Copyright phillyvoice
This time a year ago, just about each and every Sixers fan was simply waiting for the team to reach full health to save a spiraling group which was clearly undermanned. A lot can change in a year – or, in this case, in just a handful of days. Now, the same people are worried about how the eventual integration of some high-usage players will impact a team that is absolutely humming to start the 2025-26 campaign. Behind some All-NBA-caliber play from Tyrese Maxey, one of the best starts to an NBA career anyone has ever had from VJ Edgecombe and a supporting cast that has fully bought in on a fast-paced identity, the Sixers are 3-0. So, when our weekly call for Sixers mailbag questions went out, it quickly became clear that everyone is nervous about the eventual returns of injured players (Paul George, Jared McCain and Trendon Watford) disrupting what is happening right now. Let's dive into your questions: From @chicagoweirdo.bsky.social: What do you think the guard rotation is going to look like once McCain comes back? Can Maxey and McCain play together for long stretches as two smaller guards? Through the first three games of this season, Maxey and Edgecombe have combined to score more points than any starting backcourt in the history of the NBA. Clearly, Maxey and Edgecombe are locked into starting roles, and everything else has to fit around that arrangement. But utilizing McCain and his special offensive gifts should be a top priority for the Sixers when the 21-year-old guard is ready to take the floor. He just had his first cast taken off and is wearing a smaller brace to protect his injured right thumb. McCain is finally getting normal shots up again, the first major step in his recovery. Whenever he is back, the Sixers will be adding an elite three-point marksman – off movement, off the catch and off the dribble – while also likely adding their second-best ball-handling guard back into the mix: McCain can unquestionably do a whole lot to accentuate the things that have made the guard rotation of Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes wildly successful to date. His role versatility from an offensive perspective is possibly better than that of Edgecombe or Grimes; just how special McCain looked as a 20-year-old rookie before suffering a season-ending knee injury should not be forgotten. So even if McCain comes off the bench behind Edgecombe and does not log quite as many minutes as the rookie, he should be treated as a critical fixture of this rotation. When McCain and George return, four of the six best players on this team will be guards. The Sixers' three-guard units have dominated early on, and McCain can become just as crucial to that as Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes have been. The most obvious rotation ramification is Grimes sliding up to small forward in the vast majority of his minutes rather than having a pretty even split between shooting guard and the wing. That could cut into Kelly Oubre Jr.'s minutes, but if Oubre continues to crash the glass with fearlessness and show he is a viable option as a small-ball four, it could be two-way forward Jabari Walker who ultimately ends up as the casualty here. There are tons of moving parts, and it could depend on matchup to some degree. There will be times the Sixers run into teams with larger wings at the three and Grimes has trouble, but those bigger players will also struggle to defend the 25-year-old Grimes. Occasionally being too small on defense is going to be the cost of doing business for Sixers head coach Nick Nurse to keep his best players on the floor and improve an offensive attack which already looks stellar. The Maxey/McCain question is the one on everyone's minds, and it is worth being concerned over. But the Sixers have so many quality guards that Nurse should have an easier time picking and choosing when he plays those two together. Nurse does not have to force his hand and play those two together against a much larger backcourt with multiple dynamic scorers, for example. But when the Sixers have a favorable matchup to get away with being undersized in the backcourt, there should be no hesitation to pull the trigger. One of the key organizational focuses this season should be playing these guards together in every possible combination; they will not all be here forever and whenever the Sixers decide which ones are not long for Philadelphia they should have the most information at their disposal as possible. MORE: McCain talks thumb injury, recovery process, more From @mdschaeff: What's the starting lineup look like when PG is back? And should they play three guards as much as possible? George is going to start. The question is whether he is the starting three or four, and my hunch ever since the offseason began was that the team had been penciling him in as a starting power forward. George and Nurse both acknowledged the likelihood of the nine-time All-Star playing there at Media Day, and so the favorite for now is probably a starting five of Maxey, Edgecombe, Oubre, George and Joel Embiid. It kicks Dominick Barlow to the bench, but he could still play with Embiid and hold down an important rotation role. If Nurse's top priority is playing Embiid alongside a quality rebounder, he could move Oubre to the bench and keep his minutes total roughly the same. For now, it seems like Nurse is fond of having Grimes in a sixth man role where he still plays "starter minutes" every night; as long as Grimes is playing 30-plus minutes per game there is no issue with him being a reserve. Nurse does not appear inclined to start his three-guard lineup right now, but he volunteered a comment on Monday that it is the Sixers' best look. For purposes related to information-gathering, long-term development and short-term winning, the Sixers should be building their 48-minute rotation plans around the fact that so much of the talent on their roster is concentrated in the two guard positions. Playing three guards as much as possible gives the Sixers the best sense of which combinations of Maxey, Edgecombe, McCain and Grimes fit best together moving forward, gives all of those terrific young players more opportunities to grow and ensures that the Sixers have multi-talented ball-handlers on the floor as often as possible. Those benefits clearly outweigh the concerns that come with those lineups. MORE: Finally, Sixers look like they have an identity without Embiid From @kellenpastore.bsky.social: How will PG, McCain, and Watford fit into the Sixers new fast pace offensive identity? McCain is, in every way, a strong fit for the sort of up-tempo style the Sixers are playing with. He can be a lethal transition scorer, flying to the wings and corners to space the floor and taking rhythm threes like this: McCain can handle the ball and push the pace with his head up; his strong instincts will help make up for his lack of athletic explosiveness, especially because Maxey and Edgecombe provide such ridiculous end-to-end speed in their own rights. Watford is a 6-foot-9 point forward who did not get to do much work with his teammates during training camp because of his hamstring injury. It will be a challenge fitting him into this puzzle just because he does not fill a traditional archetype at all. But his ability to grab a rebound as a frontcourt player and immediately initiate transition offense is the only thing the Sixers are currently lacking in terms of transition offense. Plays like these, with all of the Sixers' excellent guards flying around, could be awfully exciting: The most interesting player to watch on this front is George, whose methodical half-court scoring mentality has been consistent for many years. It has powered a Hall of Fame career, after all, and at some point the Sixers will need to be able to score when games slow down. While Embiid's presence on the floor will occasionally prevent the Sixers from truly embracing the pace they can play with, George should not have that same impact. He moves a whole lot faster than Embiid, and should be able to spot up for plenty of quality three-point looks trailing the Sixers' blazing guards. The Sixers will, on average, be a slower-paced team when George is on the floor than they will be when he rests. The same is even more true for Embiid. But that is not an inherent negative. After all, star players generate many easy scoring chances for their teammates by leveraging the attention paid to them: If George is even in the same stratosphere as a one-on-one scorer this season as he was before last year's nightmarish campaign, the Sixers will be better off for it. Optionality in terms of lineups and styles is always a major benefit for any coach. The fact that the Sixers no longer feel completely reliant on George to return to his old ways at age 35 is a testament to how significant this fast-paced revelation is for the organization. THE SIXERS ARE 3-0 • Maxey, Edgecombe beat Celtics on opening night • Comeback win over Hornets in home opener • Without Embiid, Sixers go wire-to-wire vs. Magic
