September 25, 2025
Welcome to our Sixers player preview series, where in the weeks leading up to Media Day we will preview the upcoming 2025-26 season for each and every member of the Sixers' standard roster. For each player, we will pose two key questions about their season before making a prediction.
The pressure is on after a miserable 24-58 campaign last season. After entering a year with championship aspirations and spending multiple months having to tank for the sake of a protected first-round pick, the Sixers have lost any and all benefit of the doubt that their signature season is finally coming.
It is safe to say there is a whole lot of work to do on the Sixers' end to prove the doubters wrong. Do they have a roster good enough to make it happen?
Up last: Joel Embiid, the piece at the center of this entire operation -- literally and figuratively. Embiid has powered the Sixers' championship hopes for nearly his entire career, but never reached the mountaintop. Injuries have played a significant role there, and perhaps straws broke the camel's back last year, when continued left knee issues limited Embiid to just 19 games as a reduced version of himself. Can Embiid revitalize his career, or will his downward spiral continue?
SIXERS PLAYER PREVIEWS
Jared McCain | Justin Edwards | VJ Edgecombe | Kyle Lowry
Kelly Oubre Jr. | Johni Broome | Adem Bona | Andre Drummond
Trendon Watford | Eric Gordon | Quentin Grimes
Paul George | Tyrese Maxey | Joel Embiid
At Embiid's best, he has handled an absurdly large offensive workload, turning himself into the key piece which every component of the team's offense revolves around. He earned the right to carry that responsibility. Before injuring his knee midway through the 2023-24 season Embiid was in the midst of one of the greatest runs of dominance in recent NBA history. He won an MVP in 2022-23 and was clearly better the following year up until that injury. Embiid had completely mastered basketball at that point; there was legitimately no defensive coverage that could stop him from scoring, drawing a foul or creating an open shot for a teammate.
Embiid, 31, lives in a much different world now. His availability, even in a perfect world, will likely never keep pace with the 67-game average he posted between 2021 and 2023. For all intents in purposes, he should be viewed as a part-time player in the regular season. Even then, it is difficult to imagine Embiid's offensive duties being so astronomical anymore.
The Sixers spent all of last season having no idea what they would get from Embiid. It was unclear when he would play or sit; once he suited up it was unclear which version of himself would appear. Their primary goal as far as Embiid's season is concerned should be to, at least internally, have a decent sense of what to expect from night to night.
With Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and a handful of dynamic young players on their roster, the Sixers should have the infrastructure to protect Embiid from having to do too much, at least as a scorer. More importantly, Embiid has the requisite passing chops to embrace a more egalitarian offensive system.
Embiid and Maxey have a lethal two-man game that can remain the key staple of the team's offense, with a renewed focus on generating shots or driving opportunities for Maxey:
Joel Embiid does not like doing many things on the floor as much as he likes going between the legs as he screens for a moving Tyrese Maxey: pic.twitter.com/g73QwlhKCT
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) February 11, 2025
But it also draws so much attention from opposing defenses to create prime scoring chances for role players. Sometimes that comes in the form of spot-up three-point tries and sometimes it looks like a timely cut:
With five pairs of eyes glued to Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, Kelly Oubre Jr. finds an opportunity to cut to the basket. Embiid finds him for an easy basket: pic.twitter.com/BdvzIe5czV
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 3, 2025
After the absolute nightmare that was last season, it is difficult to imagine Embiid rejecting any ideas that may help him get through a regular season in tact. Perhaps scaling back his scoring obligations would help.
MORE: Sixers announce return of throwback "Iverson Era" jerseys
Last season, the answer to this question was an emphatic yes. Embiid was not nearly as prolific as a scorer as the world has become accustomed to him being, but his drop-off as a defender was far more pronounced. Much of Embiid's value on that end of the floor stems from his situational brilliance, but he also possessed a combination of strength and mobility that was hard to match across the NBA.
But in 2024-25, Embiid was hobbled. The Sixers already implemented coverages to keep him closer to the rim as often as possible before his knee issues accelerated; last season they were forced to be even more strict in limiting his responsibilities outside of the paint. It is not impossible to have a strong defense with Embiid parked inside as often as possible, though it does create additional responsibilities for the Sixers' perimeter defenders.
However, issues will arise if Embiid is a liability when opposing teams put him in space. In years past, teams would try to test his ability to defend on an island -- he is enormous, and at least it prevented him from manning the middle. More often than not, though, Embiid rose to those occasions. But if Embiid proves to be less viable defending on a switch, teams will begin going out of their way to drag him onto the perimeter. The Sixers will be bending over backwards to keep Embiid down low and new problems will emerge as a result.
Frankly, even an optimist would admit that the 2025-26 Sixers need Embiid to be a significant defensive presence for the team to win at the highest levels. The roster has become guard-heavy, and none of Embiid's backups are proven rim protectors at the NBA level. Perhaps he does not need to return to being a game-breaking defender, but Embiid must be a higher-end defensive anchor if the Sixers want to have any amount of success on that end of the floor.
MORE: Is a blockbuster trade coming this season?
Embiid leans into the sorts of in-game alterations to his style which can help him preserve energy and prevent injury risk -- for better or worse. He plays more than 19 games but does not come close to the 65-game threshold required to qualify for end-of-season awards.
Embiid's stubborn nature is well-documented; he wants to win and he wants to do it on his terms. If anything has become clear over the last 18 months or so, it is that Embiid has to be a bit more flexible in terms of how all of this is going to work in a sustainable way.
There are easy fixes, like not diving for balls destined for the fourth row. But then there are the more overarching, holistic changes: inviting less of a beating in the low post and buying into a greater role as a facilitator to help pace himself.
It stands to reason that, at this point, Embiid's appetite for compromise will have grown. He has hinted in the past at wanting to scale back his scoring workload and be more of a playmaker for others. It is an obvious way to take even a bit of the load off, and that makes this complex operation a bit simpler.
Embiid embracing certain forms of self-preservation will not maximize his top-end productivity. But it is the clearest path currently visible to him having a stable and sustainable approach to the game. It would afford the Sixers some semblance of certainty in terms of what they will get from their franchise centerpiece. After the year Embiid and the Sixers just had, even that would go a long way.
