Sixers: Ranking every player on the roster after James Harden trade

The Sixers are 35-23 coming out of the All-Star break, good for third place in the Eastern Conference standings. And now, James Harden will join the mix after getting traded at the Feb. 10 deadline and rehabbing his hamstring over the past several weeks.

It’s an exciting time to be a Sixers fan, and there’s reason to believe this team — led by Joel Embiid, who is the current favorite to win MVP — could go all the way. There’s a lot of season left, and the Sixers’ path to a championship features several fearsome opponents. That said, very few teams have the top-end talent that now graces Philadelphia’s roster.

With that in mind, it’s time to once again rank every player on the roster. We last did this exercise before the season, with the following results:

1. Joel Embiid
2. Ben Simmons
3. Tobias Harris
4. Seth Curry
5. Danny Green
6. Matisse Thybulle
7. Tyrese Maxey
8. Andre Drummond
9. Furkan Korkmaz
10. Georges Niang
11. Shake Milton
12. Paul Reed
13. Isaiah Joe
14. Jaden Springer
15. Charles Bassey
16. Grant Riller
17. Aaron Henry

A lot has changed since then, with new faces joining the roster, and old faces settling into new homes. As always, we conducted a survey of multiple writers from the site. We averaged the lists of five different writers to form a single, composite, consensus ranking of the 16 players currently on the Sixers’ roster (for the purposes of this exercise, we have excluded Willie Cauley-Stein, who was recently signed to a 10-day contract).

That being said, here is our biannual ranking of every Sixers player…

Ranking every Sixers player — 16. Myles Powell

Myles Powell joined the Sixers early in the season, replacing the injured Grant Riller on a two-way contract. He has since appeared in 11 games for Philadelphia, averaging 1.2 points in 4.7 minutes. He simply has not been a significant piece to the puzzle this season.

The 24-year-old rookie from Seton Hall still has time to carve out a name for himself professionally. At 6-foot-2, he’s a stocky, quick-twitch athlete with real flashes of shot-making potential. He can get downhill and finish with touch inside, or hit pull-up jumpers along the perimeter.

Powell’s G-League stats are more indicative of his potential (21.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists on .484/.400/.700 shooting splits across four games with Delaware). He’s mostly a scoring guard right now, so it would behoove him to develop his all-around game. Powell’s G-League opportunities have been somewhat scarce this season, as injuries have kept him on the Sixers’ bench in case of emergency most nights.

In the end, Powell’s big NBA opportunity will probably have to come with a different franchise. The Sixers now have two star playmakers in James Harden and Tyrese Maxey, and with Doc Rivers’ preference for veteran talent, the contending Sixers just don’t have much need for Powell night to night.