April 09, 2026
All season long, analysts across the NBA come up with weekly sets of power rankings, blending season-long performance with recent games to take the temperature of teams rising and falling within the landscape of the league. It is all intended to forecast which teams are actually going to stand tall at the end.
Now, the end of the 2025-26 regular season is just days away. The 10 postseason contestants in each conference have long been established for this year, but the order remains up in the air with all 30 teams playing their 82nd and final games on Sunday evening.
One last time for this season, let's take the temperature of our friends in the national media:
One of the many trends John Schuhmann has been on top of throughout this season: the Sixers have not played well against good teams. They have beaten up on the bottom half of the league and banked many valuable wins because of it, but :
"The Sixers have the worst record (11-22) in games played between the top 10 teams in the East. They’ve obviously been shorthanded in most of those games, but with their rest-advantage loss in Miami last Monday, they’re also 4-5 within the top 10 with Maxey, George and Embiid all in the lineup." [NBA.com]
If the Sixers want to make a deep playoff run, they will need to improve against high-caliber competition. It is not as if they are without any impressive wins – they won both of their games at Madison Square Garden before the New York Knicks came to Philadelphia and won two and they won in Boston on opening night before it was apparent how good this Celtics team was – but there is not a ton to work with when it comes to significant victories.
MORE: Tracking Sixers' playoff seeding odds in final days of regular season
ESPN's panelists are asked to explore whether teams across the NBA surpassed or fell short of expectations. Given the pessimism stemming from the Sixers' 24-58 campaign last season, even this somewhat frustrating year has to be considered a success relative to expectations. Tim Bontemps makes the case:
"What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, Philadelphia was wrapping up an abysmal season that began with championship expectations. As a result, the 76ers entered this season with expectations in the basement -- but they have responded with what likely is going to be a top-six seed in the East. Joel Embiid is finally healthy for the postseason and averaging 26.9 points after having played only 19 games last season. Plus, lead guard Tyrese Maxey, playing alongside breakout rookie VJ Edgecombe, is averaging a career-high 28.4 points." [ESPN]
Of course, a season being more productive than expected does not make it a success in itself. The Sixers were supposed to be built to contend for championships. Instead, they are jostling to avoid the Play-In Tournament.
MORE: Will Paul George's post-suspension surge turn him into a trade asset?
The Athletic gives the Sixers the most favorable ranking of the bunch, with Law Murray highlighting some of the most encouraging recent developments around these parts:
"Paul George returned from his suspension looking like an All-Star. Joel Embiid needs some vitamins, but at least he’s mostly playing. All-Star Tyrese Maxey is back as well. Philadelphia hasn’t looked like a special team overall, but the next best thing is having the top available talent when it matters, and the 76ers are close to having that for the playoffs." [The Athletic]
The outcome any person following this franchise deserves is for the Sixers to be healthy in the playoffs and see what actually comes of it. So much of the last two years has been about theoretical potential, and not nearly enough has been about analyzing the product actually on the floor.
MORE: Embiid calls out Daryl Morey, derailing mood after Sixers' statement win
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