A poetic offseason for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Just a few months ago, as the Philadelphia 76ers prepared to begin the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, many believed that this could be the year of breakthrough for the franchise. However, after a premature second-round exit, this offseason has quickly shaped away from one of celebration to one of decisions that will shape the future for the Sixers.
And the biggest of such involves the Sixers choosing Joel Embiid over Ben Simmons. While that was pretty much a foregone conclusion (if it ever came to it), the Sixers are actually doing that tangibly (finally) this season.
Almost poetically, the Sixers signed Embiid to an extension worth nearly $200 million at the same time while the team is looking for a trade partner to take on Simmons.
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The solo Embiid-Sixers era
Short of the unexpected taking place, the Sixers will enter this season with Embiid as the clear No. 1 and headliner on the team and with Simmons on another roster. And we’ll get, for really the first time, a build that is strictly around Embiid.
If the Sixers are going to win a championship over the course of the next half-decade, it will be because Embiid is so much more dominant in the paint or because of the trade package that Philadelphia got in exchange for Simmons.
It won’t because the “next LeBron” finally erupted onto the scene and took over as the team’s No. 1 next to the most dominant paint presence in today’s game. It won’t be because Simmons and Embiid emerged as the league’s best 1-2 punch. And it’s a shame, because that’s what they hope – and, to a certain extent, expectations – resided.
It’s the end of an era – albeit a disappointing one – for the Sixers. I don’t think the Philadelphia front office ever expected it to be Simmons or Embiid. It was always intended to be Simmons and Embiid.
Over the course of the last couple of seasons, that quickly changed. For as talented as Simmons is, he simply didn’t fit all that well next to Embiid without a consistent jump shot. And even though Simmons doesn’t need to be a flamethrower from deep to be effective and productive in this league, for one reason or another it didn’t come together with the Sixers.
The Sixers haven’t been the most active team thus far in the offseason, but the two big decisions that they have made will send shockwaves and shape the team’s future for years to come.