September 07, 2026
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Jaylen Brown has been among the winningest players in recent NBA history.
In three weeks, the Sixers and the vast majority of teams around the NBA will hold their annual Media Day sessions before training camps get underway.
The highest-profile Media Day, of course, will take place in Camden, where LeBron James will hold his first media availability as a member of the Sixers. But the Sixers are far from the only team coming into the 2026-27 season with significant intrigue and a new look.
While the Eastern Conference has never been stronger than it projects to be in the year ahead, the two teams believed to be the best in the NBA by far remain in the Western Conference, where there are also new teams expected to be fierce competition for playoff spots.
Kicking off the week with 5 Sixers thoughts, picking the Sixers' over/under for regular-season wins and then breaking down four other win total guesses around the league:
Does it really matter whether or not the Sixers win 51-plus games? Of course, every win means something – especially in this conference – but maximizing a regular-season win total will not even be close to this team's primary motivation between October and April. They need to win enough games to make the playoffs – a top-six seed should be seen as the bare minimum – and while home-court advantage is important, it is not as important as the health and wellbeing of the Sixers' best players, particularly James and Joel Embiid.
In this version of the Eastern Conference – at least 10 good teams, more than half of which could be great teams, plus another few that want to be competitive – it is not going to be possible to clear 50 wins while sleepwalking. Maybe the Sixers will not quite be sleepwalking, but they certainly will not have their foot on the gas as much as some of their conference cohorts.
In Embiid's 10 seasons, the Sixers have played at a 50-win pace five times. But they have finished their last three seasons with 47 wins, 24 wins and 45 wins. In eight seasons in Los Angeles, James led the Lakers to a 50-win pace only three times, but that includes each of the last two seasons. In a decade in Boston, Jaylen Brown and the Celtics played at a 50-win pace eight times (and went 49-33 in one of the other two seasons).
Had they entered a weaker conference, even this team, with the longer-term motivations the Sixers will prioritize, could probably coast to the 51-win mark. But there are simply too few wins up for easy grabs in the Eastern Conference now.
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The depth of the Eastern Conference has led to a slew of teams with excellent rosters having deflated win totals. And perhaps after injuries forced them into a gap year a season ago, it is easier to cast doubt upon the Pacers' ability to return to title contention.
But nearly every single piece of Indiana's run to Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals remains in place. Myles Turner has departed, but a trade landed the Pacers an upgrade at center in the form of Ivica Zubac. Nobody can be certain what Tyrese Haliburton will look like upon returning from his heartbreaking Achilles tear, but given his age and extensive time off – plus the recent success stories of players bouncing back from the same injury – my guess is Haliburton will get back to himself soon enough.
Haliburton's brilliance is not reliant on outlier athleticism to begin with; even if he begins the year a step slower than he was the last time we saw him, his genius passing and long-range pull-up shooting will drive value. Haliburton is an elite offense in himself; so is Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle.
Even in a competitive conference, this number is simply too low for a team with as strong of a roster and track record as these Pacers have. Old friend Kelly Oubre Jr. should be a useful curveball for Indiana to throw off the bench; one or two more solid rotation pieces emerging would be a boon for Indiana.
Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins are gone, but the Thunder still have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – far and away the best player in the NBA over the last two years for my money – and an extremely strong supporting cast.
Jalen Williams is a star-caliber player, one of the most versatile defenders in the entire league and one of the better young scorers in the NBA. Chet Holmgren's blend of rim protection and spacing ability – assuming he can get his jumper back on track – is nearly unparalleled in the league. But with an aversion to the second apron putting a significant dent in Oklahoma City's depth and max deals kicking in for Williams and Holmgren, there is now much more pressure on those two players to deliver at the highest levels like they did two years ago.
Oklahoma City certainly has less margin for error now, but count me as a believer that they can withstand their absences. I have never seen Dort's point-of-attack defense as essential to the Thunder's operation, and both Joe and Wiggins have mostly been fringe rotation pieces during the playoffs. I believe in old friend Jared McCain, Oklahoma City mainstay Kenrich Williams and at least one of Aday Mara, Nikola Topić and Bennett Stirtz being helpful innings-eaters at the very least.
Most importantly, I see Ajay Mitchell as one of the league's next star guards. Oklahoma City was +17.7 points per 100 possessions with Gilgeous-Alexander and Mitchell on the floor together between the regular season and playoffs last year, per DataBallr, and Mitchell figures to slot into the starting lineup in place of Dort. But he will also be the Thunder's offensive engine when Gilgeous-Alexander is off the floor.
Dort is a stellar one-on-one defender, but between Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Williams, a slew of strong bigs and elite coaching, there is no reason Oklahoma City should not maintain an elite defense. With that, and the best scorer in the NBA in Gilgeous-Alexander, surpassing 60 wins should not be too much trouble.
MORE: Full 2026-27 Sixers schedule, with details, analysis and games of note
I hate to advocate against a team with Kon Knueppel in its lineup and Charles Lee as its head coach, especially after the Hornets posted a four-month sample of being an elite team last season. The LaMelo Ball trade certainly has merit for the Hornets, now armed with a massive collection of draft picks, but it removes the player whose unique style drove their success in the second half of last season.
Knueppel and Brandon Miller are now the two franchise cornerstones here, but not the only long-term pieces to be excited about. Naz Reid, a stretch big capable of playing the four and five regularly, will help stabilize a shallow frontcourt. But Coby White is going from overqualified as a sixth man to underqualified as a primary ball-handler. And I simply do not see a path to this team touching a top-five offense like it did last season.
In the distant future, I see the Hornets becoming an Eastern Conference power should they continue drafting even decently well. Their cap sheet is clean and they clearly have the long view in mind. But winning 38 games in this conference without Ball seems like a major challenge.
Luka Dončić is one of the league's elite floor-raising offensive players, and Austin Reaves has grown into a true star. Those two ball-handlers can power a high-level NBA offense, the Lakers' massive gamble on Walker Kessler – both in terms of dollars and picks – indicates they believe he can anchor a high-level NBA defense.
Kessler, in theory, makes sense as the third-best player on this team. He can serve as a pick-and-roll partner for either Dončić or Reaves and make up for their defensive deficiencies. But I am hesitant to fully buy into a team reliant on a player who only logged five appearances last season and has yet to play for a truly competitive NBA team.
What is more concerning that the Lakers' reliance on Kessler is how much they have riding on players not cut out to be key cogs of that team. Old friend Quentin Grimes seems likely to start alongside Dončić and Reaves. Sandro Mamukelashvili had a great season off the bench for the Toronto Raptors, but he is going from a change-of-pace stretch big to a starting power forward.
Los Angeles' bench has very little to write home about – Jake LaRavia and Collin Sexton are the only definitively helpful players on it – and that increases the pressure for everybody. Grimes and Mamukelashvili cannot disappoint for this team to be among the best in the Western Conference, and Dončić and Reaves must avoid injuries at all costs. Getting to 47 wins will be a tall task for this group.
SIXERS SIGN LEBRON JAMES
James' decision | Projecting Sixers' rotation | James' impact, on and off the court
