PHILADELPHIA — If 10 games are to be believed, this is not the same Philadelphia 76ers team as last season. This group of Sixers has looked more skilled and more athletic, has had more depth and has exhibited more resilience than at almost any point of last year. This group has played a fun brand of basketball. So far, it’s brought more joy than angst.
Admittedly, the bar is low in these departments. It’s not difficult to be a better team than a group that won 24 games. But this team has fought hard so far and appear to be playing for one another. Are these 76ers good? Will they force the NBA to reckon with them? That’s an evolving question that only a larger sample size will answer.
“We’re a good team,” Philadelphia center Andre Drummond said.
“I mean, we’re definitely solid,” Sixers forward Kelly Oubre Jr. said.
Welp. That’s it. Close the voting polls. The Sixers are good.
In all seriousness, the Sixers can be good, but they could have been good last season. But injuries, a bad start and other circumstances killed the talent of the 2024-25 team. The current squad has to work against the mental backdrop of everything that went wrong a year ago.
The talent and depth on this roster speaks to that capability. A Joel Embiid who appears as healthy as he’s been in years and appears his usual offensive force speaks to that capability. And a Tyrese Maxey who’s taken a leap in his level as a player speaks to that capability.
V.J. Edgecombe scored 34 points in his NBA debut but is shooting 42.7 percent from the field. (Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)
But, after a 111-108 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night, these Sixers are learning that winning often comes on the margins. It’s the reason that a Philadelphia team that’s 6-4 after a 4-0 start to the season isn’t 7-3, or even 8-2. Nine out of 10 Sixers games have entered clutch time, which is defined as a game being within five points or less with five minutes remaining. Philadelphia has lost three of those games, with all three defeats coming down to the Sixers missing a shot on the final possession of the game.
The good? This Philadelphia team has been lethal offensively. Coming into Sunday, the Sixers led the league with a 121.3 offensive rating. Maxey, Embiid, V.J. Edgecombe and the role players have been terrific in creating an offense rich on pace and spacing and shotmaking. Philly plays hard and shows an ability to rally and not quit, and play different styles on different nights, depending on the matchup.
“I like that we can do a lot of different things, and I like that we can play a lot of different ways,” Maxey said. “We can play fast and we can play slow. We can play in the halfcourt, and we can play in transition. There are a lot of different things that we can do to win games. We have to guard better. We have to get over screens, and we have to clean some of that stuff up communication-wise. But, everyone is competing when they get into the game, and everyone is playing hard. It’s a standard that we have tried to set.”
That being said, a difficult schedule has contributed to some fatigue. Sunday night marked the third back-to-back of the season for Philadelphia. Three such scheduling instances in the first 10 games are difficult to navigate through. When Philadelphia plays the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, the Sixers will be playing their second instance of three games in four nights. That fatigue showed up in losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and on Sunday to a very good Pistons team. The fact that Maxey leads the league in minutes, with Edgecombe and Oubre Jr. not far behind, only heightens the matter.
There is an onus on coach Nick Nurse to start managing the minutes of some of his stars. To be fair, he’s in a difficult position. The Sixers haven’t had Paul George yet this season, as he continues to recover from knee surgery over the summer. They have gotten Jared McCain back, but he’s on a heavy minutes restriction, and he’s nowhere near his normal self. Embiid is still on a restriction, and he’s so far playing in games after getting at least two days’ rest. So, with the injury list still hefty, Nurse is left with some unenviable choices: Play his main guys heavy minutes, or put some guys on the floor who probably shouldn’t be on the floor, if you want to win games.
Finding that balance has been difficult. For instance, Maxey played 38 minutes in Sunday night’s loss to the Pistons, on the second night of a back-to-back. He shot 10-of-26 from the field and looked noticeably fatigued down the stretch, when he was needed the most to generate offense. The simple solution is to get George back, and to get McCain up to speed. But there has been so much ambiguity with George in his prospective return that it won’t be shocking if he plays Tuesday night against the Celtics, or if he sits another month before making his season debut. Either way, the Sixers need his size as a wing, his versatility, his ballhandling and his ability to make shots. And they need McCain’s shotmaking, his ability to touch the paint off the dribble and ability to alleviate some of the playmaking pressure from Maxey and Edgecombe.
“V.J. was walking out of the locker room and he looks exhausted,” Drummond said. “He deserves a rest. He deserves a break with all the back-to-backs. I told him that he needs to stay in bed until 6 p.m. tomorrow. V.J., if you see this, stay your (behind) in bed.”
The Sixers are hoping to get a more full version of their roster back. As good as they have been offensively, they have left a lot to be desired on the other end. Part of that has been the offensive responsibility on their key players. But Edgecombe has emerged as the best point-of-attack defender on the roster among the guards, and that might not be good if a rookie is your best point-of-attack defender.
The competition Philadelphia has seen has been pretty good. The Sixers have played Cleveland and played Detroit. They have seen the Celtics twice, and they have seen the Orlando Magic. Win or lose, they have seen some of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. Even in 10 games, those are games to put on film and to analyze. The 6-4 record for sure highlights improvement over last season, when Philadelphia lost 11 of its first 13 games. But the Eastern Conference looks pretty competitive as a whole. The first nine teams in the conference have a .500 or better record. The 10th team is the Celtics, who promise to remain competitive.
It’s why the question of whether the Sixers are actually good needs a little more simmer on the stove. The separation within the conference hasn’t happened yet, and the tiers haven’t yet been established. Philadelphia at the very least has given itself a chance to hop into the upper tier of the East, but that will take a bit more consistency in winning. The Sixers, after all, are 2-4 after the 4-0 beginning.
But there are things to like and a foundation to build on. Even if the roster has yet to be whole through 10 games.
“I love our competitive vibe and spirit,” Nurse said. “I like that we have gotten to certain things we thought we can get to, and I think there are some guys who are playing at a really high level. There are tons to clean up. We have to clean up transition defense, and rebounding, and some things that we are doing defensively. There is lots going on. That’s for sure.”
