30 teams, 30 days: Philadelphia 76ers | 2027 Season Preview

Welcome to the 4th edition of my annual 30 teams in 30 days series, the most comprehensive and informative previews for every team in the NBA. Inside these posts, you’ll get up to speed with every team’s offseason additions and their roster hierarchies, learn whether they’ve addressed their biggest areas of need, ponder over 5 questions that will define their season and then decide whether you agree with my offseason grades and record predictions. For the first time, these articles will be exclusively posted on the Hardwood Collective and are paired with video deep-dives over on my Youtube and full-length podcast episodes over on The Fifth Factor!

Notable Additions: Jaylen Brown, LeBron James, Anfernee Simons, Dean Wade, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Ariel Hukporti, Labaron Philon, Jr., Caleb Love, Rayan Rupert, Duke Miles, Tacko Fall

Draft Pick Comps & Strengths + Weaknesses

#22: LaBaron Philon
Philon's profile marries together an uber-effective offensive engine and an effective off-ball handler who defended much better at lower-usage, all while maintaining a very impressive 2P self-creation load AND efficiency. While he's tested extremely poor in back to back years at the combine and he's incredibly light, I think his strong 2P signal is an indicator that he may have a deceptively strong trunk. Bis freshman year defense makes me think he could slot in nicely as a screen navigator on defense and thrive in a Deuce McBride/Ajay Mitchell/Payton Pritchard-esque role as an off-ball guard that doesn't bleed TOO much defensive value while strongly complimenting lead creators on the other side of the floor.

Notable Subtractions: Paul George, Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre, Jr., Andre Drummond, Trendon Watford, Johni Broome, Kyle Lowry, Dalen Terry, MarJon Beauchamp, Tyrese Martin

Depth Chart + Roster Hierarchy

Franchise — Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey

Core — V.J. Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown

Key Rotation — LeBron James, Dean Wade, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Adem Bona

Rotation — Anfernee Simons, Dominick Barlow, Ariel Hukporti, Justin Edwards, Jabari Walker

Development — Labaron Philon, Jr., Caleb Love and Rayan Rupert

Cap Sheet

Offseason Overview:

Joel Embiid made his 2026 playoff debut just 17 days after undergoing surgery to treat appendicitis, entering the lineup with his Sixers down 2-1 to an all-too familiar foe. The Celtics bested Embiid in all 3 of their previous matchups and was well on their way to foiling Joel once again after a blowout win in Joel's return. With their season on the line, Joel somehow found the resolve to completely control the last 3 remaining games, averaging 28/9/7 and most importantly, dishing out 22 assists to just 5 turnovers in the final 3 games. The comeback marked both Embiid's first career Game 7 victory and the Celtics' 1st ever blown 3-1 lead, representing a corporal retribution over the mental and physical traumas that had robbed him of so many moments of triumph.

This moment of ecstasy was abruptly interrupted by the New York Knicks, who blazed through a Sixers team that had sacrificed everything to fell the Celtics. Embiid was completely spent, averaging a full 7 LESS true shot attempts vs the Knicks than he did vs the Celtics, and going the whole series without a transition scoring possession. Even with him completely exhausted, the Sixers' offense remained excellent when he shot or passed out of creation situations, pushing over 1.2 PPP on both isos and post-ups, a reinforcement of just how vital he is to Philly.

Philadelphia entered the offseason with the same question as years past, pondering how they could surround Embiid with the pieces he needs to thrive in April. Newly hired POBO Mike Gansey wasted no time in leaving his fingerprints on the franchise, bringing in Jaylen Brown & LeBron James, plus a revamped supporting cast around their franchise guy. 13 years from the draft day where he was bestowed The Process moniker, Philadelphia's championship hopes still lie squarley on his shoulders.

Pre-Draft Areas of Need:

🥇 Frontcourt Reinforcements: 3rd highest opp. OREB% allowed in the halfcourt, 1st year in Embiid era where defense was better with him OFF the floor

Partially Addressed: Brown & Bron can both clean the defensive glass, no one added to assist Embiid with traditional rim protection/POA coverage to keep him comfortably in drop

🥈 Transition Defense: 30th in Opp Transition PTS Added off of Live Rebounds

Not Addressed: Maybe the offensive floor can be raised high enough to where Philly isn’t constantly having to get back, but this is a team anchored by Embiid with a 42 year old on the roster so I’d imagine they’ll get cherrypicked a bit

🥉 Interior Playmaking: 3rd lowest Rim AST% (52.7%), 28th in Rim FG%

Addressed: Bron is a massive upgrade over Oubre, Dean/JB/KCP all can make the necessary swing pass

Notes: most teams with a heavy self-creation rate at the rim were far more efficient, PHI needed more low hanging fruit FGA last year

Season Outlook:

1) There are just 2 proven complementary role players with connective skills on the roster, Dean Wade & Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Is that enough for a team with contending aspirations?

If offensive creators are the proverbial engines of NBA offenses, then connective role players function as the coolant, protecting the engine from overworking by absorbing the defensive responsibilities, lubricating the integration of multiple sources of power with ancillary playmaking and protecting the offense from freezing or stagnating. The Sixers quartet of Maxey, Embiid, LeBron and Brown features 3 players who ranked in the 90th%ile for On-Ball% at their position last year with all 4 also accounting for 90th%ile Creation FGA volume. Philly will need to find the optimal balance between who among the 4 initiates and finishes possessions, but they also need to have a clear plan for the responsibilities of each in the less glamorous aspects of basketball.

A large amount of these duties will ultimately fall to the "fifth player" ^[1] in these lineups, which will most commonly be some combination of VJ Edgecombe, Dean Wade and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Dean Wade and KCP have each demonstrated an ability to serve admirably as low-friction starters who can be deployed on and off-ball defensively, thus it's easy to envision them finding success on spot-ups, off-ball screening actions and maybe even the occasional weakside PNR. Considering some of the open questions surrounding Egdecombe's spacing ability and the lack of any other players on the roster with Wade/KCP's combination of shooting, defense & tertiary playmaking, I do wonder if they'll look to add one more player in their mold.

2) Will Anfernee Simons be able to provide more than just scoring volume?

I can't imagine there are many other examples of a team immediately pilfering multiple players from a roster in the offseason after eliminating said team from the playoffs. Both Brown and Simons are former Celtics^[2]who Brad Stevens and Co. ultimately decided they were comfortable removing them from the roster. Boston has been the most consistent winner in either conference in the last decade, having reached at least the Conference Finals in 6 of the last 10 seasons, soI tend to trust their talent evaluation and overall approach to roster construction. That doesn't mean that every player who doesn't work out for Boston shouldn't be considered by other teams, but I would love to understand how the Sixers came to terms with trading for a player whose shortcomings were a large factor in how they came back from a 3-1 deficit, then signing a player from the same context who has the same limitations, to an even greater extent.

Simons $6M accounts for 3.6% of the cap this season, a seemingly inconsequential amount that may prove to be more problematic than most expect. This is mainly due to the lack of refined complementary skills we discussed above, but also the similarly unpolished big man rotation behind Embiid. I have concerns that his skillset will, at best, be duplicative. This could still provide value however, especially if Philly can deploy him in the minutes Maxey is off the floor as a movement shooter, but I'm not convinced he'll justify 60% of his jumpers coming off the dribble ^[3]for a team with this level on-ball talent. It's not even that I necessarily don't value the skillset in general, it's that Simons has been an extremely variable offensive player in large part due to jumpers being 75% (or higher!!) of his shot diet while also being a lower volume catch & shoot guy than you'd expect.

Guys don't magically morph into completely different players overnight, though I suppose it's not too farfetched to suggest that Anfernee, in the least demanding offensive role of his career, find more opportunities to shoot off the catch. Even so, the level to which he must hunt these AND knock them down to offset the playmaking and defensive issues doesn't feel worth the squeeze.

3) Which of the bigs can spell Embiid enough to keep him healthy for April and beyond?

One of the biggest challenges to finding serviceable backups for transformative talents is that these all-time players tend to bend rosters according to their hyper-specific gravity. Essentially, a team often commits to a style of play that best fits their star, but the player is so consequential to that approach that there is really no way to approximate their presence. A 7-footer who operates heavily as a mid-post face-up big with guard skills is hard enough to find, but one who will accept a backup role is impossible. Because of this, Philly has to try and play differently without Joel on the floor.

Embiid's mobility is far from what it used to be, meaning any of the 3 potential bigs Nurse could cycle in would allow PHI to play a more aggressive defensive style. I'm anticipating Bona to be utilized as a majority at the level big, weaponizing his ground coverage ability with Dean Wade's (and even LeBron on good nights) switchability. Brown can guard up on-ball if needed which means PHI could reasonably put out lineups that can switch 1-5 depending on if a Philly guard is in the action. Bona's offensive warts and fouling are problematic though, he shot 45% on layups last year with a 0.49 A/TO and a 18.3 TO% rate. Barlow has a bit more offensive skill, but is completely ignored on offense and doesn't really have the size to play the 5 against some of the biggest teams. Hukporti has yet to play any truly meaningful minutes, though he was inspiring in his brief Finals appearance. I don't think they'll have a consistent answer, but expect a much more aggressive defensive scheme with Embiid off the floor, similar to how Minnesota would play heavy drop with Gobert and then switch 1-5 with Naz/KAT at the 5 in years past.

4) How will Maxey & Edgecombe leverage playing off of Bron & JB’s gravity?

Maxey chose the perfect year to have the highest off-screen and cut volume of his career. He leaned more into weaponizing his speed out of flare & curl actions last year and found opportunities to flash on cuts to get a floater off over a rotating defender. Tyrese has always been one of the most sudden drivers in the league thanks to his first step and I'm expecting this aspect of his game to flourish playing off of Bron and JB. Maxey is a natural at relocating into his fellow stars' passing angles when teams shade help, which I think will make him the natural choice to position one pass away on any post or iso touches for Biid/JB/Bron. He's been consistently more efficient driving to his right out of spot-ups than to his left, likely because he loves to shoot floaters and as a righty, that shot is a bit tougher to get off on the left side of the floor.

Conveniently, Edgecombe was more efficient driving to his left out of spot-ups than to his right, as he's got a tendency to want to work back to the middle of the floor when he drives to the right^[4]. VJ isn't the same dynamic shooter Maxey is of course, but his superior verticality should make him an even more dangerous cutter. That athleticism also gives him the edge as an offensive rebounder, which is an area Edgecombe could really punish teams for sagging off. He snatched 6% of his own misses last year (90th%ile) and should be in the position to grab even more offensive rebounds if teams constantly send help off of him, like the Knicks did in their series, betting that he is unable to make them pay consistently from deep. If he can mix in enough offensive rebounds and backdoor cuts, he may not even need to scare teams into respecting him just off the strength of his jumper.

5) How much could the Sixers’ lack of depth, combined with their age, impact their regular season win totals? (which of course impacts playoff standings and HC advantage)

The first signs of aging begin to manifest themselves in a player's activity level. There's often slippage in contest volume, defensive rebounding, opponent transition frequency and defensive playmaking. Bron recorded the lowest deflections per game in his career and his lowest DREB% since 2015 in CLE, but because he's LeBron James, he was also the 3rd most prolific transition scorer in the entire league. He's got plenty left in the tank, but with age, you need to choose spurts to exert energy and Bron has increasingly used the defensive side of the floor to recuperate after possessions. Even as he continues to defy the aging curve of a mere mortal NBA player, I believe he'll take advantage of the Sixers' multi-star roster to take some much needed days to rest.

James is the best non-Embiid rebounder and is overwhelmingly the best passer, which will drop Philly's ceiling dramatically when he's not in the lineup. I think they'll still generally have enough to not have to worry about missing the Play-In, but ultimately Bron & Embiid are just far too consequential for the Sixers to be expected to be competitive on a night to night basis without them. These games without their 2 most important players will be valuable opportunities to learn about what lineups could potentially be viable in their playoff run stretches without either on the floor, with their performance in these moments holding a ton of weight over their eventual seeding.

Record Prediction

Combined Odds: 50.6 via multiple sportbooks

My Model Projection: 40.0 (18th of 30), -0.04 Net Rating, 30% playoff odds

Floor: 42-40 (-3 wins)

There are a lot of personalities & playstyles in the mix in Philly and this team isn’t quite built to dominate the regular season. Bron hasn’t slowed down yet, though I do wonder how proactive his rest days will be and whether they’ll coincide with Joel. JB + Maxey + Edgecombe will likely play all 70 games, which makes PHI a play-in team at very worst.

Ceiling: 52-30 (+7 wins)

Philly is making a relatively large gamble on Embiid’s health, even 50 games played would be a massive win considering how the last couple years have gone. This team’s ceiling should go beyond the reg szn, but as long as Joel is spry, they can tangle with anyone in the East.

Overall Grade: — B

Let me know if you agree with my predictions! What are your expectations for the 76ers this season?

Up Next: Milwaukee Bucks