Look, I held off as long as I could, told myself it was only an awkward start. I looked to silver linings, to the tendency that things going wrong for this long tend to right themselves. I looked to the surrounding conditions for clues and when none revealed themselves, I decided to stay positive but now, it’s time: time to talk about the Philadelphia 76ers.
Beyond what Sixers fans know intimately and don’t need reiterated (things are bad), the mood around the franchise is starting to feel closer to cornered than merely frustrated. Last night, after a third quarter collapse against the Heat in Miami, the Sixers held a postgame meeting that lasted over an hour. The game already had a bizarre feel to it, Philly led by 19 before being down 20, and Joel Embiid went from being listed as doubtful to starting. No one on the Sixers roster looked especially comfortable, a trend that’s emerged throughout the team’s first full month of regular season play.
Slipping now to the bottom of the Eastern Conference, with a record of 2-11 I still feel the need to double check as I write this, one thing has become abundantly clear — the Sixers don’t have room to hedge.
There’s no scapegoat to pin the team’s shoddy performance on, not this early in the season. Even when healthy, and Embiid, George and Maxey are on the floor together, it’s been for naught. Both the teams wins came in arduous overtime, one without George and both without Embiid. The Sixers win against the Hornets was missing Maxey completely.
Here’s a problem I’ve wondered about since Daryl Morey landed George in what was declared an undisputed win for the franchise and the best move of the offseason — what about Philadelphia’s role players? To clear the books for cap space enough to sign George, Daryl Morey liquidated the team’s working roster — 13 of the team’s 15 man squad became free agents. Tobias Harrias and Nicolas Batum may not be spring chickens in NBA terms, but they provided the mechanical support the Sixers are now woefully lacking. This isn’t the Sixers only problem, that much has been made clear, but it’s a big one.
Embiid and George aren’t easy leaders. Neither of them have been either comfortable with or asked to step into that role in their careers. Without role players and without direction, teams flounder. The Sixers are dead last in the league in offence, not much better in defence, but it was shooting potential that led to Morey pining over George in the first place. George paired with Maxey, the two of them twined with Embiid, judging by the overwhelming glowing reactions to the summer’s moves you’d be forgiven if you thought the Sixers were primed to be plug and play. It’s what the NBA’s braintrust was eager to believe despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
The Ringer’s Howard Beck sat down with Morey at Summer League and revisiting their interview is telling, if not prophetic. “Nick [Nurse] was like, ‘Well, I want to say we need X, but we sort of need everything.’ It’s very disconcerting if you’re a head coach to just see any big gaps in your roster,” Morey said.
The gaps Nurse was concerned with weren’t addressed, only hurriedly filled to begin the season. The Sixers were clipped on who they could afford, and though Andre Drummond, Kyle Lowry and international additions like Guerschon Yabusele have stepped up, without the offensive power that was promised through sacrificing the majority of what was a working team, the gaps only grow.
The gaps are beginning to look like black holes.
When it’s been made clear — from pre-season talking points to bold team statements — that anything beyond a title this season would signal failure, well, those are the parameters you’ve set. For the first few weeks of this season the Sixers were able to use the relative confusion and jockeying for position in the East to their advantage. Having the Bucks, their perennial adversaries, struggle alongside them was a perfect distraction. Those windows have shut. Teams are competing, the In-Season Tournament’s delivered momentum and clarity, and league-wide, even the last few stragglers have managed to win more than the Sixers have.
Technically, there’s only up for the team to go from here. What I wonder about is whether the Sixers even have a sense of direction enough to do that.
