For many fans in Philadelphia (maybe all of them), I’m not sure the 2026-27 Sixers will feel like a real team until we see them play a game. Adding Jaylen Brown and none other than LeBron James in one offseason was a truly breathtaking turn of events for this team, and it’s not too long now until we see the Sixers take to the court.
The team has now revealed their preseason schedule, starting at home on Oct. 5 against the Knicks.
A rematch,
albeit a preseason one, against the Knicks seems like a fitting way for the Sixers to return following their second-round defeat against New York. From there, a matchup against the Nets is the least interesting game of the bunch, closed out by two contests against the Celtics. If we see Brown take to the court for the first time against his old team, that alone is a good enough storyline to make things more intriguing than a normal preseason game.
The main thing to wonder in the meantime ahead of October is how much we see of the team’s new starting five. Will Joel Embiid play at all, or just take some extra rest? Similarly, does LeBron play or save his Sixers debut for the regular season? Even if we don’t see much of them, there are obviously still other storylines to look forward to, like Brown’s likely debut, or a first look at V.J. Edgecombe as he enters his sophomore season with a full summer of work under his belt.
If the big stars do take to the court, it’s unlikely to be for long. No matter how brief their time together is in preseason, though, it’s still extra reps to start gelling as a group. The absurd talent and potential of this new team still feels surreal, but it will understandably take time for them to maximize how to play off one another, get used to how they’ll share usage, orchestrate new actions, and how Nick Nurse optimizes stagger patterns of his stars.
Now we only have about six weeks to wait until it all gradually starts coming together.
What a time we live in where this is the Sixers team we have to look forward to watching.
