Nipping something in the bud almost always never works, but that could very well end up being the lone and viable solution for the Philadelphia 76ers moving forward.
No other team in the NBA has turned in a grimmer campaign so far than the 76ers, owners of the league’s sixth-worst record despite actively trying to rack up wins. On paper, few teams tout a more ample collection of talent, turning this season into an even more deflating one for the proud franchise.
With Joel Embiid coming off a historic season, Tyrese Maxey emerging as the league’s breakout star last season, and the front office signing All-Star forward Paul George to round out their Big Three, expectations were sky-high for them to push the team over the hump and make it to the biggest stage.
Instead, the 76ers are poised to qualify for a different stage — that of the lottery. With only 28 games left on their slate, they have very little time to close in on the deficit they have created for themselves and make it into the postseason.
The 76ers may need to settle with mediocrity for a while
At this point, though, there is very little incentive to nitpicking on the small, yet unmoving things the 76ers can do to make this season worthwhile — it’s just not happening anymore. Thus, it would be much better to look forward on what the team can do to address its mediocre footing moving forward.
Here comes the gut-wrenching question: what can the franchise do to significantly raise their ceiling as a squad in the foreseeable future? For now, the answer is so obscure it could just be a ‘nothing” willed to be “something”.
Problem is, the 76ers have clear, foundational issues. Embiid, for example, will most likely never be durable enough to play, say, 70 percent of the games moving forward. If him potentially needing another surgery in the offseason is not a telling sign, you are just lying to yourself.
Meanwhile, there is also very little reason to believe that George still has the capacity to get back to his All-Star form. He is too injury-prone to be a reliable core player, and his age has started to really show itself in a provoking manner. Even worse, moving on from him seems like too remote of a scenario to really entertain.
Barring anything drastic and a slew of genius maneuvers, it is tough to envision the Philadelphia 76ers getting back to their desired place in the league’s echelon. The way their system works, they could very well find themselves stuck in the middle, the NBA’s purgatory, for the foreseeable future.