Injuries have submarined the Sixers’ chances of winning a championship this year, but this doesn’t have to be an entirely lost season.
Injuries tend to ruin at least one or two NBA teams every season. This year, it appears to be the Sixers’ turn on that carousel.
Between the latest setback with Joel Embiid’s knee and the daunting stretch of schedule that the Sixers currently find themselves in, their chances of competing for a championship this season are all but finished. Even if they overtake the Chicago Bulls for the final spot in the play-in tournament, they’ll have to win two road games just to make the playoffs. From there, they’d likely be headed for a first-round matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Typically, a team in the Sixers’ shoes might look for any excuse to shut their stars down for the season and start tanking. However, the Sixers owe their 2025 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls outside of the top six. They’d have to finish with one of the six worst records in the league to have even a 50-50 shot of keeping the pick.
The Sixers have little shot of out-tanking the Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets or Utah Jazz. They’d face an uphill battle to finish with a worse record than the Portland Trail Blazers, Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets, too. (On the bright side: Now that they’re semi-healthy again, the New Orleans Pelicans have a legitimate shot of jumping the Sixers.)
Although the Sixers aren’t guaranteed a high lottery pick as the silver lining to this otherwise dismal season, they could still look to emulate the 2023-24 Memphis Grizzlies, who made lemonade out of lemons when injuries wrecked them as well.
Last year, Ja Morant played only nine games because of a suspension and a shoulder injury. Desmond Bane missed 42 games because of ankle and back injuries. Marcus Smart missed 62 games because of ankle and finger injuries. Even Jaren Jackson Jr., who was largely left to carry the team in the absence of Bane, Smart and Morant, missed 16 games.
That volume of injuries forced the Grizzlies’ hand. Rather than leaning on established veterans such as Bismack Biyombo and Derrick Rose to try to salvage a clearly lost season, the Grizzlies pivoted into a youth movement. They churned through 33 players in total—how Process-esque of them!—and found a few long-term keepers along the way.
Vince Williams Jr. and GG Jackson II were the two most notable success stories.
Williams, whom the Grizzlies selected with the No. 47 overall pick in the 2022 draft, signed a two-way contract that offseason and played only 105 total minutes as a rookie. Last year, he appeared in 52 games, made 33 starts and averaged 10.0 points on 44.6% shooting, 5.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 27.6 minutes per game. The Grizzlies wound up signing him to a four-year, $9.1 million contract in January with part of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
The Grizzlies did the same thing with Jackson, the No. 45 pick in the 2023 draft. He wound up appearing in 48 games (including 18 starts) as a rookie and averaged 14.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in only 25.7 minutes per outing. In February, the Grizzlies signed him to a four-year, $8.5 million contract with another part of their non-taxpayer MLE.
The Sixers used their full room MLE to re-sign Kelly Oubre Jr. this past offseason, so they can’t follow that exact playbook. They only have minimum contracts to offer for the rest of the season. Still, they could use the final few months of this season as an opportunity to gauge whether any of their young players other than Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain are long-term keepers.
The Sixers already seem to be embracing that strategy. Justin Edwards, who signed a two-way deal this past offseason, has broken into the rotation as of late after playing sparingly for the first two months of the season. His 25-point outing against the Oklahoma City Thunder in mid-January was particularly eye-opening, but he’s been showing promising flashes on a near-nightly basis.
The same goes for Adem Bona, whom the Sixers selected with the No. 41 overall pick this past June. With both Embiid and Andre Drummond nursing injuries, Bona has been getting consistent minutes off the bench in recent games. He scored a career-high 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting and hauled in six rebounds in only 19 minutes against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday and followed up with 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting and six rebounds against the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.
The Sixers already signed Bona to a four-year, $7.9 million contract via the second-round exception this past offseason, so they don’t need to worry about his contractual status moving forward. Still, it would help for them to know whether they can rely on him as either a second- or third-string center moving forward, or if he still needs more seasoning before he’s ready for a regular rotation role.
Edwards’ status moving forward is murkier. Since the Sixers don’t have any part of their mid-level exception remaining, they can only offer him a minimum contract via the minimum player salary exception. Those deals can be two years at most—including what’s left of this season—so they currently can’t sign him beyond 2025-26.
Depending on what they do at the trade deadline—namely, whether they leave themselves an open roster spot—the Sixers could still sign Edwards to a two-year deal with a second-year team option. If they wanted to give him a longer contract this offseason, they could turn down his team option and then re-sign him using non-Bird rights, which would allow them to offer him up to a four-year deal starting at 120% of the minimum salary.
The Sixers also have Ricky Council IV signed to a fully non-guaranteed deal in 2025-26. They should be looking to give him more opportunities moving forward to see whether his three-point shot comes around and he can develop into a rotation wing. Otherwise, they might decide that they’re better off using his roster spot on someone else this offseason.
If the Sixers offload veterans such as Reggie Jackson and Eric Gordon at the trade deadline, they might have even more open roster spots that they could use to churn through 10-day signings. Their odds of hitting on multiple long-term keepers wouldn’t be great, but finding even one diamond in the rough would justify that strategy and then some.
With their Big 3 under contract for the next three years, it’s especially imperative for the Sixers to find cheap, productive rotation players to fill out their supporting cast. Although this season is otherwise circling the drain, discovering their own version of what the Grizzlies found with Jackson or Wiliams could help improve their long-term outlook.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.