It would appear that no one knows exactly what to make of the Sixers.
With the start of the 2025-26 NBA season rapidly approaching, NBA.com released their annual GM’s survey, a poll that they send around
to every front office in the league to take a temperature check around the league. Executives are asked a boatload of questions to who is the best player at every position, who’ll be the best rookie five years from now, things of that sort. It obviously comes with the caveat that GMs are not allowed to vote for their own teams in any respect. So with the Sixers bouncing from championship hopefuls to a potential rebuild, let’s see what the league thinks of them heading into this season.
The easiest place to start is the question, “which team’s level of success is toughest to predict?” The Sixers walked away with this category, taking up first place with 47% of the vote. The remaining seven teams listed all only received 7% of the vote each. Anyone who’s tried to predict how many games this team will win this year has probably had a similar experience, but it was still staggering to see just how much of a landslide the Sixers took this category. Last year the L.A. Lakers took home this title but with just 17% of the vote.
That showed itself in the Eastern Conference rankings also featured in the survey. The GMs are asked who they think will win each conference, and can also assign a vote to the second, third, and fourth place teams as well. No one was quite bullish enough to pick the Sixers to win the conference, nor come particularly close. They did appear in the top 8 though, securing the seventh spot with 10% of the fourth place vote.
That seems to be where most people fall with this team given the state of the Eastern Conference. No one’s counting on the high ceiling that would come from Joel Embiid and Paul George being available, but should the rest of the young talent be healthy, it should be enough in a conference where two of the best players could already be out for the entire season.
Not unrelated, the Sixers came in fourth for most improved team in the offseason category, again securing 10% of the vote. It’s clear to see that health has played a big factor in who GM’s think will bounce back. The Memphis Grizzlies were the winners of this category a season ago after a similar season from hell the year prior. This year’s winner of the category went to the Orlando Magic, who did make somewhat of a splash adding Desmond Bane, but were also fairly depleted last season.
Another reason for that projected improvement though could be the selection of VJ Edgecombe with the third overall pick in the draft. While GMs are still showing why Cooper Flagg was the consensus No. 1 pick, Edgecombe was really the only other rookie to show up in that portion of the survey. He was the only other player to get any votes in the “who will win Rookie of the Year?” category, even if he only got 3% of votes. Edgecombe, along with No. 2 pick Dylan Harper, were also the only players to get votes for “which rookie will be the best player in five years?” Flagg walked away with that one with 93% of the vote.
If anyone’s curious, the survey did include the winner of this category from five years ago. It was none other than James Wiseman, so the GM’s haven’t exactly nailed this every time. They also said that Paul George signing in Philadelphia was the most impactful move of the 2024 offseason.
The Sixers’ other draft selection got a bit of love as well, as Johni Broome was one of 13 honorable mentions for “biggest steal at where he was selected.” Elsewhere, Nick Nurse was also an honorable mention along with Rick Carlisle of Indiana for best coach in the league. The top three earning votes respectively were the Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, OKC’s Mark Daigneault, and Tyronn Lue of the Clippers.
The last Sixer to appear in the survey was Tyrese Maxey, who showed up in some unexpected but perhaps goofy categories. He was one of several players to be an honorable mention in the “players most poised for a breakout” category. As someone who’s already won the Most Improved Player award, he was one of several fringe All-Stars or recent high draft selections to receive a vote. He also came in third, behind De’Aaron Fox and Ja Morant for fastest player in the league with the ball in his hands. While the list feels right, it’s just funny that’s something the GM’s are asked their opinions for. Don’t they track how fast each guy can get up to with the ball in his hands? Surely that is just available data.
Regardless of how many miles per hour he can hit running the floor, Maxey, along with the rest of the young backcourt, will dictate a lot of how this season goes. If it feels like there’s a wide range of possibilities — that’s OK, most executives in the league feel that way as well.
