Dean Wade And Anfernee Simons Set To Begin Battle For 76ers’ Sixth-Man Spot

Who would you consider the Philadelphia 76ers’ sixth man heading into the 2026-27 season? Dean Wade or Anfernee Simons.

The upcoming NBA season is lining up to be an exciting one, maybe the most exciting 76ers season of all time. The team is coming off an offseason that included arguably the biggest signing in franchise history, bringing LeBron James to Philadelphia, while also trading Paul George for Jaylen Brown.

Brown and James team up with VJ Edgecombe, Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid to create one of, if not the best, starting lineups in the entire league. If healthy, the 76ers will be one of the real threats to win the championship, ending the 40+ year deficit the franchise has faced.

While the starting lineup is set to be great, one thing that has been slightly overlooked and still has question marks is the bench. Now, how important is a bench to a championship team? Starters usually play 40+ minutes in the postseason, so who really needs bench players?

Look to the recent champions, the New York Knicks. The Knicks, while having a dominant starting lineup of their own, valued their bench and fringe bench players, using their skills to the max to help bring the team their first title since 1973.

Players like Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson, Mitchell Robinson and Jose Alvarado were key contributors for the Knicks all postseason long. Whether it was a clutch three, a huge rebound, a tough defensive stop, or just giving their starters a few minutes of rest and a few minutes of buckets to help give them the rest they’d need

Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby were able to better do their roles and be the dominant stars that they are thanks to the great play from their bench options, essentially giving them multiple six-man options.

Then you look at the opposite end with the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers’ bench in the 2025-26 playoffs was essentially nonexistent, to the point where they scored just 10 points over nine quarters in their series against New York and were outscored all postseason 394-224 in bench points.

Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe were playing nearly the entire game due to the poor bench play, and their exhaustion took over the deeper the series went. Shots were coming up short, and scoring runs became harder and harder, eventually resulting in the team getting swept.

So while they went out this offseason and got better in the starting lineup, a real improvement was finding two players who will battle for the team’s “six-man” spot as their top player off the bench.

Dean Wade and Anfernee Simons were both signed to multi-year deals to help bring depth and veteran presence to a team that was lacking it following the loss of Kelly Oubre Jr and Quentin Grimes. Both players are here for the remainder of this team’s current stretch of going in to win, with James signing his two-year deal before likely retiring, and over those seasons Wade and Simons will battle out for the official title of the team’s sixth-man.

While Dean was originally brought in to serve as the starter at power forward for the 76ers, the signing of James has vaulted Wade to the bench, only increasing the team’s depth.

Wade has been a fantastic story during his eight years in the league, starting as a two-way contract player before eventually moving into a full-blown support player for the Cavaliers over the past few years. His minutes continued to rise year after year, eventually reaching the 20s, and the minutes eventually turned into a starting role for a stacked Cleveland team.

With Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen taking care of the majority of scoring, Wade fell into the role of being the defense-first player, usually taking the role of guarding the opposing team’s go-to options that weren’t centers.

His low foul rate and excellent length and disruption have made him the perfect partner for a guy like VJ Edgecombe when the 76ers want to run heavy defense. His scoring comes in spurts, but Wade can hold his own shooting from anywhere on the floor.

Simons, on the other hand, has been one of the league’s most underutilized scorers for a number of seasons now. During his time with the Trail Blazers, Simons was the young rookie scoring option alongside Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, helping them navigate their way through the playoffs. Following his rookie contract, Simons signed a four-year, $100 million extension with Portland, where his production only improved.

Simons averaged 21.1, 22.6 and 19.3 points per game in his final three seasons in Portland, before being dealt to Boston in exchange for Jrue Holliday. Simons moved to the bench following the trade, as the Celtics already had too many guards to play in the starting lineup, but he worked great during the minutes he received, averaging 14.2 points over 24.5 minutes

He was dealt to Chicago for the remainder of last season as Boston traded him for much-needed center depth, but during the offseason, he decided to take a bit of a pay cut to come to Philadelphia and help give them a reliable guard scoring option off the bench that they’ve desperately needed last year.

It will make it so that if Maxey, Edgecombe, and Brown are going through a dry spell, they can switch things up and get a different run from a player in the backcourt. Those players will be playing heavy minutes come playoffs, but better regulating them with Simons is a huge factor that will only help them the deeper they go in the playoffs.

Starting lineups get all the talk, and rightfully so, as they will contribute the most when it comes down to it come playoff time. However, there will be a moment during said playoff time when a run is needed from another player or a tough stop is needed from a fresh pair of legs.

It was a reason the 76ers could hang with the big boys in seasons past, but looking ahead to the new season, it seems as though the team may have found options to fill those voids that cost them heavily last year.

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