Philly Front Office

The Sixers are dead.

I know this more as an inevitability than a fact I am truly willing to accept. It has taken me a while to realize this, and I am not handling it well. Since I started this website, I have tried to find a way to be positive about this team. Other than the Christmas win, I just can’t do it. Every time I put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard), I get angry. My friends in our Philly text chain don’t want to talk Sixers because the team is a black hole of depression (and besides…E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!). If you aren’t completely disgusted with this team, it’s only because you hold on to the misguided hope that they could turn it around with everyone healthy. These next three weeks ought to put that to rest. Denial, Anger, Depression, these are all classic signs of grief.

The off-season went about as well as we could have hoped. Paul George signed, Caleb Martin was hijacked from Miami, and basically all team business was handled as smoothly as possible. For once, the Sixers had a formidable two-way starting 5 that could finally match up with Boston. Then camp started and Embiid wasn’t practicing. Then he still wasn’t practicing and Paul George was hurt. Then he still still wasn’t practicing, Paul George was hurt, Tyrese Maxey was hurt, and Embiid got into a fight with a reporter. We didn’t know it, but we were already doomed at this point.

This off season, the team knew Embiid’s knee/foot/body was injured in the kind of way that meant he would not steadily see the floor at all this season and possibly never would again. Despite this, the team signed him to a gargantuan max contract extension of 3 years $192m on top of the 2 years, $106m he was still owed. For this and the next 4 years, the team is built around a guy who has no realistic ability to consistently play anymore.

For once I am trying to really think clearly about this team. No hopes, no hyperbole, no trade machine. They are dead. You cannot design a team around someone who isn’t there. It doesn’t work for basketball reasons, it doesn’t work for salary cap reasons, and there is no way out of it because no one in their right mind would trade for him. We need to deal with the worst. How you feel about this reality depends on where you are in the Sixers Stages of Guilt.

One: DENIAL

(You poor souls) What if Embiid could play some sort of regimented schedule? Maybe two games on, one game off, no back-to-backs, something like that would allow him to reach the post season healthy. All we need is to get into the playoffs and we have a chance. Our top 5 can match up with anyone! Our role players and defenders along with a well-rested and just hitting his stride Embiid will be a tough out for even the highest seeds. Maybe if we get the 8 spot we won’t have to play the Celtics or the Knicks until the conference finals. In fact, maybe that is exactly what we want!!!

Two: ANGER

Fucking Embiid is 50/50 or worse for every game. The team gives us no insight on this at all. And where the hell is Daryl? Our whole starting lineup didn’t play the other day. Even when they are out there, they don’t try. They think they can just flip a switch when it comes playoff time. NEWS FLASH A-HOLES: you might not make the playoffs! This team is completely unlikeable. Then there is that weasel owner cheering for the Washington Football Team while causing an uproar in the city over the past year for a new arena. You want an arena? For this sorry team? Get the fuck out of here.

Three: BARGAINING

Ok, maybe this just isn’t the year? Nothing has gone right this season. Let’s just shut Embiid down and find a way to get him right for next season. He has doctors in Qatar that he has seen before, right? He could get some kind of injection or surgery or something that would allow him to recover better. Maybe it wouldn’t even be that bad to miss the playoffs this year? That would light a fire under everyone on the team and, who knows, maybe we even win the lottery and draft Cooper Flagg? We have trade assets and draft picks coming up. We can reload for next season. Jared McCain will be back, Maxey will be better, and Embiid will get in shape!

Four: DEPRESSION

We are screwed. Healthy Embiid is not walking through that door. Not this year. Not next year. Not ever. It’s over. We are not Andy Dufresne. We crawled through 10 years of shit just to end up in more shit. Instead, we have 4 more years of…this. It’s hard to even put in to words the void of hope that has opened in the Wells Fargo Center. It is a true basketball abyss. What are we even doing?

Five: ACCEPTANCE

I’m writing from the heart here. I can’t tell you what acceptance is because I am not there yet. I just half-assed the Depression section because that’s where I am. We are doomed, I know it but I can’t fully appreciate it. I am someone who likes a good plan, and that’s why I liked the Process (I even liked the idea behind Chip Kelly). It was something different and they were dedicated to it. I am ok with something like that going wrong too. Our current future though, it is rudderless. There can’t be a plan because there is no way out of the Embiid situation. Him magically getting healthy is no plan even if it is the only solution.

Real acceptance is finding a way to enjoy basketball in some way. Is that through Jared McCain dancing and Tyrese Maxey remembering how to smile again? Is it just stealing a victory or two here and there and maybe getting lucky again in the draft? Maybe it’s Embiid literally retiring so we don’t have his contract on the books anymore (this will never happen).

Something needs to give on this team. Maybe acceptance is realizing it won’t. I am not ready to say that’s ok.

Six: RECONSTRUCTION

In 3.5 years, the Sixers will look different but still very similar. Paul George will have just finished his career as a solid role player, hopefully with another team. Tyrese Maxey will be a 28-year-old fringe all-NBAer occupying the Dame Lillard spot in a back court with his CJ McCollum, Jared McCain. McCain has lit it up on occasion and is about to be paid waaaaay too much. Joel Embiid will be entering the final year of his extension, making close to $70m. He hasn’t played basketball in over a year. His contract is now somewhat movable as salary matching for the 3rd star this team has needed forever. There is life in Sixers basketball again.