There is no use crying over spilled milk, but when it comes to the Philadelphia 76ers, you simply cannot help it.
The 76ers, weary and now in a state of flux thanks to the horrendous turnout they handed to fans last season, enter the 2025-26 campaign with glimmering eyes. The team remains full of hope that they can swiftly prove that what happened during their previous campaign was nothing but a mere aberration, a huge asterisk that should not define them in any way moving forward.
In all fairness, there is some — if not a lot — credence to that. The 76ers saw one of the biggest wreckages when it comes to frequency of injuries, probably in the league’s history, last season. And unless we are already coursing through a twisted, dystopian reality, that dehgree of bad luck should no longer persist this season.
Does that change their outlook as a franchise, though? Philly will most likely get to pump out much more appearances in the hardwood out of their injury-plagued stars, but that does not alter the brutal reality they find themselves in. And they have Daryl Morey to thank for that.
Daryl Morey messed the 76ers up with his reckless decisions
The summer of 2024 will always be underscored when talking about the franchise’s immediate future. After all, that is precisely when Morey and his crew made the bold decision to throw virtually every spendable money they had to reward a couple of aging, injury-prone All-Stars in Joel Embiid and Paul George.
Lo and behold, those deals are almost guaranteed to age like milk, if they haven’t already. Embiid’s mammoth three-year, $187 million contract extension is just kicking in, and given his recurring absences due to injuries, that is easily an overpay.
Ditto for Paul George, who still has three years on the four-year max deal he inked with the team last season.
Morey, who has long been known for being one of the savvier and more innovative league executives out there, was definitely not in his element when he crafted these deals. He was not even able to foresee how badly these contracts could age as can be gleaned from the utter lack of, say, team options as some sort of a failsafe when the push comes to shove.
Financial flexibility will be elusive for the 76ers in the next three to four years, which could drastically hamper the way they lay the groundwork for an inevitable rebuild. Thanks, Daryl Morey.