July 15, 2025
LAS VEGAS – It has been an interesting handful of days for the Sixers here in Sin City, with No. 3 overall pick VJ Edgecombe possibly on the verge of making his Las Vegas Summer League debut on Tuesday after missing the Summer Sixers' first two games at Thomas & Mack Center due to a thumb sprain.
On top of that, Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey had a lengthy media availability on Friday morning to provide several critical updates and discuss just about every component of the team's roster.
However, especially in the wake of Monday's brutal news that Paul George had suffered a left knee injury and undergone an arthroscopic procedure performed by the same doctor who scoped Joel Embiid's left knee in April, there is a whole lot of consternation among Sixers fans right now.
A whole lot has happened since our last one, so let's not waste more time and begin this week's Sixers mailbag:
From @philhewitt.bsky.social: When Joel Embiid is inevitably out for games, including back-to-backs next year, what is your prediction for the center rotation? Also, do you think Nick Nurse will have to implement two different offensive and defensive approaches, one when Embiid plays and one when he sits?
I asked Morey a similar question to your first issue during his media availability at the team's Las Vegas hotel on Friday morning. My question was geared towards Adem Bona, the subject of heightened expectations as he enters his second NBA season.
Morey spoke highly of what Bona proved down the stretch of his rookie season, but first mentioned Andre Drummond, who is suddenly going to be critical for the Sixers in those non-Embiid games.
"I think Drummond's also [someone] we should talk about. He's putting the work in to be back next season," Morey said. "I think Bona, I think obviously we brought in Johni [Broome] and [Dominick] Barlow who can play four or five. We've got quite a few guys who can hopefully give us quality minutes there. And I do think there's a lot of competition.
"I do know that Coach Nurse got a lot of confidence in Adem towards the end of last season and he actually, probably – we'd be talking about him as like, ‘Hey, can Adem contribute this year?' in a normal year. In a normal year, he probably doesn't play last year, and it was just one of the positives of last year. We didn't have a lot of positives, but one of the positives was Adem and Justin and Jared and all these guys got pretty significant minutes they normally wouldn't have gotten. And I think Adem, especially at the end of the year, got the confidence of Nick and his staff.”
DARYL MOREY'S 30-MINUTE MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Full transcript | Biggest takeaways
From @zteutsch.bsky.social: If we ran more lineups with fewer true wings, would it make sense to work in more zone looks? Which players on the roster do you see as above vs below average zone defenders?
Yes, it would. In fact, Nurse is a proponent of not just mixing up defensive looks to make up for personnel deficiencies and throwing off opposing offenses, but also specifically of going to zone defenses. There was an extended period during the winter last season when Nurse would make his first two substitutions of the game and then instantly go to a zone, with Kyle Lowry playing quarterback on the back line.
It is one of many options Nurse will consider to maximize minutes for what will likely be a dynamic foursome of guards: Tyrese Maxey, Quentin Grimes, Jared McCain and Edgecombe. Ultimately, he is going to have to find ways to get his best players on the floor as much as possible.
"Nick does a good job, he’s generally going to put the best players out there, and those four guys we think will be likely four of our top players on the team. Coach Nurse is very creative, I would expect he would find ways to get all those guys pretty heavy minutes, assuming health and assuming VJ plays as well as we hope in his first year," Morey said on Friday. "Again, expectations are super high on VJ – as they should be, we’re very excited about him – but I will say, it is super rare for a first-year player to come in and play on a team that has championship aspirations, so trying to temper them a little bit with VJ and give him a little space to maybe have some bumps in the road this year.
"But I do think in our best version of our team, if we can get Quentin back, all four of those guys will be playing pretty heavy minutes and Coach Nurse will have to use creativity to figure out how to best utilize them."
Do the Sixers have the personnel to soundly execute a zone defense? Lowry is their most trustworthy player in that spot, believe it or not, but he just does not have enough left in the tank to be in the rotation moving forward. The Sixers might need feel guys like Justin Edwards and Paul George to help champion zone-reliant units, but ultimately having a stout rim protector is critical. Bona has the closing speed you want, but anchoring a complex defensive scheme is a tall ask for such a young, raw player.
Ultimately, Embiid is far and away their most valuable defensive piece. If he is anything close to resembling his typical self as a rim protector, it will cover up a whole lot of weaknesses elsewhere and give Nurse significantly more lineup optionality. That actually happening feels far-fetched.
MORE: One thought on each member of Sixers' current roster
From @coopatroopa.bsky.social: Why does it always feel like the Sixers' Summer League teams are materially worse than other teams? Are the Sixers prioritizing Summer League differently in some way (i.e. using it to experiment more) or unable to attract better Summer League players for some reason?
The Sixers have indeed not had particularly good Summer League teams in recent years, and in their first five quarters of Las Vegas action they did look materially worse than their opponents. Those minutes did come without the Summer Sixers' best player in Edgecombe, and head coach T.J. DiLeo was able to get things moving for his team in the final three quarters of Saturday's near-comeback against the Charlotte Hornets.
Judah Mintz has given the Summer Sixers some offensive life with his mind-blowing knack for drawing fouls, while the team's overall defensive execution has largely been good.
In actuality, the answer to your question is simple: in recent years the Sixers have not made tons of draft picks, and many of their draft picks have been lower. That is a recipe for less-exciting Summer League rosters.
Additionally, Morey and his front office are much more focused on using two-way contract slots to add players with prior NBA experience rather than priority undrafted free agents. While Dominick Barlow is in Las Vegas because he asked to be, most players of that ilk do not play in Summer League.
MORE: Edgecombe, McCain growing close ahead of competition for minutes
Morey is also very aggressive filling those two-way slots – he pointed out on Friday that moving quickly on two-ways and waiting out the veteran's minimum market has worked well for the team in the past – and the results are hard to argue with. However, players with Summer League games in their futures are far more likely to sign with a team that at least has a two-way vacancy so they can conceivably earn that spot with a string of strong performances. That opportunity oftentimes does not exist with the Sixers.
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