With Joel Embiid assumingely approaching his apex as a basketball player, can Philly maximize his talent with a strong supporting cast and make a push to the top of the East?
Notable Additions/Subtractions:
Additions: Andre Drummond (1yr, minimum) Georges Niang (2yrs, $6.7m)
Subtractions: Dwight Howard (Los Angeles Lakers), Mike Scott (Free Agency)
Last Season’s Record: 49-23 (1st in East), second round loss to Atlanta
Projected First Two Rotations:
Starters: B. Simmons, S. Curry (not that one), D. Green, T. Harris, J. Embiid
Second Unit: S. Milton, F. Korkmaz, M. Thybulle, A. Tolliver, A. Drummond
Disgusting homer takes inbound. I think I’m officially out on the Sixers as a legitimate threat in the East. Not even just because I want to see them burn down as a franchise, but because after last year’s collapse against Trae Young and Co., and what was shown by Ben Simmons in terms of offensive willingness. Embiid is in the Giannis category of unguardable, where you kind of just have to throw your “best defender” at him and hope something works. Guys like those two have forced teams to reinforce the paint a little bit, which makes me happy if nothing else. And there is nothing else about the Sixers that makes me happy.
Except for I think they’re in the midst of floundering and falling. Ben Simmons had a super viral moment where his 6’10” self was right under the rim, with DPOY runner-up Trae Young his only barricade, and even saying that is a stretch, he really was wide open. Passing it up late in the fourth quarter all but sealed Philly’s doom. What’s so god damn frustrating about Ben Simmons is that he very obviously could be one of the best players in the world, and sometimes he shows it, when he takes off at full speed, looking like the best WR the NFL has ever seen, going coast to coast and dunking on someone AT SIX TEN.
So, as can be seen above, the Sixers spent most of their 2021 off-season capital on locking down Embiid, and also renegotiating contracts with Furkan Korkmaz and Danny Green. I’ve met Danny Green, nice guy, super nice guy, but teams’ infatuation with him and their willingness to continue to give him starter contracts and starter minutes in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty one mystifies me. Seth Curry was undoubtedly a piece that they needed last year, but time only moves forward and I know that in a matchup against Boston, FOR EXAMPLE, they have enough perimeter defenders to where he could be all but negated.
The real story of Philly though, will no doubt be the Saga of Embiid and Drummond. The video that was posted when they dapped each other up was absolutely unbelievable, Embiid is pure comedy gold. The two monster human beings have been on, let’s say, testy terms with each other in years past, and while there won’t be any real threat from Drummond to take Joel’s spot, I cannot describe how excited I am to watch them either get along famously or kill each other.
Drafting Tennessee’s Jaden Springer was a nice move, and he’ll be a scoring option in rotational minutes, undoubtedly, even if he’ll take a few years to develop into the player he showed flashes of at UT. I really just have a hard time taking the 76ers seriously after last year’s performance, even half surprising myself when I remembered they were the honest to god number one seed last year in the Eastern Conference. Adding Anthony Tolliver (Anthony Tolliver???) won’t take you over the top, so I look forward to watching more of the same ol’ Sixers again.
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