The Philadelphia 76ers season has been nothing short of a disaster. After being called NBA Finals contenders and seeming to have the best team in the Joel Embiid era, expectations were high. Now, the 76ers stand at 7-16 and 12th in the Eastern Conference. During the offseason they acquired perennial all star Paul George and multiple quality role players as well as drafting rookie Jared McCain at 15th. Coming off a bad season with Joel Embiid suffering a torn meniscus and a first round exit to a good New York Knicks team, it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse.
Then, the 76ers would see a Paul George injury in the preseason as well as no Joel Embiid minutes due to “ramping up conditioning” and “injury management.” Though this is strange because Embiid participated in the Olympics over the summer. The big three would see their first game together against the Memphis Grizzlies where Tyrese Maxey was on a minutes restriction due to his own injury and during the game Paul George would leave with a re-injured knee. They would then go on to lose the game.
One of the highlights of the season was the emergence of the favored rookie of the year candidate Jared McCain, who had multiple 30 point outings on great 3-point shooting. Also, the offseason signing of Guerschon Yabusele, who was playing in the Euroleague after leaving the NBA in 2017 and proved to be a reliable role player.
Every win would be a dogfight getting to their current record of 7-16. Concerns around coaching and front office management would emerge as well as Joel Embiid’s long term health and ability to continue to play at all. The aging team being the oldest in the NBA doesn’t bode well either with the team also paying three max contracts to their stars.
As of December 15, Jared McCain, maybe the only silver lining of this season, suffered a meniscus tear and is out indefinitely. For a team that is supposed to contend for a championship being in danger of not making the playoffs or even play-in tournament is the worst case scenario. Everything that can go wrong has, and it isn’t looking good for the rest of the season.
