As the Philadelphia 76ers start getting close to the end of the regular season, troubles still continue to pile up as if this campaign could not get any uglier. Aside from the unfixable curveball that is Joel Embiid’s injury situation, the team remains on the fences with the subpar play of many of its players on the roster.
Save for a couple of players like Guerschon Yabusele and Quentin Grimes, the 76ers have a lot to nitpick with nearly every player on the team, which is the exact disposition they need to take after a disastrous year. Heading into the offseason, the front office will have a slew of crucial decisions to make if they want to return to contention as soon as next season.
For one player in particular, Philly is unfortunately facing a dearth of options. After the front office sign him for as much money as they possibly could, he started playing his way out of relevance, giving the franchise a big headache moving forward.
We’re looking at you, Paul George.
The 76ers wish they could have made this unpopular move instead
George, who was supposed to be a massive upgrade over Tobias Harris with his two-way play, has declined to an unprecedented degree this season. After he tallied career-highs across the board shooting the basketball in his last year with the Clippers, he has seemingly forgotten how to operate as a top-notch shot-maker.
Meanwhile, Harris, whom the 76ers gladly let go in free agency after his forgettable final season with the franchise, signed with the Pistons for much cheaper and went on to become one of the main reasons behind Detroit’s emergence as a playoff team after years of being a cellar-dweller.
Harris has nicely settled in with a smaller role offensively while remaining efficient as a scoring option on the tertiary. But more importantly, he has been a vital voice of reason for the young squad on defense, allowing them to take more pride in that department, and the results speak for themselves.
There was no way the 76ers could have expected this steep of a decline from George, but in hindsight, re-signing Harris would have been the much more prudent move to make. And it seems like we are not the only one who have that kind of sentiment.
The Philadelphia 76ers are way too preoccupied with these stressors to entertain the what-ifs they had no actual way of realizing early on. The hard-to-swallow pill, however, is that Tobias Harris has relatively outplayed Paul George this season, all things considered.