5 Sixers thoughts: Reasons to watch the final games of a miserable season

It is time to begin another week with a collection of notes and tidbits on the Sixers, and somehow this will be the penultimate edition of 5 Sixers thoughts before the end of the regular season. In 14 days the Sixers will have just wrapped up their 82nd and final game.

With the team officially out of playoff contention for the first time since 2016-17, many would be resigned to the notion that its final seven games are meaningless. And while they will not have any immediate implications, there are reasons to watch these games if one is so inclined:

Adem Bona’s flashes 

In the month of March, Bona was able to discard a five-game absence caused by an ankle injury and show important growth around the edges of his game in a way that the rookie center needed to in order to strengthen his case for rotation minutes next season. Bona has progressed as a short-roll, 4-on-3 decision-maker, and now is cutting down on his comical foul rates pretty significantly. He has always had the frame, athleticism and motor, but Bona is now figuring out all of the little things he needs to do to accentuate those traits.

But at the end of a long season, why focus on improved defensive positioning or short-roll passing chops when you can just wait for a two-handed block like this?

There are ways to explain how Bona’s athleticism lends itself to productive two-way play. His aggressive rolls to the rim do not just open up alley-oop opportunities, but chances for point guards to kick out to open shooters. His mobility enables the Sixers to be more versatile with their defensive schematics. But in a macro sense, Bona is extremely fun to watch because on any given possession — on either end of the floor — he is capable of making a jaw-dropping play.

Quentin Grimes dazzling as an offensive engine 

The greatest silver lining of the last two months of Sixers basketball has clearly been Grimes, who arrived after the trade deadline as a 24-year-old with a terrific shooting stroke and strong defensive track record on the perimeter. He has since blossomed into a legitimately dynamic three-level scorer. Grimes has scored in bunches on tremendous efficiency marks despite being not just at the top of scouting reports but also largely sharing the floor with teammates who are far from established as NBA-caliber pieces.

Grimes started his torrid month of scoring with a 44-point masterpiece in a win over the Golden State Warriors, but the extent to which he has grown into a versatile threat to put the ball in the basket might have been on display the most in a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in which he found all sorts of different ways to put up points: 

For the basketball nerds out there, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse wants to see if Grimes can also turn himself into a stopgap option at point guard moving forward and says to expect Grimes to receive minutes at that spot before the season ends. Grimes has shown better passing skills than expected in his time as the Sixers’ offensive engine:

And, for the people who just would like to be entertained, tons of these Grimes performances have been quite fun to watch. Not just because of the stellar shot-making and what it could mean for the long-term future of the organization, but also because of what is represents in the grand scheme of things. Time and time again, visiting head coaches talk about Grimes being the beneficiary of a tremendous opportunity and making the most of it. For someone who has been traded three times in four years to break out like Grimes has, finally cementing himself as part of an organization’s future, is a great story.

Justin Edwards’ scoring development

Edwards, the 21-year-old undrafted rookie who quickly parlayed a brief opportunity to play into a conversion from a two-way contract to a standard NBA deal, is undeniably part of the Sixers’ future at this point. Edwards does not possess outlier athleticism, but he has enough to get by because his feel for the game on both ends of the floor is tremendous.

Right off the bat, Edwards was able to present as a rotation-caliber wing who is trustworthy on offense and defense, an accomplishment in itself. But as injuries elsewhere on the roster piled up and Edwards’ leash extended as a scorer, the former five-star recruit started to rely on his pedigree as a high-usage player. He is never going to be a go-to scorer in the NBA, but as a role player who does not need the ball to be helpful, any sort of quick-trigger scoring ability will make him even more valuable.

Edwards’ leap as a scorer over the last month feels real — not because he is going to command the sort of offensive workload he has held down consistently while playing with star-caliber talent in the NBA, but because it is easy to observe how much more comfortable the hometown product seems getting to his spots and dealing with different defensive coverages.

When the Sixers take the floor for their 2025-26 season opener, Edwards will almost certainly be in their rotation. He is a very valuable commodity, and any sort of accelerated development he experiences will have a material impact on the team moving forward. That is why Nurse has been playing him as many minutes as he can handle with an ankle that is still not quite 100 percent.

MORE: Edwards is guarding the NBA’s best players, and ‘he’s not backing down at all’

2025-26 roster battles getting early starts

Many, many folks have understandably thrown in the towel with the 2024-25 Sixers. But the 2025-26 Sixers begin their journey in only six months, and these final seven games will continue to bolster the sample sizes on players with interesting cases to be part of next season’s roster.

There is Jared Butler, who has given the Sixers quality point guard minutes over the last handful of games. Is he a nightly rotation piece on a team that will return Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain, among other ball-dominant players? Likely not. But as a change-of-pace ball-handler who can step into the rotation whenever needed, Butler has clear utility — especially if his recent shooting surge proves to be a sign of things to come:

Then there is Lonnie Walker IV, who boarded a last-minute flight from Lithuania to make his NBA return and was building real momentum for himself before suffering a concussion. Walker expressed confidence he could find that groove again, and did just that with a 23-point performance on Sunday. Walker’s three-point volume might give him such a useful floor offensively that the Sixers feel compelled to bring him back:

And, as frustrating and disappointing as this season has been for Ricky Council IV, just when someone is ready to sell their stock in the second-year wing he has a tantalizing performance. Council needs to make drastic and sudden shifts to his decision-making process to earn the trust of his coaches, and with a non-guaranteed salary next season, nothing is promised. But he hopes to string together a few more quality games — he played well on Sunday — and reestablish himself as a prospect worth investing in:

All three of these players are in the same boat. While Council has a non-guaranteed salary for 2025-26, Butler and Walker have team options in their contracts.

Opposing teams and stars 

And, for what it’s worth, the Sixers are not playing against each other. They have played in a few tank battles recently, and have a few more left on their schedule. But superstars like Anthony Edwards and Giannis Antetokounmpo will be coming to town in just the next week. So will the Chicago Bulls, who looked completely rudderless after the trade deadline, then handed the Sixers their most embarrassing defeat of the season and have since turned into a genuinely enjoyable team that plays an up-tempo style and has given people fits during a Play-In Tournament race.

At the end of the day, it is all basketball. And even if it is not basketball being played at the level we have come to expect around these parts at this time of the year, it is not some sort of horrid product. If you have had your fill of Sixers basketball this season, nobody would blame you. But there are absolutely things worth watching between now and April 13.

MORE: What happens if Sixers tie with Brooklyn Nets in NBA Draft Lottery standings?

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