Playoff Prospects: Can Tyrese Maxey Succeed Where Joel Embiid Has Failed In Philly?

In this series, we’ll take a look at each NBA team that’s gunning for a deep playoff run. We’ll try to predict the players that will have the biggest impact, as well as the ceiling for each squad in the 2026 postseason.

For a decade, the Philadelphia 76ers have been Joel Embiid’s team.

From the lowlights of “The Process” to highly touted tandems with Ben Simmons and James Harden, Embiid has been carrying the Sixers on his back for a long time. Though Embiid has reached some impressive peaks, foremost of which was his MVP season in 2022-23, his era with the Sixers has run into an unfortunate ceiling.

12 years into his NBA career, Embiid has not even reached the Eastern Conference Finals.

After missing out on the playoffs last season, the Sixers have another opportunity to reach the conference finals for the first time since Allen Iverson’s crew in 2001. Though they’re locked in a fierce battle with the Toronto Raptors for the last outright playoff spot in the East, it’s likely that they’ll win this duel at the tail end of the season.

This time around, though, there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that Embiid is no longer the center of Philly’s gravity.

It’s Tyrese Maxey’s team now.

As far as traditional statistics go, Maxey leads the Sixers in multiple categories: scoring (28.6 ppg), assists (6.7), steals (1.9), and free throw percentage (89.0%). On top of that, the analytics also indicate that Maxey is the best player in Philadelphia, whether that’s through win shares or box plus/minus.

Perhaps the simplest metric pointing to Maxey’s succession of Embiid is the number of games played. Due to various injuries, Embiid has not even played half of the Sixers’ games this season, while Maxey has been available for a significantly larger chunk of the 2025-26 campaign.

At 25 years old, Maxey is in a prime position to lead the Sixers into the future, starting with the 2026 playoffs.

The Sixers are by no means a two-man show. Last summer, they had the good fortune of drafting another young piece that will anchor their future.

When VJ Edgecombe played his first NBA game as a 76er, he wasted no time introducing the rest of the league to his explosive skill set. As a matter of fact, his 34-point performance on October 22, 2025, is the best scoring output ever logged by a Sixers rookie in his debut outing.

On a team that has Maxey, Embiid, Paul George, and a number of other veterans, Edgecombe has consistently ranked within the Sixers’ top five in terms of scoring. The 20-year-old also crashes the boards and sets up other teammates for scoring opportunities, validating the Sixers’ decision to draft him third overall last year.

If Edgecombe rises to the occasion in playoff time, the Sixers will become an even more potent threat.

If the Sixers do secure the no. 6 spot, they’ll be writing the latest chapter in a longstanding rivalry with the New York Knicks. In the end, though, the deadly combination of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Josh Hart (who reached the Eastern Conference Finals last year) can help steady the ship for the Knicks and lead to the downfall of the Sixers.