Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Philadelphia 76ers fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate
in the weekly emailed surveys.
The Philadelphia 76ers will host their home opener on Saturday evening, beginning their season with a 1-0 record after defeating the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night.
Before that game even tipped off, however, we wanted to take the temperature of Sixers’ fans. In our first Sixers Reacts Survey this season, we asked readers what they thought the most likely outcome of the 2025-26 campaign would be for the Sixers.
The results are in, and they might surprise you.
With a dominating 59% of the vote, readers said the most likely outcome for the Sixers’ regular season would be a spot in the top six seeds in the Eastern Conference.
Now, that might sound surprising or overly-optimistic. After all, this was a team that finished 13th in the East last season with a 24-58 record! (And it honestly felt even worse than that most of the time…) This season, however, could be a slightly different story.
In the season opener, 2025 No. 3 overall pick VJ Edgecombe started his NBA career with a historic bang, Tyrese Maxey looked damn good alongside him and supporting teammates such as Dominick Barlow impressed beyond expectations. For a game in which Joel Embiid really struggled while Paul George and Jared McCain were sidelined, it went as well as can probably be asked for. Now, that’s just one game, but it seems like the Sixers are coming into this season with a bit more of a proactive plan of how to operate when Embiid and/or George are unavailable or simply aren’t playing dominantly. That bodes a bit better than last season.
Possibly even more impactful here, however, are the external factors working in the Sixers’ favor, mainly that other Eastern Conference teams are dealing with some major injuries this year. Just to name a few of the biggest ones, Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum, Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton and Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard (who was bought out by the Milwaukee Bucks) are all recovering from Achilles tears that are set to sideline them for the entire season (barring Tatum coming back this year, for whatever reason that’s being considered). Those in addition to others short and long term injuries throughout the East have the conference’s top seeds looking much more open to the taking than past seasons.
Twenty-eight percent of the votes point toward a Play-In Tournament appearance from the Sixers this season, which would mean a finish within seeds 7 through 10. Those votes broke down to 19% overall predicting the 76ers to win the pre-postseason tourney, and 9% expecting their campaign to end in the tournament.
That being said, 13% predict the Sixers’ campaign to end in the regular season — no Play-In, no playoffs. This would require the Sixers to finish 12th or worst in the East. A reminder that last year’s 24-win team finished 13th, so this might be a bit pessimistic of a view…
After the last few seasons, though, you can’t really blame Philadelphia fans for having some skepticism, can you?
