Sunday, and it was his first definitively bad game since opening night. Oubre has turned into a model of consistency for the Sixers, a stabilizing force as a scorer and a tone-setter on defense.
Game Kelly Oubre Jr. scoring
Oct. 22 @ BOS 10 points, 2-6 FG, 2-6 3P
Oct. 25 vs. CHA 19 points, 7-10 FG, 2-3 3P
Oct. 27 vs. ORL 25 points, 9-16 FG, 2-6 3P
Oct. 28 @ WAS 17 points, 5-13 FG, 2-8 3P
Oct. 31 vs. BOS 17 points, 6-12 FG, 3-7 3P
Nov. 2 @ BKN 29 points, 12-21 FG, 3-9 3P
Nov. 4 @ CHI 18 points, 7-11 FG, 2-4 3P
Nov. 5 @ CLE 19 points, 7-16 FG, 4-8 3P
Nov. 8 vs. TOR 19 points, 8-15 FG, 1-6 3P
Nov. 9 vs. DET 13 points, 5-13 FG, 1-6 3P
Anything can happen within an individual game – players go hot and cold and closing lineups change for a night as a result – but in an overarching sense, George's upcoming return should not threaten Oubre's role security. Oubre should not be near the top of the NBA leaderboard in minutes played, and George rejoining the action will help Nurse lighten Oubre's workload in that sense. But the veteran swingman absolutely must be treated as one of the team's best and most reliable players, because that is what Oubre is.
A closing group of Maxey, Edgecombe, Oubre, George and Embiid should be favored to start and close games when George finally gets clearance to play. Closing lineups can always be fluid, though, and Nurse should not view it as a failure if Edgecombe simply does not earn the nod every once in a while. If Grimes or Watford gets going – or, eventually, McCain looks like himself – there will be no long-term harm stemming from Edgecombe watching the end of a game from the bench.
What is going on with Jared McCain?
Speaking of McCain, it would be difficult to characterize the first two appearances of his sophomore NBA campaign as anything other than weird. McCain is playing with a massive brace on his left knee that has made it difficult for him to stay balanced; McCain has recovered from a torn meniscus suffered about 10 months ago but has not yet been cleared to play both ends of back-to-backs and is on a minutes restriction.
Most times when a player returns from a long-term injury, the conditioning aspect of it all is the biggest challenge. There is no way to replicate going from end to end over and over at the speed of an NBA game. But for McCain, that has not been the case, he said after his second consecutive scoreless appearance on Sunday night.
"We're trying some different things, just trying to see how [the brace] would feel with different sleeves over it," McCain said. "Sometimes I feel like I'm about to fall over when I'm running... Conditioning, I feel like I'm good. I don't find myself too tired."
McCain, who has sought advice from Embiid on how to play with a bulky brace, is clearly not himself on the court right now. He knows it and is frustrated by it, but the 21-year-old is giving himself "grace" and "compassion." Nurse acknowledged after Sunday's loss that he is making a concerted effort to play McCain alongside Maxey so the second-year guard is not tasked with much ball-handling responsibility yet.
There is no question that McCain is a crucial part of this puzzle moving forward, but there is no way for him to show that without learning how to move along with NBA speed and physicality while wearing his brace. The Sixers are trying to get him there, but these subpar minutes in real games have become the cost of doing business. The growing pains right now are necessary for McCain to get to the other side of this later on and become a rotation fixture. Until then, his playing time just might stay limited.
MORE: Is McCain now a trade candidate?
Jabari Walker gives Nick Nurse an emphatic endorsement
Through nine games, Sixers two-way power forward Jabari Walker had failed to prove much beyond what everybody already knew: He is a stellar offensive rebounder. On this team, that will not quite be enough for the 23-year-old to become a reliable rotation regular. Walker has put in a significant amount of work on his three-point shooting, and before the season began he expressed to PhillyVoice that for the first time in his life he was actually hunting shooting opportunities, not just taking them when they fall into his lap. But entering Sunday, Walker had still not connected from beyond the arc as a member of the Sixers.
After scoring a pair of buckets on the offensive glass early on Sunday, Walker finally saw one go down from the corner. His teammates were elated for Walker, who moments later converted another put-back bucket and then confidently stepped into a wing triple and knocked it down. He scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds (three offensive) in a 12-minute burst during the first half that swung the game in the Sixers' direction for a significant chunk of the action:
Walker is extremely soft-spoken. But he was almost giddy talking about the reaction his teammates had to that first three-point make and the fact that Nurse let him play for such a long, uninterrupted stretch.
"Felt amazing, honestly," Walker said, "just to see the reaction from the bench and all the coaches embracing me, just continuing to tell me to shoot and things like that. It was just a moment that's been waiting to happen."
Walker is central to a group of Sixers youngsters that grew extremely close over the summer. It is not often a two-way player receives the sort of love in the locker room that Walker has received.
"Not everybody reacts like that to somebody just making a regular three in the middle of a game. You would think that it was a bigger shot than it was just off everybody's reaction. Things like that, for me, mean so much," Walker said. "Honestly, I just want to help this team get as far as possible because this group is so deserving of a playoff run and so much more. The city is so deserving. So I just put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best for these guys, and we have such a great locker room and great players."
It is easier to have confidence as a shooter during the offseason. Walker admitted that a slow start to the year has made it harder for him to stay eager to let it fly. But he made a decision before Sunday's game, he said, that he would shoot the ball with confidence as soon as it found him. "Good energy attracts good results," he said, and the results did come on Sunday.
Walker's excitement only escalated when he started talking about Nurse, who has always made a point to let role players ride it out if they find something that is working on the floor. For Walker, that meant a stretch that was supposed to be brief eventually being extended into a dozen consecutive minutes.
"Can't ask for anything more than that," Walker said. "A lot of guys usually have some complaints about coaches and things like that, but this is the first year where – I honestly love Coach Nurse. Even if I didn't play tonight, I just have so much trust in him and the confidence that he's given me that I trust his decision-making in everything. So the fact that I got hot and he let me stay in the game, you can't ask for much more than that. A lot of coaches aren't doing that. So I'm just grateful for that."
When did Nurse earn this sort of faith from Walker?
"A few days after training camp, I think I had some good practices," Walker said. "And he was like, 'I want to see you attack more. You're a strong guy and you're getting to the basket easily. I want to see more of that.' I was like, 'Hmm. I haven't been told that in a minute.' Of course that's my mentality, but the head coach telling me that... It just makes life a lot easier."
MORE: Samaki Walker discusses son Jabari's basketball journey
Two-way updates
Speaking of Walker, he has been active for all 10 games so far this season, which means he has 40 games of availability remaining before the Sixers would have to convert him to a standard contract.
But here, the more important number than 50 – how many games a two-way player can be active for – is 90. The Sixers are below 15 players on their standard roster, so they are only allowed to have two-way players active on 90 occasions. That restriction would be lifted if the Sixers get to 15 players. They are lined up to have decisions to make right around the trade deadline.
The first of what will be many periodic check-ins on the Sixers' two-way usage to date:
Jabari Walker Hunter Sallis Dominick Barlow Team
10 games used 5 games used 2 games used 17 games used
40 games remaining 45 games remaining 48 games remaining 73 games remaining while under 15 standard contracts
Delaware Blue Coats season begins
The Sixers' G League affiliate began its 2025-26 campaign on Saturday in Delaware, with a 134-113 win over the Westchester Knicks kicking off an era of new leadership with the Blue Coats. Ariana Andonian is running the show, with JP Clark as her new head coach. There are some familiar names in the box score, though.
Sixers rookies Johni Broome and Hunter Sallis started for the Blue Coats in their opener, though Broome suffered a right ankle sprain and only played 21 minutes. Rounding out the starting lineup for the Blue Coats on Saturday were preseason standout Kennedy Chandler, former first-round pick MarJon Beauchamp and fellow Exhibit 10 signee Malcolm Hill. Also in the mix: Marcus Bagley, who finished last season with the Sixers on a pair of 10-day hardship exception contracts.
MORE: Two years after first meeting, Broome lands with Sixers
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