What must change for the Sixers next season: The supporting cast
Look, the Sixers cannot bring Ben Simmons back. The fanbase will not accept it. That said, the front office needs to explore change elsewhere, too. The second unit was a tire fire all postseason, even against Washington. The Hawks made it look worse. The Sixers need to put more talent and more depth around Embiid.
Maybe that depth comes from a Simmons trade. There’s a world in which they acquire multiple good players, rather than one great player in exchange for the two-time All-Star. It could also come via the draft, or via free agency, or via other trades. Simply put, Daryl Morey will have his hands full.
Shake Milton, Furkan Korkmaz, and Dwight Howard are not playoff-level rotation pieces. Matisse Thybulle is joy made human, but he can only do so much with half a jump shot and no handle. Tyrese Maxey and George Hill are the only other reliable bench pieces, and Hill looked lost the entire postseason. He should be better with a full offseason to get acclimated, but then again, he may just be old.
Morey would do well to put some more meat on the bench’s bones. It’s especially important if Doc Rivers sticks around (he will), since he’s physically incapable of stomaching fewer than 10 players in his rotation. The Sixers may also lose Danny Green in free agency, which brings about concerns over a potential fifth starter. Can Thybulle or Maxey take on such a role? Is Hill the shoo-in? Or, is there another big-ish name coming in?
A lot of change is on the horizon. The general takeaway from this article, on the broadest level, is change everything around Embiid. He is the center of the universe, and the Sixers need better planets to orbit him. Change is necessary. There’s no more hiding — not after a second-round exit to the Atlanta freakin’ Hawks.
It’s Morey season.