Three Things NBA Preview: Philadelphia 76ers
As I detailed a couple weeks ago, I’m once again re-appropriating the Three Things I Noticed on League Pass format to preview the upcoming season. Instead of three things I noticed, it’ll be something more along the lines of three things I’m looking forward to, interested in, or want to see. Some of them might be narrative-based, some might be stats, and some might include video. But they'll all be focused on the 2025-26 campaign.
The schedule for those posts will be as follows:
- Sept. 1-5: Atlantic Division (BOS, BKN, NYK, PHI, TOR)
- Sept. 8-12: Central Division (CHI, CLE, DET, IND, MIL)
- Sept. 15-19: Southeast Division (ATL, CHA, MIA, ORL, WAS)
- Sept. 22-26: Pacific Division (GSW, LAC, LAL, PHX, SAC)
- Sept. 29-Oct. 3: Northwest Division (DEN, MIN, OKC, POR, UTA)
- Oct. 6-10: Southwest Division (DAL, HOU, MEM, NOP, SAS)
So without further ado, let's get to the Philadelphia 76ers, whose season was totally derailed by injuries as they slumped to a 13th-place finish in the Eastern Conference.
Where are we going?
I wrote about my big-picture thoughts on the Sixers a few weeks ago:
Philadelphia has somehow accidentally wound up as a Two Timelines team.
There's the Joel Embiid/Paul George timeline, which may or may not actually exist. This is the timeline where these guys are supposed to be competitive right now and go deep in the playoffs with a superstar center and an All-Star wing supporting him and (hopefully) All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey. That's the idea, anyway.
How this actually works in practice, who the hell knows. Counting on Embiid to be on the court at all seems foolish and borderline ridiculous at this point. He's played 58 games in the last two years and his knees don't work.
As someone whose knees don't work, I know the feeling, and it sucks. And it doesn't really get better when you have lost all that cartilage and meniscus stuff in and around the joint and your bones are rubbing against each other. So the idea that Embiid is just going to stay healthy for a long period of time doesn't pass the smell test, given his history and his size and his playing style and the reality of his injuries.
And that's just for the regular season. How does Embiid make it through three or four playoff rounds, given the increasing intensity and physicality of playoff play in recent years? How does he make it through the second round and conference finals, when the games are every other day? And how does he stay at peak performance level while doing so? We have yet to see it happen, and now he'll by 32 years old by the time next year's playoffs roll around. It ain't happening.
You can read the full post here.
