By Adam Aaronson

Copyright phillyvoice

Five-plus months of waiting turned into three days of exploring.

The longest Sixers offseason in several years has come and gone, but the team’s trip to Abu Dhabi is on the docket now. They will play two preseason exhibitions against the New York Knicks out there after holding their Media Day on Friday and then a pair of practices at their facility in Camden over the weekend.

For a week or so, the Sixers will be away from their contingent of local media, which made the information-gathering process over the weekend a whole lot more important.

In this week’s 5 Sixers thoughts, a collection of notes and observations from a few days into the 2025-26 campaign:

Joel Embiid: “I understand the situation that I’m in”

After lots of thinking, the best word that can be used to describe the sort of demeanor Joel Embiid has carried so far: lighter. Embiid has appeared far more at ease: with his body, his team, the circumstances surrounding this season and the events that led to the calamity which was last season. He is cracking more jokes than he did last year. He has acted like someone far more comfortable with uncertainty.

“Obviously, this time last year, I think going into training camp I didn’t really know what was possible and what I was going to be able to do, which I didn’t end up doing much,” Embiid said. “This time is a different story. Mentally, I feel better. I’ve got great people around me, that’s all that matters. They keep me up, staying positive. It obviously helps when you’re in a different situation than you were in a year ago at this time right before training camp. So it’s a good start, and we’ve just got to keep going.”

Finding this level of composure — trust, even — is a whole lot easier when adversity has not yet hit you in the mouth. Embiid knows all of the platitudes he and the team are offering — about listening to his body, “checking boxes” one at a time and being transparent — will eventually be tested. It is inevitable.

“I want to be as honest as possible. I think, going forward, we’re just going to listen to the body,” Embiid said. “I’ll be honest and say that it’s going to be unpredictable at times, and that’s okay. And we’ve got to work with that. We’ve got to take it day by day and go from there. The only focus that I have is, every single time, if we’re on the right path, keep going. If there’s something that happens in that time, it’s okay. Just focus on fixing it and keep going.”

On the basketball side, Embiid was a participant in the majority of the Sixers’ work on Saturday before taking a planned day off on Sunday. Within a few hours of completing Sunday’s practice, the Sixers boarded their plane for a tremendously long flight; it understandably sounds like Saturday’s work was much heavier. And on Saturday, head coach Nick Nurse was enthusiastic about the level of Embiid’s participation on a day in which “almost everything from the very jump of practice was competitive and live.”

“Like I said, everything right from the start was live and he was participating in that stuff. He didn’t do everything, but he did quite a bit,” Nurse said. “He was moving good and playing hard and had great spirit out there today.”

VJ Edgecombe standing out

When a top-three pick enters an NBA organization, they are usually at the center of everything. VJ Edgecombe does not have to handle quite that large of a spotlight, but he is not shying away from any attention. The 20-year-old guard is as confident as it gets. Yet Edgecombe admitted on Saturday that he has been struck by just how good NBA players are.

“In workouts, how many shots they make in a row. It’s not just five, six shots in a row,” Edgecombe said. “…The muscle memory is crazy. I watch [Tyrese Maxey] shoot the ball a lot, and he’s shooting it from far. Like, logo, I’m seeing. They’re all just the same makes, same makes. So that’s the biggest difference.”

Just as NBA players are impressing Edgecombe, Edgecombe is impressing NBA players — and his head coach. Nurse highlighted Edgecombe’s performance in his very first answer on Saturday. Kelly Oubre Jr. declared that Edgecombe has “the best upside in his draft class,” while Justin Edwards said that he’s been impressed by how quickly Edgecombe has adjusted and made himself comfortable.

After Sunday’s practice, Maxey and Edgecombe took turns going at each other in five-second one-on-one possessions. Excellent theater ensued, with the most exciting reps being ones where Edgecombe defended his new mentor:

Nurse acknowledged on Sunday that the team is already focused on helping Maxey and Edgecombe form a strong rapport.

“I think we do have to spend a lot of time with them together just to develop the chemistry,” Nurse said. “I think they’ll be together a lot.”

However, as the saying goes, iron sharpens iron.

“For the most part, we’re going to have them together,” Nurse said. “But there is a good 40 percent of practice when they’re going at it, and they like to go at it after practice and stuff like that, too. So that’s good to see too.”

Dominick Barlow turning heads and clearing up confusion

After Saturday’s practice, Nurse was asked who stood out to him in the team’s first official work. Edgecombe getting a mention did not surprise anyone in the room. But the next name Nurse listed was not one anybody in the room expected to hear.

“Dominick Barlow is standing out early on here,” Nurse said. “He’s just really on the glass and making some shots and playing extremely hard. He was just involved in a lot of good stuff.”

Barlow, a 22-year-old big from Hackensack, N.J., has three years of NBA experience. He has mostly logged minutes at power forward with some time at center. Nurse views Barlow as a four and said Barlow has even spent some time on the wing, but that he could be an option at the five if needed.

Before Barlow could discuss his strong showings over the weekend, he had to clear up some confusion on Sunday. Barlow’s pages on Wikipedia and basketball-reference listed his high school as St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia. He had once discussed his time there in an interview, but there was no actual record of him being at the school. It had become a controversy within the Sixers media contingent, so the first question Barlow was asked upon sitting down: which St. Joe’s did you go to?

“Okay, alright. Let’s get the story straight,” Barlow said. “I went to St. Joe’s Montvale in New Jersey. I’ve been around this area. But we played a game here my second year and somebody interviewed me and was, like, super excited about the story. So I just went with it.”

The gym erupted with laughter.

“[The reporter] said it, and I was like, ‘Damn.’ I felt bad,” Barlow said. “Yeah, no, I went with it. I had friends who played [in the Philadelphia Catholic League], so I was able to make stuff up on the spot.”

Even if Barlow is not as local of a product as he once seemed, he made sure to acknowledge his connection to Philadelphia.

“But I’m familiar with this area,” Barlow said. “I have family that lives here.”

MORE: Best quotes from each Sixers Media Day speaker

“Great competition”

Nurse was asked on Sunday about what he had seen so far from what he had previously dubbed a “great competition” for the team’s backup center spot. He reaffirmed that Barlow could sneak into that discussion even though the team has not used him there much to date. He views the field as wide open.

Odds and ends

A batch of quicker notes:

• Bona remains the favorite for the backup center job, though.

On Saturday, a reporter attempted to ask Maxey if he has noticed anything different about Bona compared to the young center’s rookie form. Bona played a key role for the Turkish national team in its run to the EuroBasket final and Nurse had already raved about his strength and conditioning since returning. Before the reporter could even finish their question, Maxey excitedly responded.

“Yes. One hundred percent,” Maxey said emphatically. “I think the Euro stuff really puts his confidence on another level. He’s just playing a lot more free, I feel like. He’s catching the ball a lot better. He’s protecting the rim like he always does.”

Maxey was once a Sixers youngster who had to grow into a level of confidence that enabled him to be his best self. He sees Bona in the midst of a similar evolution.

“He’s more vocal, he’s more confident,” Maxey said. “You can see him smiling a little bit more. That’s when you know somebody feels more comfortable, is when they’re a little bit loose and they’re smiling, they’re having a lot more fun. That’s the best feeling: when you know what you’re doing, you know what you’re here for, and you know what you’re capable of.”

• Asked about Quentin Grimes remaining unsigned, Embiid jokingly referenced his history of experiencing holdouts and contractual controversies.

“I’ll give you the same answer I gave the last time — or the last few times it happened,” Embiid said. “Whoever is here, he’s here for a reason. You want to be here, you’re welcomed to be here. You don’t want to be here, you can’t force someone to be here.”

Embiid made clear that, while his focus remains on the players in the gym right now, he is more than ready to welcome Grimes back into the fold.

“As players, this is a business. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do as an individual to take care of yourself and your family,” Embiid said. “…That’s what I would do if I was in that situation, too.”

• Players who did not partake in weekend practices: Jared McCain, reportedly set for thumb surgery, Paul George, whose knee recovery is ongoing, and Trendon Watford, who is day-to-day with hamstring tightness. McCain is the only player under contract not with the team in Abu Dhabi. George and Watford both had individualized sessions on both days; Watford should be ready to practice at some point during the Abu Dhabi trip.

MORE: Grimes’ agent sounds off on Sixers