Like a toxic ex, the end of this campaign will be welcomed, but some aspects will cause future nostalgia.
Dozens and dozens of moments, games and weeks of this Philadelphia 76ers season are gladly in the past. By the time October 2025 comes around and we’ve all preseason predicted our way into hope, we won’t be thinking about any of them. However, several themes, stretches and aspects of this campaign will be missed in the on-court play and overall narrative story of the season.
I’ve gone over a few of them (it might be all of them). The things I’ve chosen are almost 100% not gonna happen next season, whether that be from roster moves, a reset record or because it’s insane that it’s happening at all.
The Kelly Push-Hook
In two years with the Philadelphia 76ers, Kelly Oubre Jr. has done all you can ask of a role player. I could wax poetic about his defensive activity, his shit-talking, or even his rebounding. But the thing I’ll miss most is his signature shot. Yes, Kelly Oubre Jr has a signature shot.
It’s a little paint push-hook shot. Think if Kareem was 6-foot-8, slightly clumsier, and preferred a straight-line drive to the rim. That’s what the Kelly Push-Hook is. At least once a game, Kelly would get a defender on him, bump him down near the rim, semi-face the rim, extend the ball in the air, and simply push it into the rim.
It’s a weird thing to hyper-focus on, to write about, but it’s a great move! Who else is shooting layups like that? The fact that NBA Stats play-by-play describe each of these shots differently — one is a ‘driving, floating, bank jump shot’, while another is a simple ‘finger roll layup’ — shows just how unique of a shot it is. Not even the computer knows what it is! But we do, it’s the Kelly Push-Hook! Take that Chat-GPT!
But in all seriousness, Kelly has been a phenomenal paint finisher. Of the 13 guards shooting at least seven field goals with 10 feet of the rim, his 58.5% field goal is the fourth-highest, between All-Stars Jaylen Brown and De’Aaron Fox.
On tightly contested two-point field goals (defender within two to four feet), Kelly’s 54.3% field goal is the ninth-best out of 29 players shooting at least five such shots per game. The list is almost exclusively All-Star level players.
With the ascension of Quentin Grimes and Guerschon Yabusele (more on them later), Kelly has likely been priced off the Sixers’ roster. Thank you for your service, and long live the Kelly hook.
Guerschon Yabusele Yabu-Dabu Doing It
One of the great joys of sports fandom is watching a relative no one thrive into a someone. The Sixers have a few candidates this season, but none more enjoyable than Guerschon Yabusele and his rise to role-player prominence.
OK, calling him a ‘nobody’ isn’t quite true. Yabu caught eyeballs during his phenomenal 2024 Olympics campaign on the French National Team, especially when he dunked on LeBron James in the Gold Medal match.
Eight days after that match, the Sixers signed Yabu to a one-year, $2.1 million contract. Though it wasn’t his first NBA stint (having played 74 games for the Boston Celtics from 2017-2019), no one knew what to expect from Yabusele (2019 was a long time ago, pre-Covid!).
But, with Joel Embiid and Paul George both missing the start of the season, playing time immediately opened up for Yabu. And the Dancing Bear whipped out an East Coast Swing that had the whole jawn jumping.
Exactly two minutes after checking into the team’s season opener against the Milwaukee Bucks, Yabu hit a corner three. A couple of games later, in the team’s first win of the season, Yabu’s offensive rebounds led to 12 second-chance points. In the first game he played over 30 minutes, he hit five threes on his way to 19 points, six assists and seven rebounds.
He showed such defensive and playmaking knack that I donned him ‘Draymond Vert’ in an October article (originally, I assigned him the feminine ‘Verte’, and was happily corrected in the comments). That was just over a week after the season opener. Ten days after that, in a 20-point victorious performance over the Charlotte Hornets, he had his first poster dunk of the season.
It took less than three weeks for a consensus to form: Yabu can hoop. And that realization was glorious viewing. He would fly his frame around the court and surprise us with something new every game. A slick assist here, a brutal block there. Moves on moves.
He’ll still surprise us, but I’ll miss when Yabu was an unknown NBA commodity. A dance doesn’t lose its beauty with familiarity, but it does lose a certain thrill.
It’s a damn shame this Sixers season went to crap. Seeing Yabu in a playoff setting, re-introducing himself to the hooping world, would’ve been awesome. He deserves it. He’s embraced Philly and been one of the team’s most consistent players, by far their most consistent big.
A four/a small-ball five was perhaps the biggest question mole on this Sixers roster in the preseason. Yabu whacked that mole (though a billion more popped up).
Quentin Grimes; No. 1 Option
Quentin Grimes has played in 20 games since being traded here by the Dallas Mavericks, starting in 17 of them. In those 17 starts, he’s averaged 23.9 points on 16.9 field goals per game on over 50.7% from the field and 40.2% from three.
Here are the players averaging at least 23.5 points on at least 50% shooting for the season: Shai Gilegous-Alexander; Giannis Antetokounmpo; Nikola Jokic; Kevin Durant; LeBron James; Zion Williamson; and Karl Anthony Towns. That’s the three MVP-front runners, two of the top 15 players of all-time, and two multiple All-Stars.
To say Grimes’ streak is unsustainable is stating the obvious. To say that unsustainability makes his stretch unenjoyable is hoops blasphemy. To the Wizards-Jazz watch party for you.
It’s all the joy of watching an all-time great level of play combined with the surprise factor I talked about with Yabu. It’s knowing this shouldn’t be happening, but watching it continue in disbelief. He’s dropped 40 points twice in the last month!
And you may say: ‘Well Seth, they haven’t been winning’. To which I say, who cares!? This final stretch has been so devoid of joy. Grimes’ ascension has been like a friend unexpectedly rocking up to the party with free pizza and drinks for everyone. It’s not gonna do anyone any good in the long run, but it’s fun. Just enjoy it!
This may very well be the best stretch of Grimes’ career. He may have priced himself off the Sixers roster, though they should do everything to keep him. While his spot on the roster won’t be determined till the offseason, one thing is for sure: He will not be a No. 1 option again. This is undoubtedly a player’s peak, combined with a hot streak, and a 2016 Steph green light. We are watching Grimesanity.
Honorable Mentions:
Jared McCain the Runaway Rookie
Jared McCain: Gen-Z TikTok Star; Steph Curry Disciple; the 2024-2025 Rookie of the Year Runaway (November 2024-December 2024).
Philly’s first-round pick flew up ROTY leaderboards because he could shoot the piss off the ball and do it with a smile. It was a truly historic two-month rookie season. He broke the record for most made three-pointers in a player’s first five career starts. He joined Allen Iverson, Joel Embiid, Lee Shaffer and Jerry Stackhouse as the only rookies in franchise history to drop 20 points in at least seven straight games. He became the ninth rookie in NBA history with a 30-point, 10-assist game.
His season-ending injury wasn’t for sure the end of the Sixers season, but it may have been the moment we all realized it wasn’t gonna be fun.
Kyle Lowry: Veteran
In a considerable amount of his minutes, Kyle Lowry looked like a player in his final year. Though it is unconfirmed if he will retire, who would be surprised? The only reason he wouldn’t is because of the beautiful flashes of veteran game-controlling he flashed this season.
He was instrumental in the team’s Xmas Day victory over the Celtics (and a select few other games), has surely imparted invaluable knowledge onto McCain and Maxey, and still has a good flop or two in him.
Kyle Lowry was at his veteran best against the Celtics on Christmas Day.
He simply but beautifully orchestrated an offense that put Maxey in the kitchen and let him cook.
After being tied up to start the quarter, the 76ers were up 11 by the time he subbed out. Just enough to survive for a win.
Like a Great White Rhino wandering the African Sahara, Lowry is one of the final beautiful specimens of a beloved but dying breed. A possession-controlling, stout defending, gamesmanship-loving point guard. He’s had a fulfilling career, it’s a shame he goes out in a whimpering season.