With the calendar now officially turned to fall, the 2025-26 NBA season is nearly upon us! The Philadelphia 76ers will hold their media day on Friday, with practice set to begin on Saturday. Quentin Grimes, the clock is ticking, my guy. Correspondingly, national outlets are beginning their lookaheads for the upcoming season.
Over at the worldwide leader, ESPN posted the top 11-50 for their NBA Rank exercise today, which surveys who will be the best players solely for the 2025-26 season. In the previous
installment covering 51-100, Paul George was the only member of the Philadelphia 76ers checking in at 54th overall. I’ll just say George’s ranking could be very low or extremely high — extremely wide range of outcomes there.
In today’s post, we find two Sixers inside the top-50. Joel Embiid is ranked 47th, all the way down from 8th overall last season. Here’s the excerpt on The Process:
“It is almost impossible to rank Embiid after the former MVP played just 19 games last season. If he is back and healthy, he’s obviously a top-10-caliber player, as he was for several seasons prior to 2024-25. But that’s a very big if, particularly after how the past 18 months or so have gone in Philly. — Bontemps
Signature stat: Embiid in 2023-24 became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain (1961-62) with more points than minutes played in a season.
Fantasy projection: 27.8 PTS, 9.1 REB, 4.6 AST”
To an even higher degree than George, you could make an argument for Embiid to fall basically anywhere. The man is two years removed from winning an MVP award, but could also be the worst contract in the league given his uncertain health situation. You can’t possibly cover any more possibilities than that dichotomy.
On a less fatalistic note, Tyrese Maxey is listed at 28th, down from last year’s 19th overall ranking. Here’s Tim Bontemps again with the Maxey blurb:
“Even Maxey’s incandescent smile lost some shine amid the misery of Philadelphia’s lost season, but the guard is unquestionably the player the 76ers will lean on most with both Joel Embiid and Paul George coming off injury-riddled campaigns. One thing to watch: Maxey’s 3-point shooting. It dropped from 43% three years ago to 33% last season. — Bontemps
Signature stat: Maxey’s five games with 30 points and 10 assists is the most by a Sixers player since Allen Iverson (2006-07).
Fantasy projection: 26.0 PTS, 6.0 AST, 1.6 STL”
Again, it’s perfectly fair to drop Maxey some following a season’s development stunted by injury and a team in free fall. However, I’m much more optimistic Tyrese will course-correct and be back up to where he was previously by this time next year.
I’m guessing no additional Sixers will be sneaking their way into the top 10 when that list goes live, but maybe people factored in Adem Bona’s NBA 2k26 block rating very highly. Soon enough, we’ll have some actual basketball again to dissect and discuss.
