By Adam Aaronson

Copyright phillyvoice

Happy Monday! With Sixers Media Day less than two weeks away, this is officially the penultimate 5 Sixers thoughts of the 2025 offseason.

The latest on players coming to Philadelphia in preparation for training camp, a player noticeably absent, one wrapping up their time overseas and more:

Joel Embiid returns to Philadelphia

Most Philadelphia sports fans were enjoying the final moments of another Phillies beatdown against the New York Mets when the Sixers tweeted some pictures from their practice facility. Clearly, much of the roster is beginning to file into Camden, N.J., to prepare for the team’s upcoming truncated training camp, which will be cut short by a preseason trip to Abu Dhabi.

Notably, one of the photos included Embiid, seemingly confirming that the former NBA MVP is back in town:

Minutes later, the Sixers added more photos and a video. That video featured Embiid, with no brace or sleeve covering his left knee, getting a shot up. Chaos ensued:

Mass hysteria being incited by one video of one stand-still shot is, of course, extremely funny. It also speaks to how starved Sixers fans remain for any sort of clue about the condition of Embiid’s knee.

They have every right to be anxious, not just because of Embiid’s extensive injury history and disastrous 2024-25 campaign, but also because there has been no meaningful information provided about the state of his knee since April. That is when Embiid underwent an arthroscopic surgery, a procedure that the Sixers said came with a six-week reevaluation timeline. More than five months later, there is no substantive update. Media Day cannot come soon enough.

MORE: Why should anyone care about the Sixers?

Still no reported movement on Quentin Grimes

What is less shocking than Grimes still not having a deal to return to the Sixers is that, in the now 77 days the 25-year-old has officially been a restricted free agent, there has never even been the slightest indication that Grimes’ negotiations were advancing or stalling in any capacity. This standstill has just existed, as is, for months.

An underrated component of this ongoing drag: It is unclear what sort of basketball activity Grimes has been able to do during the offseason. A fairly common practice among soon-to-be free agents is shutting down rigorous physical activity until a contract is signed. This is done to ensure an unforeseen, catastrophic injury does not occur and prevent the player from securing their money. Tyrese Maxey has commented before that the weeks leading up to his contract signing made up the longest period of time he has gone without playing basketball.

So, what has Grimes’ offseason looked like from a physical perspective? He has made social media posts working out, but is this situation robbing him of the chance to work on his game over the summer following a breakout season?

Grimes has until Oct. 1 to accept the $8.7 million qualifying offer the Sixers had to extend him to make him a restricted free agent. That deal would be for one year, and it would come with a no-trade clause and a pathway to unrestricted free agency in 2026. It is the worst-case scenario for the Sixers, as their long-term control over Grimes would vanish. But it is also a massive risk on his part; very few players have opted to go down that road and most of them have ultimately regretted it.

Adem Bona’s major moment

On Sunday came the conclusion of the EuroBasket tournament, which Bona has been part of as a reserve for Team Turkey. Bona has backed up the absolute superstar of the tournament, Houston Rockets big man Alperen Şengün. The team also includes former NBA wing Cedi Osman and an old friend by the name of Furkan Korkmaz.

Bona said at his exit interview on April 13 that he would consider playing for Turkey and Nigeria, and he ultimately stuck with the program he has been part of for several years now. Bona and Şengün have been playing together in international competition for a very long time:

Unfortunately for Bona, Şengün and Co., Turkey’s quest ended with a championship loss to Germany. Because Şengün was in foul trouble for much of the game, Bona ended up logging just over 19 minutes, scoring 13 points on 5-for-5 shooting. Şengün still led all scorers with 28 points, but it was not enough in an 88-83 loss.

Bona is about to step into an extremely important role for the Sixers, whose backup center job carries more importance than any other across the NBA.

“We didn’t have a lot of positives [last season], but one of the positives was Adem and Justin [Edwards] and Jared [McCain] and all these guys got pretty significant minutes they normally wouldn’t have gotten,” Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey said in July. “And I think Adem, especially at the end of the year, got the confidence of [head coach Nick Nurse] and his staff.”

MORE: Bona will help Sixers by being patient, knowing his role… and screaming

When will the Sixers wear their Allen Iverson era jerseys?

As of this writing, the Sixers have still not formally announced the upcoming return of their famous black jerseys known for being donned by Allen Iverson. But last week, the team announced some of their plans to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 2000-01 team remembered for its run to the NBA Finals.

For now, there is not a clear outline for what will take place on “25th Anniversary Celebration Nights” at the newly-named Xfinity Mobile Arena. But if you want to see the Sixers in their old jerseys for the sake of nostalgia, these 14 games might be good ones to check out:

Checking in on a few old friends

There have been some former Sixers in the news of late. A rundown:

• Landry Shamet just agreed to a one-year deal to return to the New York Knicks. He appears primed for a training camp battle for New York’s 14th roster spot against veteran point guard Malcolm Brogdon, but the Knicks are apparently also considering making a cost-cutting trade to create space for both Shamet and Brogdon to join their reserve guard rotation.

• After three years with the San Antonio Spurs, Charles Bassey has signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Atlanta Hawks. He will join the team for training camp and receive a signing bonus for reporting to their G League affiliate assuming he is eventually waived.

• Jalen Slawson, an athletic wing who spent the Summer League with the Sixers and had a few standout moments, signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Indiana Pacers.

• One of Bona’s teammates on Team Turkey is Korkmaz, but the star of the show all along was Şengün. He had a remarkable run for his country and has drawn plenty of effusive praise. That includes this line from Korkmaz, invoking the name of Embiid:

For what it’s worth, Korkmaz is not the only person fond of Şengün’s game. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse registered himself as a massive fan before the Sixers and Rockets faced off in Philadelphia last November.

“They’ve got a tremendous, I mean tremendous, big man,” Nurse said. “He is so good.”

What does he like about Şengün?

“His total control of what he’s doing. Gets the ball up top, if you give him too much space he’s going to drive you, put a hurting on you, then lay it in,” Nurse said. “Amazing screener, gets everybody open. Incredible hands. Fred [VanVleet] throws him some bad passes and he still catches them, comes up with them and still makes a play. I think it’s just amazing feel for the game and rhythm that he’s playing in, how under control he is when he’s got the ball.”

SIXERS PLAYER PREVIEWS

Jared McCain | Justin Edwards | VJ Edgecombe | Kyle Lowry | Kelly Oubre Jr.

Johni Broome | Adem Bona | Andre Drummond | Trendon Watford | Eric Gordon