The Sixers are arriving back in Philadelphia after facing the New York Knicks in a two-game preseason series in Abu Dhabi last week.

Quentin Grimes is in town ready to meet them.

Grimes, 25, is no longer a restricted free agent. He is under contract with the Sixers at the one-year qualifying offer worth $8.7 million. Grimes will be an unrestricted free agent next summer and he has the right to veto any trade for the entire 2025-26 season. For three months, the Sixers and Grimes’ camp participated in more debates over theoretical negotiations than they did in actual negotiations.

Grimes’ agent told PhillyVoice less than a week before the qualifying offer was signed that his client felt “a lot of disrespect” coming from the Sixers and President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey.

Kicking off the week with 5 Sixers thoughts, focused on the upcoming reunion between Grimes and the Sixers, plus other takeaways after the team posted a pair of subpar performances against a Knicks team that looked a lot closer to being ready for the season:

Quentin Grimes’ impending return

In the days leading up to the conclusion of Grimes’ restricted free agency, PhillyVoice learned that high-ranking Sixers officials were already formulating plans to ensure the 25-year-old guard felt as if he was valued by the organization despite their inability to come to terms on a multiyear contract.

That is going to be a whole lot easier said than done, because the words are easy. The Sixers believe Grimes is a very good player with upward mobility, and after all, they are the ones that traded for him last February. The Sixers need Grimes in order to succeed this year for many reasons; a few of them will be explored momentarily. The Sixers can do their best to remind Grimes of all of this. They can promise him the starting role he clearly deserves.

All of that, however, will be viewed in contrast with the Sixers’ actions during the summer. Grimes’ agent argued last month that the team’s glowing public statements about Grimes have not been consistent with how they handled negotiations, an understandable viewpoint.

By all accounts, the Sixers never even came close to bridging the gap that existed to hammer out a long-term deal, and they did not make a concerted effort to do so. Grimes’ next-best hope was to secure a one-year balloon contract where he gave up his veto power in exchange for a raise, but the Sixers never offered more than a few hundred thousand dollars to buy out the no-trade clause.

All of this is to say: The Sixers will not be able to wave a magic wand and make Grimes forget about the tumultuous summer he just experienced. But, if there is a benefit to what transpired this summer – or what did not transpire – it might be Grimes coming into the season feeling particularly motivated. It is not merely the vengeful concept of proving the Sixers wrong for declining to invest in him, but that Grimes has a chance to prove his worth beyond a shadow of a doubt before he enters a genuine market in free agency for the first time next summer.

Jared McCain’s importance to this roster on display

When the Sixers open the 2025-26 regular season in Boston against the Celtics on Oct. 22, who will run the offense when Tyrese Maxey rests? A few weeks ago, McCain appeared to be the obvious answer to this question, profiling as the team’s backup point guard in addition to a critical scoring role playing alongside Maxey.

Jared McCain’s season-high in assists during 36 games at Duke last season was five.

In his 11th NBA game and first NBA start, he collected 10 assists alongside 34 points. Here is each one of those assists: pic.twitter.com/2pZNu711RT

— Adam Aaronson’s clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 14, 2024

Then, the day before Media Day, McCain tore the UCL in his right thumb. McCain did not go on the Abu Dhabi trip because he was getting surgery; a November return seems likely for the dynamic guard.

While they are merely exhibitions, the Sixers’ pair of games without McCain or Grimes in Abu Dhabi made it easier to see how little reliable ball-handling the Sixers had available. Maxey was the only player capable of consistently creating a quality shot attempt. It is why Grimes is essential to the makeup of this roster regardless of McCain’s status, and now with McCain set to miss the beginning of the season it will likely be Grimes starting next to Maxey in the backcourt and backing him up at the same time.

McCain’s eventual return to action should ease things a bit, even if it makes defending a greater challenge. The Sixers have to put out a strong defense, but they also must be able to consistently generate efficient shots. With the statuses of Joel Embiid and Paul George still up in the air, Maxey cannot be the lone figure at the center of the Sixers’ offensive attack. That was Maxey’s role early on last season; misery and ineptitude ensued.

The dichotomy of McCain’s presence on this team is, in a sense, jarring: he has only played 23 NBA games; nobody can definitively claim they know what he will be at the NBA level. Yet, given Embiid’s lack of consistent availability, it is almost impossible to fathom the Sixers having a high-level offense without McCain staying healthy whenever he returns from his thumb ailment.

VJ Edgecombe’s development vs. Sixers’ short-term needs

One of the unique challenges facing Sixers head coach Nick Nurse and the rest of the organization in the season ahead: balancing the process of accelerating the development of Edgecombe – which should be among the team’s top priorities – with their desire to stage a strong year-to-year turnaround and become a contender in an Eastern Conference that sorely lacks high-level teams.

Edgecombe has good instincts, and with a work ethic like the Sixers believe he has there is no skill development that can be ruled out. But right now, he is not close to the caliber of playmaker – for himself or others – of a guard one would expect to be tasked with any ball-handling duties for an NBA team. His ball-handling is a weakness right now and his shooting, while improved, remains somewhat of a work in progress. However, he does have the ability to help an NBA team right away with his defensive intensity, transition scoring and impressive chops as a cutter:

Another strong example of VJ Edgecombe’s instinctual cutting ability. Edgecombe’s path to optimal offensive production as an NBA rookie includes making many players like this: pic.twitter.com/uDS0gM0Ncm

— Adam Aaronson’s clips (@SixersAdamClips) October 5, 2025

However, the hope for any player drafted at No. 3 overall is to become a star. Edgecombe might end up being capable of carrying a star-level impact without a ton of ball-handling if everything breaks right for him years down the line, but his clearest path to stardom involves outlier development as an on-ball player.

So, will the Sixers try to mix in opportunities for Edgecombe to play with the ball in his hands? It could very well bolster his growth on that front, but it will absolutely not maximize the Sixers’ chances of winning any individual games. The Sixers have an interesting two-timeline approach to roster building, and threading the needle between now and the future is even more challenging to pull off during games. 

MORE: Film breakdown of Edgecombe’s first NBA game

Can Jabari Walker earn a rotation spot?

Since the Sixers began their official team activities, the talk of the two-way group has been Dominick Barlow, who started both games in Abu Dhabi. But beforehand, the favorite to emerge from an impressive crop of two-way players and into the rotation was Walker, who also enters the season with three years of NBA experience.

Walker is a sturdy forward capable of playing at either spot, though his limited offensive utility makes power forward a better fit for him. Nurse has mentioned Walker playing small-ball center as one possibility, and Walker’s signature skill being rebounding helps him out on that front. Walker’s challenge as a center would be protecting the rim as the anchor of a defense, and making enough spot-up three-point shots to give the Sixers a five-out look.

Upon rewatching the second Abu Dhabi game, Walker made the exact sort of play that could set him apart in a battle with Barlow and others for playing time. A focus for the Sixers – something Nurse has called “one of our daily habits” in practices – is knowing how to execute when teams send double-teams at stars. Maxey constantly draws blitzes out of pick-and-rolls, and that will only become more frequent as Embiid’s availability continues to dwindle.

So, this play means a lot:

When Tyrese Maxey is blitzed, screener Jabari Walker gets the ball in a 4-on-3 situation.

Walker works it perfectly. He collapses the defense, manipulates Deuce McBride (#2) into defending the corner and kicks the ball out to an open VJ Edgecombe for a high-arcing three-pointer: pic.twitter.com/brbaoW47Mw

— Adam Aaronson’s clips (@SixersAdamClips) October 5, 2025

Another player the Sixers should be able to rely on for plays like this: Trendon Watford, a 6-foot-9 point forward and one of Maxey’s closest friends in the NBA. Watford will handle the ball for the Sixers far more often than players like KJ Martin and Nic Batum, whose passing flashes were limited to these advantage situations. But just being able to make a defense think twice about putting two defenders on the ball when Maxey comes off a screen would be a boon for the Sixers on offense.

The future is not that bleak

In case the first two thoughts here lead to despair regarding the Sixers’ ability to compete for a championship in the near future – though not many people appeared confident in such a concept to begin with – it is worth noting that the Sixers’ long-term standing is a lot healthier than the vast majority of teams that have flamed out of title contention.

First of all, they have plenty of young talent, from the 24-year-old Maxey as a proven star to the 20-year-old Edgecombe and 21-year-old McCain. Even players like Edwards, Adem Bona and Johni Broome present some hope as potential longer-term rotation pieces. Grimes just turned 25 years and is already very good.

On top of that, the Sixers find themselves in a pretty decent position when it comes to their future draft capital, with the trade sending James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2023 helping the team recoup first-round value and a deal with the Washington Wizards last year buoying the team’s collection of future second-rounders.

For anyone interested in exactly which picks the Sixers owe to other teams and own from other teams over the next several years, PhillyVoice put together a tracker of the Sixers’ draft assets, which will be bookmarked whenever the team makes moves in the future:

MORE: Sixers future draft pick tracker

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