May 18, 2026
For weeks, all of the focus has been on the most pivotal stories surrounding the Sixers: two playoff series, the ouster of President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey, Bob Myers’ emergence as a critical figure moving forward and the beginning of the search process which will lead the Sixers to Morey’s replacement.
Naturally, many smaller developments in the Sixers’ orbit have slipped through the cracks lately.
As Myers gets up to speed with the remainder of Morey’s front office intact, there is much for Sixers fans to get up to speed on, too.
In this week’s 5 Sixers thoughts, an additional candidate to replace Morey worth noting, plus more of the storylines which have gone under the radar lately:
Many of the names generating early buzz when it comes to speculation about the Sixers’ newest lead basketball operations executive were detailed here. One person that should have been mentioned given their experience and current ties to the organization: Neil Olshey.
Olshey ran basketball operations for the Portland Trail Blazers for a decade; during his 10 seasons on the job they went 413-330 (.556) with eight consecutive playoff appearances.
While Olshey departed Portland in 2021 following an internal investigation into the work environment he had fostered, he very quickly joined the Sixers as a consultant.
The first draft pick Olshey made in Portland: Damian Lillard in 2012. The following year, he selected CJ McCollum. He spent a long time building teams around those two guards; Portland was consistently good but never great.
Search processes for jobs like the one the Sixers aim to fill do not merely exist to land on a hire. They are also devices to gather information, opinions and perspectives. As the Sixers ponder a time in which their franchise is built around guards Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, it stands to reason Olshey has some thoughts that are worth hearing.
MORE: Nine candidates to replace Morey
One of the most anticipated series in recent NBA history is nearing tip-off: Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio is on Monday night.
Barring a surprise, former Sixers guard Jared McCain will be on the floor as part of Oklahoma City’s second unit.
McCain was in the Thunder’s mix immediately, aided by a slew of injuries opening up minutes. He played well enough to hold onto a bench role, but when Oklahoma City reached full health before the playoffs he fell to the fringes of the rotation. McCain only logged 21 minutes across the entirety of the Thunder’s first-round sweep.
Then came the second round, in which the Thunder matched up with the Los Angeles Lakers, who play in the arena closest to McCain’s family in California. McCain was the beneficiary of his team expanding its rotation for Game 1 of that series, knocking down four three-point shots on five attempts to earn himself another crack at rotation minutes.
Across another four-game sweep, McCain logged 14.8 minutes per game, averaging 11.5 points and shooting 12-for-19 from beyond the arc. With star wing Jalen Williams sidelined, McCain has taken full advantage of his opportunity and has earned a role that might sustain even when Williams makes his return.
“Just fits the team really well,” Williams said of McCain after his return to Philadelphia in March. “Just a really good kid. I think if you’re a really good person, wherever you go you can infect the team with your energy and he does a good job with that. I think we're also a fun team to be around as well. So I think he gets a lot of confidence to be himself and he's already like that anyways.”
The overwhelmingly likely outcome: the 73 seconds of action Kyle Lowry logged in Game 6 of the Sixers’ first-round series against the Boston Celtics will prove to be his final appearance on an NBA court.
Lowry, who turned 40 in March, officially completed 20 NBA seasons. Lowry is notoriously difficult to get a hold of — he was never made available to reporters in Philadelphia during the 2025-26 season following his Media Day press conference — but when Lowry conducted an exit interview in April 2025, his intentions seemed clear.
“I still want to play one more year,” Lowry said, “and hopefully it’s here.”
Lowry did not actually play all that often in 2025-26, but after re-signing with his hometown team on a veteran’s minimum contract he continued to serve as a vital leader. Lowry deserves a good bit of credit for the Sixers’ improved locker-room dynamics.
While Lowry should be expected to officially retire as a member of the Toronto Raptors — he is the greatest player in the history of that franchise — his impact on the Sixers has been pronounced.
Sixers youngsters have frequently been asked which of the team’s veterans have been particularly helpful to them. They would predictably decline to single any one person out, highlighting the value of the entire group. But when asked for an example of a useful piece of advice they have received from a veteran, nearly every single one would end up mentioning Lowry. His clout is significant.
Of all of the players Lowry has taken under his wing in his two seasons and change with the Sixers, none have been more enthusiastic to learn from him than Maxey, who credits Lowry for teaching him to be a leader.
“I take so much from Kyle every single day,” Maxey told PhillyVoice in January, adding he takes “literally everything” from his conversations with Lowry. “We talk probably four or five times a day on off days and we talk all day on game days.”
MORE: Five takeaways from Harris/Myers press conference
Just hours before the Sixers were eliminated by the New York Knicks, the NBA held its annual draft lottery. It will almost certainly be the final lottery under the current set of rules and odds.
The constant discourse about tanking reached its boiling point this season, with multiple months of many games being played between teams incentivized to lose.
As a result, the league is set to introduce a new lottery system which aims to punish the worst teams by giving them worse chances of receiving a top draft pick and flattening the odds significantly while also adding more teams into the drawing.
For now, teams across the league are in wait-and-see mode as they try to figure out how to react to the new odds, both in terms of potential tanking efforts and valuations of future first-round picks.
On its face, the league’s lottery form proposal appears to generate considerably more upside for the first-round picks of teams in the middle class of the NBA. Right now, that is where the Sixers are. Additionally, they own the Los Angeles Clippers’ unprotected 2028 first-rounder and have the right to swap picks in 2029 (top-three protected). It might be easier to imagine the Sixers extracting strong value from the James Harden trade now.
However…
All matters related to the Clippers are of note to the Sixers — they are significantly invested in the post-Kawhi Leonard era going poorly — and the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery was a dream scenario for Los Angeles.
After trading starting center Ivica Zubac to Indiana, the Clippers had about a 48 percent chance of landing the Pacers’ first-round pick. If it stayed inside the top four, the Pacers would keep it. If it fell to the No. 5 or No. 6 slot, the Clippers would inherit it. It fell to No. 5.
Now the Clippers, who severely lack young talent, will have the chance to add a premium young player to build around. They will not land AJ Dybansta, Darryn Peterson, Cam Boozer or Caleb Wilson, but there are many other prospects in this year’s class with the chance to be high-caliber NBA players. It is not the end of the world for the Sixers, but Indiana keeping its pick would have been their ideal outcome.
MORE: How Morey's Sixers tenure reached its end
