During the 2025-26 NBA season, the NBA's salary cap is set at $154,647,000. For at least each of their next two games, the Sixers will be without the three people at the top of their cap sheet – a trio of players earning a combined $144,849,376.

Joel Embiid is still hurt. Paul George is still suspended. And now Tyrese Maxey's sprained right finger will force him to watch the Sixers' back-to-back on Monday and Tuesday from the sidelines. Even if VJ Edgecombe returns from his 10-quarter absence on Monday night in Cleveland, the Sixers are set to be severely undermanned for at least two games. But it also could be longer. That might mean a death sentence in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Kicking off the week with 5 Sixers thoughts, beginning with what time without Maxey might look like:

What will life without Tyrese Maxey be like?

Embiid and George, the Sixers' two highest-paid players, have played 60 combined games out of a maximum 126. Maxey, meanwhile, has played in 61 games himself; his only two absences to date were prompted by an illness in December when he was hit hard by a bug going around the locker room.

Somehow much more noteworthy than that: Maxey is averaging 38.3 minutes per game this season and has played 2,334 total minutes. Both of those number pace the entire NBA with ease and place him in a league of his own as far as today's NBA iron men go. The Sixers' operation mostly revolves around Maxey, not just because he is a brilliant player but because, on a team with Embiid and George, Maxey is as dependable as it gets in the league as far as volume is concerned. That is why his collision with Adem Bona on Saturday was so ominous.

So, who can the Sixers even ask to assume Maxey's workload? Clearly, it will be a joint operation; there are almost no players in the NBA capable of averaging 29.0 points or 21.9 shot attempts per game. If Edgecombe gets back on the floor, the most intriguing option might just be running the offense through the 20-year-old rookie at a crazy usage rate, merely to see what happens while giving Edgecombe more valuable on-ball reps as his development continues. He would be empowered to be every bit as aggressive as Sixers head coach Nick Nurse wants him to be.

Elsewhere, the most realistic option for the Sixers to catch lightning in a bottle is Quentin Grimes, who was outstanding on Saturday night in his first scoring eruption in dozens of games. Grimes, of course, broke out as a three-level scorer down the stretch of last season, and while his massive uptick in points per game – from 10.2 with the Dallas Mavericks to 21.9 with the Sixers – did not translate to any team success, it did largely come on high efficiency marks. Grimes is not good enough to reliably be the focal point of a quality NBA offense for more than a few minutes at a time, but he is good enough to swing a game on any given night. The Sixers' defense let them down in Atlanta, but Grimes brought the goods:

Also excellent against the Hawks was Kelly Oubre Jr., who looked like the best version of himself from early in the season. Oubre continues to enjoy what is far and away the best three-point shooting season of his 11-year NBA career, and that is the most important part about the year he is having. But for the time being, it will likely take a back seat to his rim pressure, long strides at the ends of shot clocks. Oubre is going to be the Sixers' best chance at earning a self-created shot in a hurry.

Trendon Watford posts up

What an odd year it has been for Watford in his first campaign with the Sixers. The 25-year-old laughed after a recent practice when a reporter asked him if he feels his role changes in every single game. Watford has been a starter, injured, out of the rotation and everywhere else in between. Ultimately, it became clear that Dominick Barlow was the crown jewel of the Sixers' collection of lottery tickets at power forward. Jabari Walker has arguably been more stable of a piece than Watford.

When the Sixers are whole, Barlow and Walker's supplementary skills might be easier fits than Watford's unorthodox style as a point forward. But with Maxey, George and Embiid all out, the Sixers will be starved for shot creation. Suddenly, Watford becomes one of the most important pieces of this puzzle for now.

Over the last month-plus, Nurse has been trying to establish three-big lineups which allow Watford to serve as an additional ball-handler. He has played Watford next to two other bigs instead of going with a traditional wing like Justin Edwards, and the case for it is built around Watford's ability to facilitate offense from different places on the floor.

Because of their severe lack of shooting, those lineups performed brutally over the first handful of weeks Nurse tried them. But there have been glimpses of promise recently, with a scoring run Watford went on in Atlanta being the finest example of how these units could work in theory. Watford playing with two larger teammates forces smaller wings to defend him, and Nurse is very fond of Watford's ability to play out of the post, where he can score and pass. Against the Hawks, it was more of the former with a bit of the latter:

Watford will likely not start during Maxey's absence, but he should be the Sixers' most important reserve during that time because of how desperate they will be for someone to generate decent shots. 

MORE: Is Nurse on the hot seat?

Markelle Fultz aiming for NBA return

Markelle Fultz is back in professional basketball. On Friday, he was claimed on G League waivers by Raptors 905, the affiliate of the Toronto Raptors, where he immediately reported.

Ironically, Fultz's first game with Raptors 905 came against the Delaware Blue Coats on Sunday afternoon. The Blue Coats lost handily, though Fultz only scored four points on 2-for-7 shooting in 19 minutes as a starter. His first basket, though, was a reminder of how enticing the herky-jerky scoring package once looked:

Fultz, 27, played in 21 games for the Sacramento Kings last year and has failed to land an NBA deal since, even with the annual wave of 10-day contracts that arrives around trade season coming and going. He has played 255 NBA games (164 starts), with 201 games (149 starts) coming during his five-year tenure with the Orlando Magic.

The Sixers traded Fultz to Orlando midway through his second NBA season, the end of a brutal stint in Philadelphia after Fultz was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Orlando sent the Sixers a heavily protected first-round pick, which just barely conveyed. It turned into the No. 21 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, which the Sixers used to select... Tyrese Maxey.

Time to give Andre Drummond a red light?

One of the most enjoyable early season storylines surrounding the Sixers was Drummond, entering his 14th NBA season with only 18 made threes under his belt, suddenly turning into a reasonably useful corner three-point shooter. Drummond has connected from long range 22 times this year alone. But like his overall production – Drummond was a huge part of the Sixers' early season success and has clearly been their worst player over the last few months – his accuracy from beyond the arc has worsened in recent months.

In his 25th appearance of the season, Drummond knocked down a career-high three triples at Madison Square Garden as the Sixers notched an emphatic victory over the New York Knicks. It took him to 14-for-34 (41.2 percent) on threes for the season. But in 23 appearances since, Drummond has only made eight of his 32 long-range tries, good for a 25.0 three-point percentage. Drummond is now 22-for-66 on threes for the season.

Drummond has, on multiple occasions, expressed gratitude to Nurse and his staff and his own teammates for showing confidence in the work he has put into his shooting. But at this point, as Drummond's minutes become more and more harmful, it is fair to wonder if Nurse should take the green light off of him.

MORE: How would trade deadline have gone without Paul George suspension?

Jayson Tatum is back, and so are the Celtics

Is it cruel for this to end with a story that includes a note about Fultz entering the G League? Perhaps. But a few days after the Celtics beat the Sixers in Boston, they got Jayson Tatum back. And while Tatum has been inefficient in both of his appearances this year, he has played 27 minutes in each contest and is moving far better than what one would expect for a player not even 10 months removed from Achilles surgery.

Tatum has more time to ramp up ahead of the playoffs than most would have projected. More importantly, he is ramping up from a considerably better place in terms of explosion and movement. He still has a ways to go – a missed dunk in his season debut vs. Dallas is an example – but Tatum is going to be a high-level contributor the rest of the way.

That is meaningful because, even before their best player returned, the Celtics looked as good as any team in the Eastern Conference this season. Jaylen Brown has gotten MVP buzz because of the uptick in scoring volume he has assumed. Derrick White is enduring a tough shooting season and still finding a way to be one of the most impactful players in the league.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla maximizes every player he has available to him, and Boston's depth is now a major strength. This is unquestionably a legitimate NBA Finals contender, and the Sixers could be primed to face them in the first round of the playoffs.

MORE: Answering questions about playoff matchups and rotations