It’s only two games, but perhaps we already know everything we need to know about the Philadelphia 76ers and where their season is going.
Philadelphia hasn’t been able to utilize the services of Joel Embiid or prized offseason acquisition Paul George yet, with their absences resulting in a pair of losses. Both are dealing with left knee issues, and neither will suit up against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
The 76ers most recently fell 115-107 to the Raptors on Friday, letting a young Toronto team that is expected to finish toward the bottom of the Eastern Conference lead by as many as 19.
In most cases, there’s no reason for a team to lose sleep over a slow start when its top two players haven’t even taken the floor yet. Eventually they’ll return, things will start to fall into place, and all will be well and good long before the playoffs start.
That might not be the case in Philadelphia.
Embiid and George are serial injury risks, and they couldn’t even make it to the first weekend of the new season without missing a game. It remains to be seen if the Sixers can stay afloat while missing only one of their stars, but what we do know is that they don’t stand a chance if both are sidelined.
Availability truly is the best ability.
We’re not going to sit here and say that Philadelphia isn’t a playoff team. Barring injuries of the season-ending variety, the 76ers will most certainly be playing basketball in late April.
But this is no title contender. Embiid and George aren’t built to last, and if they aren’t, Philadelphia isn’t, either.
Things have gotten especially bad with Embiid, who is being investigated by the league because of his lack of participation. The 2023 MVP was limited to 39 games (all starts) last season, and we shouldn’t expect him to be the poster boy for good health this time around.
Not to unveil what might be the overreaction of the year after just eight quarters of Sixers basketball, but I’m going to say it: Philadelphia dropped the ball this offseason.
If insanity really is just doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, someone needs to put everyone in the 76ers’ front office in a mental institution.
This franchise has had Embiid playing for it for eight years and has zero — count ‘em, zero — Eastern Conference finals appearances to show for it, yet it decided the best course of action was to give the 30-year-old a three-year, $192.9 million extension back in September.
That came after inking George to a four-year, $212 million deal, seemingly neglecting the fact that the 34-year-old has played more than 56 games just once over the past five seasons.
It’s almost like Philadelphia is just trying to put together good season after good season. If it wants to be great, drastic changes might need to be made, and they would need to be made fairly soon.
Sure, George was one of the best names on the market this summer, but that doesn’t mean he was a good fit in the City of Brotherly Love. Pairing one aging injury-prone guy with another usually doesn’t end well, and that’s something the Sixers are going to have to learn the hard way.
