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Sixers Are Already Making the Sacrifices Needed to Go on a Championship Run

When a team as talented as the Sixers is fully bought in, scary things could happen.
Jacob Moreno|
Jan 27, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) celebrates with guard Tyrese Maxey (0) after their alley oop dunk connection against the Milwaukee Bucks during the second quarter at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Jan 27, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) celebrates with guard Tyrese Maxey (0) after their alley oop dunk connection against the Milwaukee Bucks during the second quarter at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Philadelphia 76ers

To win the NBA Finals, a team must make sacrifices. The Sixers are proving they are ready to embrace the challenge.

Philadelphia will enter the 2026-27 season with its highest expectations since winning the championship in 1983. After all, the Sixers added Jaylen Brown and LeBron James to their ranks and a lot of attention comes with that. So if they fall short, that spotlight could become blinding. 

Yet Philadelphia is ready to take on the storm headfirst as its stars have spent the summer adjusting their games and developing chemistry. If the Sixers continue with this trajectory, any talk of “there’s only one ball” will be silly come October. Perhaps they will have some hardware to show for it as well when it’s all said and done.

Adapting to different roles

Fast break opportunities will be Philadelphia’s ultimate strength, which is something no one understands better than Brown. He has lost seven pounds since the Boston Celtics traded him to the Sixers on July 1.

“Just to be a little more fast and nimble,” Brown said on his Twitch livestream on August 3. “I’ve got to keep up with Maxey and Edgecombe and LeBron this year. I feel great. I’m jumping higher and running faster.”

Tyrese Maxey, Brown and James led the NBA in total transition points last year, respectively, and Brown leaning into that further will be pivotal. The Sixers wield so much speed and athleticism that it would be a disservice not to try to play faster. Doing so could lead to sustained regular-season success. It is something Philadelphia wants to improve at too, as it ranked 15th league-wide in pace via Basketball Reference.

If a team negates the Sixers’ fast break play, they’ll have to contend against a leaner Joel Embiid instead.

“He’s in shape, he’s active, and he’s feeling much better to get out on the floor and to get in the weight room,” said Nick Nurse on NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Takeoff with John Clark on August 4.

Embiid has received problematic criticism for his weight in recent years. But the reality is that it’s hard to maintain elite conditioning when navigating long-term injuries—specifically knee injuries. Embiid, all things considered, was in good shape last season and the fact that he is seemingly thinner indicates that his left knee is not the nuisance it was in recent years.

Not to mention, a slimmer Embiid better suits Philadelphia. The Sixers no longer need him to score 30 or more points to win every night. His commanding more playmaking duties and pick-and-pop actions are more important to this team’s personnel. Embiid was already headed down this path as he posted a 33.5% usage rate last year—his lowest since 2019-20, according to Basketball Reference.

The camaraderie

What’s done off the court is just as important as on the floor and the Sixers are thriving in that regard as well.

Brown has been all over Philadelphia—literally—since his introductory press conference on August 6. He held the presser at a southwest Philadelphia recreation center instead of the Sixers’ practice facility to set himself in the community. What’s more, he invited dozens of local kids to attend.

That same day, Brown threw the first pitch at the Phillies game and then showed up at the Eagles’ training camp on Friday morning. Later that afternoon, he attended the Tyrese Maxey Foundation’s golf outing, an initiative Maxey launched in 2021 to uplift the community. Brown appeared at the Danny Rumph Classic, a charity basketball tournament in Philadelphia, that night.

This stuff matters.

Footage also surfaced of Embiid and VJ Edgecombe working out at the Sixers’ facility on August 6. It’s just one of many workouts Philadelphia has done this summer. Maxey and James put in work in July and Maxey also took the floor with Labaron Philon Jr. and others at Philadelphia’s facility on Saturday.

“Obviously, on paper we’re excellent,” Brown said in his first presser. “We have a lot of talent compared to other teams in the league, but I’ve been around a long time. Long enough to know that what you have on paper doesn’t really mean [anything]. 

“It can if you put the work in, but if you allow distractions, if you allow the media to get into your locker room, if you allow certain things and the personalities don’t work, it could be a detriment. So I’m aware that it could go either way.”

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Jacob Moreno
JACOB MORENO

Jacob Moreno is a Sports Media major at Temple University who aspires to become a 76ers beat writer. He previously contributed to The Sixer Sense and also covers Temple Athletics for The Temple News. He is a huge Marvel nerd and falls victim to expensive Lego sets.

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