The Sixers‘ core four of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Paul Georgeand Joel Embiid are all under contract for next season, but three of their rotation players are unrestricted free agents: Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre Jr.and Andre Drummond.
Grimes had an up-and-down season, with career-low three-point efficiency despite some strong stretches of play, particularly in March, when Maxey was injured, Gina Mizell writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer. After signing a qualifying offer last summer, it’s unclear where his relationship stands with the organization, which is currently searching for its next head of basketball ops. His potential departure could leave the once-stocked guard rotation very thin.
Meanwhile, Oubre was able to find a home in Philadelphia and it’s unclear what kind of market he’ll see this summer.
“The game of basketball has reinvented itself to me through different lenses and different eyes throughout my tenure here, and I’m forever appreciative for the opportunity to play for this city,” he said.
We have more from around the Atlantic Division:
Entering the 2025 draft with five first-round picks, the Nets had hopes that they could jump-start their rebuild. After somewhat surprisingly using all five selections, Brooklyn was shut out of the 2026 All-Rookie awards, with only Egor Demin receiving votes. The Nets didn’t bring in these five players in order to make All-Rookie teams, C.J. Holmes writes for the New York Daily Newsbut the voting exemplifies how far away the franchise still is from turning things around, especially given that they fell to No. 6 in the 2026 draft lottery. While they don’t need all five of the 2025 rookies to hit, they do need to see proof moving forward that at least a couple of them can become real rotation players.
A public confrontation between Jalen Brunson and his father, Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunsonduring Game 4 of the first round immediately became social media fodder. The heated, yet respectful, exchange was nothing dramatic, however, but rather a natural part of the competitive father-son duo’s dynamic, going back to when Rick began coaching at the University of Virginia in 2007, Ian Begley writes for SNY. The elder Brunson would give his son no quarter as he put him through training, looking to see how he would respond. “I wanted to see if he would fold or if he would keep coming back,” Rick said. “Are you going to give in? Are you going to talk back? Or are you just going to work and keep showing that you can do it? I would always tell him, ‘This is what a college coach is going to do — the difference is I love you, he doesn’t.’” To the surprise of no one who has watched the Villanova champion’s career trajectory, he kept coming back.
In case you missed it, we relayed several Knicks notes this morning in the wake of their Game 2 win over Cleveland.
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