Considered the big winner of the offseason, the championship contenders from Philadelphia are in second-to-last place in the table after more than four weeks. Superstar Joel Embiid in particular can’t escape the negative headlines. The club is running out of time.
It is the biggest embarrassment in the still young NBA season: championship contenders and traditional club Philadelphia 76ers are in second-to-last place in the table after more than four weeks. Not in the East, but throughout the NBA. Even teams in bold “tanking mode”, i.e. rebuilding, are currently ahead of the Sixers. They have lost 12 of their first 15 duels, have the worst offense in the league and are currently unable to escape the negative headlines.
After Monday’s loss to Miami – the fourth in a row, all by well double figures – veteran guard Kyle Lowry called a team meeting. Things got heated in the locker room, with players confronting and calling on each other to be more forceful and professional. In particular, Tyrese Maxey’s open and harsh words to his good friend Joel Embiid, who is reportedly “always late for everything,” caused a stir.
“I wanted to speak plainly,” explained point guard Maxey the day after. “I wanted to say that we are so much better than what we have shown so far. There was a lot of talk, but we said what we needed to say. We now have to find solutions for the rest of the season. Everyone is a little down at the moment, but everyone here understands what’s at stake…” And everything is at stake for a franchise that has never won more than one playoff series since 2000-01 and went “all in” this time .
NBA Champions… the offseason
The 76ers were considered the big winners of the transaction summer. Actually, the team from the “City of Brotherly Love” seemed to have done everything right. President Daryl Morey not only signed or extended key role players such as Andre Drummond, Guershon Yabusele, Kelly Oubre, Kyle Lowry, Reggie Jackson, Eric Gordon and Caleb Martin, but also landed the biggest and most sought-after free agent in All-NBA winger Paul George Transfer market. George, who has already been on the All-Star team nine times in his career and is considered one of the best two-way players in the world, received a new four-year contract worth 212 million US dollars to play alongside the other two Sixers stars to make the lofty goals a reality.
Tyrese Maxey, the big riser of the previous season and reigning Most Improved Player, extended for five years and $204 million. Center Joel Embiid, the team’s superstar and 2023 Most Valuable Player, who won Olympic gold in Paris with the US national team, also received a lavish new deal: $193 million over another three years, for a total of $300 million this year and that next four seasons. The controversial ownership group led by private equity investors Josh Harris and David Blitzer is paying more than $180 million in player salaries this year alone, one of the highest values in the league.
The most talented and well-matched group of stars in the Embiid era was seen as the perfect symbiosis of quality and personalities to take this club to a new level. After years of failing to reach the Conference Finals with Jimmy Butler to Ben Simmons to James Harden at Embiid’s side, the course seemed set for the ultimate breakthrough this season. All projections and predictions placed the 76ers in the absolute elite of the NBA, among the best three or four teams in the league.
Megastar Embiid in der Kritik
Instead, the start turned into an absolute nightmare. Despite the Olympics, Embiid came to camp overweight and out of shape. Because the superstar and franchise player is chronically injured and repeatedly misses or appears injured in the most important phase of the season – last season he was missing with a meniscus problem and dragged himself through the playoffs with half-sided facial paralysis – they decided in the “Keystone State”, theirs To protect the 135-pound colossus and not use it in back-to-back games. This secretive decision and subsequent communication not only angered season ticket holders, but also drew the attention of the NBA, which fined Philadelphia a symbolic fine for “concealment.”
While the two-time scoring champion missed the first six games of the season to “manage his knee,” as it was officially called (and his team started its intended championship year 1-5), the star clashed with a local journalist who… had written a lurid and vulgar column about Embiid and his family. The NBA suspended the seven-time All-Star for three games. When he returned to the squad last weekend against the New York Knicks, Philly had already lost seven of nine. Since then there have been five more bankruptcies in a row.
On the floor, the 30-year-old has so far looked like a shadow of his dominant self. He plays passively, almost fearfully. He recently went without a single free throw attempt against Miami – for the first time since 2018. In recent years, Embiid, along with Giannis Antetokounmpo, have been at the line most often on average – more than ten times per evening. There the 2.13 meter giant often gets the necessary throwing rhythm, which then turns him into an unstoppable inside/outside force of nature thanks to his devastating mix of power and finesse. So far, Embiid has hit less than half of his attempts from the field in each game in 2024-25.
Is there hope for improvement?
If this team wants to achieve its ambitious goals, the Cameroonian will have to find his MVP form again. Embiid is said to have accepted and internalized the criticism from his teammates, but appeared irritated and confused, both by the fact that internal matters were leaking out and by the Sixers’ plan on the floor. The fact that he then vowed to improve and let slip that he would have to rethink his own approach gives everyone around the Sixers at least hope that a light has gone on.
“I’m trying to find myself again. The fact that I was sick didn’t help. But we have a new team, a lot of new players. I’m trying to figure out how I can best help. Of course I can go out and take 20, 25 throws like I always do , but I’m trying to find the right mix as we all get to know each other. Maybe I have to change that given our record. Maybe I have to be more aggressive in the next games himself finish.”
There are bright spots in Philly, too. The Frenchman Guershon Yabusele, for example, who maintained his sensational Olympic form and made a more than impressive return to the NBA with an average of 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds with a 42 percent three-point shot rate. He once tried in vain to gain a foothold there (wearing the Boston Celtics jersey from 2017 to 2019). After detours to the Chinese CBA, to ASVEL in the French league and to the ACB to Real Madrid, with whom he won the Spanish league twice, the cup three times and the Euroleague once, the former first-round pick (number 16 in 2016) shone in this one Summer in the jersey of the French national team and finally played his way back onto the NBA radar.
Newcomer McCain seizes the opportunity
NBA newcomer Jared McCain also took advantage of the moment and represented the injured Maxey in such an outstanding manner that he not only established himself as an early favorite for the Rookie of the Year Award, but also gave fans dreams. That McCain can become the ideal bench microwave in a possible playoff rotation this year thanks to his scoring qualities (15.6 points in an average of 22.6 minutes of playing time, an extremely strong 25.8 PPG as a starter in four games). . Of course, the fact that McCain has had to be the best attacker on this team at times doesn’t speak for the stars.
“Jared is playing unbelievably. He knows he belongs here and he’s showing it. His future is bright,” says teammate George. “To be honest, he’s been our most consistent player so far. That can’t really be the case, we all need to get our shit together and get our shit together.” Like Embiid, George also takes responsibility on his own shoulders. In fact, both he (14.9 points per game on 38 percent shooting), Maxey (39 percent from the field) and Embiid (19.8 points on 38 percent shooting) have to be better. But it is also a fact: The rumored super team has had virtually no opportunity to exploit its star power. If this club wants to turn things around, the Big Three have to finally get into a rhythm. This is becoming increasingly difficult when you look at the protagonists’ medical records and the long-term plan to deliver in the spring.
Finally together on the field
In the game against the Memphis Grizzlies, the trio was on the floor together for the first time – including preseason. In a total of just under six minutes, the team was narrowly in the red, scoring eight points and conceding nine before Maxey, who returned to the squad after missing six games, was rested for the rest of the half. After the break it was over again after just 40 seconds. George injured his left knee for the second time in 37 days and had to be substituted. The All-Star seems to have been lucky in misfortune, only suffering a bruised knee joint; according to tests, everything is structurally fine. However, he will be out for at least two games before being reclassified next week and perhaps being able to return.
Until then, Nick Nurse’s team has the opportunity to start a mini comeback against Brooklyn (113:98) and the LA Clippers. If Philadelphia turns the corner and ends up reaching the Eastern Conference Finals or even the NBA Finals, this dark chapter at the start of this season will quickly be forgotten. An 82-game season is a marathon, not a sprint. A slow start is not a definitive death sentence – especially not in the new postseason format and in this weak Eastern Conference this year. Despite a disastrous first month, the Sixers remain just four wins away from 10th place and a play-in spot…that’s a good week or two in the NBA.
However, history is not on Philly’s side: Of the 108 teams that started a season with a 2:11 record or worse, only eight made the playoffs and only three ended up winning more than half of their games. This team would have to win 40 of its remaining 68 duels – a near 60 percent success rate – to climb above the 50 percent mark. Quality, talent and overwhelming star power is in abundance with these Philadelphia 76ers. But time is slowly but surely running out.
