76ers’ biggest position battle is getting forced to roll over into the season

Every NBA team uses the preseason with different goals.

While getting every healthy player to suit up and play to knock off the rust and work on some chemistry is key for every team, the meaningless action is truly about the position and rotation battles that are highlighted before and during training camp.

Unfortunately for the Sixers, their preseason goal is becoming useless. With injuries piling up in the front court, the backup center battle has gone from the battle to watch to the battle that no longer exists.

A rundown of the Sixers’ biggest concerns at the five

Before training camp started, the Adem Bona-Ariel Hukporti battle took a slight hit. The former center suffered a foot injury, which was expected to take him off the court for roughly two weeks. As expected, Bona missed the first set of preseason action against the New York Knicks.

Hukporti was doing his thing, standing out to Nick Nurse and his teammates, but his season was derailed just moments into the first preseason action. The veteran center suffered a torn Achilles. He is now expected to miss the entire 2026-2027 NBA season.

Heck, the Sixers can’t even get anything out of their training camp big, Tacko Fall, at the moment. After adding the former Boston Celtics big man to the training camp roster, with the intention of having him try out for a two-way slot, the Sixers watched Fall go down with a setback that is expected to hold him out for about two weeks.

Then, when you dig even deeper, there’s Dominick Barlow, who hasn’t been able to do much as he deals with a back injury. With the Hukporti-Bona battle nixed, the Sixers will start looking at different options like Barlow and Jabari Walker. Once again, that’s a lopsided battle at the moment, since Walker is on the floor while Barlow is recovering. The Sixers have three more games on the schedule before they open up the regular season.

For the next two, which take place in Brooklyn and Boston, the 76ers are expected to be without Bona and Barlow, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. Even if Barlow and Bona are cleared to take on preseason action after those games, they’ll have one more game on October 16 against the Boston Celtics at home to give the Sixers their final look before the games start to count.

The Sixers are just going to have to find out their center rotation on the fly as the season plays out. It’s not the ideal situation–especially since Joel Embiid is guaranteed to miss action–but it’s just a part of the grind of an 82-game season when injuries always seem to be a factor.