The Philadelphia 76ers must burn.
It’s time to burn it all down. All of it. The Philadelphia 76ers are only down 2-0 to the Boston Celtics, but this team’s issues run far deeper than a slow start. It’s abundantly clear the Sixers as presently constructed are going nowhere fast.
This was a bad game for everyone not wearing Celtics green. Joel Embiid was a moderately bright spot — he scored 34 points on 21 shots — but even he was inadequate in more ways than one. The Sixers looked disinterested at worst, incapable at best.
The Celtics now have a 2-0 lead and all the momentum. Philadelphia can hypothetically still make this a competitive series, but it all feels hopeless. This feels like a well deserved end for one of the most embarrassing teams in recent memory.
Blame, of course, can go all around. The players have underperformed relative to expectations. The front office has made poor decision after poor decision, bungling one of the most asset-rich rebuilding projects in NBA history. The coaching staff, no matter how you feel about Brett Brown, feels unavoidably stale.
Philadelphia is in a rut — a hole. A hole I’m not sure they can get out of.
Hahahahaha
— The Sixer Sense (@SixerSense) August 20, 2020
probably. https://t.co/Vq9gaJN4CL
The Al Horford contract is a disaster. He scored four points off the bench.
The Tobias Harris contract is a disaster. He scored 13 points on 4-for-15 shooting — a stat line that does not properly incapsulate just how bad he was. A truly egregious display of incompetence for someone on a five-year, $180 million contract.
Problem is more complicated than this but you can't spend the GDP of a small island nation on two guys who have given you absolutely nothing and expect to win playoff games
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) August 19, 2020
Philadelphia has blatantly refused to build around Joel Embiid his entire career. That refusal reached a peak this summer, with the front office shelling out truckloads of cash to a second center and a poorly-fit power forward. Rather than build for Embiid, the Sixers have decided to build without any thought of maximizing his talent.
It’s unfortunate. A true miscarriage of justice in the basketball world. It’s quite possible that Philadelphia has ruined the prime years of Embiid’s injury-plagued career by fumbling the bag and ignoring the hallmarks of successful modern basketball.
If he asks for a trade this summer, I would not blame him. I don’t think it will happen, and he’s committed by contract well beyond this summer. But if he did — if his dissatisfaction with the Sixers organization grew to that point — I would not blame him.
As for the game, it was all Boston after a swift Sixers start in the first quarter. But the second quarter, the Celtics had seized control, and they never came close to relinquishing it. Jayson Tatum is a superstar, the Sixers have no idea how to defend Kemba Walker, and the loss of Gordon Hayward barely made a dent. If you can’t figure out Romeo Langford and Grant Williams, you aren’t winning a playoff series.
Brett Brown made some confounding decisions in this game. He made zero meaningful or helpful adjustments on defense, the offense again moved away from Embiid at strange times, and he didn’t play Alec Burks — in the middle of a career hot streak — until four minutes into the second quarter.
I’m as big a fan of Raul Neto as you will fine. In fact, I’ve been a proponent of playing Neto in the past. But giving him nine minutes of playing time before Burks touches the court is a strange and indefensible choice. Play Neto and Burks — it’s not one or the other. You can play multiple ball-handlers.
The Sixers are down 2-0 and it feels much worse. This team has reached rock bottom, and frankly, I’d be shocked if they had enough fight left to make this series interesting. My original prediction was Celtics in five. Perhaps I was too generous.