Four Sixers Make the Cut in B/R's Updated Top 99 NBA Players

With the NBA returning from the All-Star break tonight, Bleacher Report dropped an updated list of the league's top players today.

Four Sixers made the cut this time around.

In B/R's inaugural list at the beginning of the season, Joel Embiid was ranked highest of any Sixers player at No. 26, while Tyrese Maxey wasn't far behind at No. 31. Paul George (No. 52) was the only other Sixers player to appear in the top 100 overall.

In the latest version, Maxey shot up to No. 11 overall, Embiid landed at No. 25, George plummeted to No. 92, and VJ Edgecombe made his debut at No. 91.

Maxey's rise is the biggest story here. He's now sandwiched between Stephen Curry (!) and Jaylen Brown and is ahead of Jalen Brunson, Kevin Durant, James Harden and Devin Booker.

Here's how B/R's Dan Favale began his writeup about Maxey:

"Tyrese Maxey has come to personify coordinated chaos. He has taken the blazing speed at which he's always played and perfected the integration of unpredictable downshifting, forcing defenses into impossible situations.

"A more comprehensive shot profile further disjoints anyone who lines up in front of him. There is not a level from which he can't score. Once upon a time, you wondered whether his jumper was predicated on taking minimal dribbles. Not anymore. He and fifth in unassisted triples."

Favale concluded that not only should Maxey be a shoo-in for his first-ever All-NBA nod—an argument that we made in late December as well—but that he's "flirting with the top-10-star" conversation.

Why the other Sixers landed where they did

Unlike The Ringer, which did not include Embiid on its Top 100 list heading into the season, B/R had Embiid fairly high coming into the year. He's lived up to those expectations in recent weeks.

Favale wrote that "flickers of [Embiid's] former dominance have become more commonplace as the season wears on," but he added that "it's clear he's never going to be the same player who staked his claim to numerous MVP races." Even the most ardent Embiid stan would acknowledge that he isn't quite the same in terms of rebounding or defense as he was in his prime, although he has become almost automatic from the mid-range again.

Luckily, the emergence of Maxey and Edgecombe make Embiid's step back far more palatable.

Edgecombe has been a revelation for the Sixers this year. He immediately burst onto the scene with a historic start and has already become one of the NBA's most go-to players in crunch-time situations. That's extremely rare for any rookie, much less one on a team with legitimate playoff aspirations.

That tends to overshadow his versatility on defense, which was supposed to be his calling card coming into the NBA.

"Edgecombe deserves more praise for his defensive toughness," Favale wrote. "Not many rookies can cover stars ranging from Jalen Brunson to Donovan Mitchell and mostly hold their own. He does, and in doing so, he's given the Philadelphia 76ers not just their 2-guard of the future, but also their present."

For George, B/R's Andy Bailey wrote that he "clearly isn't playing up to the value of his hefty contract." However, he added that "it's hard not to praise what he's done this season" if you separate his contract from his play.

"With Tyrese Maxey's breakout and Joel Embiid's revitalization, PG accepted a supporting role," Bailey wrote. "And there, his outside shooting, secondary creation and defensive experience were huge assets" for the Sixers.

When George received his 25-game suspension, Sixers players up and down the roster were bemoaning how much they'd miss him on defense in particular. Although he isn't a nightly threat to score 25-plus points per game anymore, he's taken up the leadership mantle on the less glamorous end of the court and remains a legitimate difference-maker there.

George is suspended until late March, so he won't have much time to convince B/R's voters that he deserves to move higher in the end-of-season edition of this list. But Maxey, Embiid and Edgecombe still have roughly two months to jockey with other NBA stars for their respective positions.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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