November 03, 2026
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Labaron Philon Jr.'s rotation cameos have been brief and infrequent so far this season.
Before the Sixers beat the New York Knicks for the second time in 11 days on Friday night, I spent a few minutes chatting with rookie guard Labaron Philon Jr., on the fringes of head coach Nick Nurse's rotation.
Philon nodded when I suggested that this is probably the first time in his life he has not known whether or not he would get into a game. How can he get better even if his minutes are sparing?
"I'd say just learning, being a sponge," Philon told me. "Being a young guy, really taking notes off all the guys that we have, really, and the guys that are above me right now. [Jaylen Brown], Tyrese [Maxey], all those guys, being able to give me great information every day.
This week's Sixers mailbag dives into Philon's rotation status and the team's use of its third and final two-way contract spot on Tacko Fall:
From @hollywood26_: Any thoughts on why Philon hasn't been used any more than just filling in for VJ Edgecombe when he got hurt? Just feels like someone that could easily play alongside any of the four stars instead of it always being Anfernee Simons.
From @PhillyS69689421: Why do you think Philon is not getting more minutes? Do you think the Sixers are looking to trade him and don’t want to ruin his perceived trade value?
The simplest way to this question: as of now, there are just not enough guard minutes to go around for Philon right now. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse plays his best and most available players as many minutes as he can; that means Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe will play a whole lot. Anfernee Simons, the owner of three game-swinging performances in just the last week, has proven too significant of an offensive weapon to not be used as a critical bench piece.
Anfernee Simons 19 PTS (6-12 FG, 5-9 3P), 2 AST, 3 STL, 0 TO vs. Hornets
— Role Player Performances (@BenchHighlights) November 1, 2026
Currently 8th in the NBA in total threes (21) pic.twitter.com/p5QCV6HhPo
For now, the Sixers are having a difficult time justifying playing Philon for more than the occasional short burst he gets. No team can ever have enough ball-handling, and Philon's most promising minutes have come next to Maxey. There are so many players above Philon within the ball-handler hierarchy – Maxey, Edgecombe, Simons and LeBron James – that it is not as easy to find pockets of the game for him to get extended run.
Even on a team with rather impressive depth when healthy – signing the NBA's all-time leading scorer to a veteran's minimum contract will provide a lot of help on that front – the Sixers do not have a perfect option in their last rotation spot right now if they want to go with 10 players. Simons, Dean Wade and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are locks to come off the bench. Somebody has to play center.
Already, that means when the Sixers have their full group available, a potential rotation spot for Philon is only going to offer one or two brief stints. He can get longer runways to play when players are sidelined, but typically it will be James or Joel Embiid sitting – which necessitates a bigger replacement than Philon.
Ultimately, Philon's upside in terms of playing time will always be limited rather significantly while Maxey and Edgecombe are healthy and Simons is producing. Simons signing with the Sixers made Philon's path a lot murkier.
"I think they're different players, and I think the competition is not maybe like direct competition," Nurse said during preseason. "I think the competition is, like who's the guard off the bench in that rotation, right? I'm going to lean towards, probably, a nine-year veteran, as long as he's healthy. I think that the talent that he has and all that kind of stuff, and I envision those three – VJ, Tyrese, Anfernee – sharing that spot as much as possible. LP gets a crack, probably in pretty short stints, at the start. That's how I would see it. And if Anfernee is out, LP's now in that rotation."
I do not think Philon's lack of minutes has anything to do with a potential trade. Even before their offseason fireworks, the Sixers drafted Philon knowing there may not be many minutes available for him right off the bat. They did it because they thought he was the best prospect available. That does not mean he is untouchable, but the Sixers would not trade him unless he was valued significantly on the other end of a deal. If anything, a quiet motivation to trade Philon would probably compel the Sixers to play their rookie early and often.
Philon's time is coming; it is unlikely all three of the guards ahead of him on the depth chart make it through the entire season healthy. That Nurse is proactively finding ways to get him into games already bodes well. But he may need an injury to crack the rotation.
MORE: Joel Embiid says he 'quits' three-point shooting, more Sixers thoughts
From @AshleyHouchins: Wasn’t there a guy that they could have given the two-way contract to besides Tacko Fall? They need bodies.
From @EricSeidman: Can you explain the rationale for signing Tacko, while injured, to that last spot?
Just a few days into training camp, Fall suffered a hip injury that held him out of the rest of camp and all of preseason, yet he still won the Sixers' internal battle for their third and final two-way contract. The day after the news was made official, I asked Nurse what gave the team confidence to give Fall the last spot on the roster.
"Did get to see a good chunk of him prior to kind of the injury," Nurse said. "How I plan on using him probably remains to be seen. But kind of was intrigued and liked what I saw in the fall, so we’ll see what happens."
It was certainly puzzling that, over the first 10 or so days of the season, the Sixers had a two-way spot tied up with a player unavailable as they managed a slew of frontcourt injuries devastating their center rotation. But it is clear that the Sixers have some feel for Fall's potential utility on their team. Exactly what that is, they have yet to explain.
Do the Sixers think that Fall's 7-foot-6 frame can make him a legitimately playable NBA body? Do they view him as a helpful gimmick player, capable of guarding an end-of-clock inbound pass or grabbing a missed free throw before calling a timeout? He is certainly well-liked in the locker room, and that can only help his case.
Fall is finally healthy now, and if the Sixers want him on their team they might as well give him a chance to play at some point. But clearly, the Sixers thought that it was worth waiting nearly two weeks for Fall to be available, even as they battled a bunch of different ailments at his position. That tells us something about their perception of his value.
My gut tells me that the Sixers like the idea of being able to use Fall in what Nurse calls "special teams" situations, and that they are less focused on him as part of a potential solution to resolve their ongoing backup center issues. But I would argue that it is difficult to justify, given the Sixers' current positioning, that such a chess piece is worth a two-way roster spot when there are bigs with NBA experience on the market and eligible.
MORE: How (quickly) can Sixers solve backup center issues?
