April 28, 2026
A shocker: Joel Embiid, not even three weeks removed from an appendectomy, is probably not going to make up a meaningful portion of the difference between the Sixers and Boston Celtics.
Game 5 is on Tuesday night in Boston, and the Celtics are heavy favorites to win and secure a second-round playoff berth, eliminating a Sixers season that Embiid already seems to be having trouble squaring away in his mind.
"We know what they do well and we know some of the mistakes we made tonight," Embiid said after returning in the Sixers' Game 4 loss, "so now it's on us to try to figure it out: how to fix them and go out there and, everything on the line, play the best basketball possible. Because you either win or you have a couple months to think about, you know, it wasn't a horrible season, but could have been better."
Will this be the final Sixers mailbag of the 2025-26 season?
From @bauman-john.bsky.social: Do you think this version of the Sixers, Embiid appendectomy and all, could have beaten the Knicks, Cavaliers or Raptors in a first-round playoff series? Would a first-round playoff series win against any of those teams have changed how you look at the team heading into the offseason?
I do not think the Sixers would have beaten New York or Cleveland in a first-round series, though the Knicks' continued troubles leads me to believe any serious team has a chance against them. If the Sixers could execute at a high level against the Knicks, it might have gotten them somewhere – as evidenced by the Atlanta Hawks looking like legitimate threats to beat New York right now. Toronto would have been a much easier matchup, though the Sixers might have still been underdogs in a series against the Raptors given Embiid's condition.
To me, your second question is the important one. If the Sixers beat New York or Cleveland in a best-of-seven series, I think it would have had to change the outlook of this group to some degree. I would not have been sold that they were genuine threats to win the Eastern Conference, but it would have been proof of concept that they could legitimately hang with teams who are considered true contenders.
Had the Sixers matched up with Toronto and beaten the Raptors, it would not have changed my opinion of what this team is capable of all that much. My feeling on these Sixers has been pretty consistent over the last few months: they would not be serious threats to very good teams in the playoffs but could take down a decent team. Toronto is very firmly in the second basket for me; New York and Cleveland would be in the first.
If the Sixers did beat New York or Cleveland in a series and make a loud statement, it might have changed how people felt about their upside heading into the summer. But I am not sure how it would have actually changed what their offseason would look like. For better or worse – most would argue worse – they are locked into Embiid's contract. The same is probably true for Paul George. Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe are here to stay, and suddenly there are not any players left on the roster making $10 million or more next season.
That takes us to our next question...
MORE: Key quotes from Embiid after return in Game 4 loss
From @MisterBetterRun: What direction do you think the 76ers will go in this offseason? Rebuild, retool, run it back with the same players?
I would say somewhere between "retool" and "run it back with the same players." To me, running it back implies little to no change, and I expect the Sixers to look at least somewhat different next year. But the aforementioned core four pieces will be the same, and based on their combined salaries that severely limits the front office's optionality to make meaningful changes elsewhere on the roster.
Lower on the totem pole, I expect all of Dominick Barlow, Adem Bona, Justin Edwards and Johni Broome to be back, while Jabari Walker and Trendon Watford have decent-to-good chances of returning, too. That is somewhere between eight and 10 roster spots filled without a ton of financial maneuverability.
The Sixers' two key free agents, Quentin Grimes and Kelly Oubre Jr., are the pivot points. If both leave, the Sixers could more realistically try to add a high-level role player in free agency, but that is the extent of their upside as far as external player acquisition goes. The easiest path, and the one that likely would give them their best team on paper heading into 2026-27, would be re-signing both players. But that would result in the 2026-27 Sixers being nearly identical to the 2025-26 Sixers. It could cause a whole lot of consternation – just ask the local baseball team.
MORE: Will George's post-suspension surge make him a trade asset this summer?
From @Lurtz2396767: How do you see Nick Nurse’s situation? I think people are a bit hard on him since his players are constantly in and out due to injuries. Do you think this has hurt the team’s chemistry (eg. the lack of impact when Embiid returned), or should it be the coach’s responsibility to adapt?
The overall feeling surrounding Nurse around these parts is definitely negative, and when that happens I find that fans pick and choose what the head coach is actually responsible for.
The Sixers' lackluster defensive rebounding? Nurse's fault. He is responsible, too, for his team's troubling three-point defense. He is the reason Jared McCain is in Oklahoma City. Meanwhile, Tyrese Maxey's leap into an All-NBA player in year six – after winning Most Improved Player in his first year under Nurse – is simply a product of Maxey's hard work. VJ Edgecombe playing over 2,600 minutes as a positive-impact player on both ends of the floor as a 20-year-old rookie guard, after Nurse empowered him to play much more, more earlier than anticipated, is merely a testament to how good Edgecombe is.
None of the statements above are necessarily my opinions, but they are all pretty common ones here. What is more interesting to me than unpacking the extent to which each one is fair or unfair is pointing out that Nurse does not seem to have any local support. Even Doc Rivers had people behind him if you looked hard enough.
I do think people are hard on Nurse, and I think the constant fluctuation in terms of available players has contributed significantly to what has unquestionably been a disappointing three-year tenure for him so far.
One common sticking point is that this is not what Nurse "signed up for." That might be true. But it is now abundantly clear that this is the life awaiting anyone tasked with coaching the Sixers. Whether it is fair or not that Nurse could be fired for not doing a good enough job of managing a situation he was not supposed to encounter is irrelevant. This is what the Sixers need him to do well.
The most important point when it comes to Nurse's job security is the previous one about the Sixers' roster inflexibility. Clearly, the totality of what exists in the Sixers organization is not currently good enough. Take last year's New York Knicks, who fired head coach Tom Thibodeau after an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, as an example: If a franchise cannot make significant changes to its roster but feels the need to level up in some way, the obvious solution is a coaching change.
MORE: Matt Cord reflects on 28-year run as Sixers' PA announcer
