76ers End 2025-26 Season Defined by Injuries and Wasted Potential

If I had to describe the 2025-26 Philadelphia 76ers in one phrase, I feel like the best option to say would be, “what could’ve been.”

Another regular season has come for the 76ers, and it’s another season where it’s unlikely they will hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy in the air. Like every season, it had its highs and its lows, and despite improving their record by 21 wins compared to last season, this year will still be seen as a big disappointment for Philadelphia.

All in all, the 76ers finished the year 45-37, which was good enough for seventh place in the Eastern Conference, locking them in the Play-In Tournament with a game at home against the Orlando Magic for a chance to keep their seventh spot in the standings.

On paper, it sounds like a pretty good year, but when you consider the fact that the 76ers were well within the top of the Eastern Conference for the first half of the year, even being the fifth seed back in the middle of January, falling to the Play-In isn’t the best thing.

In the first half of the year, the 76ers were an incredible story. Tyrese Maxey was an MVP frontrunner, Paul George was playing serviceable basketball, VJ Edgecombe looked like the Rookie of the Year and a superstar in the making, and the team had a serviceable bench.

Maxey was the big one for the team, who averaged 32.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 7.2 assists through his first 21 games of the season. The point guard led the league in scoring for the first two months of the season, filling in the superstar No. 1 option role for the 76ers, who lacked that as Joel Embiid was playing, but was still working his way back to 100% from his knee injury.

The 76ers essentially stole the No. 3 pick in the 2025 draft after punting the 2024-25 and with that pick, they chose Edgecombe, a pick some didn’t love, but Edgecombe proved to be worth the choice right away. Edgecombe burst out, dropping a 34-point debut performance in a 117-116 win against the Celtics to open the season. He posted 20 points or more in 10 of his first 29 games, looking like the buddy star guard next to Maxey in the backcourt.

So with the team nearing the top of the East, the big story entering the middle of the year was the reemergence of an MVP-caliber Embiid near the middle of the season. He opened up the season not looking like his usual self, dropping multiple games with under 20 points, looking weak in the legs, and not really having his usual Embiid shot down.

However, once the new year hit, 2026 Embiid looked like the Joel we all knew and loved. The big man was dropping 30+ point, 8+ rebound games like it was nothing, averaging 30.1 points and 8.2 rebounds between December 30th and February 7th.

The 76ers were 13-5 in those games Embiid played in, showing the league that this all-healthy team was ready to compete, and Embiid was telling the 76ers front office not to duck the cap at the trade deadline and make a move to compete.

And the 76ers, being the 76ers, did the exact opposite, ducking the cap, trading away a young asset in Jared McCain, and not really improving the team. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, George was being suspended for 25 games due to a positive PED test.

The injuries also began stacking up as Embiid went down with an oblique strain, missing time between the end of February and late March, and Maxey suffered a finger injury that took him out. The team began spiraling with the “Big Three” going on long losing streaks, falling all the way down into the Play-In.

They all worked back from the injuries to keep the team afloat, but the big injury news came right before wrapping up the regular season, as it was announced that Embiid would need emergency appendicitis surgery, which is placing him out for the next number of weeks heading into the playoffs.

Of all the things that could’ve kept Embiid out of the postseason healthy and 100%, appendicitis was the thing that prevented that. It’s a gut punch to a team that was getting healthy and maybe had the chance to make a run in the playoffs.

Now their season isn’t over, as they have their date set for Wednesday against the Magic to earn a first-round matchup against the Boston Celtics. However, if Embiid can’t make his miracle return, beating the Celtics in a seven-game series is almost an impossible task, something they’ve never done with Embiid and haven’t done since 1982.

Throughout the year, the 76ers showed you what a healthy version of their team was capable of. A starting five of Maxey, Edgecombe, George, Dominick Barlow, and Embiid, all healthy, is one of the best teams in not only the Eastern Conference but arguably a top team in the entire NBA.

They can shoot the three, play solid defense, rebound well enough, score in bunches, and any of those guys can lead the team in scoring when necessary. It was the vision that the team believed when they brought in George two summers ago in free agency, a big three, now really a big four with Edgecombe, that could deal some damage in a postseason.

However, the same thing happens to the 76ers every season since “The Process” began. Injuries or missed games from top stars, a solid month where they are unwatchable, and then come the playoffs, where they lose a scrappy series and hope that next season is different.

They’re stuck in a rut, an endless cycle of non-top-tier basketball, and their window to complete the process and bring the championship to Philadelphia with Embiid is quickly shrinking. While there’s still hope that Embiid can return during the playoffs and the 76ers can go on a run, it seems like we’ll have to wait another year to see if the 76ers can win it all.

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