The very first game on the NBA's 2025 preseason slate is a battle between the Sixers and the New York Knicks on Thursday afternoon in Abu Dhabi, the first of two exhibitions between the teams before they return to the United States to continue preparing for the 2025-26 campaign.

For the Sixers, the only players under contract not in Abu Dhabi are Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain, though the team's plans as far as which players are actually going to suit up on Thursday and/or Saturday are unclear. After Saturday morning's game, the Sixers will return to Philadelphia and have a handful of practice days before the first of two home preseason games, an Oct. 10 date with the Orlando Magic.

Preseason results typically do not tell much of a story in the NBA, but the manners in which some players are used can offer value. It is also the first chance for players on the fringes of a rotation to make their cases for receiving minutes in the regular season.

Three Sixers stand out as particularly intriguing players to monitor during the preseason:

VJ Edgecombe

At Media Day on Friday, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was asked what he expects the No. 3 overall pick's offensive role to look like in his rookie season.

"I think I'm going to use him on the ball," Nurse said, "and I think I'm going to use him off the ball."

Riveting. VJ Edgecombe, 20, will have clear NBA-caliber skills right away. It is unclear if ball-handling and on-ball scoring are among them. There is no doubt Edgecombe possesses the requisite athletic juice to be an unstoppable force once he gets into the lane, but operating as a primary ball-handler at this level comes with a massive level of responsibility, not just in terms of decision-making but in skill. The Sixers put Edgecombe on the ball a ton in his brief Summer League run; the results were largely good, but it is not worth putting much stock into such a small sample of play in that setting.

Jared McCain is going to miss the beginning of the regular season, and without him, the Sixers are without an obvious backup point guard. The favorite for that role has to be Quentin Grimes, whose breakout as an on-ball player was significant last season. Grimes returned to the Sixers by accepting his qualifying offer on Wednesday and should be the favorite to start alongside Tyrese Maxey while also being his primary backup. There will probably have to be at least one other person logging minutes on the ball, even if for one or two brief spurts per game. Perhaps that is Edgecombe, and in the preseason, it will become clear whether or not the Sixers are preparing him for such a role.

Away from the ball, Edgecombe's spot-up three-point shooting will be scrutinized. He has worked tirelessly on his shooting mechanics over the summer and feels that he has made massive improvements heading into his rookie season.

"I was flat. Like, I had a flat shot in college," Edgecombe said. "So now my arc is going better than it was a month ago... It's weird, it's crazy, now it's weird for me to shoot it flat. I know when my shot is flat now."

MORE: Will Edgecombe start on opening night?

Dominick Barlow

When Nurse was asked after the team's first official practice on Saturday about which players stood out to him on the floor, it was not a surprise that he mentioned Edgecombe. A much more surprising nod went to Dominick Barlow, a two-way big with three years of NBA experience.

Nurse lauded Barlow's activity as a rebounder, also mentioning his shot-making and mobility at 6-foot-9. Nurse likes players that make things happen; he seems to view Barlow as that sort of guy.

"Dominick Barlow is standing out early on here," Nurse said. "He's just really on the glass and making some shots and playing extremely hard. He was just involved in a lot of good stuff."

Barlow is a power forward by trade, but some of his minutes with the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks have also come at center. Interestingly, Nurse said on Saturday that he has spent more time using and imagining Barlow as a wing than as a five early on. Barlow is a very good athlete for his size, but the idea of him filling a role on the wing feels at least somewhat ambitious. But when asked the following day to size up the backup center competition, Nurse did end up listing Barlow as a contender.

Barlow, a 22-year-old from New Jersey, volunteered to go to Las Vegas and play in a few Summer League games after signing a two-way contract with the Sixers. He believes an offseason full of work has delivered him to a place in which he can emerge as a rotation-caliber option for this team. What does he believe he can contribute specifically?

"Relentless energy," Barlow said at Media Day. "Play the game really hard. Defend multiple positions. Worked a lot on shooting the basketball this summer. Do some things off the bounce, and just being a connector, playing that short-roll hub kind of position... Just understanding that and how I can help guys continue to do what they do."

Just as Barlow understands what the Sixers need him to do, he has a sense of what the team will probably not ask of him.

"Knowing that Joel [Embiid], Tyrese, all these guys, they're going to score the ball. They don't need somebody to come in and do that," Barlow said. "But how can I affect the game in other ways?"

MORE: Impact of Grimes taking qualifying offer

Jabari Walker

Jabari Walker, 23, entered training camp thought of as the two-way player with the best chance of cracking the Sixers' rotation. He has three years of NBA experience under his belt just like Barlow, and the NBA world appeared to be in a collective shock when Walker's departure from the Portland Trail Blazers only netted him a two-way deal. The son of 10-year NBA veteran Samaki Walker offered a strong perspective on it during the summer:

"The plan that I had for myself, I didn't see two-way at all. I didn't think that would be a position I was in. But you know the market and just feedback, it doesn't lie. So whether that's things I need to be doing better or whether it's just situation, it all led to me being here and I'm just grateful for this moment because a lot of people don't even have this. I'm friends with old teammates that aren't even in the league anymore and I'm talking to them and they're like, ‘Man, take advantage of what you have in front of you.’ So yes, the goal is to [get] the [standard] contract, but just me being here and being part of a team that wants to win and playing with all these amazing guys, I think I'm just grateful to be here."

Walker is a sturdy 6-foot-9 forward whose strongest trait is his rebounding. Walker has averaged 13.6 boards per 100 possessions as an NBA player, a remarkable figure for a non-center. But in the team's first practice, Nurse said, he was not seeing that on display. He gave Walker a pep talk of sorts and better results ensued.

"I did talk to Jabari about -- I mean, Jabari can really rebound the ball. If you guys have seen him play, he's one of those guys that kind of emphatically snatches rebounds out of there and he's really good on the defensive glass especially," Nurse said on Sunday. "I just kind of reminded him yesterday. I didn't quite see that. But I did see it today. He did impose himself a lot more today."

The earlier use of the term "non-center" could be challenged soon, though. Walker would certainly be a small-ball five in every fashion, but Nurse seems to consider him a real option there. Walker certainly has the ability to battle with true bigs when a ball is coming off the rim, but can he protect the rim? Will his three-point shot be reliable enough for him to space the floor and give the Sixers the offensive advantages that typically come with a small-ball center?

Like Barlow, Walker is battling for an opportunity to earn playing time on an NBA team and earn a conversion to a standard contract. The quality of his minutes will be paramount. But the positional distribution of his minutes in the preseason will tell a story on its own. Does Nurse think Walker has a pathway to providing viable center production soon? Even if he does, will Walker get a chance ahead of more traditional fives like Andre Drummond when Walker could also fill a hole at power forward?

If Walker does end up spending plenty of time on the interior, the massive amount of physicality in the team's unofficial practices over the last few weeks will come in handy.

"Doing all these rebound drills, knocking each other down, it's going to make us grow closer together as a group," Walker said, "so that we can go out and do that against the opponents."

MORE: Early training camp takeaways