For the last seven seasons, the Philadelphia 76ers have made the playoffs and have been able to consistently be one of best teams in the regular season. However, they have yet to been able to even get out of the 2nd round during this timeframe. Not only that, but they seem to lose in some of the most painful and agonizing ways you can imagine. Four-bounce series winning shots, countless blown leads, players forgetting to shoot the ball when right under the basket and losing to division rivals almost every year. They’re like the old Greek story of when Sisyphus tries to push the rock up the hill. He gets so close and thinks “this time will be different!” when in reality we all know that the rock is just going to roll down that hill and he’ll have to start all over again. This is what has led to most Philadelphia fans not really caring about the Sixers at all. They haven’t given the fanbase anything but heartbreak over the last seven years and they’re tired of believing just to be hurt again. And I totally understand this viewpoint of just not getting all worked up for a team that has given the fanbase no playoff success in return. Having faith in a sports team is very tough especially when all you’ve been given is a pie in your face. And with their brutal 2-12 start to this season everyone seems to be calling this season over already. In fact this Sixers team has started of worse than some of the teams that were purposely trying to lose. However, I think that this current core that the Sixers built in the offseason is the best roster they’ve had on paper in the “Process era.” And if we are looking specifically on paper this is probably the best chance they’ve had of winning it all since losing the NBA finals in 2001. And while it’s crazy to think about, it is because of “The Process” the Sixers started a decade ago.
Probably the biggest reason for this was because the Sixers had one of, if not, the best offseason in the entire league this summer. The biggest signing was acquiring 9 time All Star Paul George who is coming off another all-star season. George was given a 4-year max contract by the Sixers and signing him gives Philadelphia the best big 3 in the league to pair with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. George is exactly what Philadelphia needed from a 3rd star. A guy who can shoot the lights out of the building at any point, the ability to create his own shot while also being an above average defender. George is a massive upgrade from much maligned Tobias Harris who left the Sixers to sign with the rebuilding Detroit Pistons in the offseason. The other key addition to the starting lineup for the Sixers was luring Caleb Martin away from the Miami Heat and giving him a 4 year-35-million-dollar deal. Martin is a great defender who might have an inconsistent shot but does average over 10 points a night. He’s also been known for playing better in the postseason then he does in the regular season. He had a great series in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics which helped get the Miami Heat to the finals that year. The Sixers were able to resign Kelly Oubre as well who was a standout signing from last season as he averaged 15 points per game last year. What’s great about Oubre is that he can be used as both a starter and a bench player depending on what the Sixers need. The Sixers also brought back Andre Drummond who was on the team in 2022 and was the best backup center the Sixers have ever had behind Joel Embiid. The Sixers traded him at the 2022 trade deadline to acquire James Harden but with Drummond being a free agent again the Sixers decided to give him a cheap 2-year deal. Drummond is still the best rebounder in all of basketball as he has the highest defensive and offensive rebound% in the entire league. Drummond will be able to get spot starts which as well should give Joel Embiid some much needed and deserved rest. Kyle Lowry got resigned to a one-year deal to be the backup point guard and mentor to rookie Jared McCain. McCain is someone who has shined to start the year and looks like a potential Rookie of the Year candidate thanks to his great play on the offensive side of the ball. And the last move the Sixers made was to sign Guerschon Yabusele from France. Yabusele hasn’t played in the NBA since before the pandemic but was fantastic for team France in the Olympics as he helped bring them to the Gold Medal game before losing to team USA. Yabusele is a total unknown but for a minimum contract it can’t hurt the Sixers by giving the guy a chance. The Sixers were able to make all of these moves thanks to cap room that they acquired when they traded James Harden to the LA Clippers at the beginning of last season along with being free of the previously mentioned Tobias Harris who was notably on a max contract. The Sixers plan last season was to make sure that they had as much money as possible for the offseason and it worked to perfection. These free agency moves were great, but the Sixers X factors will be their two homegrown superstars.
Tyrese Maxey is coming off a breakout 2024 campaign that ended with him winning the NBA’s most improved player award. Maxey averaged a career high 25.9 points per game along with a career high 6.2 assists. His improvement has been staggering over these last few years as learning as he continues to show his insane work ethic. He’s one of the best 3-point shooters in the league and can create his own shot. You pair that with his fantastic speed and craftiness when getting into the lane and that makes him one of the best 3 level scorers in the league. Despite only heading into his 5th season, Maxey is already one of the greatest picks in Sixers franchise history and Philly rewarded him with a massive 5-year max contract extension to keep him in the city of Brotherly Love. Maxey also had a great playoff series against the Knicks including a massive game 5 as he held the Sixers off from elimination for another game, but it just was not enough. While most people were disappointed in last year, I ultimately thought it was a success. The Sixers were never winning a championship last year with all the drama stemming from the James Harden trade and the fact that they just did not have the talent that they do this season. However, last season was a success because the Sixers finally found their second star that they can build around. For years we’ve been shuffling through different 2nd options like Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons and James Harden. What’s so interesting about this to me is during the original process we as fans thought that Markelle Fultz was going to be our Maxey. Fultz was taken 1st overall in the 2017 NBA draft but due to injuries was never able to become the player the Sixers needed him to be. The Sixers traded Fultz in 2019 for Johnathan Simmons and a protected first round pick. 18 months later, that pick turned out to become Tyrese Maxey. Now, Maxey is Philadelphia’s second star until the end of the decade. And if he can make another slight scoring and playmaking jump, he enters superstar territory if he isn’t already there.
However, Maxey isn’t the true X factor of the team. That honor goes to 2023 MVP and now Olympic gold medalist Joel Embiid. Embiid has become one of the most controversial figures in the sports world. There is no middle ground when it comes to Joel Embiid. You either love the guy or you hate him with all your heart. I’m just going to come out and say I am a part of the “I love him” camp. When Embiid is healthy, he is a top 3 player in the entire league. There is not one thing on the court he cannot do. An elite scorer coming off 3 consecutive 30+ point per game seasons. You pair that with his elite defense where he is one of the best rim protectors in the league and it makes him such a treat to watch. However, the knock against Embiid is that he hasn’t shown up come playoff time yet. The Sixers haven’t made it past the 2nd round under him and he’s had some brutal playoff showings. And I totally get that sentiment. Joel has definitely had his terrible playoff games. However, he also has had some great games that a lot of people seem to forget. He led the playoffs in points per game in the 2024 playoffs despite just coming off meniscus surgery and having Bell’s Palsy which left half of his face numb. The Sixers are also consistently one of the worst teams in the NBA whenever Embiid must miss a game. Only 2 seasons in Embiid’s career have the Sixers have the Sixers had an above 500 record when he doesn’t play. This leads to Embiid having to put it all on the line just for the Sixers to make the playoffs which leads to him being banged up heading into to April. This season, the Sixers goal is to make sure that doesn’t happen. I truly think that a lot of Sixers fans don’t remember what this guy brought us out of and why he is called “The Process.” The year before Embiid played his first season the Sixers were 10-72 which was the 3rd worst record in NBA history. The Sixers also had the worst three year stretch in NBA history going 47-199 from 2013 to 2016. The second Embiid got onto the court in his rookie year you could feel a shift in the franchise. The fanbase had hope for the first time in about a decade when Embiid first stepped on the court, and it has been a blessing to see him turn into the player and person he’s become. And while the Sixers haven’t done anything in the postseason with Embiid yet, the moves this offseason are the first time that the Sixers have truly built a team around Joel Embiid and with only Embiid in mind. They catered to Ben Simmons in the beginning of his career and then got guys that James Harden wanted when he got traded to Philly in 2022. When Harden was traded in October of 2023, the Sixers made it clear that they were taking a gap year and then building around Embiid. And that was exactly what they did in this offseason. Even with this though, it hasn’t mattered so far this year. The Sixers are 0-4 when Embiid is on the court so far this year. In their most recent loss to the Grizzlies Embiid played his best game after starting off the season cold as he had 35 points and 11 rebounds while also being a +6 when on the court but they were a -12 when he was off the court. It’s unfortunate that they still seem to be having issues when Embiid is off the court. Luckily for this group, they have over 4 months to figure it out and have some of the best high end talent in the league.
There are three main threats to the Sixers in the East this season. The obvious pick being defending champion Boston Celtics. Boston has notoriously owned Philadelphia winning the last EIGHT times these two have played in the playoffs with Philly’s last playoff series win in Boston coming in 1982. For reference, my dad was about to turn 12 years old the last time the Sixers beat the Celtics in the playoffs. Boston was by far the best team in the league last year and they were able to bring every core player from their team last year. They are the best shooting team in the league while also playing elite defense. The Sixers have the star power advantage with the big 3, but Boston has the better depth even with the Sixers strong free agency moves. The other threat to the Sixers is the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year in the New York Knicks. The Knicks also had a big free agency trading for star forward Mikal Bridges along with star big Karl Anthony Towns. Their offense, which was inconsistent last year, should be much better with Towns at center now. The Knicks made their moves with the goal of beating the Celtics. However, they made themselves far worse against the 76ers. The reason the Knicks beat the Sixers last year was due to their depth and the fact that no matter what an elite defender was always on Embiid. That will not be the case this season as Towns is an, at best, mediocre defender who always seems to get in foul trouble against Embiid. The Knicks wing depth is great, and they also have a superstar guard in Jalen Brunson, but the Sixers should be able to beat them this time around if they figure it out. The other team the Sixers need to be worried about is the Cleveland Cavaliers who are 15-1 to start the season. They have an amazing starting 5 with new coaching and have been great on both sides of the ball so far this season. They’ve been an early playoff exit over these last few seasons but this could be the year where they break out in the postseason. Indiana is another interesting team as they made the Eastern Conference Finals last year and did bring their entire core back, but they were a major underdog, and I don’t think that lightning will strike twice just yet for them. Milwaukee is very talented as well but their core is getting up there in age quickly. You pair that with their coaching situation being… less than ideal and I just don’t really see them doing much. I truly think that the only team a fully healthy, cohesive Sixers team could lose to is the Celtics. And even if the Sixers do lose to Boston this year, almost all the Sixers core has signed for next season as well. And almost every contract they have is tradable as well so if this core continues to struggle they can retool on the fly. They are giving themselves 2 real chances at a championship with this core.
Now the one thing I was not anticipating when writing this was just how bad the Sixers were going to start off the season. As I am writing this the Sixers currently have the worst record in the entire NBA with just a 2-12 start and haven’t been healthy all season. They are statistically the worst offensive team in the league being last in offensive rating, last in field goal percentage and 29th in points per game. The vibes around the Sixers are currently at an all-time low in this Process era and that’s saying a lot. And while I am extremely frustrated as well, they are very fortunate that the Eastern Conference has just 4 teams above 500. Due to this the Sixers are just 5 games out of a playoff spot with 68 games to go. All they would need to do is go 8-2 over a 10 game stretch and they are right back in the race with how bad the east is. With the amount of talent the Sixers have, they can go a win streak quickly and be right back at 500 before New Years. Despite everything going wrong for the Sixers internally, they can get momentum quickly and turn this season around especially with the amount of talent they have. This can become the most anti-Sixers season ever. Instead of them getting our hopes up early and squashing them like every other year over the last seven years, hopefully this season is the exact opposite!
The Sixers are still on the road to find El Dorado, but I still think with this core they might finally reach it. I understand everyone’s frustrations with their very cold start, but through it they’ve been able to find out McCain and Yabusele are core pieces to the team and once the big 3 gets healthy they should be able to rise the weak Eastern Conference standings quickly. Boston will be the biggest obstacle in their way, but the Sixers shouldn’t worry about anyone but themselves. Find your chemistry now, find which players need to go where and make sure no matter what that Embiid, Maxey and Paul George are healthy and 100% come playoff time. I’m probably on this island by myself, but I do think that if they are healthy in April and have their chemistry down this can finally be the year where we can “Trust the Process.”
SOURCES USED
- Basketball Statistics & History of every Team & NBA and WNBA players. Basketball. (n.d.). https://www.basketball-reference.com/
- Pro Basketball Analysis. Dunks & Threes. (n.d.). https://dunksandthrees.com/epm
- NBA team statistics https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional