The Philadelphia 76ers have lost seven consecutive games, are 12th in the Eastern Conference with a 20-36 record and have very little margin for error if they still stand a chance at making the playoffs, which is likely only possible with a successful run through the Play-In Tournament.
Good news is becoming increasingly more rare inside the Sixers organization, especially after the latest reports suggest superstar Joel Embiid is considering alternative options for a nagging knee injury that has limited him to just 19 games. One such option is another knee surgery, which Embiid hinted at following a 124-104 loss to the Boston Celtics last week, saying “I believe I probably need, you know, to fix the problem, and then I’ll be back at that level.”
Several options are being considered, per ESPN’s Shams Charania, as the current routine of knee injections and treatment are not helping the 2023 MVP. Embiid is expected to undergo further tests on his knee this week to determine the best plan forward, per Charania, though it’s easy to see what the Sixers should do regardless of what the tests say.
The Sixers need to shutdown Embiid for the rest of the season.
That’s not an incredibly bold thing to say given he’s only suited up for 19 games so far, and with 26 games remaining Embiid was probably already going to miss a good chunk of them. But he entered the season with a murky explanation about his ongoing knee issue, and with no improvement, he probably had no business playing at all this season.
Why the 76ers should shut down Embiid… and PG?
The best option now is to put him on the shelf for the rest of the season, and instead of feigning some goal of trying to compete for a playoff spot, prioritize the upcoming draft, in which the Sixers have the sixth-best odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick. In fact, shutdown both Embiid and Paul George, the latter of whom has been receiving regular injections in his left hand to dull the pain of an injury to the extensor tendon in his left pinky finger he picked up on Jan. 25. George has been admirably playing through the pain, though he’s also only played in 37 games due to various other injuries and has been inefficient (compared to his standards) when he is on the floor.
It’s clearly time to wave the white flag and focus on the future. If the Sixers front office needs more convincing, then maybe the fact that their first-round pick this year will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls outside the top six is reason enough to pull the plug on the rest of this season.
If the season ended today, Philly would have a 45.8% chance (per Tankathon) of landing a top-six pick, which they would keep. But if the Sixers’ pick lands at No. 7 or later, then that pick goes to the Thunder.
At this point, it doesn’t seem like there’s a chance the Sixers are going to make any sort of deep run in the postseason (despite their owners’ optimism earlier this month), not with Embiid being a shell of himself all season. As much as the Sixers would like to probably get into the play-in with the 10th spot, it could do them harm than good for them in the long run.
There’s a recent example to follow
The Sixers need to pull a page out of the 2023 Dallas Mavericks‘ book. Two years ago, the Mavs tanked their final handful of games, missing the postseason entirely with the hopes of keeping their top-10 protected pick. It worked out incredibly well for the Mavericks, who kept their 2023 pick (No. 10) and managed to draft a rising star in Dereck Lively II to be their center for the future. Lively played a big role in Dallas’ run to the NBA Finals the following season.
The Sixers could follow a similar blueprint, picking up a promising young talent in the draft to further fill out what is already a deep roster when fully healthy. Even if the Sixers don’t necessarily want the pick, they could use it in trade negotiations this summer, but if they fall out of that top-six that leverage and control goes out the window.
This should no longer be a difficult decision, especially with how poorly this season has gone. Even if the Sixers are worried about the optics aspect of it — which I doubt they are — they wouldn’t receive nearly as much criticism as the Mavericks did two years ago. Dallas wasn’t hampered by injuries, and they just pulled off a midseason trade for Kyrie Irving with the intention of contending for a championship. They changed course once the losses started to pile up, and decided keeping that first-round pick was more important than maybe securing a play-in spot. In the long run they made the right move, even when at the time they were heavily criticized for it.
The Sixers are in a far different situation right now, so tanking won’t be seen as some horrible decision. It would actually be seen as the smart move to keep Embiid and George sidelined for the rest of the season, get healthy and come into next season with a full roster and a better shot at winning a championship. Because right now they’re teetering between losing a valuable first-round pick and fighting for a meaningless play-in spot. We’ll have to see what the tests on Embiid’s knee says, but from where I’m sitting this decision should’ve been made at least a month ago.
