76ers 2025-2026 Season: The Rise of Skywalker (Thread 1)

[76ciology]

What was going on in Daryl Morey's mind when he was signing PG and Embiid? I guess AI models can't tell you that a player is old and has destroyed knees. Also, when did this last time happen in the NBA? You sign two max contract players and they are more or less constantly injured for more than a year. The only thing that comes to mind is that Nets team with Kyrie, KD and Harden. But then again, these players are still playing in the NBA at a high level, whereas Embiid and even PG are done I think. I am afraid that PG will return and get injured again as well.

PG was an All-Star who logged 73 games and put up a near 50-40-90 season with a 22-5-5 line in his final year with the Clippers. He stayed healthy and produced at an All-Star level, and to me he still moves like that caliber of player, especially defensively. The dip has mainly been in his shooting. If he gets back to around 40% from deep, he’s fine.

With Embiid, I think he’s looking at examples like Brook Lopez and Kawhi. He brings them up a lot. Brook reinvented his game and stayed healthy after an injury-heavy early career, and Kawhi looked strong coming off his knee surgery.

There’s also the angle that Embiid was sending signals about being open to other teams as leverage, there were Heat and Knicks rumors, and if you play hardball with a franchise player, that can snowball into losing him outright. You can even look at how quickly situations can turn messy with stars like Ja Morant.

Elephant in the room is Embiid shouldn’t have played for the USA team. He should have focused more on managing his knee. And I believe that lead to his setback last season.

Both Embiid and PG take up major cap space, but Morey has balanced it well.. drafting McCain and VJ, letting Yabu walk, trading for Grimes and re-signing him, and keeping the depth solid with Oubre, Drummond, Barlow, and Watford. The roster hasn’t had a depth issue despite the heavy top-end salaries.

[76ciology]

In a perfect setup, Embiid and PG play limited but high impact/productive minutes while the Maxey-led group (who’s fresh with Embiid-PG doing damage early) handles closing duties.

[Iverson Armband]

Correct... Just pretend to try every year

But I still believe in Jo. His last game was his best game. They need to bring in specialist trainers for him. A team that will help him with overcompensation how to walk properly. Like they did before telling him to fall instead of landing on his feet..... I mean the good news is that his old left knee wasn't swelling. It's just overcompensation with his right knee. He's lost weight, but I still feel like he needs to wear braces and focus more on facilitating as a hub in the half court and defense and just boxing out. Maybe lose more weight

How much more weight does he need to lose? You want Joel anorexic in order to play basketball

Look, I know you’re just trying to be positive, but listen to what you’re saying man. Bring in people to teach him how to walk? It’s getting silly at this point. This is not the organizations fault or responsibility. If they have to do all that just for a guy to play 50 games of basketball a year, it’s not even worth it.

Joel is not the first and definitely won’t be the last guy in the NBA that had bad knees and needed to retire.

I hear you. I just know how other parts of the body can affect the others. Especially after going to rehab myself and seeing other situations around sports. For instance I had ACL surgery and while my strength and my knee returned pretty quickly over time since it didn't get full range of motion That puts strain on my opposite legs hips where I needed to build strength in that hip....just literally from standing and the way I stand or walk was the way to improve the issue And was corrected. Steph Curry for instance as I live in the Bay area talks about all the time his ankle issues were fixed by strengthening his hips which is why he does a lot of deadlifts.


I'm totally ready to see the Sixers move on from Joel for Maxeys sake And if this issue causing him to sit was in the left knee then I would know he was cooked as well. But the overcompensation and the other knee can make some sense to me. Doesn't mean he's not cooked. He needs to play consistently for me to believe otherwise

Yeah, that makes sense. I guess if I thought Joel had half the work ethic of a Steph Curry, I’d be more optimistic.

[the_process]

Curious as to what the goal of the team is this season. It's clearly not to seriously try to compete for a title. You can't give guys off every time they have a bump and a bruise and expect to compete for championships. It'll affect seeding, it'll affect ability to built a rapport and have the guys learn how to play with each other.

So if the goal isn't to win a title this season, what is this organization's main desired outcome this season?

Is it to develop the young guys?

Is it to just play out the string and see what you have at the end of the season?

Is it to get your stars healthy so they can try to make a run at it next season?

Is there no real goal and they are just going game by game and they end up where they end up?

You can ask the same question to almost every team in the league.

Nah. I think with most teams their goals are pretty clear, including the teams that are just winging it.

Contenders: Thunder, Lakers, Cavs, Knicks, Nuggets, Rockets

Pretenders: Heat, Hawks, Magic, Timberwolves, Warriors, Suns

Teams ahead of their time: Pistons, Raptors, Spurs

Can't tank, so doing the best they can: Sixers, Clippers, Bucks

Bad teams who would rather be winning: Hornets, Kings, Pelicans, Blazers

Fully in the tank: Nets, Wiz, Pacers, Jazz

This leaves the Celtics, Bulls, Grizzlies, and Mavs. But Chicago pretty clearly wants to win as much as they can, they just don't have a ton of talent. The Celtics would prefer to tank this year and reset their repeater tax clock, but also have hopes of jumping right back to the contender tier next year, so aren't going full fire sale.

So the WTF tier:

Dallas has injury problems, aka Kyrie is out and they have no other lead guards and AD is as reliable as Embiid. They also have a GM "group" now (we know how well those work) where half of them want to win and the other half want to rebuild.

Memphis seems to be purposely alienating their best two players? This after they fired their coach right before the playoffs last year and then traded their third best player during the summer for scrubs and picks.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

We have two max players and a definite third in Maxey. Clearly the goal is to win. The problem is we're locked in to a crippled Embiid and a scumbag thief in Paul George. That falls on Morey and should be a fireable offense, but I really don't think Josh Harris cares at all about any of that. We can't really do anything until we get out from Embiid and George. At best, you hope the team can at least make the playoffs and give the fans a thrill for a few extra games. We're not contenders. That would only change with a perfectly healthy Embiid and a heart beat out of Paul George. I seriously hope we find a way to move him by the deadline. I'd actually be fine and more accepting of riding it out with Embiid if we were to somehow move George. There's got to be a way we can get rid of him. Minnesota is rumored to be buying at the deadline. They seem like a good trade partner for us. Miami could give us Wiggins who surprisingly plays more than George does. Phoenix could potentially enter the conversation if they decide they want to stay in the race out west. Possibly Denver? I mean, there are teams out there. We may have to take a small loss moving him, but my god, let that bum be somebody else's problem. He clearly doesn't not want to be here.