The Sixers might have proved completely incapable of handling Neemias Queta in Sunday night's frustrating loss to the Boston Celtics, with Joel Embiid sidelined due to a right oblique strain. But there is good news: the Sixers will play host to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night, and Embiid will still not be on the floor.

Okay, maybe there is not good news to report.

This is life around the 2025-26 Sixers: the tenor around the team, its present and its future, is completely dependent on the outcome of the most recent game. The Sixers had a nightmarish four-game losing streak, then staged a three-game win streak. Now, they will have to beat Wembanyama's Spurs without Embiid to avoid another losing streak. 

How does this team hope to turn things back around again? Kicking off the week with 5 Sixers thoughts, beginning with head coach Nick Nurse's plan to guide VJ Edgecombe in the direction of stardom, then pivoting to the state of the first-round pick the team acquired at the trade deadline and detailing a few interesting anecdotes from the locker room:

VJ Edgecombe is breaking through as a transition scorer

For months, Nurse has talked about wanting his prized rookie to be more aggressive punching gaps in transition. Edgecombe's end-to-end speed is nearly unparalleled, and defenders on their heels trying to get back on defense will not be able to stop his momentum.

Over the last few weeks, Edgecombe has taken his aggressiveness in the open floor up a few notches. And when he is utilizing his explosiveness as much as he can, there are very few answers for opposing defenses. The sign of a truly special mover: Edgecombe is not just outstanding when it comes to converting transition opportunities. He moves so quickly with the ball that he creates fastbreak scoring chances out of thin air:

"I really think that the open-floor drives for him are – man, they're so high-percentage," Nurse said after Edgecombe made all seven of his two-point attempts in Thursday's win over the Miami Heat. "When he does those, he almost always gets to the front of the rim... And I just feel like he's so good in the open floor, that even if it's one-on-two, sometimes he can split through there and elevate and figure it out in the air a little bit. So that's been improving." 

Shortly after Nurse's comments, Edgecombe said all he needed was reassurance from his coaching staff and teammates. Once they made it clear they wanted him to punch those gaps as often as possible, it became his focus. And given how good of a defensive rebounder Edgecombe already is for a guard, there are more chances coming:

"He just wants me to be aggressive," Edgecombe said. "That's all there is, for real. We've talked about it as a team. My teammates [are] fine with me going in there, just being aggressive. My teammates give me grace sometimes, let me make little mistakes. But it's all a learning process for me, especially being a rookie. I just try to get in the open floor. I know I'm faster than most, I can jump higher than most, so I just try to get to the rim, either [score], draw a foul or anything like that.

Can he improve as a finisher next?

If pulling off the uptick in transition scoring is the most recent step of Edgecombe's development, the next one will be finishing through contact around the rim. Edgecombe has been among the least efficient at-rim finishers in the NBA this year, hardly a surprise for a rookie guard listed at 180 pounds but still something that has to be worked through.

It is probably not going to be fixed imminently, but if Edgecombe can continue focusing on ways to overcome his lack of imposing physicality as a finisher, he has a much better chance of hitting the star outcomes he envisions for himself.

"It's certainly an improvement area for him, and we've kind of known that from day one: that we were going to need to spend time doing that," Nurse said. "And we're there. I would like it to be a little higher and better at this stage. I usually say it takes until about February to see some jump and improvement in finishing, just [getting] used to the speed and the size and all that stuff that you see in the NBA. But I think it's coming a little bit. We'll just keep working on it."

The idea that a player will be better once they are more efficient around the rim is hardly a novel concept; it goes without saying. But it can be an especially impactful piece of development for Edgecombe, as one of his superpowers – as detailed above – is getting to the rim. A combination of blazing speed and improved finishing craft would help make up for Edgecombe's suspect handle, which is probably a bit better than anticipated coming out of Baylor but far away from where a team would hope for a guard with ambitions of being an All-Star.

MORE: Is Nurse on the hot seat?

Rockets first-round pick watch

The Sixers were slated to be one of the few teams without a pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but the Jared McCain trade netted them a collection of picks headlined by a 2026 first-rounder which will end up being that of the Houston Rockets. Every once in a while until the end of the season, we will take stock of where that Houston pick stands and evaluate its upward mobility or lack thereof.

Courtesy of our friend at Tankathon, the Sixers would have the No. 25 overall pick courtesy of the Rockets, who are near the back end of a cluster of similarly-performing teams:

Perhaps if Houston stumbles in the stretch run of the season – according to Tankathon, their strength of schedule is around the middle of the pack – the pick could get up to as high as No. 21 overall. (That pick has been wonderful for the Sixers before.)

Sixers fans should be rooting hard for Rockets losses, but ironically they should also be rooting for a pair of teams in the Eastern Conference to continue winning so those teams finish the season with better records than Houston. It is difficult to fathom the Sixers rooting for the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers to win games as they chase a playoff bid themselves, but New York and Cleveland winning would benefit the standing of their Rockets pick.

The other teams the Sixers will be pulling for out of pick-related motivation are the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets.

MORE: What could Sixers get for Rockets pick, and how much does it matter?

Dalen Terry finds an unlikely sparring partner

After the Sixers held shootaround on Thursday morning, two-way wing Dalen Terry – who signed with 29 games left in the regular season and would only be available to appear in 18 of them – was getting additional work in. He played a long, intense session of one-on-one against Paul George, whose 25-game suspension does not come to an end for 22 days but is allowed to participate in non-game team activities.

An Arizona native, Terry said he and George had crossed paths before because of their ties to the West Coast. "I wouldn't say we know each other, but we know each other," Terry told PhillyVoice hours after their latest lengthy session, adding "I know I can call him Paul, call him PG. He calls me DT."

The familiarity helped open the door. And, as a young NBA wing trying to make his mark on both ends of the floor, how could Terry not try to learn everything he can from George while the nine-time All-Star's only job is helping out at practice?

"I feel like I'm just trying to take advantage of the opportunity I have right now, obviously the few more games I've got," Terry said. "On practice days, shootaround days, I'm always asking Paul [to play one-on-one and work out together]. Because me growing up, that was one of the guys that I always looked up to. I believe I can be a two-way player in this league, so that's the best 6-foot-7, 6-foot-8 player to watch."

Terry described George's offensive movement as "one of one," and said he has learned a lot about George from Sixers assistant coach Rico Hines as he tries to emulate the 35-year-old.

"He's a perfect guy to watch," Terry said.

Why do Joel Embiid and Dominick Barlow keep trading roles for jump balls?

One of the most unusual parts of this Sixers season has been the number of players to handle opening tip-offs. Embiid, Andre Drummond and Adem Bona have all done the job as starting centers, but Embiid's sporadic bounce has led to some chaos.

Because Embiid has been available to play more often than he has had the requisite lift to win a jump ball, Dominick Barlow has taken 10 of them to open games this season. Kelly Oubre Jr. has taken two. And after a long run of taking the jump ball himself and winning most of them, Embiid missed five games, then returned to action last week and played two games before going down for at least three contests with another injury. In both of his strong performances before the oblique injury, Embiid handed the responsibility of taking the opening tip back to Barlow.

Barlow told PhillyVoice about 90 minutes before taking the opening tip of Thursday's win over Miami that very shortly before a game begins, he and Embiid discuss who is best suited to take the jump ball. The following exchange ensued:

PhillyVoice: Do you look forward to [taking jump balls] in any way? I would imagine you've taken the jump ball many times in your life, but you've mostly played four in the NBA.

Dominick Barlow: Nah, I don't look forward to it. I'm terrible at it.

PhillyVoice: I have to look up your numbers on it.

Barlow: They're bad. But it's fun. It's a fun challenge. 

In lieu of any sources of jump-ball win/loss data that are publicly available, here are the results of rewatching every Sixers jump ball all season. It confirms the perspective of Barlow, whose only victory on a jump ball before this week was against 39-year-old Al Horford:

Shortly after lamenting his struggles on jump balls, Barlow took the opening tip against Heat star Bam Adebayo. The ball ricocheted off a Miami player and out of bounds. Perhaps it was not how Barlow drew it up, but it was technically a jump ball won. After starting out with one win and seven losses in his first eight tries, he has some momentum.

After the game, Barlow laughed and exclaimed: "Two in a row!"

MORE: Daryl Morey on inactive deadline, George's suspension, luxury tax, more