The coronavirus has been an unexpected blow to the entire NBA community. Does this pose a new process for the Philadelphia 76ers?
The suspension of the NBA season has led to noise about the ultimatum of this Philadelphia 76ers team — is it time to split up Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid?
Originally, the plan was to find out how the current squad of Josh Richardson, Al Horford, Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons would work through this season, and to see if they really could make it to the finals with the group. One could say we saw small signs of promise from the Sixers, such as Shake Milton, Glenn Robinson and Alec Burks slowly fitting in. They found some balance in the rotations.
On the other hand, you can argue that it was the most underwhelming season in recent memory because there were so many disappointments. Disappointments ranging from Embiid’s health, to Simmons’s lack of shooting, to Horford’s lack of presence, or even the team’s overall lack of offense and continuity. Half the time the team looked like they could lose in the first round of the playoffs.
After a swing of up and downs, the Sixers got the biggest blow, a back injury for Ben Simmons that would result in a long term absence. And then ultimately, the coronavirus hit, and it went from maybe the NBA would shut down for a couple of months, to an indefinite shut-down.
Over the course of this quarantine we’ve seen all sorts of trade rumors in the headlines. Most of them involve Al Horford and Tobias Harris. But now there are even rumors involving the New York Knicks to find a trade deal to reunite Joel Embiid with his former agent Leon Rose, the current president of the Knicks. On top of that, we’re hearing more noise that Elton Brand will be lured into an opportunity to become Knicks GM. Of course, this only brings in new opportunities at a cost. A new GM for the Philadelphia 76ers would might sound great to fans, but the cost would be in “setbacks” for the next builder to build the team exactly the way they want.
We’re at a point right now where the Sixers no longer have the luxury of time. Elton Brand hasn’t built a team around Simmons and Embiid that actually works. Brett Brown hasn’t formed solutions to guide the team to Finals contention. You have to ask yourself, can the Sixers run the experiment for one more year? Or is it going to be another year of straight disappointment.
Starting next season, Ben Simmons will begin the first year of his max contract extension. We saw how the team worked out when Joel Embiid was injured earlier this season. I’m sure the majority of fans, including myself, would hate to see Embiid go to another team, especially the Knicks. But, if all of these possibilities go through, the only solution is to build around Simmons.
With the coronavirus affecting NBA revenues, players are already going to take pay cuts. This will change the free agency and trade strategy for pretty much any team in the league. Although the NBA announced they would only drop from $116 million to $115 million, we should expect pushback on that when their audit occurs in July simply because they will lose revenues this season due to the coronavirus.
That puts pressure on executives to make tough choices on having so many high paid players on their team. Therefore, if this season was supposed to be the final run of the Embiid-Simmons experiment, and we couldn’t see what it resulted in, then the only option we have is to make the tough choice that Philadelphia has delayed for years.