The preseason ran one more game past where the last update left off. On October 16, Philadelphia lost 120-125 at home to Boston. Joel Embiid scored 27 and Tyrese Maxey added 22. That is Philadelphia's third preseason loss against one win, with the team's actual record still 0-0 ahead of the regular season.
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The roster turned over again. On October 16, Duke Miles and Saint Thomas both left the team, and Taye Fields and Cris Carroll both joined. That is separate from the September 21 exits of Kyle Lowry, MarJon Beauchamp, and Tyrese Martin, which still have no logged replacement.
A batch of veterans cleared the injury report around the Celtics game. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who had gone back to Day-To-Day for rest on October 10, was cleared on October 16. Jaylen Brown and Joel Embiid, both Day-To-Day for rest since October 10, were also cleared on October 16. LeBron James was cleared on October 16 as well, but a second entry the same day listed him Day-To-Day again. VJ Edgecombe went from not listed to Day-To-Day for rest on October 16, then was listed Day-To-Day again on October 17 before being cleared later that same day.
Two situations moved in the other direction. Dean Wade went from not listed to Day-To-Day with an ankle and leg issue on October 16, a new entry. Anfernee Simons, who had carried a vague rest or undisclosed Day-To-Day tag since October 5, was updated on October 12 to a more specific Day-To-Day tag for a hamstring and leg issue. He has not been cleared since.
The longer-running injury cases have not changed. Ariel Hukporti is still Out with the right Achilles issue first logged on October 6, with no update since. Adem Bona is still Day-To-Day with the foot and leg issue first logged on September 17, with no update since. Tacko Fall is still carrying the Day-To-Day hip, torso, and left-side tag from October 1, with no health clearance logged. But on October 17, the Sixers converted Fall to a two-way contract, a roster move that does not by itself resolve his injury status.
So the picture heading toward the regular season is this: a 1-3 preseason stretch with the Celtics loss as the latest result, a round of veteran injury tags that mostly cleared, a new ankle issue for Wade, a sharpened hamstring tag for Simons, a swapped-out bench with Fields and Carroll in for Miles and Thomas, and three open injury cases — Hukporti, Bona, and Fall — that still have no clearance. The record stays 0-0 until the games that count begin.
Open storylines
as of Sun, Oct 18He has been Out with a right Achilles issue since October 6, with no update since.
He has been Day-To-Day with a foot and leg issue since September 17, with no update since.
He was converted to a two-way contract on October 17, but his hip, torso, and left-side Day-To-Day tag from October 1 has not been cleared.
His Day-To-Day status was updated on October 12 to a hamstring and leg issue, and he has not been cleared since.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Tyrese Maxey (9.9 wins without him), VJ Edgecombe (5.0 wins without him), LeBron James (2.8 wins without him), Dean Wade (2.6 wins without him) and Dominick Barlow (1.5 wins without him): on/off from 2025-26, details under Injuries. Computed Fri, Oct 23; the method is on the methods page.
The race
Eastern Conference · 80 games leftNext 5: vs Bucks0%vs Pistons100%at Pacers100%vs Knicks0%at Hornets100%opponents win 60% of their games on average
Standings and games back are from the official table; the pace is the current record carried over 82 games, nothing more.
Day by day
18 days on the recordEarlier on the record14 more days · back to Thu, Sep 17
The franchise
Every season since the start →Public record →Nowupdated 2026-10-19
Nick Nurse is entering his third season as head coach, and the roster looks almost nothing like the one he inherited. Last season the 76ers went 45-37, finishing with a net rating of -0.1, ranking 18th in the league, with offense and defense both ranked 16th of 30. Joel Embiid managed only 38 games but still averaged 26.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists, while Tyrese Maxey carried the offense with 28.3 points and 6.6 assists across 70 games. The headline change came this off-season: Philadelphia traded Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to Boston for Jaylen Brown, then signed LeBron James to a two-year, $8 million deal on July 27, 2026. That pairs Brown's 28.7 points and Embiid's low-post scoring with Maxey and rookie guard VJ Edgecombe, who logged 16.0 points and 5.6 rebounds in his first year. The payroll sits at $213.2 million across 18 contracts, above the first apron of $209.0 million, with Embiid ($58.1M), Brown ($57.1M) and Maxey ($40.8M) as the biggest numbers. Kyle Lowry departed as a free agent on September 21. The 76ers hold their own first-round picks in 2027 and 2030, a protected 2028 first, and a 2029 first-round swap, giving the front office some flexibility even while paying the tax.
Identity and rivalries112 words
This is a franchise built around Embiid's post scoring and Maxey's speed, now layered with Brown's wing scoring and James's playmaking, a roster Nurse has to balance across four ball-dominant scorers. The 76ers' longest-standing rival is Boston, a series defined by playoff second-round exits in recent years and now sharpened by the trade that sent Paul George to the Celtics for Brown. New York is the other team that has repeatedly ended Philadelphia's season, including a second-round sweep this past May that led to Daryl Morey's firing. Every meeting with either team now carries the weight of recent playoff history and, with Boston, the added storyline of Brown facing his former team.
Home, owners and numbers81 words
The 76ers play in Philadelphia, a city whose basketball history runs through Julius Erving, Allen Iverson, Charles Barkley and Andre Iguodala. The organization's retired numbers and Hall of Fame names, including Erving and Barkley, hang as a reminder of the franchise's championship pedigree from an earlier era. The current uniform set traces its look back to the 1960s "PHILA" wordmark and 1970s star-striping, with City Edition designs drawing on Philadelphia's Revolutionary War history, the Liberty Bell, and the Allen Iverson era.
What they are chasing96 words
With Embiid, Brown, Maxey and James now sharing one roster, the 76ers are chasing a return to the conference finals and, beyond that, a championship that has eluded the franchise since the Barkley and Iverson years never delivered one. The team sits above the first apron at $213.2 million, raising the question of how long ownership is willing to pay the tax for this core. Fans argue over how Nurse divides shots and minutes among four stars, and over how much basketball a 41-year-old LeBron James and an injury-prone Embiid can realistically still give this season.
The long view445 words
The franchise began in 1946, when Italian immigrant Danny Biasone founded the Syracuse Nationals of the National Basketball League for $5,000. The Nationals joined the NBA in the 1949 merger and won their first championship in 1955, beating the Fort Wayne Pistons in seven games on a George King free throw and steal. In 1963, investors Irv Kosloff and Ike Richman bought the team and moved it to Philadelphia, filling the gap left by the Warriors' departure to San Francisco. A naming contest picked "76ers," submitted by Walter Stalberg in reference to the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence in the city; "Sixers" stuck as the informal short form.
The 76ers won a second title in 1967, led by Wilt Chamberlain, Billy Cunningham and Hal Greer under coach Alex Hannum. That team started 46-4 and finished 68-13, the best record in league history at the time, and was voted the greatest team in NBA history during the league's 35th-anniversary celebration in 1980. A third championship came in 1983, led by Julius Erving and Moses Malone. The 76ers reached the Finals again in 2001 behind Allen Iverson, losing in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Chamberlain, a former Overbrook High School star in Philadelphia, defined the team's early Philadelphia years before being traded to the Lakers after the 1967-68 season for Archie Clark, Darrall Imhoff and Jerry Chambers. The decline that followed bottomed out in 1971-72, when the 76ers finished 30-52 and missed the playoffs for the first time in team history, just five years removed from the title. The organization's roll of Hall of Famers includes Chamberlain, Erving, Malone, Iverson, Dolph Schayes, Hal Greer, Chet Walker, Billy Cunningham, George McGinnis, Maurice Cheeks, Bobby Jones and Charles Barkley. Five 76ers have won a combined seven MVP awards: Chamberlain, Erving, Malone, Iverson and Joel Embiid.
Co-owner Ike Richman died of a heart attack courtside during a game at the Boston Garden on December 3, 1965. The Celtics were the team's recurring playoff obstacle through the Syracuse and early Philadelphia years, repeatedly ending Nationals and 76ers seasons in the division finals through the 1950s and 1960s, including a quadruple-overtime playoff loss in 1953 that remains the longest game in NBA history.
Home courts have included the Philadelphia Arena, the Civic Center-Convention Hall and the Palestra before the move to the Spectrum in 1967-68; the 76ers now play at Xfinity Mobile Arena in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The team competes in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference, carrying a name rooted in the city's Revolutionary-era history and a Hall of Fame lineage running from Schayes and Chamberlain through Erving, Malone, Barkley and Iverson to Embiid.