Philadelphia 76ers Rumors: Sixers Fan REACTS To ESPN NBA Power Rankings

Philadelphia 76ers Rumors: Sixers Fan REACTS To ESPN NBA Power Rankings

[Music] on today’s 76ers. Now going to be reacting to ESPN’s latest NBA power rankings. Now these are their future power rankings. So not just taking this upcoming season into account, but who they think will be the most successful NBA franchises over the next three seasons. taking into account a bunch of different factors that we will dive into here on today’s show. Now, before we get into that, some pretty exciting news for Sixers fans that dropped here on this Tuesday, September 16th. Amazon Prime Video announced that they will be producing and releasing a new Allen Iverson series. didn’t release too many details on what exactly it’s going to be, but seems like it’s going to be a look into, you know, Allen Iverson’s story and his upbringing and his journey to the NBA and through his career in the NBA. We know AI’s got a great story, a lot of things to be told, and I think this is really, really cool. A new original series going to be dropping on October 23rd, so just over a month out. I know as Sixers fans, me, you, we all love Allan Iverson. I know a lot of you in the comments as well when we talk about Allen Iverson. Talk about getting to watch him play growing up and just how fun he was to watch and just an awesome figure here in the city of Philadelphia. So, if you’re excited for this new Allen Iverson TV series, show me. Hit that thumbs up icon, like the video. I can guarantee I’ll be checking that out when that drops here in about a month. But let’s get back to the current day Sixers, which little more bleak of a situation than those AI teams back in the early 2000s. So, funny enough, last year heading into the 2024 2025 season, ESPN did these same rankings and the Sixers coming off an offseason where they signed Paul George, you’re getting Joel Embiid back, you have Tyrese Maxi. A lot of excitement for this team. ESPN ranked the Sixers as the number four team in their future power rankings. teams having success over the next three seasons. They took a little bit of a fall obviously with everything that happened this past season. The Paula George signing not looking as good as people thought it was going to be. A lot of injuries of course. Sixers fell all the way down to 19th in these future power rankings. Right below teams like the Memphis Grizzlies, Detroit Pistons ahead of the Toronto Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks. So, I’ll react to this in a little bit, but let’s hear from Tim Bontemps of ESPN on the reasoning for the Sixers and the biggest fall of any team in this power ranking. A year ago, Philadelphia had the best free agent signing, or so we thought, in Paul George and hoped that this would finally be the season for a breakthrough in the Eastern Conference. Instead, it turned into a disaster with Joel Embiid barely playing, George missing half the season because of injuries, and Philadelphia plummeting to where it kept its top six protected first round pick. All of this led to the biggest drop, 15 spots from 4 to 19 of any team in this year’s rankings. But everything in Philly hinges on whether Embiid and George can stay healthy this season. Of course, the Sixers owe them over $100 million every single year over the next three years. And you know, we’ll get into that conversation as well with their contracts because when you look at where the Sixers ranked in each of these five major categories, this is how ESPN came up with the final ranking, they separated everything into five different categories. Players, which included obviously how good all the players are on the roster right now, but also the future outlook of some of the younger guys. money. This has to do with, you know, the cap situation, how much cap space they’ll have, how much money they’ll be paying some of their guys. Draft, this is the draft capital for each team. So, not how they’ve done in the draft in recent years. That would fall into the players category. This has to do with draft capital where the Sixers rank 14th, middleish of the league market in Philly. I think honestly it’s a little bit low 14th uh there for the Sixers. Then management 16th as well. Another big drop off that we’ll get to here in just a moment. But let’s focus on that players ranking. Right. So the Sixers last year were fifth in players ranking in this same ESPN power rankings. Of course with this supposed big three that we were so excited for. They fell all the way to 19th heading in to this season. And look, I understand the drop off of course because Embiid not the same outlook over the next three seasons as he had at the start of last year. and Paul George obviously not the same outlook that you thought he once had had, but you know, the Sixers team does still have some talented pieces on it. Now, they didn’t say whether or not they’re factoring Quinton Grimes into this discussion. I imagine they’re not because he’s not technically on the team. You know, once you get him in there, I think the Sixers actually have a pretty decent core of young players. So to rank them 19, you know, I get it because they are kind of hampered by the Paul George and the Joel Embiid age injuries and contracts. But look, they do have some young talent. And when you look at the guys 25 and younger on this Sixers squad, of course, you have the star in Tyrese Maxi here, hoping takes an even larger jump this season. But third overall pick in VG Edgecomb probably would have been rookie of the year in Jared McCain if he got to play a full season now coming off the miniscus injury. Justin Edwards looked really good as an undrafted player. You bring in Trenon Watford, I’m pretty optimistic what he can do for this team. Adam Bona looked really good in Euro Basket. He’s entering a big year, too. And then Janiah Broom, of course, who looked pretty good in summer league. So, you’re telling me there’s 18 better young cores in the NBA than what the Sixers have right now. It’s a pretty solid foundation, especially with Maxi, VJ, and McCain. Now, when you look at the players or the teams, excuse me, ranked just ahead of Philadelphia in this players ranking, again, takes into account how good the players are now and how they project to be over the next few seasons. You know, I get Atlanta, a lot of good young talent there. They’re an exciting team. Indiana, I mean, when they’re fully healthy, obviously very loaded roster. Memphis has some intriguing young talent, but, you know, they also are dealing with injuries pretty much every year as well, led by John Moran, Jiren Jackson Jr. Detroit, you know, obviously with Cade very, very good player and they’ve got some other young pieces there. I don’t get Miami being ahead of Philadelphia. I’m going to be honest. Tyler Hero, I think, is a pretty overrated player, at least by Miami Heat fans. Bad is a really good player. No doubt about it. But like outside of that, man, I just I don’t really like anything they have. Khlo Wear is a good player, of course, but I think Philadelphia should at least be ahead of Miami. If of course it all does come back to Embiid and to Paul George because as good as the young talent might be on this team, it’s going to be really tough for them to overcome having to pay Joel Embiid and Paul George so much money over the next few seasons if they’re not going to be as good as they should be and if they’re not going to be playing a ton of games because again taking a look at these contracts they are making a ton of money and beat over the next few years under contract until he’s 34 years old by the end of that deal when he’s 34, he’ll be making $67 million. And this percentage year is the percentage of the cap that his contract takes up. Basically 35% of the cap just in Embiid each of the next four years. If he doesn’t play, you’re basically working with 65% of the cap with the rest of your roster. That’s not even counting Paul George’s contract, who also himself counts for about 33% of the cap. So 35 33 that’s what nearly 70% of the salary cap tied up into two players who are aging. Paul George will be 37 at the end of his contract with a player option that final year making $56 million. So that leaves you with 30% of the cap. A lot of young talent, yes, but you can only overcome so much when so much money is basically being burned away without any of that production being out there on the floor. So, I get that where that players ranking from ESPN does come in. The management ranking also very interesting here. Philadelphia was tied for fourth last season and this really just has to do with the coaching staff, the front office, how management has performed as a whole. They were tied for fourth last offseason, 16th now heading into this year. Makes a lot of sense. We thought the moves Dery made last off season were some good moves. Obviously, did not turn out to be. And even during the season, like some of the moves they made. I like the trade for Quinton Grimes. Still got to bring him back at a good number. They traded away two second round picks just to get off of the KJ Martin contract. That made absolutely no sense to me. They got literally nothing in return when there was no reason to trade KJ Martin at the deadline if you weren’t going to get an upgrade. His contract was non-g guaranteed. You could have just cut him in the offseason, but you gave away two second round picks and did nothing with that extra money. So, look, there’s been some interesting moves Mory has made. Nick Nurse is it’s a big year for Nurse as well. He has to really prove himself because a good year one, but man, last year was kind of a disaster and at times it didn’t look like players were responding very well to what he was talking about. So, both these guys really on the hot seat entering the season. Big big years for Daryl My Nurse. I want you guys to chime in for me. Love to get you guys involved in the show and hear your opinions as well. That 19th overall ranking from ESPN for the Sixers over the next three seasons, is that too high? Is that too low? Is that just right? You let me know and you can let me know where you would rank the Sixers as well down in the comments section. Going to get to some of the recent images that we have seen from Sixers practice yesterday. Some more encouraging stuff on that front. But before we do, there’s this new Sixers snapback hat from our friends at Fanatics that has been absolutely on fire over the last week or so to the point where I checked today. I already ordered mine, by the way, because they’re going fast. I checked today. There are only 11 of these hats still available. So, you got to get it while you can at chatsports.com/sixers hat. You click on that link, it’ll take you over there. You can get it before it’s too late. I love the the design. I love the cream colorway, the throwback logo on the side of the hat and then the, you know, font across the front with the city of Skyland as well. It’s a dope hat, so I had to get it. I love the rope style hats as well. So, if you’re a hat person, I’m a big hat guy. I wear them on the show all the time. You guys that watch the show all the time will know that. chatports.com/sixers hat again. Only about 11 of these left. Go get it before it sells out. All right, so Sixers once again posting some pictures and some video from team practice at the facility yesterday. And look, I hate to do this once again because in the first wave of photos, we saw him be practicing and he had no brace on that left knee. And that was a big big deal because obviously Embiid no brace looking slimmed down. That’s a good sign. And the pictures they released yesterday once again Embiid I know we do this every offseason but he is looking slimmed down. He is looking to be in decent shape. Now of note he is not wearing a scrimmage jersey. You can see he’s kind of just wearing his own shirt. So obviously not practicing in full with the team right now but at least out there on the floor with no bracing that knee looking slimmer. I’m not going to get too excited because we talk about this every year and we say, “Oh, he’s looking good. He’s looking good.” And then the season starts and he’s not good. But, you know, good signs at least better than him not being out there at all or, you know, looking bigger or having the brace on. So, at least we are getting some positive signs there. Also got this image of UB, Maxi, and Justin Edwards. It’s tough to see in some of these pictures. They also released a video of Kelly Ubé closer up. Obviously, Kelly Ubé has been the topic of some pretty hot trade rumors recently. He actually rocking a little bit of a new hairo. Dying his hair red. Again, a little bit tough to tell in these pictures. I think this one’s a little bit easier to tell with that new red hair, but a video as well where you can really see got the new red hair do. So, hey, maybe he’s showing some confidence that he’s not going to be going anywhere. The Sixers team will keep him with that new red hair. I think he looks good. Speaking of new hair, Jared McCain as well chopping it off a little bit, man. He had, you know, more of that longer flow during his rookie season. I think he’s slimmed it down a little bit, taken the uh the Tyrese Maxi approach who of course had the the herold in his face, then he pulled it back. Maxi or McCain in this instance big, you know, looking solid in for a big year two coming off that meniscus injury. We’ll see what he can do. He’s a big X-factor, a big wild card for this team next to Andre Drummond who, hey, Drummond might not be on this team by the start of the regular season, but we’ll see what happens with him with with UB. Uh I’m just excited, man. You know, I know there’s been a lot of bad vibes surrounding the Sixers team really over the past year and some change. Uh, but look, basketball’s almost back. It’s a brand new season. Things have been so negative for Philadelphia. I just want to get some of those positive vibes, positive juices back into things cuz at the end of the day, we’re getting Sixers basketball in just over a month here. And that’s exciting. And hopefully we can start to get some of those positive vibes back. If you’re still hanging out, if you’re still watching here at the end of today’s show, give me a real one down in the comment section so I know who my real ones are that have been watching the entire video. And if you did watch the entire thing, hopefully that means you enjoyed. If you did, I encourage you to hit that sub button if you have not already. Sixers coverage nearly every single day all year round. Appreciate you all for tuning in to today’s show and we’ll catch you next time right here on 76ers Now. [Music]

Sixers news and Sixers rumors on 9/16/2025 focuses on ESPN’s NBA Power Rankings heading into the 2025-26 NBA season. ESPN ranked each NBA team based on their outlook for the next three seasons, and the Philadelphia 76ers came 19th in their rankings. The Sixers were top 5 in these rankings last season after the signing of Paul George and the hype around this team with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. However, after a disaster season that’s left Daryl Morey and Nick Nurse on the hot seat, the Sixers have more questions than answers as this season approaches. 76ers Now host Jake Chipper reacts to ESPN’s ranking for the Sixers on today’s Philadelphia 76ers YouTube video!

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ESPN NBA Power Rankings:
17. Memphis Grizzlies
18. Detroit Pistons
19. Philadelphia 76ers
20. Toronto Raptors
21. Milwaukee Bucks

Tim Bontemps on the Philadelphia 76ers:
“A year ago, Philadelphia had the best free agent signing in Paul George, and hoped that this would finally be the season for a breakthrough in the Eastern Conference. Instead, it turned into a disaster, with Joel Embiid barely playing and George missing half the season because of injuries, and Philadelphia plummeting to where it kept its top-6 protected first-round pick. All of this led to the biggest drop (15 spots) of any team in this year’s rankings. But everything in Philly hinges on whether Embiid and George can stay healthy this season. The Sixers owe them over $100 million over the next three years.”

See even more Philadelphia 76ers YouTube videos here:
– 76ers News & Rumors On Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre, Andre Drummond & Adem Bona + SIGN Overseas Star? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQBAgotBAJI
– 76ers Rumors: Kelly Oubre Trade Destinations Via Bleacher Report | Dario Saric RETURNS To Philly? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYejmhXPM2o
– 🚨DEVELOPING: Joel Embiid Is BACK! 76ers Star Returns To Practice + Kelly Oubre CLAPS BACK At Fans! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pywBa0XNZpk

Philadelphia 76ers Young Talent:
– Tyrese Maxey (25)
– VJ Edgecombe (20)
– Jared McCain (21)
– Justin Edwards (22)
– Trendon Watford (25)
– Adem Bona (22)
– Johni Broome (22)

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Joel Embiid’s contract:
– 2025-26 (31): $55.2 MM (35%)
– 2026-27 (32): $57.9 MM (35%)
– 2027-28 (33): $62.5 MM (36%)
– 2028-29 (34): $67.1 MM (36%)

Paul George’s contract:
– 2025-26 (35): $51.6 MM (33%)
– 2026-27 (36): $54.1 MM (32%)
– 2027-28 (37): $56.5 MM (32%)

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Philadelphia 76ers 2025 Cap Space:
– Salary Cap: -$50.5 MM
– 1st Apron: $10.0 MM
– 2nd Apron: $21.9 MM

Sixers fans – give 76ers Now your thoughts below:
– ESPN’s ranking is… HIGH, LOW, or RIGHT

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