The Sixers‘ season is slipping further and further away, begging the questions, what should the team do moving forward? Where does the team go from here?
After losses to both the Nets and the Bulls, which put them two and a half games outside of the play-in tournament, the Sixers have just six games against teams below them in the standings over their final 25 games, and it’s not looking very good for them.
This season has been an absolute failure and it has brought nothing but frustration upon the city of Philadelphia.
The Joel Embiid problem
Embiid has battled injury every season he’s been in the league, so why would this season be any different? The Sixers rushed him back last season, knowing that they weren’t a title contender, and that certainly did Embiid no favors. He played sparingly in the Olympics and then wasn’t ready for the beginning of the season. Embiid also suffered a facial fracture and a foot injury, which were both freak accidents.
Embiid has said multiple times recently that he’s not healthy —to the point of being able to do the things he’s accustomed to. The Sixers should shut their biggest star down and allow him extra time through the remainder of the season and a full offseason to get healthy so that he can hopefully return to his normal self next year.
Between Embiid’s age, 31, and his lengthy injury history, the Sixers would be wise to be thorough in their research and give him ample time to recover should surgery be necessary. To navigate their way through the Eastern Conference, the Sixers will need a healthy Embiid, even if he isn’t the MVP candidate he once was.
The coaching issue
Nick Nurse was brought in to be everything that Doc Rivers wasn’t for the organization, only to end up committing the same sins. The questionable rotations, overreliance on veterans past their prime, reluctance to use healthy and talented young players unless he’s forced to, and seemingly forgetting how to impress a strategy on the player on the court have led this team to where they’re at.
Despite the injuries to Embiid and Paul George, the Sixers seemed to be improving while utilizing the younger players and growing as a team in January, despite what their record had shown. With the return of Embiid and George, the team should have been putting them in the same place instead of returning to the style of play that they’ve used for quite some time with Embiid on the perimeter and the ball movement slowing down to a halt.
Spreading out the minutes that Embiid can give you throughout the game and utilizing the players that are working well together would be the key, but that hasn’t been the reality for the team. If Nurse is to be the coach for next season, then he has to step back and assess what will work and how to use all of his players to the best of their abilities and stop relying on the talent of a select few who aren’t on the court for the majority of the time.
Tanking for their own pick
As it stands now, the Sixers have the sixth-worst record in the league, and for all intents and purposes, we’ll say that they get to keep that pick. Whether Adam Silver and the NBA help another team jump them in the lottery so that the Thunder can claim the pick is a whole different story, but for now, the assumption has to be that the Sixers retain, luckily, their pick in this year’s draft. So, what do they do?
Conventional wisdom is that you take the best player that fits your team’s needs. The Sixers have proven to be anything but conventional, and the dilemma lies within their thought process. President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey is a star hunter, and you really don’t know what he’ll do with the pick.
It’s not too far from reality that he would trade the pick in hopes of packaging it to get another “star” player if he could make the money work. The Sixers, with the injured and aging Embiid and George, need to think for the future, which isn’t as far off as they would have you believe.
Taking the best player to pair with Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, Justin Edwards, Quentin Grimes, Jared Butler, Guerschon Yabusele, and Adem Bona would give the Sixers a talented young core. With the exception of Yabusele, who will turn 30 in December of next season but doesn’t have the mileage on him that some players have at that age.
Utilizing someone like Ace Bailey or Kasparas Jakucionis would give them another valuable piece that could contend in the coming years. Building a roster around the younger players and taking a page out of the Thunders playbook would be wise for a team that will not be able to succeed in its current form.
Moving on from the stars
While it seems impossible to trade Embiid or George, currently, the team could get some return if they allow them to heal and show health and a return to their prior form at the start of next season. Embiids extension, paying him over $60 million per year, is a huge hurdle, as is the contract of the aging George, but it’s not impossible.
If the Sixers can get Embiid back to health and George back to something reasonable, it’s not out of the question that a team would take a chance on either player. The return on either won’t be as great as once expected, but for the team, it could be the right move.
The problem arises when Embiid comes back, is healthy and performing as he has over the past few years, the idea would be that the team will compete for a title next year, which is not likely at all. If he’s able to come back and show that he’s remotely healthy and playing well, then you move on from him as soon as a good offer comes across the desk because, if history shows us, that will not last long.
George is another difficult trade as he’s battled, like Embiid, injuries for quite a long time in his career. He’ll be 35 years old at the end of this season and hasn’t shown, with the exception of last season, that he can be healthy for when the team needs him. Looking for a team that could utilize what he has left in the tank could be the best way, regardless of the return, to get out from under the massive free-agent contract that he signed this past offseason.
Taking ownership
The Sixers’ new “process” will have to start at the top, and that’s where a huge problem lies for the team. If ownership is misguided, as they’ve been, in thinking that people like Elton Brand, Daryl Morey, Doc Rivers, The Colangelos, or Nick Nurse can solve the problems and get the team the title that’s eluded them for 42 years, then they’ll continue to be a mid-level team in the league. Therein lies the real problem.
Does the ownership group actually care if the team wins a title or not? You would think, based on the way Josh Harris was so excited to watch his Commanders go through the playoffs, that winning would be on his mind regardless of whether it’s his football, basketball, or hockey team, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Despite dumping millions of dollars into the pockets of Embiid, George, and Maxey, the team is even further away from an NBA title than they have been in any of the last few years.
The Sixers have the second-best average attendance in the league, they’re seventh overall in average attendance, and the team, using their center city hostage tactics, has secured a new arena in the South Philly sports complex that they’ll share with the Flyers. The money is going to continue to keep rolling in for the owner regardless of what happens on the court. The owners will keep cashing checks and rolling out new shiny toys while selling the fans on the fact that, this time, they know what they’re doing.
To truly run the team and get them to a title or title contention, they need to take a hard look at everyone from the very top to the very bottom. Everyone in the team offices, every coach, the training and medical staff, and the players all need an assessment.
Start at the top and see what your leadership has brought you in the time you’ve been paying them and what the return will be in the short term future. After that, go through the rest of the entire organization and figure out what is working and what’s not working. Until the owners actually take an interest in the team, other than the checks they get, then the team will continue to provide their fans with false hope and failure. But that seems to be the Sixers’ motto.
