May 30, 2026
Now that the 2025-26 Sixers season is complete after a thrilling first-round series comeback and a jarring second-round sweep, it is time to reflect on the year that was.
Welcome to Sixers year-in-review, where each player's campaign will be analyzed with a combination of statistics, film and reporting.
Up next: Jabari Walker, one of two power forwards to earn a promotion from a two-way contract to a standard deal midway through the season. Walker's elite rebounding and physical defense were assets to a team that needed someone to eat up frontcourt minutes early on in the season.
Unlike Dominick Barlow, however, Walker did not lock down a permanent rotation spot. He had a tougher time overcoming inconsistent three-point shooting and ended up having little offensive utility. The makeup of a quality NBA role player remains, though.
SIXERS YEAR-IN-REVIEW
Joel Embiid | Tyrese Maxey | Paul George | Andre Drummond | Quentin Grimes | VJ Edgecombe | Dominick Barlow | Kelly Oubre Jr. | Trendon Watford | Justin Edwards | Jabari Walker
Walker will go as far as his three-point shooting allows him to go.
A bruising forward with a knack for reading misses and the ability to outwork opponents on the glass, Walker's calling card will always be his rebounding. In a league that is reemphasizing the importance of the possession battle, that will remain a valuable asset. But as Walker heads into his age-24 season, it is clear there is more room for growth.
Walker is not completely inept on offense. He is a shaky shooter, not a non-shooter (for example, he has a much better chance than Barlow of becoming reliable from beyond the arc). He is a heady player who can make smart and quick reads on short rolls. But the overall picture is pretty unremarkable on that end of the floor.
There is not a pathway to on-ball scoring productivity in the NBA for Walker; he will never be a player an offense is catered to in any capacity. But if his growth as a three-point shooter continues – after shooting 29.2 percent from beyond the arc in his first two NBA seasons, he made 35.9 percent of his long-range attempts in his next two campaigns – he will be able to allow his rebounding and defense to do the rest of the talking.
Given his size and positional versatility inside – Walker playing small-ball center minutes is viable – Walker does not have to be an elite sharpshooter, or even feared, for his hypothetical improvement as a shooter to be meaningful. If he is merely reliable to knock shots down when left open, the remaining issues in Walker's game become small potatoes.
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Percentage of Walker's shot attempts from three-point range: 44.6.
The Sixers have faith that Walker is a better shooter than the numbers show. All season long, head coach Nick Nurse, Tyrese Maxey and several teammates poured confidence into Walker. They talked to reporters publicly and to Walker himself privately about how well he shot the ball from deep during the Sixers' late-summer workouts and training camp. Nurse frequently cited the team's internal shooting data as evidence that Walker was a legitimately good shooter.
Jabari Walker had his best shooting/scoring and hustle/rebounding game on the same night Wednesday as he led the Sixers to a win over the Utah Jazz. Walker finished with 22 points (4-7 3P) and 10 boards.
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 5, 2026
A terrific highlight reel for Walker in his second straight 20-point game: pic.twitter.com/VTbjGTbcuL
Walker, who told PhillyVoice before the season began that it was the first time in his basketball life he was searching out attempts to shoot threes, took a while to make one. Once he finally got going, his teammates were jubilant on the bench. It was all part of the plan of positive reinforcement.
"Not everybody reacts like that to somebody just making a regular three in the middle of a game. You would think that it was a bigger shot than it was just off everybody's reaction. Things like that, for me, mean so much," Walker said. "Honestly, I just want to help this team get as far as possible because this group is so deserving of a playoff run and so much more. The city is so deserving. So I just put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best for these guys, and we have such a great locker room and great players."
Walker's new standard contract features only $250,000 guaranteed out of nearly $2.6 million. His guarantee date is not until Jan. 10, 2027. He should be considered in good standing to maintain a roster spot heading into 2026-27. In order to lock it down, he could prove once and for all that he is a higher-level shooter than most have believed him to be. After all, he is going to have to take spot-up threes for as long as he plays for the Sixers.
Walker on his confidence in Nurse and the confidence Nurse has instilled in him, Nov. 10:
"Can't ask for anything more than that. A lot of guys usually have some complaints about coaches and things like that, but this is the first year where – I honestly love Coach Nurse. Even if I didn't play tonight, I just have so much trust in him and the confidence that he's given me that I trust his decision-making in everything. So the fact that I got hot and he let me stay in the game, you can't ask for much more than that. A lot of coaches aren't doing that. So I'm just grateful for that."
MORE: Trading Tyrese Maxey to start over would be crazy... right?
Can Walker level up as a defender, too?
Walker's easiest pathway to establishing himself as a rotation-caliber player for an NBA team is becoming a reliable three-point shooter. But if he wants to aim higher than that – surely, no player wants to settle for being a reserve – the focus will turn to his defense.
Because Walker stands at a listed 6-foot-7 and 237 pounds, there are two ways to view his defensive role. For those who like their glasses half full: Walker has just enough mobility to stick with plenty of wings and more than enough muscle to bang with bigs. Others might say he is not athletic enough to guard elite wings and too small to fully utilize his strength against centers.
A major component of defending is rebounding, and Walker already has that part of the job handled. He is not an elite one-on-one stopper, but against bigger wings and smaller bigs – players in the mold of Cooper Flagg or Paolo Banchero, for example – he was often the Sixers' best option defensively.
Jabari Walker's physicality vs. Cooper Flagg was big down the stretch in the Sixers' win over Dallas. After the game, Walker credited Adem Bona's presence as a shot-blocker, Dominick Barlow setting an example of how to guard Flagg earlier in the game & the team's scouting report: pic.twitter.com/TzvIJnayhD
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) December 21, 2025
Can Walker prove that he is light enough on his feet to slide down the positional spectrum a bit more and guard players like Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown? It may be a lofty goal, but if it came to pass, Walker's chances of being a truly impactful player teams are willing to spend considerable resources on will skyrocket.
MORE: How Walker's father, NBA veteran Samaki, prepared him for the pros
