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This Sixers Season Should be Viewed as a Success
By Sean Barnard
Published:
It’s been 13 years since the Philadelphia 76ers launched “The Process” era. The point was to escape NBA purgatory, where the team was not good enough to truly compete for a championship but not bad enough to secure franchise-altering talent in the draft.
They willingly pulled the bottom out to change this outlook, and nearly a decade and a half later, the Sixers find themselves in far too similar a place.
There are plenty of areas to point to for why this went wrong. You can start with two number one overall picks who are now out of the NBA. There are several trade mistakes and roster decisions worth critiquing. The front office turmoil sure did not help, with the unqualified decision-makers responsible for steering this ship in the wrong direction while ripping their star player on burner accounts and wearing abnormally large collars in the process.
This entire era has also rewired our brains in a way that the team is somewhat a victim of their own success. The mindset of “championship or bust” has been one that the collective fan base has clung to since they flipped the switch into win-now mode ahead of the 2017-18 season.
But this is not the proper sense to view this specific season through. If you are to ask yourself honestly, did you think the Sixers had any real chance at a championship this year? How many answers out there would genuinely be a yes?
Sure, the vision for contending in a wide-open East was there, and there were flashes of promise. The Sixers made the all-in push before last season to sign Paul George to a max contract to pair with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. But everything that could go wrong did go wrong last year as the team limped to a 24-58 record. This was a reset season, and the same should apply to the expectations.
Coming into this year, there was not a true consensus for how the season would shape up. If everything broke the Sixers way, largely led by the conversation on what Embiid’s level of availability would be, they were a team that could win the East. If last season was a sign of things to come, they could have been right back in the dregs of the NBA, the way that was the case last year.
Ultimately, the Sixers finished the season with a 45-37 record and finished in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Embiid suited up for just 38 games, Paul George missed the start of the season and was suspended for 25 games, and even Maxey missed a three-week stretch near the end of the regular season due to a finger issue, which showed face again in the playoffs.
They finished one game short of qualifying for a top-six playoff seed. Instead, they were forced to the play-in tournament, in which they beat the Orlando Magic 109-97 to earn an opening round matchup with the Celtics. It’s more than a throwaway point that this Magic team went on to push the top-seeded Pistons to seven games before they were eliminated in the opening round.
It’s also more than a throwaway performance to acknowledge the Sixers beating the Celtics in seven games. It’s a sad reality, but this was by far the most impressive postseason series win across this era of Sixers basketball by a pretty significant margin. This is especially the case considering the team dug itself a 3-1 series hole, and had to scrap back to win three straight and keep their playoff hopes alive. The series shift was directly tied to the return of Embiid, who proved to still be capable of carving up a limited Boston interior and being the basketball chess piece that the Celtics have no answer for. Flashback a week ago, and there was more excitement surrounding the Sixers than had been the case in a few years.
But this all came crashing down in an embarrassing four-game sweep by the Knicks. From being beaten by 30 points in Game 4 to Knicks fans dancing on the organization’s grave in their own building, it was about as bad as a series could go. This sour taste is one that should resonate, but distorts a bit of the overall perspective on the year.
Looking into the betting markets, the Sixers entered the year with a season-long win total set at 43.5. They opened the year with +4000 odds to win the championship, tied for 13th in the league, and the Celtics were -900 favorites to win the opening round series. Outside of the long-shot championship odds, they overachieved by each of these metrics.
It’s a loser mindset not to have full sights set on a championship, but also the reality. If you are to say that there is no way that every team in the league will win the championship, you will end up being right 29 out of 30 times.
This was a Sixers season that was largely built on collecting data for the best path forward. The organization laid the groundwork for life beyond Embiid, while giving the star trio another chance to see what they can look like under the bright lights of the playoffs.
By far the biggest takeaway from this season should be the success of V.J. Edgecombe. Walking away with him as the third overall pick is a pretty damn good consolation prize for last year’s disaster.
Coming into the season, Nick Nurse was asked how he would measure success in Edgecombe’s rookie year. Nurse noted that minutes would largely comprise the scale he’d be graded on. Well, Edgecombe finished second on the team with 35.0 minutes per game and ranked 11th in the NBA in minutes overall. Across these opportunities, he averaged 16.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.2 assists while shooting 35.4% and finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting. This carried into the postseason, where he also ranked second on the team in minutes and posted averages of 14.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 3.4 assists.
Beyond the raw numbers, the rookie was fearless in every step. No moment was too big for him, and he proved more NBA-ready than any fair expectations could state. Edgecombe looks like the perfect backcourt complement to Maxey, and here is a vision and sample size for why this backcourt duo could terrorize the NBA for the next decade plus.
Having a pivot point to move forward is an extremely important takeaway from this season. This conclusion had to be proven before there could be any sort of real outlook to moving on from Embiid and George and their huge contracts. But listen to five minutes of any of the exit interviews and you will hear the way he Edgecombe showered with praise. He’s still just 20 years old, and the potential for him to grow into a top 10 player in the league is legitimate when he reaches his prime years:
This was a strange season in which the Sixers essentially split their hand while sitting at the blackjack table. They hit on both cards, one being the youthful movement of the future and the other being the aging stars. I entered the season with the belief that how this team operated at the trade deadline would tell us their level of belief in their chances. They responded by trading away Jared McCain, only for draft picks as the return, clearly doubling down on the future.
The takeaway from this year should be that the train is not fully off the tracks for the organization just yet. It’s extremely difficult to build in the NBA while continuing to compete.
Philadelphia will now enter an offseason with plenty of questions and a bit more clarity on the answer to what the best direction forward is. There are still plenty of decisions to make, starting with who will even make these decisions. Is it Daryl Morey or someone else? But to zoom out on what the honest takeaway from the season should be, it has to be driven by the acknowledgment that the team largely overachieved based on the circumstances they were dealing with.
Kinkead: I think Sean is completely delusional and may have lost the plot entirely, but to each their own.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.