The Sixers still have health concerns, which justify their middle-of-the-road projection

For a moment, forget the stuff about restricted free agent Quentin Grimes returning to the 76ers. That move is expected.

The real question is how competitive the team will be this season.

Will it again become one of the Eastern Conference’s elite teams? Or will Father Time, injuries, and lack of roster flexibility prevent the Sixers from contending?

We will get our answer once the 2025-26 season is underway in a few months. But an early projection has them in the middle of the pack in what is expected to be a wide-open conference.

NBA.com ranks the Sixers as the East’s seventh-best team in the website’s offseason power rankings, which were released Monday.

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If that prediction comes true, the Sixers will be bound for the NBA Play-in Tournament for the second time in three seasons.

They lost in the first round of the 2024 playoffs after advancing through the play-in. The Sixers had their string of seven consecutive playoff appearances snapped last season while tanking the final two months.

However, NBA.com has them listed behind the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, and Milwaukee Bucks in the power rankings.

The top six finishers in the Eastern and Western conferences automatically advance to the playoffs. The teams in seventh through 10th place will compete in the play-in tourney for the final two postseason berths.

But …

“I do think it’s open in the East,” Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey told a group of 10 reporters earlier this month at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. “I think that’s a fair characterization. … I think we have to give respect to some of the teams last year like Cleveland, who obviously lost in the second round of the playoffs, but are set up very well. The Knicks look like they’re going to have their group back, and they were a very good team last year.

“We’re going to have to prove that we’re sort of with those upper-echelon teams in the East. But we do feel like if all things come together, we can be right there, and we’ve also given ourselves a lot of flexibility to upgrade the team during the year if things are going as well as we hope.”

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The conference is wide-open next season thanks largely to the Achilles tendon injuries of Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum and Indiana Pacers All-Star Tyrese Haliburton. With Tatum out, the 2024 NBA champions made drastic roster moves and underwent a semi-rebuild to get under the second luxury-tax apron.

In addition to losing Haliburton, the NBA Finals runner-up Pacers also lost center Myles Turner in free agency to the Bucks.

As a result, the Cavs and Knicks are the conference’s teams to beat.

The Sixers did add some excitement when they selected guard VJ Edgecombe with the third pick in June’s NBA draft. They also got younger while adding depth at the forward position with the signings of Trendon Watford, 24, and two-way players Dominick Barlow, 22, and Jabari Walker, who turns 23 on Wednesday.

The problem is that Edgecombe, who turns 20 on Wednesday, is still a developing player, and none of the three forward additions is considered a starter-level player on a contending team.

The new acquisitions don’t change the fact that the team’s success is dependent on Joel Embiid’s health. And he might not be ready to return from April’s arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

A season ago, the 2023 MVP and seven-time All-Star missed the entire preseason and the first six games while managing a left knee injury, then served a three-game suspension before ultimately appearing in just 19 contests.

Meanwhile, the Sixers will be cautious with Paul George, who had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on July 14, leading to speculation about whether he’ll be ready by the start of the season.

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All of this comes after the forward was ruled out for the remainder of the 2024-25 season on March 17, the day he received injections in the left adductor muscle in his groin and left knee.

The big question for the Sixers, as NBA.com points out, is how much George, 35, has left.

The nine-time All-Star forward is coming off one of his worst seasons. We will find out this season if that was the result of injuries or Father Time.

The Sixers also lacked continuity and struggled on the defensive end. And it is no secret that having $106.8 million tied up in Embiid ($55.2 million) and George ($51.6 million) made it impossible to add the free agents on lucrative salaries needed to make an immediate impact.

Meanwhile, the Knicks (Jordan Clarkson, former Sixer Guerschon Yabusele), Magic (Desmond Bane, Tyus Jones), Pistons (Caris LeVert, Duncan Robinson), and Hawks (Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Luke Kennard, Kristaps Porziņģis) made roster upgrades following postseason appearances.

So it only makes sense that the Sixers are viewed as a middle-of-the-pack team at this time.