With the Ben Simmons fiasco finally behind them, the Sixers could enter the 2022 NBA offseason focused fully on surrounding Joel Embiid and his new co-star, James Harden, with the proper pieces to become a championship-caliber team. But with teams like the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat all firmly in the mix to contend, it was not going to be easy for Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey and co. to improve his team significantly enough to launch them into full-fledged contender status.

In the penultimate edition of our Sixers offseason rewind series, let's take a look at the first time in ages that the Sixers were able to generate some exciting vibes heading into a critical season:

NBA Draft

Entering the 2022 NBA Draft, the Sixers owned a first-round pick. When they were on the clock at No. 23 overall, though, news broke that they were trading the selection: the Sixers traded their only pick of the year along with Danny Green -- who had recently torn his ACL and was serving as salary filler -- to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for a young shooting guard named De'Anthony Melton.

The Sixers were capitalizing on a unique situation here: Memphis was attempting to escalate their rebuild, and trading a quality contributor entering his age-24 season does not necessarily jive with any sort of roster-building philosophy. But the Grizzlies had an embarrassment of riches in terms of depth, and with quite a few players set for pay bumps in the near future, they decided to shed one rotation player in Melton for the sake of kicking the can down the road with a first-round pick who is cost-controlled for four years.

This trade was an absolute no-brainer for the Sixers, and in two years with the team, Melton gave them more than enough value to justify the deal.

Melton averaged 27.6 minutes per game with the Sixers in the regular season during his two years in Philadelphia, starting the vast majority of his games. A severe back string of back injuries derailed his final year with the team, limiting him to just 38 regular season games and seven total minutes in the postseason in 2023-24.

Across his 115 regular season contests with the team, Melton averaged 10.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.5 blocks per game while shooting 37.9 percent from beyond the arc on considerable volume (5.4 three-point attempts per game). 

Melton's combination of reliable spot-up shooting and terrific perimeter defense made him an extremely valuable piece for the Sixers for a pair of seasons, particularly as he was finishing out a cost-effective contract. After his frustrating campaign last year, he departed Philadelphia to sign a one-year deal with the Golden State Warriors to help a former dynasty replace a franchise icon in Klay Thompson. 

If the Sixers felt confident that Melton could make a full recovery from his back ailments and leave them in the rearview mirror, they would certainly have loved to bring him back. But in order to free up the requisite salary cap room to sign Paul George, the team had to renounce its rights to Melton.

All in all, Melton should be considered a terrific Sixer -- and the trade made to acquire him might be Morey's most underrated move since arriving in Philadelphia.

Free agency

Technically, Harden had the opportunity to become a free agent following his first few months with the Sixers, but it was a foregone conclusion that he would be back with the team in some capacity. News broke that Harden was declining his $47.3 million player option but would remain with the Sixers on a contract to be determined -- with the implication that he was considering taking a pay cut of some kind to help enable Morey to construct the strongest roster possible.

Not only did Harden end up taking fewer dollars than he could have, he took a lot less money. Harden's pay cut ended up being about $15 million, an enormous amount of money to give up in just one season. The deal was technically two years with a player option in the second year, giving Harden the chance to potentially recoup some of those lost financial gains the following summer. But, clearly, Harden was presented with a compelling vision for how his sacrifice could enable the Sixers to bolster their chances of winning a championship.

That vision turned out to be adding players Harden and Morey had plenty of familiarity with from their time with the Houston Rockets. The reduction of Harden's salary opened up the non-taxpayer's mid-level and bi-annual exceptions for the Sixers: with the MLE, they signed former NBA champion and battle-tested wing veteran P.J. Tucker to a three-year, $33 million deal with a player option in the final season; with the BAE, they added more wing depth by signing Danuel House Jr. to a two-year, $8.5 million deal. On top of that, Morey signed energetic center Montrezl Harrell -- a long-time favorite of Sixers head coach Doc Rivers -- to a veteran's minimum deal. 

During his first full regular season with the Sixers, Harden was excellent, though whispers about his desire to return to Houston grew louder as the season progressed, causing some alarms to go off in the Sixers universe. He averaged 21.0 points, 6.1 rebounds per game and a league-leading 10.7 assists per game while posting his best three-point percentage in over a decade.

The Sixers knew Tucker was not going to give them consistent scoring, but he started all 75 of his games in his first year with the team and averaged 3.5 points per game. They signed him primarily for his playoff pedigree, but his regular season production was difficult to watch at times. Tucker proved to be a massive liability on offense who teams would simply never pay attention to. He registered a few impressive moments in the playoffs and battled on the defensive end of the floor, but his severe offensive limitations capped his impact on winning.

Harrell seemed to be Harden's preferred running mate at the center position when Embiid was on the bench because of their chemistry in screen-and-roll actions, but Harrell's defense was just so brutal that he could not impact winning. He was a clear negative, even on a minimum deal, and youngster Paul Reed was obviously the superior option. Rivers, seemingly not fond of Reed's prospects, took multiple months longer than he should have to make the switch, but ultimately did end up removing Harrell from his rotation.

Results

For so long, things looked great: Harden and Rivers helped Embiid reach his peak form, resulting in an NBA MVP trophy for the Sixers' crown jewel while Tyrese Maxey took another massive step forward and made it clear he was on a star trajectory. The Sixers went 54-28 in the regular season and swept the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs.

Up next came the mighty Celtics, who were considered slight favorites in the second round with home-court advantage. Could it finally be the year the Sixers topple Boston?

An injury held Embiid out of the final game of the Brooklyn series and the first game of the Boston series. Nobody expected the Sixers to take Game 1 against the Celtics -- and then Harden went ballistic. The former MVP turned the clock back with a signature 45-point masterpiece, punctuated with a go-ahead, step-back three over former Sixer Al Horford. Melton also gave the Sixers enormous minutes in that game.

The Celtics evened the series in Game 2, and the teams split the following two games in Philadelphia after Harden came through with another game-winning triple in Game 4. The series returned to Boston for a crucial Game 5, and the Sixers simply outplayed the Celtics in every way: Embiid and Maxey each scored in bunches, Tobias Harris had his best game of the series, Harden set up everybody time and time again, and House, who had been out of the rotation for most of the playoffs, made a surprise appearance and helped swing the game in the Sixers' favor.

You know what happened next: the Sixers blew a lead in the fourth quarter of Game 6 on their home floor, allowing the Celtics to force a Game 7 in Boston. And the Sixers had run out of road magic: they were absolutely pummeled by the Celtics in one of the single most embarrassing defeats in recent NBA history. Embiid shot 5-18 from the field; Harden shot 3-11 from the field with five turnovers. Meanwhile, Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum dropped 51 points on the Sixers en route to a 112-88 final score that actually makes the game seem more competitive than it was.

So, it was back to the drawing board for Morey with plenty more questions to answer: was it going to be possible to bring Harden back? Was there any way to shed Harris' prohibitive salary? Perhaps most importantly -- was Rivers the right coach for this team?

PREVIOUS SIXERS OFFSEASON REWINDS

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