At long last, the regular season is here for the Philadelphia 76ers, which means another undoubtedly treacherous year. Still, it's hard to shake the feeling that something will be a little different about this year's team and how they will be viewed in a vacuum when all is said and done.
The Sixers have spent years and years writing new side characters into their book, hoping to change the ending, and each year their story ends the same way. Predicting that this year's story will end any differently than it has since the Process Era began would be premature, but less bold would be to say that whenever next offseason comes, the narrative and perception around the future of the Sixers will be bright and clear.
Knowing the Sixers, nothing will ever really be bright and clear. But if they can accomplish these three realistic expectations this year, we will at least know what trajectory they are on as we move into the latter half of the decade.
The Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers, maybe the two best teams in the East when fully healthy, both will be without their best player for most, if not the entire season, with a torn Achilles tendon suffered in last year's playoffs. The Milwaukee Bucks lost their second-best player to a torn Achilles as well during last year's playoffs, and he is no longer on the team at all. The Sixers have to capitalize on this.
The Sixers have been known to play down to inferior competition. Their team's disposition against these injury-riddled or less talented opponents is very important in establishing their identity and is a good barometer of their team culture. If the Sixers are constantly getting up for and dispatching of worse teams, they will afford themselves the best chance at reaching their ceiling as a group.
The Celtics and Bucks are recent champions. The Pacers may have been, too, if Tyrese Haliburton did not go down in Game 7 of the NBA Finals this past June. They are not just going to sit down this year because of the injuries they suffered. The Sixers must add insult to those injuries and rack up the wins.
If the Sixers are winning games this year and in the thick of the playoff race, this one will be a bit harder to accomplish. But if the Sixers find themselves middling again or worse, they owe it to themselves and their fans to see what they really have in the young guys.
There is no better way to get basketball players up to speed in the NBA than to let them play and work through their mistakes. There is only so much the whiteboard and practice reps can teach before these guys are staring down the top players the league has to offer. Gaining that experience is vital to their growth and could, in turn, be vital to the future of the Sixers franchise.
If the Sixers' season is heading nowhere, it would be a lot easier to stay invested by giving more minutes and elevated roles to the young guys who have the most potential. It would be bordering on organizational malpractice if they do not look to spotlight the young guys if they are out of the playoff picture.
By the start of the 2026-27 season, the Philadelphia 76ers need to firmly be Tyrese Maxey's basketball team (unless VJ Edgecombe has something to say about that...). They have an entire season ahead of them to that point to ensure that Maxey becomes the top guy.
That does not necessarily mean he will be the best player on the team. If Joel Embiid is healthy, he will probably still assume that title. If the Sixers have actual aspirations to compete in a watered-down East and go on a playoff run, Maxey shouldn't, arguably couldn't, be their best player. But he certainly can be their most consistent player, their unquestioned on-court and emotional leader, and their most reliable spark plug on a nightly basis.
The old guys need someone on the team to expend the energy on both ends of the floor so they can be at their most effective, and not sacrifice efficiency while doing so. The young guys need someone on the team who they can look to in the most crucial moments to put them in the right spots to succeed when their number is called. Tyrese Maxey is the guy who fills both of those roles now, and he is still a couple of years away from entering his prime as a basketball player in his own right.
Tyrese Maxey is under contract for four more seasons, including this upcoming one. He is not the Sixers' best player, but he is their most important for a myriad of reasons. This needs to be the season where the 76ers transition from Joel Embiid's team to Tyrese Maxey's team.
