What do the Sixers need to return to form in 2025-26? Coach Nick Nurse explains.

As the 76ers tread further away from their dismal 2024-25 season, a journey that now includes a solid chance to keep their first-round pick, it has become clearer what the team needs moving forward.

“I think that the game keeps getting faster and faster and more dynamic,” coach Nick Nurse said. “Just for really basic things, defensive transition and defensive rebounding, we just need to be a little bigger, longer, more athletic. Just to get that basic thing under control.

“I think that’s probably the answer that covers going into other things there. Attacking off the bounce, some of that kind of stuff, but that would be around, especially, the two, Paul and Joel.”

Nurse is referring to Paul George and Joel Embiid, who along with Tyrese Maxey, make up the Sixers’ Big Three.

The team already has $144.8 million in guaranteed salary allocated to those three players next season, while the projected salary cap is $154.6 million. As a result, it will have a tough time adding an impactful, high-salary free agent to pair with the trio via free agency.

» READ MORE: Daryl Morey has no regrets about the Al Horford trade that could cost the Sixers a first-rounder

That fact will make June’s NBA draft an important opportunity to add young talent. The Sixers currently have first- and second-round selections (No. 35).

We’ll find out in Monday’s NBA draft lottery if the Sixers will keep their first-rounder, which is top-six protected. The pick will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it lands between seven and 14.

The Sixers have a 63.9% chance of keeping the pick in what is projected to be one of the best drafts in recent years.

Duke’s Cooper Flagg, Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe, and Rutgers’ Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey are among the headliners.

It should come as no surprise that Flagg would be the best fit to pair with the Big Three. The 6-foot-9, 225-pound versatile forward would be a scoring threat. He could also join Maxey as a young franchise player should the squad move on from Embiid and George.

However, Flagg is the presumptive No. 1 pick, and the Sixers only have a 10.5% chance of landing the lottery’s top spot. So they’ll have to be extremely lucky to secure him.

Harper and Bailey would be other solid options.

Harper, a 6-6 point guard, could provide ballhandling skills that would enable Maxey to slide off the ball. Harper’s ability to make shots would also put pressure on defenses. And Bailey, a 6-10 wing with long-term upside, could develop into a versatile playmaker.

Assuming they keep the pick, the Sixers could opt to trade down in the draft if their preferred players aren’t available. Or they could trade entirely out of the first round for future picks.

But the Sixers would benefit from a young lottery pick to take pressure off Embiid and George, who are coming off disappointing, injury-plagued seasons.

Embiid, who played in just 19 games because of an ongoing left knee injury, had arthroscopic surgery on April 11. Meanwhile, George, who played in 41 games, received injections in the left adductor muscle in his groin and his left knee on March 17.

» READ MORE: Sixers to get a better idea of draft, free agency options in NBA lottery

“There’s, obviously, a good number of [Sixers] that need to get taken care of, get back to health, but obviously Joel and Paul will be the big concerns,” Nurse said in April. “Can they get back and get ready to go?

“And I guess we won’t find that out for a little while, and then you start unpacking and then you get back to thinking there’s some really, really good players there and start piecing it together and then we get ready to build out the rest of the roster around them.”

The Sixers are trying to rebuild a roster that was flawed from Day 1 of the 2024-25 season.

Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and his front office loaded up on older veterans they thought would help the squad in the postseason. However, that backfired as the Sixers were old, slow, and small. In addition to failing to stay healthy, the older acquisitions struggled to keep up with younger, athletic opponents.

The Sixers later made trades in an attempt to get younger at the trade deadline. The same effort to rectify their roster problems shifted the team’s focus to the lottery for the final two months of the season. It worked as the Sixers secured the league’s fifth-worst record of 24-58.

“You still need great players to win,” Morey said. “The history of the league is pretty straightforward in that you need great players to win. And then, I feel very good about what [general manager] Elton [Brand] and our scouting staff can do, and finding picks, finding [free agent Guerschon Yabusele], finding guys like that to fill it out.”