It’s solely two video games, however maybe we already know every part we have to know in regards to the Philadelphia 76ers and the place their season goes.
Philadelphia hasn’t been capable of make the most of the providers of Joel Embiid or prized offseason acquisition Paul George but, with their absences leading to a pair of losses. Each are coping with left knee points, and neither will swimsuit up towards the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
The 76ers most lately fell 115-107 to the Raptors on Friday, letting a younger Toronto group that’s anticipated to complete towards the underside of the Jap Convention lead by as many as 19.
Generally, there’s no purpose for a group to lose sleep over a gradual begin when its top two players haven’t even taken the floor yet. Ultimately they’ll return, issues will begin to fall into place, and all shall be nicely and good lengthy earlier than the playoffs begin.
Which may not be the case in Philadelphia.
Embiid and George are serial harm dangers, and so they couldn’t even make it to the primary weekend of the brand new season with out lacking a recreation. It stays to be seen if the Sixers can keep afloat whereas lacking solely certainly one of their stars, however what we do know is that they don’t stand an opportunity if each are sidelined.
Availability actually is one of the best capacity.
We’re not going to take a seat right here and say that Philadelphia isn’t a playoff group. Barring accidents of the season-ending selection, the 76ers will most actually be taking part in basketball in late April.
However that is no title contender. Embiid and George aren’t constructed to final, and in the event that they aren’t, Philadelphia isn’t, both.
Issues have gotten particularly unhealthy with Embiid, who’s being investigated by the league because of his lack of participation. The 2023 MVP was restricted to 39 video games (all begins) final season, and we shouldn’t anticipate him to be the poster boy for good well being this time round.
To not unveil what may be the overreaction of the yr after simply eight quarters of Sixers basketball, however I’m going to say it: Philadelphia dropped the ball this offseason.
If madness actually is simply doing the identical factor over and over and anticipating totally different outcomes, somebody must put everybody within the 76ers’ entrance workplace in a psychological establishment.
This franchise has had Embiid taking part in for it for eight years and has zero — rely ‘em, zero — Jap Convention finals appearances to indicate for it, but it determined one of the best plan of action was to provide the 30-year-old a three-year, $192.9 million extension again in September.
That got here after inking George to a four-year, $212 million deal, seemingly neglecting the truth that the 34-year-old has performed greater than 56 video games simply as soon as over the previous 5 seasons.
It’s nearly like Philadelphia is simply making an attempt to place collectively good season after good season. If it desires to be nice, drastic modifications may should be made, and they’d should be made pretty quickly.
Certain, George was top-of-the-line names in the marketplace this summer time, however that doesn’t imply he was match within the Metropolis of Brotherly Love. Pairing one getting older injury-prone man with one other often doesn’t finish nicely, and that’s one thing the Sixers are going to need to study the arduous method.
