Sixers’ first preseason game reveals need for Quentin Grimes, Trendon Watford to return — and fast

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For the most part, preseason basketball games aren’t a platform where you can make sweeping judgments. A regular season is 82 games long, which means the avenue to evolution can be a long one for a team capable of making adjustments. A team that starts the season in October is often a different team by the time April rolls around.

What we can take from the Philadelphia 76ers’ 99-84 opening loss to the New York Knicks in that respect, and others, is very little. The Sixers shot 2-of-33 from 3-point range. An NBA team rarely shoots that poorly. The Sixers were missing several key stars and rotation players who will prove important to what they’re trying to accomplish. So, there’s no need to panic at some of the offensive futility the Sixers displayed Thursday, particularly in the second and third quarters.

What is concerning is how clearly this roster needs more of the sum of its parts to reach its overall ceiling. We learned that last season when Philadelphia folded under the continued absence of Joel Embiid and Paul George. The players the 76ers were without Thursday afternoon, for one reason or another, included Embiid, George, Trendon Watford, Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain. Missing five guys at the top of the rotation normally means a team is in for some struggles, especially in a preseason opener in which running a smooth offense can be fleeting.

But imagine we are three weeks into the future and the Sixers are lining up to face the Boston Celtics. Of those five players, how many are guaranteed to be ready for opening night and beyond? Grimes is one. He just came to terms on a one-year deal to return to the fold and will be ready for Philadelphia’s next practice, when it returns stateside from its trip to Abu Dhabi. He figures to have a good chance to be in the starting lineup on opening night. Watford should be available, too. Head coach Nick Nurse said this week that Watford is getting close to a return, and he even hoped to have him back in action this week.

final. @cryptocom pic.twitter.com/naAPIT5P00

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) October 2, 2025

McCain just had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his wrist, and his re-evaluation date falls past opening night, so we know he won’t be back. And the potential returns of Embiid and George are ambiguous. They are both trending in the right direction, though. Embiid, especially, has gotten to the point where he is practicing on a reasonably consistent basis, and George is close to returning to practice. But until they are on the floor in the regular season, where the popcorn is popping, we just don’t know.

The core of last season’s 24-58 record lies in a 2-12 start that set the course for an overall derailment not many thought possible before the schedule got underway. A difference between this season and last season is an early schedule that’s set up nicely for the Sixers to win games — if they play well. Last season, there was a lengthy early-November Western Conference trip, during which Philadelphia struggled. This season, the Sixers don’t have a Western Conference trip until after Christmas. They also don’t have a trip longer than three games until after Christmas.

Logistically, the setup for the Sixers to have a good start to the season is there, health permitting. A hint thrown at us Thursday in the preseason opener is how little margin for error the roster seems to have, if one game is to be believed. A question we can take into the rest of the preseason is how much better the Sixers would look if Grimes and Watford are back but Embiid and George and McCain continue to miss time. If you add Grimes, who was amazing for the Sixers in the waning months of last season, and Watford, can Philadelphia survive and win games? Or does this roster need Embiid and George, or George at a minimum, to play 55-60 games this season to return to previous postseason levels?

On the whole, Thursday’s loss to the Knicks reveals a puzzle that makes it easy to see where the missing parts fit. At the end of the first quarter when Tyrese Maxey took a customary rest, the offense struggled to generate good looks. You can fit McCain into a sixth-man role, bring him off the bench and unleash his offensive brilliance on second units. The Sixers struggled to rebound and find secondary playmaking. Watford can slide into that role seamlessly. In the third quarter when Miles McBride was going off for the Knicks, the Sixers needed a perimeter point of attack defender, and preferably one with size. That’s Grimes. And we know what Embiid and George bring to the roster.

VJ Edgecombe and Maxey spark reasons for hope if you are a Philadelphia fan. Maxey has always been an electric scorer. But Thursday, there was a level to his playmaking reads that hasn’t always been there. It gives more reason for optimism that he is evolving into a No. 1 option offensively. Edgecombe christened his preseason NBA debut with 14 points. He tried to body Mitchell Robinson on a dunk. He showed nice playmaking chops and was especially active defensively. If nothing else, he’s already a rotation-level NBA player. He could be a starter on opening night, and he has the upside of a star-level player.

THREE J EDGECOMBE pic.twitter.com/F7nXV4E6Pj

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) October 2, 2025

It’s important once the Sixers get back to the country and play out their preseason schedule that they get Grimes and Watford on the court and up to speed, if for no other reason than to see what the roster looks like with them in the rotation. If Philadelphia only gets those two back for opening night, which is less than three weeks away, there needs to be some data on what works and what doesn’t. Of course, a lot of this can be alleviated with the health of Embiid and George.

Let the clock keep ticking.

(Photo of VJ Edgecombe and Mitchell Robinson: Francois Nel / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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