To be fair, after the team was blown out by the Boston Celtics in embarrassing fashion in Game 1 on Sunday afternoon, it is not easy to make a case for the Sixers being competitive in this series. They are at a talent disadvantage and on the wrong end of a significant gap in coaching at the same time, and it was on full display in their humiliating series-opening defeat.
Perhaps by the time Wednesday morning arrives, this will feel silly because the Sixers will have tied up the series before it heads to Philadelphia.
Just maybe, though, the answers to these questions will feel more relevant than ever:
From @rcrotty.bsky.social: Does it make a difference to the Sixers long-term plans if they’re swept in the first round? Does it speed up a rebuild if they’re embarrassed? Or is the plan to give it one more year with Joel Embiid, who will be a year farther from his knee surgery?
Perhaps a sweep at the hands of the Celtics will change the tenor of the upcoming Sixers offseason. But the framing of this question probably gives the Sixers too much agency in how their summer will go.
For as long as they are built around Joel Embiid (and, to a lesser extent, Embiid and Paul George), there is probably not a path to genuine championship contention. They will not win enough regular-season games to be players near the top of the standings because those two players will miss time – and make so much money that the Sixers cannot build a high-caliber team without them. They will, in all likelihood, never enter a playoff run with the level of continuity they desire and likely need in order to compete at the highest level. It is not clear if they will ever even enter a playoff run healthy, and in the brief periods they have reached full strength they have not looked the part of a championship contender.
All of that encompassing the state of the franchise for the next three years would be easy to opt out of… if that option existed.
The Sixers are, to some degree, stuck here. Joel Embiid’s three-year supermax extension, in the eyes of many a mistake significant enough for President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey to lose his job, has not kicked in yet. It begins with the 2026-27 season, in which he will make about $58 million before receiving an eight-percent raise in each of the following two years (with the third year containing a player option).
Embiid, who has played in 57 regular-season games over the last two seasons, is on course to be one of the few highest-paid players in the NBA over each of the next three seasons. George, who has only logged 78 regular-season appearances in the same time frame since he arrived in Philadelphia, is not far behind. George has two years and over $100 million remaining on his contract, which includes a player option in 2027-28.
It is easy to call for the Sixers to rebuild. It is much harder to identify a pathway to doing it.
Why would any team even be willing to discuss taking on Embiid’s contract this summer? Given his salary and lack of availability, most teams will find it legitimately inconceivable that a seriously competitive team can be built around him. There is at least a light at the end of the tunnel for George, who in a year’s time will be on one of the largest expiring contracts in NBA history. But even after a late-season surge in the aftermath of his 25-game suspension, George is for now on what most would consider one of the most onerous deals in the NBA. In order for anyone to even consider taking him off the Sixers’ books, they would likely require the Sixers take back plenty of unwanted salary that has been committed to worse players in addition to parting with noteworthy draft compensation.
If anything, a sweep might compel Sixers ownership to consider replacing Morey and/or head coach Nick Nurse. As has been written here ad nauseam, both Morey and Nurse are under heightened pressure given the inflexibility the Sixers have from a roster perspective entering the summer.
MORE: What went wrong in Game 1, Sixers’ potential tweaks for Game 2
From @ChrisBernucca: Given their cap situation and having traded Jared McCain, are the Sixers somewhat locked into re-signing Quentin Grimes? I like him as a two-way third guard but he has had consistency issues this season that maybe a multi-year deal eases.
Days after dealing McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Morey expressed confidence and optimism about the idea of keeping Grimes around for the long haul. After a brutally unproductive trip to restricted free agency which lasted an entire offseason and ended with Grimes frustratingly accepting the qualifying offer, trading McCain to set the stage for a potential multi-year pact with Grimes represented a change of tune.
“[W]e talked to his representation quite a bit through this period,” Morey said after the trade deadline, during which Grimes wielded a no-trade clause. “Obviously, who knows exactly what the future brings, but we think he’s a tremendous fit with our other guards, a two-way player, and we hope to re-sign him.”
Without any backup guards under contract for 2026-27 to support Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, the Sixers will certainly need to invest more in their backcourt this summer. Given the proof of concept – Grimes had an up-and-down year, but in the aggregate was a positive for the Sixers behind and alongside Maxey and Edgecombe – plus the fact that the Sixers own Full Bird rights on Grimes, bringing the soon-to-be 26-year-old back is the most obvious path here. Grimes will be an unrestricted free agent this time around, but the Sixers’ ability to offer him any salary (as long as they do not incur a hard cap at either apron) gives them the upper hand over any other team that might have interest.
The Sixers’ much-needed guard depth in the summer ahead does not need to come from Grimes, even if he seems like the most logical choice on most levels. If Grimes and Kelly Oubre Jr. both depart, the Sixers could elect to stay under the first apron and use the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception – worth a maximum of four years and $64.7 million – and the bi-annual exception – worth a maximum of two years and $11.2 million – to reload. They have several extremely small salaries on the books for next season already, which adds some financial maneuverability in a situation like this.
That route could conceivably land the Sixers two rotation-caliber players and another piece on the borderline of being one, though the market might have to break right for them. This scenario would require the Sixers to inch extremely close to a hard cap, which is a dangerous place to be – particularly for a team prone to suffering several simultaneous injuries.
Grimes being back makes a lot of sense now that McCain is a member of the Thunder. Unless Grimes simply decides he would rather be anywhere but Philadelphia, it is a reasonable guess that he will finally get the long-term contract he desired last summer, even if it will not be as lucrative as he had hoped. But the Sixers do have other options – including using the No. 22 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft to help add backcourt depth, either by selecting a guard or using the pick as a trade asset.
MORE: Will Grimes and Kelly Oubre Jr. be back?
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