Unsurprisingly, the road to the end of the season has been a slow and arduous journey. We’re down to just seven games remaining before this six-month disaster finally ends. The [Sixers](https://www.libertyballers.com) started a week that looked to contain some winnable games by losing to the Pelicans and Wizards. They closed it with back-to-back losses to the Heat and Raptors. While the losses are all good at this point, and it’s looking like the Sixers will now only need to out-tank the Nets for the all-important fifth slot in the lottery standings, we’re still trying to take some observations on whatever we can from what’s happening on the court.
Quentin Grimes has proven enough to where regardless of how this season ends, the Sixers would be wise to retain his services as he enters restricted free agency. But what’s been particularly revealing of late has been the continued strong performance from Justin Edwards. The Philadelphia native matched his career high of 25 points last weekend in San Antonio. In this past Wednesday’s loss to Washington, Edwards had his first NBA double-double in a 19-point and 10-rebound outing and also added a season-best five steals. Edwards enters the week with an active streak of nine straight games of scoring in double figures. For the season, he’s shooting a respectable 37% from the three-point line.
As it does with any player on a bad team, there will likely always be some empty stat-padding that goes into these numbers. But Edwards has essentially been a staple in Philadelphia’s rotation for the better part of the last three months. For most of those three months, the Sixers have been in roster turnover mode. They have signed and traded for a slew of younger players who have filled out the rotation as the veterans have either been sidelined with injuries or traded away.
Obviously, the Sixers need to field a starting lineup plus three to five bench players each night, but those names have been changing rather constantly, especially in the 2025 portion of 2024-25. Therefore, the fact that Edwards is seemingly always one of them, shows he’s earning his minutes. At this point, it’s probably safe to say he’s earned more next season as well because the exact reason you churn through all these young players is the hope that you find someone like Edwards.
So, what might his role look like in 2025-26? Well, on one hand you would hope it’s a scaled back role because the roster is both healthier and improved next season to where Edwards does not need to play between 30 and 40 minutes regularly. On the other hand, there’s enough uncertainty about next season — outside of the guards — to say that Edwards is going to be a regular rotation player and might not see his role decrease at all.
Most everyone can feel confident about Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain playing a lot of minutes on next year’s Sixers team. Provided Grimes returns, which continues to look like it should be an offseason priority for Philly, that would add another guard into the fold. But Edwards possesses enough size over all three guards to where all three playing a lot would not be taking minutes away from Edwards. It gets a lot more challenging to project minutes in next year’s rotation when we start looking at the small forwards and power forwards who might be threats to Edwards.
Kelly Oubre, Jr. has a player option for next season and if he opts in, would certainly be in line to start on opening night. Paul George will probably be on next season’s opening night roster, but one would figure the Sixers will at least kick the tires on moving George in the offseason. That leaves Guerschon Yabusele as the only other forward currently on the team who we can confidently say would get in the way of Edwards playing a lot next season. As many know by now, Yaubsele is set to hit free agency this summer. So, as we sit here at the end of March, there are three players on the Sixers’ roster who pose barriers to a medium to big role for Edwards in 2025-26. One of them has an opt out and could hit free agency. Another almost definitely will become a free agent and the third is a player almost everyone would like to be traded in the offseason if it’s possible. Edwards is clearly outplaying all the other players on the Sixers’ roster currently that could cloud his path to playing a lot next season.
Of course, we’re still seven months from the start of next season so this is all guess work. Philadelphia could draft a wing player in this summer’s top six that makes the path towards a big role next season messier for Edwards. Perhaps there are trade scenarios that involve bringing in a wing player in his 20s who would get in Edwards’ way in next year’s rotation as well. But continuing to develop Edwards should be a priority for the Sixers heading into next season.
It’s likely that the Sixers go about this offseason in an effort to return to contention next season. But if Daryl Morey and company have learned anything from last summer’s mistakes, they would not be signing a slew of veterans just because those players are going to be viewed as safer, more reliable and more established. Those players theoretically make sense for contending clubs to bring off the bench, but we saw how disastrous the backcourt turned out to be this year once Jared McCain went down and those veteran guards were thrusted into bigger roles. The Sixers will hope to retain their first-rounder in 2025 which almost definitely means no first-rounder in 2026 and a 2028 first-rounder owed to Brooklyn. This means they must continue to find creative ways to get younger. Trading for Grimes was a good start and ensuring Edwards is at the very least a 20-minute per game player next year would be a good next step.
The best teams in every sport are able to fuse contention with player development. So often these things get perceived as tasks that can’t be done at the same time, but that’s not true for the best of the best. Payton Pritchard’s growth with the [Celtics](https://www.celticsblog.com) is a good example of a player that came right into a win-now situation and slowly but surely earned the trust of the organization to get into a regular role off the bench. Next season should be another step in a similar direction for Edwards.
I know it’s been tough for everyone to have positive thoughts about the Sixers, but there’s a really good chance that the organization’s outlook is much more positive in 12 months and it would not necessarily require a big shift in Joel Embiid’s health. In one year, we could be seeing Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain pouring in buckets. In one year, Quentin Grimes could be back and looking even better. In one year, we might be talking about how much of a steal Justin Edwards turned into as an undrafted free agent in 2024. Philadelphia could keep its first-rounder and draft someone that’s in Rookie of the Year contention at this time next year.
In a bad Eastern Conference, that could be enough to have the Sixers back in the playoffs. It’s hard to have a lot of positive thoughts about this franchise given how abysmal the current season has gone, but Edwards’ development should be a ray of hope.