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Hello and welcome to a new season of Sixers basketball! As is tradition, the 76ers picked up two different injuries to major rotation players before training camp even opened, and part of our job to start this new season will be to learn the extent of the damage and “ramp up period” as we head into October. Welcome to Sixers media day.
Presumably, there will be cheerier news at some point on Friday, and if you’re stuck at work and trying to follow along with the start of a new year, consider this your resource to stay caught up without having to use headphones or a VPN to skirt around company policy.
I am expecting to hear from the players first, with Daryl Morey and Nick Nurse coming a bit later in the day, but these days are chaotic, so don’t hold me to that. Away we go — expect the interviews to get rolling around 11:00 a.m.
10:45 am: The Sixers are already leaning into the nostalgia factor with the 2001 classic jerseys, with a full display set up at the practice facility:
I appreciate nostalgia that caters to me directly, even if I don’t necessarily love the jerseys themselves. That 2001 team was tough as nails.
In more relevant current news, here’s what the Sixers’ official training camp roster looks like:
The main thing that jumps out is Emoni Bates being listed at 6’8″ and just 197 pounds. You almost have to try to be that skinny.
11:00: Surprise No. 1 of the day — Joel Embiid was the first man up at the podium for the Sixers. And after a summer of mystery surrounding his exact health status, Embiid didn’t offer total clarity on what the preseason and immediate future look like.
“I want to be as honest as possible. I think going forward we’re just going to listen to the body,” Embiid said of his approach to the upcoming season. “I’ll be honest and say it’s going to be unpredictable at times, and that’s okay. We’re going to work with that…Everybody who knows me knows that I want to play, and I want to play every single game.”
Embiid referred to the 2024-25 season as “mentally draining,” as he fought a battle between trying to help his team and trying to listen to what his body (and more specifically, his knee) was telling him. He ended up getting the worst of both worlds, looking like a shell of himself on the floor while dealing with pain and other symptoms throughout his 19 games on the floor.
It doesn’t seem, however, that Embiid is all that interested in a dramatic shift in his playstyle. Asked about whether he’s thought about a change in his approach as he ages, Embiid mostly dismissed that concept.
“All I know ever since I started is to play hard on both ends. There are a lot of people in the league that play one side, whether it’s offense or defense,” Embiid said. “I’ve gotten to this point because of how good I am on both ends of the floor, so if you’re asking me to change the way I play, the only guess is either play offense fully and take plays off defensively, which doesn’t suit me, I don’t think I’d ever be okay with that.”
If a shift is coming for Embiid, it sounds like it will come via his voice and his approach to team leadership, as the Sixers go into the year with youth all over the floor. He noted his pride seeing Tyrese Maxey evolve from an underplayed rookie to an All-Star caliber guard, and sounded excited about the first impression he got from rookie VJ Edgecombe.
“As soon as we drafted [Edgecombe], I just knew that I would like him. I like his background, kind of reminds me of myself, coming from another country, having a lot of hardships growing up, and he’s an amazing kid,” Embiid said. “It’s been good having him around, talking to him, kind of trying to help him. I feel like I’m at a stage of my career where obviously I have a job to do, I have to be the guy, but I’m at a stage where I can help a lot of young players that are coming in. Whether it’s him, Jared, or some of these young guys that we’ve had…I have to kind of show them the way, for them also to learn from the mistakes that I’ve made.”
11:15: Let us all hope that this quote from Paul George is true, because it has the potential to be an all-timer:
The big headline coming out of George’s media availability is that he does not expect to be a participant in Philadelphia’s training camp. George noted, “I don’t think there’s a timeline” as it relates to his return to the floor, and told reporters that he’s doing just about everything except for full contact drills and scrimmaging for Philly.
George told reporters that he is not dealing with any swelling after undergoing a procedure on his left knee this summer.
“The next couple of weeks is very important, leading into the season, start of the season, all of that stuff,” George said. “All I can do is just focus on doing that day after day, taking it one day at a time. I think I will be at a good place earlier than later, but just as far as my body, I do feel better, I do feel good, a lot better than I did last year, which is saying a lot. I was dealing with a lot last year, trying to play through a lot of stuff, which I just couldn’t get over the hump.”
With the Sixers light on players who can reasonably play the power forward position, George was also asked about how he feels spending more time at that position this season. Historically, he has been pretty vocal about not wanting to play at the four spot, but for now, George says the evolution of the position has him feeling better about playing it on a more full-time basis.
“If you asked me about this 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been a fan of it,” George said Friday. “Today’s game, there’s not real fours like there used to be. And at this point in my career, let the young guys go out and play the wing positions. We got great defenders in [Kelly Oubre], VJ, Quentin [Grimes]. And then I know where I’m at in my career, I can adjust and play at the four spot, give extra ballhandling on the floor, better spacing. I’m very comfortable playing at the four spot this year, being kind of a point forward type of style in Nick’s offense.
11:50: Tyrese Maxey did not mince words about the first task in front of Philadelphia to open this season.
“I think the biggest thing I’m trying to accomplish is like, we need a standard. This is who we are, every single day, no matter who plays, no matter who doesn’t play,” Maxey said on Friday. “When you see the Philadelphia 76ers, this is what you see. You want to see that every single night, every single time you turn your TV on, every single time whatever arena that we’re playing in, this is the team you’re going to get, and this is the type of coach you’re going to get.”
“I’ll be one that’s speaking up a lot more,” Maxey added later. “I’ve been a lot more vocal on things I see and things I want to help fix. That’s not just because I’m older, it’s because I want to win, and I want to do things the right way. I think when you do things the right way, you get rewarded.
Fair enough. Maxey bore the brunt of last season more than any other player on the roster, talking at length about how difficult it was to go through loss after loss every night. With Embiid out of the lineup more often than not and George banged up from the preseason onward, Maxey was forced to attack defenses that were throwing two and three players at him at any given time.
12:10: A couple of quick ones from Andre Drummond’s media availability:
And the pre-camp scrimmages have evidently been quite intense in Philadelphia:
That will help set the standard Maxey is talking about, though it may contribute to things like that Jared McCain UCL injury…
12:18: We didn’t learn a whole heck of a lot from VJ Edgecombe’s availability on Friday, which is unsurprising since the media talked to him more than any other Sixers player this summer. So, a quick blurb from the rookie on when he realized he was in the NBA now:
“I got hit with one of Drum’s screens, that’s probably my welcome to the NBA moment,” Edgecombe said.
12:35: I have been one of the most outspoken critics of rostering Kyle Lowry, but part of my beef is about keeping him and Eric Gordon on the roster. I don’t mind one end of the bench veteran here for mentorship only, it’s the second one that is a bit frustrating.
That said, Lowry was clear-eyed about what he’s here to do this season. Which is to say, he does not sound like a guy who is back on the team expecting to play much basketball.
“I know my role this year, so if I’m needed, I’ll be there. But you know, my role is to help these guys,” Lowry said. “I would love to play whatever, 25-30 minutes, but that’s not my role. It’s not my job. And, you know, as a competitor, I understand my job is to help these guys and this team in whatever capacity it takes, and that’s what it is.”
“I know that these young guys are next, so all I want to do is support these young guys, and if they need me to get on the floor, I could be on the floor, but if they don’t, I still want to compete to help us win, because I want them to be able to create generational wealth. I want them to be able to have the accolades that I have. I want them all to be able to experience the championship high that I have had, you know what I mean?”
And of course, he weighed in on the most important issue of the day:
1:20: A few Kelly Oubre-isms from his time with the media:
- Oubre, reflecting on changing his hair color to red: “A different level of steez unlocked”
- Oubre, describing the competitiveness seen during Philadelphia’s training camp: “Footsketball-ish”
Oubre also lent some insight on the hand/wrist injuries that he alluded to during a social media flare up late in the offseason. After going through a procedure years back during COVID, Oubre told reporters Friday that he wasn’t able to go through a proper rehab process during that time, which led to an increased build-up in scar tissue in his pinky and thumb. Oubre says he has been working on improving his range of motion during the summer to hopefully get back to the right place with his hand and wrist.
Stay tuned for more updates.
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