Everyone was quick to declare the Philadelphia 76ers the champions of the offseason after they pried away Paul George from the Clippers and signed multiple role players with their ample cap space to field a contending-level team around Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid. The Eastern Conference was put on notice.
Instead, Philly is enduring one of their worst seasons in recent memory. The Sixers are 21-38, have lost nine of their last ten games, and are two games out of a play-in spot in the East.
After shutting down Joel Embiid, the Sixers need to call it a season and tank the rest of the way.
Everything that could go wrong has went wrong for Philly, from Embiid’s troublesome knee not responding and only allowing him to play 17 games to George’s pinky injury that has required injections just to play to free agent signings like Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, and Eric Gordon not having the impact they were expected to have. Oh and to top it all off, their promising rookie Jared McCain is out for the season with a knee injury.
It has been nothing short of a disaster for the Sixers this year that has left more questions than answers. George, who is having the worst season of his career, has three more years of max money left. Will he be able to return to form next year?
The biggest question mark though is Embiid. His knee has bothered him for the last two years, and he clearly needs another surgery or more rest/rehab to get right. After he got the initial knee surgery last year, Embiid played in a highly-intense series against the Knicks and then in the Olympics.
He did not have ample time to recover. With about six months off until training camp, he should be able to reach close to 100%...in theory. The question is, will he? For this year, there is no point in chasing the play-in for Philly.
With Embiid out for the season, George less than 100 percent, and the chance to keep their first-round draft pick, the Sixers need to punt. Even if they do make it out of the play-in, their prize would be playing the 49-10 Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.
Philly’s season this year will go down as one of the biggest disappointments in NBA history. They do have a path forward, but the clock is ticking. The NBA world has been waiting for ten years for The Process to be completed. Now, we will be waiting for another year.