76ers Season Grade: Evaluating Philadelphia’s Rollercoaster Year After Second-Round Sweep vs. Knicks

Well, it was fun while it lasted: the 76ers are out of the NBA postseason after losing to the No. 3-seeded Knicks in the conference semifinals. Although Philly managed to rise from a 3–1 series deficit and eliminate the No. 2-seeded Celtics in the first round, the Knicks proved too hot for the Sixers to handle and eliminated the Tyrese Maxey-led squad in a four-game sweep.

Although the length of the 76ers' playoff run comes as a surprise, the outcome itself does not. Yes, the Sixers enjoyed some excitement this season with the debut of rookie VJ Edgecombe and a star turn from Tyrese Maxey, but the team is just not on par with the Knicks, who have looked especially strong as of late. Add in Joel Embiid's back-and-forth availability, which has both helped and hurt the team, and an earlyish exit seemed just a bit inevitable.

With their 2025–26 campaign officially in the rearview, let's take a macro-level look at the Sixers' year, with grades for both the regular season and the postseason below.

76ers regular-season grade: B-

• Record: 45–37
• Eastern Conference finish: Seventh

All things considered, Philly had itself somewhat of a rebound year. After finishing the 2024–25 season at the bottom of the division with an abysmal 24 wins, the group picked up 45 dubs this go-around and ended just one victory behind the Raptors, who finished third in the Atlantic. Sure, fourth place isn't necessarily what you're aiming for ... but it's also hard when you're up against the Celtics and the Knicks.

There were wins on a roster level, as well. Guard Tyrese Maxey put up career-best numbers with an average of 28.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game, establishing himself as a possible All-NBA honoree down the line. Although he was still battling plenty of health issues, center Joel Embiid started 38 games—19 more than last campaign—and nonetheless averaged the second-most points on the team (26.9). Most importantly, third-overall pick VJ Edgecombe morphed into a household name, averaging the group's fourth-most points, third-most rebounds, and second-most assists on his way to becoming a finalist for Rookie of the Year.

Ideally, the team could've picked up a few extra wins down the stretch to pass Toronto; perhaps a healthy Embiid would have made the difference there. Paul George’s lengthy PED suspension that took him out for the second half of the year didn’t help. But even with contract issues (Embiid and George alone are slated to account for well over $100 million next season), Maxey's star turn and Edgecombe's debut are reasons to be at least a little optimistic about the future, and that deserves at least a B-.

76ers postseason grade: C

Although they fell flat in the second round, there is one positive takeaway here for the Sixers: at least they survived this long. Given the struggles the franchise has had as of late, the fact that the team was able to eliminate a red-hot Celtics squad (with Jayson Tatum back in the lineup, mind you) and make it to round two is pretty impressive, as trite as that sounds. The achievement is even more monumental when you consider that they did it while down three games to one.

But the effort vs. the Knicks was not as strong, and put quite a damper on the round-one win. The 76ers were blown out in two of their four games against New York, even when the opposition was without its second-leading postseason scorer in forward O.G. Anunoby. Worse yet, it all culminated in an abysmal Game 4, during which the Knicks took over the Sixers’ home turf in an embarrassment of literally historic proportions. So, although the team did indeed defy expectations by making it this far at all, a four-game sweep and an embarrassing point differential to close things out knocked them down a letter grade.

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