September 29, 2026
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Will the 2026-27 Sixers be as productive as their roster suggests they could be?
Not that long ago, my Sixers mailbags were filled with questions about the free agencies of Quentin Grimes, and Kelly Oubre Jr., the performance of Daryl Morey and the team's lack of roster maneuverability.
Yesterday, the Sixers held Media Day, with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown joining Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, new Sixers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey and others at the podium in Camden to discuss what is suddenly the most anticipated Sixers season in decades.
Year round, I will continue to take any and all Sixers questions for these mailbags every Tuesday. If you are not following me on Twitter/X and/or Bluesky, those are the best places to submit your questions.
The time has come for the very first Sixers mailbag of the 2026-27 season:
From @buff985.bsky.social: A few outlets have the Sixers ranked lower than expected ahead of the season. What do you believe is the justification for this?
Some of our friends in the national media have released power rankings recently, and a few of those lists have been lower than consensus on the Sixers. Others, to be clear, have had the Sixers rated as an elite championship contender. There is a lot of variance. I would argue that this team is a uniquely polarizing one, both in terms of the specific figures here and because of how the roster is assembled stylistically..
LeBron James is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of sports. Joel Embiid is not that far down the list. Jaylen Brown has become the new face of the NBA's latest analytics debate. On top of that, these Sixers are now the ultimate face of the "only one ball" refrain that follows teams with swarms of high-usage scorers.
The Sixers arguably have as strong of a collection of talent, at least on the offensive end of the floor, as any team in the NBA. It is easy to look at the roster on paper – a five-headed monster of a starting lineup with a clean positional fit and a stronger-than-expected bench – and declare this team as the Eastern Conference's team to beat. And some people do see it that way given the enormity of the offensive firepower here.
Joel Embiid in the biggest win of his career in Game 7 in Boston on Saturday:
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) May 3, 2026
34 points
12 rebounds
6 assists
Full highlights: pic.twitter.com/CLjIXZ4wpc
Other people see this as a ticking time bomb. Embiid has the talent to do things most players could never dream of, but how many games will he play? Sure, James joining the Sixers is a shocking coup, but even he has only won a few playoff series since his last championship in 2020. Some people think Brown is a superstar; others find him overrated. Nobody should dispute that the Sixers will receive diminishing returns on their abundance of scoring talent, but some view that as a necessary cost of building a team this talented and some view it as a death knell.
To answer your question in a roundabout way: this team might as well have been designed in a lab to create a diverse set of expectations from the basketball world.
It is also worth noting that different analysts have different processes for rankings of this sort. Some, at this time of year, focus on championship equity, while others are keyed in on regular-season win totals. The Sixers are far likelier to rank near the top of lists based on the former versus ones rooted in the latter. Their variance between regular-season and postseason ambition (for lack of a better word) should be more significant than any other team given the expectation for how they will manage Embiid and James in particular.
SIXERS MEDIA DAY 2026
• LeBron James arrives in Philly
• Sixers unveil star-studded starting five
From @kellenpastore.bsky.social: Who do you think plays more minutes this season, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Justin Edwards?
Back in an August mailbag, I was asked to rank the Sixers' nine projected reserves in terms of minutes played in 2026-27. The most difficult pairing of players to rank: the two-time championship veteran Caldwell-Pope and the incoming third-year wing Edwards.
I went with Caldwell-Pope – his 13 years of NBA experience and track record of comfortably playing alongside James were tiebreakers in his favor – but any significant, extended absence for James could create enough of an opening on the wing for Edwards to take advantage.
I am not sure anything over the last seven weeks would cause me to make any changes to these rankings:
| Ranking | Player |
| 1 | Dean Wade |
| 2 | Anfernee Simons |
| 3 | Adem Bona |
| 4 | Ariel Hukporti |
| 5 | Dominick Barlow |
| 6 | Kentavious Caldwell-Pope |
| 7 | Justin Edwards |
| 8 | Labaron Philon Jr. |
| 9 | Jabari Walker |
Caldwell-Pope is coming off a pair of disappointing seasons – one with the Orlando Magic and the other with the Memphis Grizzlies – but, particularly last season in Memphis, was brutally overtasked.
But a pair of down seasons is a pair of down seasons, and Caldwell-Pope is turning 34 years old in February. Even if his theoretical fit in this rotation is a bit cleaner than that of Dominick Barlow, those facts do not inspire confidence.
But last season, Barlow emerged as the quality of player Edwards simply has not been in the NBA yet. This is not to say that Edwards should not or cannot earn an important role on this team – Sixers head coach Nick Nurse is a major proponent of the Philadelphia native, which can go a long way – but even Nurse typically leans in favor of veteran talent over the unknown that comes with younger players.
Ultimately, I see Caldwell-Pope and Edwards occupying similar roles within the bigger picture of the 2026-27 Sixers: When the team is at full strength, I do not see either being a rotation regular, but one of the first players on the outside looking in. Given the aforementioned expectation that these Sixers will typically not be at full strength during the season, that means the rotation cameos should still be aplenty for those two players.
Justin Edwards continued his recent surge with the best game of his young NBA career in the Sixers' win over Sacramento on Thursday night. Edwards scored 32 points (11-18 FG, 7-11 3P) and was a +47 in 33 minutes.
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 20, 2026
Every made basket from Edwards' career night: pic.twitter.com/9v0I0qgSKH
I see Caldwell-Pope and Edwards as more likely to get some sort of significant rotation runway than rookie point guard Labaron Philon Jr. (despite Nurse and Sixers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey's repeated assertions that Philon could play right away) or bruising forward Jabari Walker.
Given Barlow's 59 starts a season ago and his pristine fit with Embiid, plus the presences of Dean Wade and Anfernee Simons as the team's top two reserves, it is hard for me to project either of Caldwell-Pope or Edwards as full-blown rotation regulars.
SIXERS PLAYER PREVIEWS
Joel Embiid | Labaron Philon Jr. | Dean Wade | Dominick Barlow | Adem Bona
Tyrese Maxey | VJ Edgecombe | Jaylen Brown | Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Ariel Hukporti | Anfernee Simons | Jabari Walker | Justin Edwards | LeBron James
