The Sixers’ new era is on deck.

With LeBron James and Jaylen Brown on board and training camp set to begin in late September, we’re taking a look at key questions for the 2026-27 Sixers. 

We’ve asked: 

Next up: How will the Sixers’ backup center situation shake out? 

Given Joel Embiid’s history of injury woes, the Sixers’ backup center picture has long been worthy of considerable scrutiny. Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti are the two main figures entering the 2026-27 season.

Most Sixers fans are more familiar with Bona, the 41st overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft. He was one of the few bright spots in the Sixers’ injury-destroyed, 24-win season in 2024-25 and split the backup center job with Andre Drummond last year. Bona played 71 regular-season games and averaged 4.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 17.4 minutes per contest. 

At the 2024 draft combine, Bona’s 35-inch standing vertical leap tied for first. His big-time bounce has translated well to NBA shot blocking. The 23-year-old had a 3.3 block percentage last season, which ranked in the 88th percentile for big men according to Cleaning the Glass. He continued to struggle with excessive fouling — that problem popped up regularly in the playoffs — but Bona showed that his rookie shot blocking wasn’t just a byproduct of playing on an egregiously shorthanded team.

The essence of Bona’s game likely won’t change dramatically, but he’s aiming to be a steadier, more well-rounded player in Year 3. 

“I think just staying consistent, trying to get better at everything,” he told reporters at his exit interview in May. “The most important thing for me is rebounding, (being) able to impact the team defensively, and offensively, being versatile and bringing so many things to the team besides just doing one thing. I think that’s my goal and that’s what I’m trying to improve.”

Hukporti seems set for an internal competition with Bona. After winning a championship as a member of the Knicks, he signed a one-year, $3.4 million contract to come to Philadelphia this summer.

The 24-year-old lefty said he noticed the Sixers had a “great connection with the team.”

“I feel like it’s still a young team,” Hukporti said in a July virtual press conference. “They have young players and they have vets there as well, and I feel like they have a great balance between the two. I feel like it’s pretty similar to where I was before. … I was just looking at the young guys personally and seeing how connected they are. That made me want to be here.”

On a basic level, there’s plenty of shared traits between Hukporti and Bona. Both have:

Hukporti’s role was smaller on the Knicks, since he was behind both Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson. He made 54 regular-season appearances and averaged 2.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in 9.2 minutes per game. 

Hukporti has hinted at future offensive expansion a tad more than Bona. He shot three-pointers for the Westchester Knicks last year in the G League and went 8 for 25 (32 percent). The German center also took threes with Nevėžis Kėdainiai back in the 2020-21 season in Lithuania and shot 13 for 47 (27.7 percent). 

“We’re going to see, we’re going to see,” Hukporti said in July when asked about his jump shooting. “It’s going to be a little surprise. I’m definitely working on it.” 

For now, it’s hard to give a definitive prediction on which backup center Sixers head coach Nick Nurse will ultimately prefer. Perhaps Bona has an initial edge because Nurse knows him and, even if he didn’t cleanly beat out Drummond, at least thought he earned a playoff role last season. 

In terms of the postseason, James, Dominick Barlow and Dean Wade are also names to note.

Barlow played 10 percent of his minutes at center last year, per Cleaning the Glass. He had a largely positive stint there in the Sixers’ narrow Round 2, Game 2 playoff loss to the Knicks without Embiid. Wade got nine percent of his playing time at center, James four percent.

The bottom line is the Sixers currently have two young big men backing up Embiid, but Barlow, Wade and James are all meaningful alternatives for Nurse.