Usually, when an NBA team sits at the three seed after the All-Start break, the team is seen as a front-runner for the NBA championship with a bright future. Debatably the Philadelphia 76ers don’t have either of those things. Many believe that if they don’t make the Conference Finals this year, some significant changes could be in store for Joel Embiid and the 76ers.
“Unfortunately, story of my life.” This was what Embiid had to say about his three-quarter court last-second heave against the Boston Celtics that was just a second too late. And although he’s received a bunch of flak for this comment, he’s not wrong. He and the 76ers seem to be just a step behind the top contenders in the East. Historically over the last 4-5 years, not only in the standings. The Kawhi Leonard-led Toronto Raptors and the Trae Young-led Atlanta Hawks kicked them out of the second round. They’ve watched the Celtics make it to the NBA finals and watched the Milwaukee Bucks win it just a couple of years ago.
The 76ers haven’t made it out of the second round of the playoffs in Embiid’s entire tenure. Drafting Embiid is debatably the only reasonable long-term investment the team has made. The only other one up for debate is the trade for James Harden though that experiment is still ongoing. But they’ve had their chances at picks and failed on all but one. Other picks like Markelle Fultz, Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, and Ben Simmons have been massive failures.
As far as bringing experience in, Jimmy Butler was supposed to be the missing piece after the Sixers acquired him from the Minnesota Timberwolves. But Butler had other ideas and left after one year, and the Sixers resigned Tobias Harris to a max contract. The contract was for five years and $180 million and seemed like a solid consolation prize then. But as Harris’s money increases yearly in the agreement, his play has been trending in the opposite direction. Harris is making $37.6 million this year and averaging 15.5 points per game. It’s not terrible, but you ideally want more from your max player.
Lastly, we have the coaching change when the Sixers went from Brett Brown to Doc Rivers. The decision has been less popular amongst the fans, and the results speak for themselves. The fans called for his firing after the 76ers lost to the Hawks in their series a couple of years ago. Rivers hasn’t gotten the team any farther than Brett Brown did. New faces come in, but the results always end up the same. It cannot keep happening while avoiding significant repercussions. At some point, and it could very well be this season, Embiid will start questioning his future with the 76ers. If that happens, Philadelphia can kiss its only grand achievement in the last decade goodbye.
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