Philadelphia 76ers Are Moving Away From The Joel Embiid 'Alpha' Blueprint

Through the first four games of the 2025-26 NBA season, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has played a total of 63 minutes. Paul George and Jared McCain have yet to suit up as they work their way back from knee injuries, too.

That might sound like the recipe for an 0-4 start to the season. Instead, the Sixers are 4-0 after their come-from-behind 139-134 overtime victory against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday.

Ever since Embiid made his NBA debut in 2016, the Sixers have largely revolved around him on both ends of the floor. That approach resulted in seven straight All-Star nods, seven trips to the playoffs and Embiid winning the Most Valuable Player award in 2022-23. However, the Sixers still have yet to make it past the Eastern Conference Semifinals since Allen Iverson led them to the NBA Finals in 2000-01, as Embiid always ends up hobbled in the playoffs.

Last year appears to have appropriately humbled both Embiid and the Sixers. He played only 19 games and looked like a shell of himself as he dealt with lingering effects from the meniscus injury that he suffered in January 2024. The Sixers, besieged by a nonstop barrage of injuries, stumbled to a 24-58 record, their worst finish since the mid-2010s Process teams.

It largely flew under the radar at the time, but the Sixers used the final few months of their lost 2024-25 campaign to lay the seeds for their hot start to this season.

The New-Look Backcourt

The Dallas Mavericks' disastrous trade deadline didn't stop with sending Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers. The decision to swap Quentin Grimes for Caleb Martin almost instantly backfired on them, too.

Grimes averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game in 28 appearances with the Sixers last season, which had him eyeing a major payday in restricted free agency this past summer. When that offer never materialized, he wound up accepting his one-year, $8.7 million qualifying offer. That contract spat hasn't impacted his on-court production one bit, though. He picked up right where he left off last year even though he's now surrounded by far more talent than he was in March and April.

The Sixers owed their 2025 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder had it fallen outside of the top six. When they finished with the NBA's fifth-worst record last year, they had roughly a 64 percent chance of keeping the pick and a 36 percent chance of conveying it. The ping-pong balls smiled upon them on lottery night and rewarded them with the No. 3 pick, which they'd wind up spending on Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe.

Edgecombe had a relatively quiet night Tuesday against the Wizards by his standards, although he did finish with 14 points, six rebounds, four assists, four triples and a steal. But over his first three games, he racked up 75 points, 18 assists and 17 rebounds. That put him in a four-way tie for the ninth-most points across the first three games of a player's career, one point ahead of some guy named Michael Jordan.

Embiid and George's absences last season wound up helping Tyrese Maxey, too. He was the Sixers' primary option with those two sidelined, which was effectively a trial by fire. Maxey struggled with the additional defensive attention at first, but he seemed to find his footing by the middle of last season.

That has carried right over to this year. Maxey began the season with a 40-burger in a one-point win over the Boston Celtics, racked up 43 points and eight assists against the Orlando Magic on Monday, and finished with 39 points and 10 assists in the win over the Wizards on Tuesday.

Across the Sixers' first three games of the season, Maxey and Edgecombe combined for 182 points. That was the highest total of any starting backcourt across a team's first three games since at least 1970-71, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps. Having Edgecombe and Grimes around to alleviate some of Maxey's ball-handling responsibility and get him operating off the ball has helped him level up once again.

"I think those guys are playing so well together out there that it's making it hard to hone in on stopping any one of them," head coach Nick Nurse told reporters after the Sixers' 136-124 victory over the Magic on Monday. "I think that's probably the biggest thing."

The Sixers hinted at their new backcourt-centric identity during training camp. Rather than revolving around Embiid, Nurse said they needed to find a style of play that worked no matter who was on the floor. The Sixers' defense has left much to be desired, but they have the league's most efficient offense thus far.

The Supporting Cast Is Coming Through

Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes are commandeering most of the headlines during the Sixers' hot start. The contributions of their supporting cast shouldn't fly too far under the radar, though. They've been a big part of this 4-0 start as well.

The Sixers appeared to be careening toward a loss against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday until Andre Drummond hauled in 13 rebounds in only 16 minutes off the bench. Dominick Barlow, whom the Sixers signed to a two-way deal this past offseason, chipped in a well-rounded 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists in his Sixers debut against the Celtics. Justin Edwards knocked down three big triples against the Hornets, too. And Adem Bona came up with a handful of game-changing defensive possessions down the stretch against the Wizards in overtime.

Kelly Oubre Jr. deserves his flowers, too. With Barlow sidelined by a right elbow laceration over the past two games, the 6'8", 203-pound Oubre has been the Sixers' de facto power forward for most of the game. He's responded with two straight double-doubles—25 points, 10 rebounds and four assists against the Magic and 17 points and 11 rebounds against the Wizards.

During a B/R livestream in September, NBA insider Jake Fischer reported there had been "buzz all summer long" about the Sixers looking to trade Drummond and/or Oubre, perhaps to carve out more room under the second apron to re-sign Grimes. Those deals never materialized, and the Sixers are better off for it.

Reinforcements Are On The Way

There are two ways to look at the Sixers' 4-0 start.

If you're a glass-half-full person, you'd note that the Sixers are doing all of this without George and McCain and with Embiid limited to roughly 20-25 minutes per game. Once George and McCain return and Embiid is no longer on a minutes limit, the Sixers could (should?) be even better.

If you're a glass-half-empty person, you'd say none of this matters until Embiid and George make it to mid-April in one piece. The Sixers might be a fun opening-week story, but repeatedly scraping out close wins isn't a sustainable strategy across an 82-game season.

The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle. It's premature to put the Sixers in the conversation for a realistic title threat until we see what they look like at full strength and how long they can stay at full strength. They might not need Embiid to be at his full 2022-23 MVP form, but they at least need him healthy for the playoffs.

If nothing else, the start of this season suggests that the Sixers have finally figured out how to win without Embiid. That's a significant development in and of itself, particularly for those who still have his on/off splits from the 2019 Eastern Conference Semifinals permanently seared into their brain. (The Sixers were a plus-90 in Embiid's 237 minutes on the court and a minus-109 in his 99 minutes off the floor.)

If the Sixers no longer need Embiid to carry them on both ends of the court, their ceiling might be far higher than anyone expected coming into the year.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

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