Bob Myers didn’t dress it up. After the Sixers introduced Mike Gansey as their new president of basketball operations, he went straight at the issue.
“We got to find an identity,” he told reporters.
That message hangs over everything Philadelphia is doing right now, including a backup center spot that looks thin enough to matter. If the Sixers are going to define themselves by defense, they need a real answer behind Joel Embiid. Right now, the options are Adem Bona, a third-year pro who is making less than the current veteran minimum for a player of his experience and had an uneven second year in the NBA, and Ariel Hukporti, a 24-year-old with just 511 minutes of NBA experience over two seasons with the New York Knicks.
That is not much to lean on when Embiid is the starter.
A defense-first identity would normally begin with someone who can protect the rim and make life miserable at the basket. The Sixers did not get that level of impact last season with Embiid backed by Bona and Andre Drummond and without a real power forward behind them.
But the rest of the summer tells a different story. Philadelphia traded Paul George for Jaylen Brown, a defensive downgrade.
It signed Dean Wade, a dirty work defensive forward. It also used the rest of its mid-level exception on Anfernee Simons, a guard with some defensive tools but otherwise an objectively poor defender.
The money at center tells its own story too. Spotrac estimates the Sixers have allocated just $3.4 million to the position, a slice of the bi-annual exception.
So while Wade, V.J. Edgecombe and Brown give the Sixers a perimeter group that can defend, the bigger signal from the offseason points toward offense.
If Embiid gets healthier, they could have a strong interior defense as well. Even so, their moves suggest the club expects scoring to be the main weapon.
That raises the real question: if offense is the plan, how much do they actually need from the backup five? Maybe not a lot more than a Drummond-style offensive presence, especially if the ball is going to live on the perimeter anyway. They’ll have to gang rebound, but the center spot may not be where they’re trying to win games.
The offensive side of the roster has a clearer shape. Brown may not have Embiid’s size or gravity, but he attacks downhill with force, and that changes the geometry of a defense.
For the first time, Tyrese Maxey will have a teammate besides Embiid who can bend defenses with power. James Harden wasn’t that by the time he got to Philadelphia, and George wasn’t either.
Brown has his flaws as a playmaker. He won’t always hit the weak-side corner from the opposite wing, and he’ll miss some basic reads. But he can create offense on his own, and he can do it nightly.
That’s why the Sixers may be able to build an identity on offense even if Embiid is in and out of the lineup.
George’s own run in Philadelphia will be remembered in pieces. He was part of the one playoff series the Sixers won during his time there, and he played the Celtics’ best players evenly in that matchup. But the larger memory will be of the long stretches when he wasn’t on the floor, which is what happens when a max contract never quite becomes a max-level return.
His 2024-25 season was mostly ineffective over 41 games. In 2025-26, he was better in 37 regular-season games, but a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA’s drug policy cut into that stretch.
Maybe he could have helped the Sixers avoid the New York Knicks’ side of the postseason bracket. Maybe not.
The suspension left too much of the story unwritten.
Still, there was value in how he handled the room. In early April of 2026, after a game, George noticed a relatively new reporter on the Sixers beat trying to get a question in.
Other voices were louder and got there first. After his availability, George pointed to the reporter and asked if they still had a question.
The staff had already given him his exit, but he stayed and gave up another minute anyway.
That’s the kind of presence he was in the locker room. He wasn’t the star Philadelphia needed, and he wasn’t the perfect running mate for Maxey when Embiid sat. But he did help steady the group as the 2025-26 regular season found its rhythm, and he helped fuel the postseason win that knocked the Boston Celtics down.
The most lasting impact may have come behind the scenes. George stayed connected during his suspension instead of disappearing, and he worked with Edgecombe to sharpen the rookie’s offensive game.
By season’s end, Edgecombe had more than confidence. He had counters, too.
That growth didn’t happen by accident.
George’s Philadelphia stint will go down as the underwhelming cost of chasing a star in his prime. But it also left behind a teammate who showed up, stayed involved and helped others get better.
In Other News...
Sixers May Have An Obvious Fix For Their Biggest Remaining Hole
The 76ers still have a clear frontcourt question to answer as they sort through the rest of their offseason, and it starts with what happens behind Joel Embiid. Philadelphia already knows it will need another body at center after losing Andre Drummond in free agency, and the need becomes even more obvious when Embiid is expected to miss a considerable number of games for rest and load management. For a team trying to keep its rotation steady over the long haul, that is not a minor detail.
Nick Richards is one of the more practical names in that search, especially for a roster that could use more size and athleticism in the middle. He split last season between the Suns and Bulls and gave Chicago a workable reserve presence when called upon, which is the kind of profile that can matter in Philadelphia. The question now is whether the Sixers see enough value there to make a move before the market settles. [Read more 🡒]
Sixers May Be Running Out Of Time For Their Preferred Move
The Sixers still have one open roster spot, and the front offices next move appears tied to how the market shakes out around the league. ESPNs Brian Windhorst noted that Philadelphia is among the teams weighing the possibility of a bigger name changing course, but the more immediate issue for the Sixers is practical: they need help on the wing, and they need it without much financial flexibility.
If the preferred path never opens up, the fallback list is already taking shape. Philadelphia has been linked to options such as Ziaire Williams and Khris Middleton while it looks for a fit that can add depth and size on the perimeter, and Nicolas Batum also remains a name to watch as the team sorts through its final roster spot. The challenge is finding the right balance between value and need before the available choices start disappearing. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Just Shocked The East By Splitting Up Jayson Tatum And Jaylen Brown
Bostons decision to break up the Brown-Tatum partnership marks a significant shift in the Eastern Conference landscape, ending nearly a decade of continuity around two wings who helped define the Celtics rise. For Philadelphia, it also adds another layer of intrigue to a division that already has no shortage of familiar grudges and high-stakes matchups.
The move reflects how sharply the Celtics have re-evaluated their future, with the organization clearly choosing to build around Jayson Tatum and treating him as the centerpiece going forward. However the rest of the roster settles, the ripple effect is obvious: a rivalry that once lived inside one locker room now carries into the conference race itself. [Read more 🡒]