The Philadelphia 76ers have been one of the biggest surprises in the Eastern Conference this season because, given their circumstances, it felt like competitiveness was the least likely outcome. Currently, the 76ers are fifth in the Eastern Conference, with a 16-12 record.
Tyrese Maxey
Tyrese Maxey
Tyrese Maxey
MIN: 40.23
PTS: 30.8 (55.97%)
REB: 4.48
As: 6.96
ST: 1.68
BL: 0.84
TO: 2.76
GM: 25
With Joel Embiid’s ongoing health issues and the long-term weight of the contracts tied to both Embiid and Paul George, this looked like it could turn into another year where Philadelphia simply couldn’t build consistent momentum.
After finishing last season 24–58 and 13th in the East, the expectation was a slow rebuild, a team that needed time, patience, and probably a few seasons before it could realistically matter again.
Instead, their timeline has shifted fast, and it’s largely because of how much young talent they’ve added and developed.
With Tyrese Maxey clearly stepping into the leadership role as the team’s first option, the Sixers look like a different organization: lighter, quicker, and more modern in how they generate offense.
The pairing of Maxey with VJ Edgecombe has added a level of speed, pressure, and two-way edge that simply wasn’t there a year ago, and it’s made the team feel fresher in a way that goes beyond the box score. And it’s not just those two.
Quentin Grimes has had an excellent season in a role that fits this identity, Dominick Barlow has been a real positive piece in the minutes he’s been given, Jared McCain is still searching for consistency but has already shown he can be useful within a winning structure, and Adem Bona has played well in a smaller role.
The important part is that a lot of these contributors are young, and they’re not just “future pieces,” they’re helping now.
That’s what makes Philadelphia’s future so complicated and so interesting at the same time. They’re winning and building, but they’re also carrying massive veteran commitments, and the on-court contrast is hard to ignore: when Embiid is out, the Sixers often look more fluid.
They play faster, the ball moves more naturally, and the offense feels less dependent on one massive gravity well. The record split supports that idea: they’re 6–6 with Embiid this season and 10–6 without him.
It’s not that the team scores dramatically more without him, Embiid’s talent and low-post dominance are real, and he gives you a kind of half-court option few teams can replicate.
But the cost is the style: his offensive role has come with a usage rate over 33% in the games he’s played, which is a huge share of possessions, and it’s even higher than Maxey’s (30%), even though Maxey has been a legitimate first option all season.
And Maxey’s production backs up that status completely. This year, he’s averaging 31 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 7 assists, while shooting 46.1% from the field and 39% from three. His effective field goal percentage (54.1%) and PER (22.6)
But that’s where the Sixers’ situation becomes complicated, because the franchise is still financially built around two massive veteran bets.
Joel Embiid, whose dominance is unquestioned when he’s available, agreed to a reported three-year, $193 million extension in September 2024 that includes a player option for 2028–29.
And on a yearly level, it’s a commitment at the very top of the league’s salary scale: Embiid’s 2025–26 base salary is listed at $55,224,526.
Then there’s Paul George, the other major swing, and the one that feels easier to question in hindsight.
The context around Paul George matters here because his arrival in Philadelphia didn’t happen in a vacuum. There was a clear reason he didn’t stay with the Los Angeles Clippers: they simply did not want to commit that level of money to him.
At 34 years old at the time, George was asking for a long-term, max-level deal, and the Clippers — who knew his injury history better than anyone — weren’t willing to go there.
Philadelphia was. And that’s where the decision becomes difficult to defend.
Giving a four-year, $212 million contract to a 34-year-old wing with a long injury history is the kind of move that immediately ties your hands. It’s not just about the money itself, it’s about flexibility. Once you commit that much salary over that many years, your margin for error disappears.
Every roster decision after that has to work around the contract, not alongside it. And in the modern NBA, where adaptability is everything, that’s a dangerous place to be.
The biggest surprise is Edgecombe
With VJ Edgecombe, what surprised me most goes back to what I thought of him at Baylor. One of my main concerns about projecting him to the NBA was the three-point shot.
In college, he shot 34% from three on 4.6 attempts, which is solid, but watching his mechanics and the way the shot looked, I wasn't sure that would translate into him being this kind of NBA shooter instantly.
And now you look up, and he's taking 5.5 threes per game, making 2.1, which is 38%. That's an awesome number, especially on that volume.
Overall, his averaging 16 points, 4 assists, and 5.5 rebounds, shooting 43% from the field, and he is just playing really well.
The biggest thing is how natural he looks creating: the driving-and-kick game, the way he reads the floor, and how well he connects with Tyrese Maxey.
Sometimes they play with multiple guards, and you can really feel that they're comfortable orienting their offense through the backcourt, which matters a lot in modern basketball.
If the rest of the roster develops around that core, things can get really interesting. As the forwards and bigs keep improving, Adem Bona fixing up a few things and becoming more reliable offensively.
Jared McCain finding more consistency and knocking down more threes, and Quentin Grimes trimming the turnovers, those are exactly the details that usually come with experience and cohesion, and they're the ones that can push a team into a real next step.
The hard part is the money. Getting rid of both Paul George and Joel Embiid is not realistic because it's hard to see teams lining up to take those contracts.
But if they could somehow move even one of them, that would create massive flexibility, both financially and roster-wise, and it would make it much easier to fully lean into what this team is becoming.
Vukašin Nedeljković
Vukašin played basketball competitively in his youth, and now contributes to Synergy Sports Technology and Sportradar regarding basketball analysis. He also has experience working as a journalist in Serbia and is passionate about writing basketball articles mainly focused on basketball X's and O's.
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