April 20, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Now the real journey begins for Joel Embiid, Kelly Oubre Jr., and the Sixers.
The Philadelphia 76ers embark on the most important playoff series since 1983.
It’s straightforward to me. The team brought back Joel Embiid at the end of the regular season, and despite Miami’s style of play being more of a playoff anomaly, Embiid didn’t look right. Tyrese Maxey was limited by the Heat and the Sixers needed a rise out of Nico Batum to survive the first play-in game.
Suddenly, the cruising past teams like Memphis and Brooklyn seemed distant, as the Sixers struggled to figure things out all night. Now it’s for real as they open the actual playoffs against the New York Knicks.
This is the most important playoff run in the city since the Eagles brought home a Super Bowl, and equally important to the Sixers. While the expectations shouldn’t be that this year’s Sixers team wins the NBA Championship, that wasn’t the feeling before Embiid went down. This team was one of the best in the league and led by one of its best players, so why wouldn’t we think they have a shot to win?
Now? What’s your realistic expectation for this team? Beating the Knicks would be great. Knocking off the Celtics and making the Eastern Conference Finals or the NBA Finals would be a gem. Winning? Tough to comprehend but not out of the picture by any means. But so is losing to New York in the first round.
The wide range of outcomes rests squarely on the health of Joel Embiid – the most important piece on the floor by far. Nobody impacts the game on an individual level more than Embiid and no team is worse off without their star player than Philadelphia.
We know this, but what you may not know – or choose to acknowledge – is that time doesn’t care about your “why”. If the Sixers fall short against the Knicks, it signifies more than just a seasonal failure, rather a pattern of trusting the wrong person – trusting Embiid to carry the weight.
That sounds odd, doesn’t it? Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to ride Embiid to the NBA Finals, envisioning his reaction while finally holding the Larry O’Brien trophy? But as we’ve seen this year, the Sixers poured all their egg yolk into one basket and saw it drip out the bottom when Embiid went down.
This is a chance to change the narrative. This playoff run is beyond just about another chance for Embiid, or more playoff experience for Tyrese Maxey. This is about proving to the world – and himself – that Embiid is truly the lone person to carry a team to success. We cannot expect this team to beat New York, Boston, or anyone else by relying on Nico Batum or Kelly Oubre Jr. to steal victories.
It may happen once or twice over the course of a playoff run, but this is where MVPs and stars make their money. An early loss – injury or not – signals a massive organizational shift where the Sixers have to build forward around either Maxey or the concept of a team – no longer Embiid.
You can't expect to build a team around a key player and survive if that key player goes down. It’s been proven already with the Sixers, year in and year out. The strategy hasn’t panned out and has one more year – this year – left. Daryl Morey has no choice but to build around multiple people, not just the concept of Joel Embiid.
It’s the only way to continue to maximize talent and Embiid’s availability. We rarely see anything like this. Guys like Greg Oden to Yao Ming never had this type of run when healthy. Embiid has accomplished some historic regular season feats, yet failed to carry that into the playoffs. Much like Allen Iverson and Charles Barkley before him, Embiid is a playoff failure – the worst thing you can be as a Hall of Famer in any sport.
He's not going anywhere after this year, as the organization will spend a ton of money trying to create a new team around him and Maxey. Hopefully, this column is moot, and the team goes on a crazy run shocking most of us. Knocking off New York and then Boston would validate a push toward playoff success for Embiid, or at least one heading in the right direction. The team build would look similar to what we’ve seen, maximizing shooters and defenders around Embiid, with most of the ball going through him and Maxey.
Nothing in Joel Embiid’s career to date means more than this playoff run. Nothing in the Sixers' history means more than this run since 1983. This is a massive postseason for Morey and the organization as they'll know they need to make a shift in direction if it fails.
Ah yes, but the injury!
It’s the calling sound of the bearer of excuses. It may be why Embiid fails again, or the team succumbs to another early exit, but that doesn’t remove it from happening – especially again. Nick Nurse oversaw one of the greatest championship runs we’ve ever seen in the NBA. Kawhi Leonard impacts the game on both ends like few we’ve ever seen, and Nurse was able to harness that with the supporting cast in Toronto.
Can he do it again with another top player? Can Embiid add Finals MVP to his resume? Can Tyrese Maxey step up and save the current state of the Sixers? Time will tell.
If any of those answers are no, it means all of them are. It means the Embiid era is winding down and he becomes a massive cog in a greater wheel. Just getting a bigger name or two and hoping a league MVP stays healthy won’t work.
It hasn’t yet.
