July 30, 2026
Kevin Barrett/For PhillyVoice
Sixers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey has endeared himself to Philadelphia with his debut offseason.
In the two years preceding LeBron James' arrival in Philadelphia, the Sixers' issue was not simply needing their top-end talents to perform better. With a cast of injury-prone stars, the team simply did not have the proper depth infrastructure to withstand Joel Embiid, Paul George or Tyrese Maxey going down. Not only do the Sixers now have a five-headed monster – Embiid, Maxey, James, Jaylen Brown and VJ Edgecombe – but they have also cultivated considerably stronger depth to better withstand the inevitable key absences.
Last year's Sixers season might have never even gotten off the ground had it not been for two-way standouts Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker. Kyle Lowry was an immensely valuable leader in his 20th and final NBA season, but took up a roster spot without contributing on the court. So did fellow veteran guard Eric Gordon, a mentor for Edgecombe, and rookie big Johni Broome, the No. 35 overall pick never even entrusted with a glimpse at a spot in head coach Nick Nurse's rotation.
Between injuries, ineffective back-end pieces and the Sixers leaving a standard roster spot open, there were so few sources of consistently viable minutes available to Nurse early on in 2025-26. Trendon Watford began the season injured, came on strong upon returning and then fizzled out. Jared McCain also missed the start of the season and played his way out of the mix for a few months, only breaking through right before being traded. Before January, even Embiid's roster spot returned limited value; the former NBA MVP played very few minutes and his per-minute impact was muted compared to his typical standard.
In today's NBA, the usage of each and every roster spot is scrutinized. And in his first offseason as Sixers President of Basketball Operations, Mike Gansey has not just enacted transformational change atop the roster by acquiring James and Brown. The final spots of this new-look roster – even with the 15th spot almost certain to be left vacant until the middle of the season – project to supply much more value than those of previous Sixers teams.
Of course, it is worth noting the enormity of James signing a veteran's minimum contract. It would be unfair to Gansey's predecessor, Daryl Morey, to act as if he could have simply buoyed his roster with a generational player on a minuscule cap hit. Morey is responsible for acquiring many of the players now occupying a much stronger bottom region of the roster.
Ultimately, though, the three most recent iterations of the Sixers that were trying to compete have had about a third of their roster space tied up in non-contributors:
| 2024-25 opening night | 2025-26 opening night | 2026 playoffs |
| Ricky Council IV | Trendon Watford | Trendon Watford |
| Kyle Lowry | Kyle Lowry | Kyle Lowry |
| Reggie Jackson | Johni Broome | Johni Broome |
| Eric Gordon | Eric Gordon | Dalen Terry |
Which members of the 2026-27 Sixers could be as unhelpful as any of the players above proved to be?
Beyond Nurse's likely starters and a pair of quality free-agent acquisitions in Dean Wade and Anfernee Simons, there is no rotation lock on this roster. But there are a lot of players with cases to be in the mix.
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Jaylen Brown's strengths | Jaylen Brown's weaknesses
Anfernee Simons | Dean Wade | Ariel Hukporti
Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti make up an uncertain backup center tandem. Both players are going to receive chances to stabilize that spot in the rotation before the trade deadline. Bona and Hukporti are flawed players, but at the very least ones deserving of a chance to carve out a bench role on a winning team, with flashes of promise on their resumes.
Barlow is a winning player; in 59 of his 71 appearances last season, he started at power forward. That is his natural position, but Barlow also has a chance to prove himself as a viable center – especially if Bona and/or Hukporti struggle. The same is true for Walker, a stronger bruiser than Barlow with less skill. The Sixers dumped Broome's salary to keep Walker around; Nurse often commented last season that Walker never played a bad game.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is coming off an ominous pair of seasons with the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies, but at the very least remains playable. The ceiling, should he resume his strong performances around superstars that neither of those teams had, is higher. Caldwell-Pope could be a key bench contributor on this team if things break right.
Nurse has typically liked to stick with a nine-man rotation, and Caldwell-Pope might project as the first player out. That would still lead to many regular-season rotation cameos. Caldwell-Pope's presence also makes a young wing like Justin Edwards a luxury, not a necessity – and that is the perfect situation for the hometown product entering his third NBA season. Nurse has significant trust in Edwards as a quick three-point shooter with defensive versatility, but despite having some excellent performances, he failed to take full advantage of quite a bit of opportunity.
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Even rookie Labaron Philon Jr., whose chances of contributing as a rookie have been torpedoed by an influx of guards and ball-handlers, is someone the Sixers drafted with the expectation he could play right away. Philon's primary skills are pick-and-roll ball-handling and pull-up three-point shooting, but the Sixers are now flooded with better offensive initiators while Philon's slight frame makes him exploitable defensively. But if two guards went down early in the season, the Sixers would have confidence in Philon providing an offensive spark.
"I'm going to start with that: he's talented enough to play," Nurse said of Philon last month. "That's kind of where it starts."
Maybe none of these players are sure things to contribute in 2026-27. But, if each member of the Sixers was ranked based on their likelihood of helping the team win games, just about every player would seem qualified relative to their standing within the roster. They may not all pan out, but they are all legitimate bets. That was not true one year ago or two years ago.
Even with their last roster spot unoccupied for now, the final third of this roster has so much more utility than any crop of players the Sixers have had in their back-end roster spots in recent seasons. The driving force behind that is an All-NBA-caliber forward deciding to play for them on a minimum contract.
The Sixers' improved depth also represents years of good work on the margins, from Morey's success in the draft and two-way market to Gansey's brilliant debut summer. It should pay dividends for a team which will certainly try to take things easy with Embiid and James, two superstars the Sixers need at their best in the playoffs.
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James' decision | Projecting Sixers' rotation | James' impact, on and off the court
