With the start of the 2025-26 NBA season just around the corner, every major media website is publishing their list of the top 100 NBA players. ESPN dropped its rankings at the end of September, while CBS Sports, The Ringer and Bleacher Report published theirs this week.
Only three members of the Sixers made an appearance on any of those lists, and two of those three had a notable fall from grace.
Joel Embiid
The Ringer: N/A
Bleacher Report: 26
CBS Sports: 26
ESPN: 47
Let’s start with the big fella, who was a consensus
top-10 player heading into last season. After an injury-ravaged year in which he played only 19 games, he fell out of The Ringer’s top 100 entirely. (Don’t kink-shame The Ringer for its love of rage-baiting Philly fans.)
The uncertainty about Embiid’s health is what caused him to plummet across these rankings. If everyone knew that Embiid would play 60-plus games while looking anything like his pre-January 2024 self, he’d likely be at least in the top 15 leaguewide, if not higher. Embiid acknowledged at media day that he’s planning to “listen to the body” this year and that it’ll be “unpredictable at times,” although the skepticism about his outlook might be slightly overboard.
Embiid has practiced regularly and even played in the Sixers’ preseason finale. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said “the idea that he could come back before Paul George was not something I expected…but I think the Sixers could have him at the beginning of the season next week.”
If Embiid can stay relatively healthy this season, these rankings will look comically low in retrospect. The Process himself was already cracking jokes about his rankings after Friday’s game.
“According to a lot of your peers, I’m not even a top-100 basketball player in this league,” Embiid deadpanned to reporters. “So I guess I’ve got to just fit in & see where I can help the team win basketball games.”
Tyrese Maxey
The Ringer: 33
Bleacher Report: 31
CBS Sports: 21
ESPN: 28
Tyrese Maxey was the lone member of the Sixers’ Big Three whose stock didn’t crater last season. Although his shooting efficiency plummeted in the absence of Embiid and Paul George, he wound up averaging a career-high 26.3 points per game despite commanding more defensive attention than either he or the Sixers anticipated heading into the year.
Brad Botkin of CBS Sports noted that Maxey is one of only six players to average at least 26 points and six assists across the past two seasons, joining Nikola Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić and Jalen Brunson. If he can bump his shooting percentages back up this season, he’ll firmly establish himself as one of the NBA’s most incandescent young stars.
Head coach Nick Nurse has repeatedly stressed how he hopes to get Maxey more off the ball this season to leverage his speed. The additions of Jared McCain, Quentin Grimes and VJ Edgecombe to the Sixers’ backcourt over the past 18 months could unlock the best version of Maxey yet.
Paul George
The Ringer: 71
Bleacher Report: 52
CBS Sports: 43
ESPN: 54
When the Sixers signed George to a four-year, $211.6 million max contract last offseason, we knew the end of that deal might age poorly. No one expected it to start as poorly as it did, though. He plummeted from a top-25-ish player at the start of last season to a fringe top-50 player this year. (The Ringer is far lower on him than the other three outlets, because of course it is.)
Injuries wrecked George’s debut campaign in Philadelphia, and his second season is off to an inauspicious start. He suffered a left knee injury during an offseason workout that required an arthroscopic procedure and likely won’t be ready for opening night. He just participated in 3-on-3s in practice Wednesday, which was his first live action of training camp/the preseason. He was able to do 5-on-5 live sessions the following day.
With that said… much like Embiid, it’s fair to wonder whether the pendulum of opinion about George has swung too far in the opposite direction. He was a massive disappointment last season, but he also tried to play through knee, finger and groin injuries before finally getting shut down at the beginning of March. If he stays healthier this year, who’s to say he can’t have a bounce-back season?
George was also overtaxed in his role last year with Embiid in and out of the lineup. If Embiid stays healthier, it’ll have a domino effect on the rest of the roster, and George could be one of the primary beneficiaries.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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