Continuity is a word that has been used a whole lot within the Sixers organization over the years.

Joel Embiid, in particular, has liked to talk about how, before they can win at the highest levels, the Sixers must develop the level of familiarity with each other that many recent NBA champions have possessed.

As Embiid has had new running mates cycled in and out of Philadelphia, there have been two steady pairs of stars whose longstanding partnerships he liked to reference: Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray with the Denver Nuggets, and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown with the Boston Celtics.

In this week's 5 Sixers thoughts, breaking down the immediate aftermath of the latter duo being broken up in the most shocking of ways – prompting yet another new-look Sixers team around Embiid: 

Another new star enters

It has been an endless cycle for years now: the Sixers acquire a new star to play alongside Embiid, the new arrangement seems better than the previous one on paper, the Sixers show signs of high-caliber basketball, fail to get the job done, Embiid talks about the importance of continuity with the current group and then the group is broken up in the service of landing a new star to play alongside Embiid.

"That's the problem," Embiid said after the Sixers were eliminated from the 2024 NBA Playoffs by the New York Knicks, two months before they signed Paul George. "Look at – who won last year? Denver. Jamal, Nikola, they've been together for eight years or something like that. You look at some of the teams that have won: Golden State Warriors, they have been together for a long time. I don't remember the last time you just put a team together and hoped that it worked out for one year. So, yeah, that's needed."

Then came the George signing, a 24-58 nightmarish season, a middling 2025-26 regular season, a miraculous 3-1 series comeback which ended Brown's tenure in Boston and an ensuing sweep at the hands of a Knicks team which made major changes the same summer the Sixers did and won a title two seasons later.

The Sixers should not have kept all of their core pieces in place for the sake of familiarity; if anything the opposite thinking likely informed the deal to trade George and four draft picks for Brown, as the Sixers grappled with a city that did not believe in their group. Brown represents the antithesis of what people resent about this era of Sixers basketball, as he has been front and center for many of the Sixers' highest-profile letdowns.

How much time will new Sixers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey give this new-look team to build the right habits and continuity? From the new star trio of Embiid, Brown and Tyrese Maxey to head coach Nick Nurse and his staff, how willing will Gansey be to make serious changes whenever things do not go according to plan?

MORE: The aspects of Jaylen Brown's game worth being worried about

The importance of the luxury tax moving forward

Gansey is the second straight Sixers executive to invest significantly in a three-star model of roster-building. While many assumed he would try to replenish the team's depth at the expense of one of those stars as he replaced Daryl Morey, Gansey traded George for a star making even more money, doubling down on the plan Morey initiated.

Given that the Sixers are prepared to pay Embiid, Brown and Maxey just over $500 million across the next three seasons, it is imperative that Sixers ownership understands how challenging it will be for Gansey to accumulate championship-caliber depth around those three players without being a team that pays the luxury tax.

It is well-documented that the Sixers have repeatedly ducked the tax at the trade deadline, beginning seasons over the line and maneuvering under it before calculations are performed at the end of the year. And with 14 players on their roster as of this writing, the Sixers are set to enter 2026-27 about $5.2 million over the tax.

The Sixers certainly still have a path to ducking the tax in 2027; sharpshooting guard Anfernee Simons would be the obvious casualty after signing a two-year contract worth $12.3 million, including a second-year player option. But when a team wraps up so much money in three players, sometimes its optimal path when building the best team available is blowing past the tax line without any concern for finding a way to get under it.

Sixers Managing Partner Josh Harris, whose ownership group has footed multiple tax bills before, said in May that he has no hesitance to do it again despite the team's repeated cost-cutting trades in recent years.

"The front office absolutely has the green light to go into the luxury tax," Harris said. "In fact, we've been in and out of the luxury tax. And so it's not an issue. I mean, it's just not an issue. We're building an arena here, I can tell you that the amount of dollars you spend on that versus the luxury tax, it's magnitudes more. We built this facility. We've signed a number of max deals. So there's no issue with the luxury tax."

Salary cap outlook for 2027-28

"To be honest, if you look at the history of teams that have won a championship – I was one of them – we were in the tax," Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment President of Sports Bob Myers added to Harris' comment about paying tax bills. "It'd be great if you could win a championship by not being in the tax. Very hard to do. But it has to make sense."

The 2027-28 Sixers, whose season will begin in about 15 months and whose roster only includes nine players, are already within $10 million of the tax line – and that is assuming Simons does not accept his player option worth nearly $6.3 million.

Factoring in Simons' potential 2027-28 salary, the Sixers are already within $12.2 million of the first apron, which means their days of using the non-taxpayer's mid-level exception will likely be on hold for quite a while. The Sixers' focus will become steering clear of the much more punitive second apron, which should be relatively easy, even with Embiid and Brown's salaries skyrocketing above $60 million.

The precarious nature of the Sixers' cap sheet is only more extreme now than it was a week ago, especially because in addition to being a bit more expensive, Brown's contract runs for a year longer than George's. It places a massive emphasis moving forward on finding cost-effective production closer to the bottom of the roster, whether it comes via the draft or free agency.

MORE: The aspects of Jaylen Brown's game worth being excited about

VJ Edgecombe takes the floor for Team Bahamas

For the first time since the end of his outstanding rookie season, VJ Edgecombe was back on the floor in organized competition on Saturday. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Americas Qualifiers are underway, with Edgecombe leading the charge for The Bahamas.

Edgecombe was outstanding in a blowout victory, posting 26 points, eight rebounds, three assists and four steals, shooting 10-for-15 from the floor and 6-for-8 from beyond the arc.

Edgecombe is one of four players with NBA experience listed on the Bahamian roster, and ironically all four of those players have been members of the Sixers before. Buddy Hield spent half of a season with the Sixers as their primary acquisition at the trade deadline in 2024, Eric Gordon spent a year and change with the team and even Kai Jones once signed a 10-day contract with the Sixers, though he never appeared in a game for the team.

Paul George and Andre Drummond say thank you

Two of the players to depart Philadelphia this week issued statements saying goodbye, thanking the Sixers and their fans. Both players will be very visible moving forward, though, as George will replace Brown in Boston and Andre Drummond is set to replace Mitchell Robinson as Karl-Anthony Towns' backup in New York:

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