Philadelphia 76ers roundtable: Should the season continue?

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Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid | Philadelphia 76ers (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

Is it in the best interest of the Philadelphia 76ers if the NBA season eventually resumes? Our writers get together and discuss it.

This postponement of games in the NBA is less than ideal, but it’s obviously in the best interest of everyone’s health that play is suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak. It seems like the best-case scenario for the NBA that the season continues in June at the earliest. However, at that point, is it the best for the Philadelphia 76ers to continue the season or have it canceled altogether? Our writers give their thoughts.

Lucas Johnson

I’m going to start us off here and say that in terms of the spirit of the game, it would be in the best interest of the Philadelphia 76ers to have the rest of the season canceled. While I personally would love to see more basketball and see a new NBA champion, it just seems out of place to continue after having at a minimum a three-month hiatus.

“…if the franchise truly cares about the long term health of its two stars, then the season getting canceled would be in their best interest.”

Putting my personal feelings aside, it would be better from a player’s standpoint to not continue this regular season. I’ve written about in the past how this postponement of games should help Ben Simmons recover from a back injury (per Tim Bontemps of ESPN) and that he needs to consider all his options while rehabbing. Hopefully, he would be recovered by June, but there’s simply no guarantee that he will be. Canceling the rest of the season will certainly give him a much better chance at a full recovery.

Then there’s Joel Embiid‘s health to consider. There’s little doubt that any lingering issue with his shoulder would be completely healed if the season were to continue, but I’m more worried about what type of shape he’d be in once the NBA continues to play.

He’s not had the best track record for staying in shape and with the NBA shutting down teams’ facilities (according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN), it seems unlikely that he will be in good shape. That, in turn, could cause more injury problems for him if the season did continue.

Don’t be mistaken, there would be major financial ramifications (per Brian Windhorst and Bontemps of ESPN) if the season were canceled that would negatively impact the Sixers. However, if the franchise truly cares about the long term health of its two stars, then the season getting canceled would be in their best interest.