There’s little doubt the strength of the 2025-26 Sixers will be the play of their four young guards. But what if that’s not enough?
If Joel Embiid and Paul George are unable to play consistently in 2025-26, Tyrese Maxey, Quentin Grimes, Jared McCain and VJ Edgecombe will be your four best players on most nights.
(Even if those two aging stars are healthy, there will likely be nights where that’s the case.)
A reader question sparked my curiosity when they proposed a very realistic scenario: what if all four of the guards are awesome, but the Sixers struggle overall because of a weak frontcourt? Can they do something as soon as the deadline to remedy the situation?
If this scenario plays out where Maxey returns to All-Star form, Grimes and McCain prove their small-sample outbursts weren’t flukes, and Edgecombe looks every bit like a future star … great! That’s exactly what you want to happen.
The trickier part comes if Adem Bona and Justin Edwards don’t take leaps in their second years, Johni Broome struggles adjusting to the NBA, and free-agent signees Trendon Watford, Jabari Walker and Dominick Barlow fail to make a meaningful difference.
So, what does Daryl Morey do at the trade deadline if the four guards shine but the team finds itself out of the playoff picture? What he should do is be opportunistic.
The Sixers have a logjam at guard. It’s no secret. Surely Nick Nurse will use three-guard lineups and try to get all four of those guys on the floor as much as possible, but those lineups will present their own problems, especially defensively and on the glass. If the team is drawing dead at the deadline, they should tread lightly.
Trading one of those four young guards simply to break up the bottleneck would be a mistake. The only way the team should even entertain a deal is if a starting-caliber wing or big (strongly, preferably under the age of 25) becomes available.
The most obvious player of the four guards to trade is Grimes. That isn’t a slight against Grimes. It’s actually the opposite. Once Grimes and the team resolve their restricted free agency differences, the 25-year-old will likely be locked into a short-term deal in the $15-18 million range. If Grimes looks like he did last season, an acquiring team would be getting a starting-caliber two-way wing who hasn’t even reached his prime on a team-friendly deal. That should be attractive to just about every team in the NBA.
It’s harder to envision a world where the team trades one of Maxey, McCain or Edgecombe.
Maxey has become a franchise cornerstone and is already leading a cultural shift in the organization. Some folks floated around the idea of moving Maxey after the Memphis Grizzlies got a haul for Desmond Bane. With respect to Bane, Maxey means a whole lot more to the Sixers franchise than Bane did in Memphis.
McCain is still so young (21) and if he builds on his 23-game sample from last season, that’s not a player you should be eager to move. McCain averaged 15.3 points while shooting 38.3% from three on 5.8 attempts. How many rookies have averaged at least 15 points while shooting at least 38% on over 5.5 attempts from deep in NBA history? One. Jared McCain.
Edgecombe … yeah, they’re not trading Edgecombe.
Given all that, Grimes makes the most sense. It’s worth noting you wouldn’t be able to move him until Jan. 15 because of his new contract. If you combine Grimes’ cap hit, wherever it lands, with the salaries of Kelly Oubre, Jr. ($8.3 million) and Andre Drummond ($5 million), you enter into some intriguing conversations.
Again, though, there is no reason to be in a hurry to move off a guy like Grimes while he might just be scratching the surface of the player he will ultimately become. You better be getting a damn good player(s) and they better fit a major need.
If Embiid and George aren’t able to play and produce consistently, it will mostly be a lost season anyway. Let the guards run wild and the market play out.