Author: Chris Hine

One overarching question throughout next season for the 76ers will be: Is this team playing well enough to win a championship?

As the season progresses and the Sixers figure out what works and what doesn’t for this uber-talented group, a few numbers may indicate whether the Sixers are true contenders or pretenders. Here are a few benchmarks and statistics to keep an eye on heading into a season filled with championship hopes.

Possessions for starting lineup: 1,042

The average number of possessions played in the regular season by the starting lineups of the last 10 title winners, according to the statistical website Cleaning the Glass, which filters out garbage time. The 2025 Oklahoma City Thunder, at 668, had the lowest mark on this list because of injuries to center Chet Holmgren that year.

This statistic is important because it displays how many reps it might require for a starting lineup, especially those that are adjusting to playing together, to reach a championship level of play.

For as much as Joel Embiid may be resting throughout the season in an attempt to preserve him for the postseason, they still need to log playing time throughout the season with all five starters playing in the same games. It’s rare when a team can win a championship with a starter — LeBron James is 41 years old entering his 24th NBA season — missing as much time as Holmgren did that season when he played in only 32 games.

Finding the right balance of playing and resting Embiid will be critical to their title hopes. It’s a formula the Sixers have to get right. If he or another starter misses too much time, the Sixers run the risk of trying to find that chemistry when other teams in the Eastern Conference have already developed it.

Offensive efficiency: 5th

The average finish in offensive efficiency for the last 10 championship winning teams in offensive efficiency during the regular season. The lowest-rated title winner in this group was the 2022 Golden State Warriors, who finished 16th in offensive efficiency.

After that, the last four title winners have had top-five offenses. James and the 2020 Los Angeles Lakers were the only other team to finish outside the top 10 in this category and still win the championship. Two of the last 10 champions had the No. 1 offense (2017 Warriors, 2024 Boston Celtics).

Defensive efficiency: 6th

The average finish in defensive efficiency for the last 10 championship winning teams in defensive efficiency during the regular season. The 2023 Denver Nuggets were the lowest of the bunch, as they rode the 15th-best defense to the championship in 2023.

That defense improved by 3.3 points per 100 possessions in the playoffs. The New York Knicks won the title last season with the seventh-best defense. Prior to that, the 2024 Celtics had the No. 2 defense while the 2025 Thunder had the No. 1 defense.

Transition rate: 13th last season

The Sixers’ ranking when it came to percentage of transition possessions last season, according to Cleaning the Glass. That’s a number that likely needs to improve given their personnel. For years, the NBA has tried to emphasize a faster pace of play, since offenses score more efficiently off transition opportunities than in the halfcourt, when the defense has time to set.

Ideally, the Sixers will be one of the hardest-to-stop teams in transition. Tyrese Maxey led the league in fast-break points with 382, James was second with 343, Jaylen Brown was 10th at 253 and VJ Edgecombe was 14th at 225.

With four of the top-15 scorers in transition last season, the Sixers need to be one of the most up-tempo teams in the league to maximize this roster’s strengths.

Defensive rebounding percentage: 26th

Where the Sixers placed in defensive rebounding percentage last season. Only the Kevin Durant version of the Warriors have won titles in the last decade with a worse position in those rankings than the Sixers had last season. Five of the last six title winners have placed in the top 10 in this statistics, which measures what percentage of all available defensive rebounds a team grabs.

The difference between Embiid being on and off the floor didn’t have a big impact on the Sixers’ success rate in this area. As a team, the Sixers will have to make a commitment to the glass.

After an investigation that lasted nearly a year, the NBA brought the hammer down on the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday for circumventing the salary cap to pay All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard.

In their findings, the NBA said the Clippers, in violation of league rules, facilitated payments and deals for Leonard with four different companies. The Clippers denied any wrongdoing in a strongly worded statement, saying they “vehemently reject” the league’s findings.

The league handed down a number of punishments for individuals in the Clippers organization and for the team itself. Owners Steve Ballmer was suspended for a year and fined $30 million in part for “knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities.” President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank received a six-month suspension and president of business operations Gillian Zucker was suspended a year. Leonard was not suspended and received a $700,000 fine.

The league is also taking away five first-round draft picks from the Clippers in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033. The 76ers still have some Clippers draft capital from the trade that sent James Harden to Los Angeles in 2023, but that will be unaffected by the league’s punishments, a source confirmed.

Reviewing the Harden trade

When the Sixers traded Harden in October 2023, they received, as part of a three-team trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder, a 2026 protected first-rounder from Oklahoma City (which they eventually traded), the Clippers’ 2028 first-round pick and a 2029 top-three protected pick swap from the Clippers (along with 2024 and 2029 second-rounders from the Clippers).

The Clippers dealt that 2028 first-rounder in a convoluted pick swap to the Celtics in the Jaylen Brown trade, but they still owned that valuable 2029 pick swap.

How Wednesday’s news relates to the Sixers

On paper, it could appear as though the league was taking away the 2029 Clippers pick the Sixers had the right to swap.

But a league source confirmed a report from PhillyVoice that said the NBA was taking away a first-round pick the Pacers owe the Clippers from the Ivica Zubac trade and was not touching the Clippers’ own pick, meaning the Sixers’ right to swap that pick remains intact.

The value of that pick swap

Wednesday’s news would seem to bolster the immediate value of that swap. Even while the pick is top-three protected, the Clippers could be in a tough spot as a franchise for the next few years as they attempt to rebuild in the post-Leonard era. It will still be a valuable trade chip they can dangle this season and beyond to make more roster moves. There’s also the fact that the NBA has moved to address tanking by flattening lottery odds for teams that miss the playoffs and play-in tournament.

Leonard coming East again

One effect of the league’s ruling is how it shapes a pending trade the Clippers had with the Toronto Raptors to send Leonard back there, where he won a championship in 2019. By giving Leonard a comparative slap on the wrist with the fine, and by not suspending him or voiding his contract, the league seemingly has preserved the Clippers’ ability to deal Leonard eastward.

An ESPN report said the trade is on track to go through in the next few days. This will add to an already deep Eastern Conference that has plenty of potential contenders.

For the last three seasons, since the 76ers traded James Harden in October 2023, Tyrese Maxey has been the team’s point guard whenever he has been on the floor. As his usage rate increased, so have his production and accolades (two All-Star Games and being named to the All-NBA third team).

The arrival of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, two other All-NBA talents who like to have the ball in their hands, is going to shift things for Maxey. James, who averages 7.4 assists per game in his career, is likely to take over some of those point guard duties.

But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing for the Sixers or Maxey’s usage. In fact, getting Maxey off the ball could mean more efficient shots for him in an important area: his three-point shooting.

Turning back the clock

The last season Maxey played with Harden in 2022-23 offers a clue into how the Sixers can utilize him slightly differently with Brown and James on the floor at the same time.

According to the website Cleaning the Glass, Maxey played 53% of his possessions that season at shooting guard, 47% at point guard. The previous season had Maxey listed at shooting guard 21% of the time. Once Harden was gone, Cleaning the Glass logged every possession Maxey played from that point onward at point guard.

The 2022-23 season was Joel Embiid’s MVP year, and he played 66 games, helping the offense to have the third-best efficiency in the league. Harden played 58 games and led the league in assists. The offense was humming, and it had a slightly higher efficiency with Maxey at shooting guard than point guard. What was different about Maxey that changed once Harden left? Take a look at his shooting.

Three-point shooting spike

From 2021-23, Embiid played in 134 regular-season games, more than any two-year stretch of his career. With Embiid playing a lot and Harden being a ball-dominant point guard, Maxey averaged 17.5 points per game in 2021-22 and then 20.3 points in 2022-23. He also had the two best three-point shooting seasons of his career, by percentage (42.7% and 43.4%, respectively).

In the latter season, that 43.4% came on 6.2 attempts per game, up from 4.1 the previous season. Maxey excelled, and has always excelled, at taking catch-and-shoot threes, the kind of looks offenses can generate with an athletic player like Maxey playing off ball. In 2022-23, Maxey shot an excellent 45.5% on 3.5 catch-and-shoot three-point attempts per game. Keep that number in mind if and when Maxey plays more off ball this season.

Once he became the team’s full-time point guard, his three-point volume increased, but his percentages took a step back.

• 2023-24: 37.3% on 8.1 attempts per game
• 2024-25: 33.7% on 9.2 attempts
• 2025-26: 36.7% on 8.6 attempts

A deeper look into the type of threes Maxey was taking shows the number of catch-and-shoot threes did not increase; he has never topped those 3.5 attempts per game from 2022-23, according to tracking data from NBA.com.

Instead, Maxey was taking more pull-up threes, which is the kind of shot he, and many other shooters, are not as efficient in taking. Last season, Maxey took 5.2 pull-up threes per game and hit them at a 33.5% clip. His catch-and-shoot threes: 41.7% on 3.4 attempts per game.

What does the future hold?

The ideal role for Maxey next season might be playing more off ball, running off screens and getting more catch-and-shoot threes. When he is getting those shots on a regular basis, he can be an elite shooter. For instance, the Minnesota Timberwolves have found the same with another member of Maxey’s 2020 draft class, Anthony Edwards. They made a trade to get point guard LaMelo Ball this summer to get Edwards more of these catch-and-shoot looks.

Edwards shot nearly 50% on catch-and-shoot threes last season, 35.3% on pull-ups, an even more exaggerated split than Maxey’s numbers. The underlying theme is those shots, when a player gets them in rhythm, are as close to a practice shot as players get in a game.

A cliché of coaching across all sports is that it’s the coach’s job to put players in the best positions to succeed. The revamped Sixers roster offers Nick Nurse a chance to do this with Maxey. Maxey having the ball less and having less on his plate as a ballhandler doesn’t have to be a negative for him individually and the Sixers as a team. The gravity of Brown, James and Embiid could do wonders for Maxey off ball, and it could end up getting him a higher volume of the type of shot he can be lethal at converting.

The 76ers are adding to their training camp roster with a trio of signings.

The team will have Jameer Nelson Jr., Saint Thomas, and veteran big man Tacko Fall in camp on nonguaranteed Exhibit 10 contracts, a source said.

Nelson, a guard and the son of Sixers executive vice president of basketball operations Jameer Nelson, has been in the G League the past couple of seasons and averaged 19.9 points, 3.7 assists, and 3.2 rebounds with the Stockton Kings during the 2025-26 season. He averaged 11.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists for the Austin Spurs the previous year. The younger Nelson also has played internationally with teams in Puerto Rico, China, and Canada.

Before he became a professional, Nelson played at the Haverford School and helped lead the team to a 28-0 record and PAISAA championship as a senior, when he averaged 15 points and earned second-team All-State honors. Nelson also played two seasons at George Washington and two at Delaware, where he earned all-conference honors in both seasons while averaging 16.8 points and 4.8 rebounds, before transferring to TCU for his final collegiate season.

Thomas has been in the Sixers system and averaged 12.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.8 assists in 36 regular-season games for the Delaware Blue Coats last season. He also was on their summer league team in July and averaged 4.5 points and 4.2 rebounds in four games.

Fall, listed at 7-foot-6, played in 37 games across three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics from 2019 to 2022, in which he averaged 2.2 points and 2.4 rebounds. Since then, the 30-year-old has played internationally with teams in China and New Zealand. Across four seasons of international play, Fall has averaged 11.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks.

Exhibit 10 contracts are nonguaranteed deals in which teams can bring players into camps and potentially give them bonuses to sign with their G League team, assuming they don’t make the main roster out of camp.

BOSTON — Closure is a fickle concept, whether in relationships, friendships and even sports fandom.

When something ends, closure isn’t guaranteed, and people often have to move on from traumatic or life-altering moments without it.

The deep bond between a city, its people, and its sports heroes is a phenomenon with few parallels in life, especially those who have won championships and been as ingrained in their communities as Jaylen Brown was for 10 years with the Boston Celtics.

But rarely do those connections end without some sort of breakup, which can lead to hurt feelings and confusion. As Brown said recently, “I just threw my phone across the room” when he heard the Celtics were trading him to Philadelphia for Paul George and draft picks.

His life and the lives of Celtics fans all over Boston became a lot different, and the trajectory of his new franchise changed, since that move also led LeBron James to pick the Sixers as his next and potentially final basketball home.

But before Brown officially gets going in Philadelphia when training camp starts with Media Day on Sept. 28, he had one bit of business to take care of in Boston — saying thank you. Brown did that Sunday with a block party and concert in Boston Common, which he titled the 741 Frequency Fest. He didn’t say much — he only addressed the crowd briefly two times — and he joined rapper A$AP Ferg for a performance of their collaboration “Just Do It.”

“I ain’t got too much to say because I’m at a loss for words,” Brown said. “I’m seeing all these people out here and I love each and every one of y’all. … I’ve been in this city for close to 10 years. I said I was gonna go to war for this city when I first got here.”

To Brown, that extended beyond the court, with city and state officials coming to offer Brown the key to the city and a commemorative street sign that said “Jaylen Brown Way.”

“Every minute that he has, he poured into the city,” Boston mayor Michelle Wu said. “We’re never going to let you forget us.”

Upon entering the Common, a large poster said “Thank you, Jaylen. Love, the city of Boston.” Fans could take a marker and sign the wall or write a message to Brown.

One such fan was Roberta Hayes-Bautista, a California transplant who has lived in Boston for over two decades and cited Brown’s commitment to the community, specifically with significant amounts of his money, as why Brown is “one in a million.”

“Gut punch,” Hayes-Bautista said of the trade. “I don’t think you’ll ever be able to replace him. This right here, who’s ever done this before? Nobody.”

Hayes-Bautista was referring to the block party in front of her. For most of the afternoon, it was a relaxing day in the park, with a DJ providing music from the stage where Brown and artists like Lil Jon and Lil Baby would eventually perform. The stage also displayed the Larry O’Brien Trophy Brown won with Boston in 2024, along with his Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals MVP trophies.

Fans stood behind barricades about 15-20 feet from the stage from around 1:30 p.m. waiting for Brown to come out. Food trucks lined the pathways, and there were a few different basketball games around the Common. In the meantime, fans flowed in to take advantage of a book bag giveaway, haircuts, and manicures. Cloud cover hid the sun and made for a comfortable afternoon.

That allowed Mary Vincent, who said she is a Celtics season-ticket holder, to come out with her family and greyhound Sangria, who was dressed up in a Celtics shirt. Vincent wanted to come out and support Brown even as she is recovering from a knee replacement.

She said she plans on giving up her season tickets and wasn’t buying the Celtics’ reasoning for trading Brown. Celtics President Brad Stevens said multiple times last month that trading Brown would give the team more “optionality” into the future. That wasn’t much of as an excuse to Vincent and the thousands of people who showed up Sunday.

“There was nothing wrong with the team. I think we had another possibility of winning another championship,” Vincent said. “I thought we would keep Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum through their whole careers. It was such a shock to me. I was grief-stricken.”

Hence why Brown felt a unique day like Sunday was necessary, a part of the processing of the trade for him and for fans.

Brown showed up to the event around 4 p.m., and mostly stayed quartered off from the crowds either on stage or behind it, except for one stretch of time when he walked down Charles Street as fans followed behind him. As the event wrapped up around 6:15 p.m., local and state officials made presentations to Brown, who was moved by the gestures.

“When I first got to Boston, none of this I imagined,” Brown said. “My grandma and my mom taught me to just dive into my community, so I was expecting nothing like this.”

A couple of the people who spoke on stage said they hoped Brown might make this party a regular thing. But those words sounded like people stating that they’ll still hang out after a break up, knowing that likely won’t be the case. There will still be more finality to Brown’s departure the first time he sets foot on the TD Garden floor in a regular-season game wearing a Sixers jersey. That day, slated for Jan. 21, is still about five months away. It won’t be easy for anyone involved.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Brown said. “I don’t do stuff for recognition, but I’m so grateful it’s so many people here. The feeling is mutual. Just know, Boston, I love you.”

To help ease LeBron James’ transition to the 76ers, the team has added one of his most trusted confidants and longtime friends to their organization: Randy Mims.

According to the team’s website, Mims is now a part of the team’s basketball operations with the title “executive administrator, player programs and logistics.”

But Mims’ biggest role will be making sure James feels comfortable in Philadelphia with the Sixers. That’s what he has done ever since he met James when the two were living in Akron, Ohio, while James was in high school, according to a 2025 ESPN profile of Mims.

“Randy has been his co-pilot for 22 years,” Rich Paul, James’ agent and friend, is quoted as saying in the piece.

Mims held positions with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers similar to the one he will have with the Sixers. James’ camp, according to ESPN, did not react favorably to a decision from Miami Heat president Pat Riley to deny Mims a job with the franchise when James joined in 2010.

The ESPN profile also recounts a time early in James’ tenure with the Heat when the team was struggling, and James was doubting his decision to join the franchise. He drove to Mims’ house and had a late-night conversation with him that put his mind at ease.

“I needed him in that moment and he came through for me,” James told ESPN.

Mims will handle a lot of logistics in James’ life, such as cultivating and developing relationships with companies interested in doing business with him to making sure James has his favorite foods on the road. He’s also a truth teller in situations where others might just be yes men.

“He’s there to be a rock,” Paul said in the ESPN profile. “He’s there to be a sounding board. He’s also there to give pushback when LeBron’s wrong.”

When Mims was with the Lakers, he was one of multiple employees who cooperated with a federal illegal gambling investigation that ended with arrests for former Heat guard Terry Rozier and Damon Jones, a former teammate of James in Cleveland.

Mims’ hiring isn’t the only one the Sixers have made to acclimate James to the team. The team also recently brought in Phil Handy, a well-respected player development coach who worked with James on the Cavaliers and the Lakers.