PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The 76ers mercifully ended perhaps — given the weight of the championship expectations with a roster that included three elite stars in Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey and a massive payroll — their worst season in franchise history.
76ers President Daryl Morey has the solution to turn the forlorn franchise into winners: Bring 'em all back.
That's right, Morey said he's returning for another season and coach Nick Nurse will also return for a third season on the bench.
Morey also boldly proclaimed — what other choice did he have, really? — that Embiid, George and Maxey should enter training camp healthy, recovered from surgeries and ready to prove the Big Three can make it through a season unscathed and are ready to fulfill their title hunt on the court rather than spend the bulk of the season on the injury report.
Given Embiid's injury history, and his uncertain recovery timeline following arthroscopic surgery last week on his left knee, any chance of the 76ers bouncing back next season into even a decent team sure seems like a stretch.
Morey promised Sunday after the Sixers wrapped a 24-58 season — that included a 5-31 stretch to close it — that he would spend the summer trying make the roster younger, more athletic to potentially help the team fight off the rash of injuries that wrecked the season and provide a bit of a cushion if the core trio are sidelined again for long stretches at a time.
Speaking to the fans, Morey said, “We know we let you down.”
Embiid, Maxey and George played all of 15 games together this season and the trio played a combined 119 games. Embiid, a two-time scoring champion and 2023 NBA MVP, played only 19. He will be re-evaluated in about six weeks.
Morey said all three should be back at “100%” by training camp.
One by one, Maxey, George, a bulk of the 29 players who appeared this season in at least one game, Morey and Nurse took the heat for the dismal season after Sunday's loss to Chicago. The 76ers said Embiid was in New York for a follow-up doctor's appointment and to continue his rehabilitation and was not available to the media.
The 76ers to a man said it pained them as much to see Embiid — ravaged by scores of injuries this season, that included a sprained left foot and a sinus fracture — slog through the season as it did to suffer loss-after-loss in the season's final months.
“To see him suffer, to see him go out there and actually try, he just couldn't be himself, you could tell,” Maxey said. "I've seen him do so many spectacular things. I gave him the ball a couple of times in moments where I think he can do something, and I guess he just couldn't. He was limited."
So were most of the Sixers,
Injuries hurt
Maxey broke a finger and hasn’t been in action since March 3.
George played in just 41 games this season, then was shut down for the year after receiving injections in his left groin and left knee. George, who turns 35 on May 2, signed a $212 million, four-year contract in free agency last summer. But his first year in Philly was marred by injuries that resulted in the forward having one of the worst years of his NBA career.
He averaged 16.2 points in just 41 games, easily his lowest scoring average in a full season since he averaged 12.1 points for Indiana in his second NBA season.
Even when healthy, the 76ers went just 7-8 this season when All-Star trio played together.
“To be honest, I think it was going to take time for us to kind of get where we really wanted to get to," George said.
George also said some personal issues — ranging from a move from the West Coast to concerns over the state of his Pacific Palisades during the California wildfires — played a part on a tough first season in Philly.
“There was just a ton of stuff that was weighing on me that, going into next year, I’m going to be free from a lot of those,” he said. “I do expect a better season. I do expect a better turnaround for myself, for this team.”
Playing the lottery
The 76ers missed the postseason for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
The 76ers are guaranteed at least the fifth-best odds in the NBA draft lottery. That spot gives them a 10.5% chance at getting the top overall pick.
“If you look at teams that make aggressive moves like us and then have a rough season, most of the time those teams have no draft picks,” Morey said. “We have above above-average draft picks going forward to improve the team going into next season.”
Looking back
Morey and the 76ers signed Maxey and George in the offseason to contracts totaling more than $400 million. The Maxey deal was sound. Maxey doesn't turn 25 until November and was coming off both his first All-Star nod and won the NBA's Most Improved Player Award.
“Ownership gave us the resources to make aggressive moves this offseason to put a championship roster around Joel and Tyrese,” Morey said. “Sometimes those aggressive moves don’t initially work out. But we feel good about those, those three guys, our three All-Stars going forward. I have to do a better job putting a supporting cast around them.”
Morey said last summer he was focused on finding “veteran-type players who generally performed very well in the playoffs and I didn’t put enough emphasis on the team getting through the regular season.”
The 76ers felt they had to be aggressive and signed George to try and lengthen Embiid's championship window even with both aging players trudging through careers littered with injuries. The head scratcher, though, was the decision to sign Embiid to a three-year, $192.9 million extension that would guarantee him just shy of $300 million total through the 2028-29 season.
“(George) is only here because he wants to play with the organization, but very specifically, with Joel Embiid,” Morey said. “When you have Paul signed long-term, it's important for your MVP-level player to also be signed long term.”
Embiid's future
The 76ers can win the draft lottery, Maxey and George can return to All-Star form and the roster can get younger and more dynamic but none of it — not when it comes to winning a title — means anything if Embiid isn't healthy enough to play a full season. Counting the 164 games he missed his first two seasons after he was drafted No. 3 overall in 2014, Embiid will have played in 452 of 883 76ers’ games by the end of this season — missing nearly 50% of the regular season.
How can the 76ers again pin their hopes on the 31-year-old Embiid's brittle body?
“It's fair for people to have the question you have,” Morey said. “But in my opinion, when you have an MVP-level talent, you need to make aggressive moves to upgrade around that talent in that window. That's what we did last season and we feel good about it going forward. Are we somewhat indexed to talented players who are a little bit more injured? Yes, but that's why we need to have a younger, deep roster around them and we need to have them healthy going into playoffs next year."
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Dan Gelston, The Associated Press
