Amid controversies being followed by investigations, investigations being followed by league-mandated penalties and injury updates being followed by even more injury updates, the Sixers were desperate for any source of optimism they could find. The stage was set for them to shift the energy: after a thrilling come-from-behind road victory against a very good Indiana Pacers team on Sunday -- powered by a 45-point explosion from Tyrese Maxey -- the Sixers returned home for a matchup against a winless Detroit Pistons team which posted the worst record in the NBA last season.
Pistons 105, Sixers 95 -- a tremendous opportunity to change course not taken advantage of, as the Sixers came out flat in every sense of the word to drop a game that, even in October, felt like one they really needed to handle. After a solid first quarter of action, the Sixers spent the next three incapable of stringing together more than two minutes of impressive two-way play at a time.
Here the Sixers sit, with a 1-3 record and only one more contest before they depart for a three-game West Coast road trip and far more questions than answers.
When will Joel Embiid and Paul George be on the floor?
Prior to Wednesday night's game, Nurse said he expected to have a stronger idea of each player's status on Friday, with another home game looming the next day.
"I'm anticipating to get a much clearer idea on Friday," Nurse said. "Whether or not they'll be able to be available for Saturday, or for the West Coast, or whatever."
For George, the situation is fairly simple at this juncture: he experienced an in-game injury during the preseason, suffering a bone bruise in his left knee, and appears to be nearing a return. The Sixers have yet to provide any specific information on whether George could return on Saturday night when the Sixers host the Memphis Grizzlies or if a debut on the West Coast is more likely. But George did undergo a rigorous pregame routine in Indiana over the weekend, which is typically a sign that a player is close to being back on the floor in games.
Naturally, Embiid's situation is far more complicated. The Sixers have continually affirmed that the former NBA MVP is "progressing well," while also maintaining that he has not suffered any injury or injury-related setback in his surgically-repaired left knee. Yet he has been unavailable in each of the team's first four regular season games -- after not scrimmaging for the entirety of training camp or participating in any preseason contests -- with little indication of a timeline of any kind.
Nurse, who has grown frustrated with the constant questioning regarding Embiid's status, declined to answer multiple questions about the superstar center after Tuesday's practice.
Hours later, news broke that the NBA was fining the team $100 thousand for making public comments that did not properly reflect the status of Embiid's health, specifically naming Nurse and Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey. Asked about the league penalizing the Sixers before Wednesday's game, Nurse provided a pair of statements.
"I didn't even know we were fined," Nurse said. "We were fined? That was made public?"
About 30 seconds later, Nurse said he "would have to punt that [question]" when asked to explain how the NBA came to the conclusion that the Sixers have not been accurately representing Embiid's condition.
"Like I said, I didn't even know we got fined yesterday."
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How will this team create enough familiarity to win at the highest levels?
Embiid spoke at length during the team's Media Day in September about how in today's NBA, championship teams must have continuity and its core players require intense understanding of each other to enable ideal on-court chemistry.
The Sixers have made it known that Embiid is going to sit out a whole lot of regular season games. Their load management plan for George will not be as aggressive, but they are also expected to give the 34-year-old wing with a lengthy injury history as much time off as he needs whenever he needs it.
Forget about May and June for a moment: how are the Sixers going to even win a single playoff series in April if Embiid and George have minimal experience sharing the floor with each other and the rest of their teammates? Among the Sixers' critical rotation pieces, Embiid has spent plenty of time on the floor with Maxey, just a small handful of games with Kelly Oubre Jr. and even smaller handfuls of games with Kyle Lowry.
The Eastern Conference is getting extremely competitive -- the dominant Boston Celtics are multiple levels above the rest, the New York Knicks have the talent to outrace everybody else in pursuit of Boston and teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic have enjoyed strong starts to 2024-25. Even the Pacers, who the Sixers handed a frustrating loss over the weekend, knocked off Boston in another overtime game on Wednesday night.
There will not even be one easy playoff series for the Sixers in April -- and the same can be said for every non-Boston team. They will have to be in peak form from the minute the first game of their first-round series tips off. Will they accumulate enough experience between now and then to make that possible?
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Will the Sixers figure out how to actually win games when their two injury-prone stars are unavailable?
Because they sure have not so far. Maxey is a stellar offensive player, but is completely overextended in his current role.
Not only is Maxey the team's lead scoring option, but he is currently their only player capable of scoring on a consistent basis. Maxey is not just taking more shots than he is used to taking, he is taking more shots than any player in the NBA. Through four games, Maxey has taken 111 field goal attempts. One player -- Boston's Jaylen Brown -- had the exact same total following Wednesday night's action, but Brown's Celtics have already played five games.
Maxey's 27.8 shot attempts per game is far ahead of the next-highest, with Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Dončić averaging 24.8 field goal attempts per game -- and Dončić's figure would be a career-high for a player synonymous with absurd volume.
One could say that Maxey assuming such a massive workload on offense is not sustainable. But that statement implies it can be a successful strategy in the short-term, which does not appear to be the case. Maxey, whose efficiency on legitimate volume has been one of his strongest characteristics over his four NBA seasons, is shooting 37.8 percent from the field and 22.9 percent from beyond the arc. The team's 106.5 Offensive Rating (points scored per 100 possessions) ranks 26th among 30 NBA teams to date during the young season.
The sort of role Maxey is taking on the offensive end of the floor right now is too hefty for transcendent, one-in-a-generation offensive engines. Maxey is a tremendous, star-caliber player, who for another few days is only 23 years old -- a true building block for any franchise -- but he is not Dončić and he is not the version of James Harden that Morey thrived with in Houston, but he is shouldering a workload that would even be too rich for those players. The Sixers are just asking Maxey to do far too much -- and they're doing it because they have no other options.
Morey and co. assembled a roster that should fit beautifully around Embiid, Maxey and George. But it is a roster almost entirely composed of players who cannot effectively scale up their offensive roles, even in a pinch. Suddenly, all of those background pieces are being asked to do more than they are capable of doing on a consistent basis because instead of supporting a trio of All-Stars, they are supporting one go-to option. Oubre is the only player capable of undertaking more scoring opportunities with any chance of success, and he seems to relish those chances. But through four games, Oubre is shooting 41.8 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from beyond the arc -- and efficiency has never been a hallmark of the veteran swingman's statistical profile.
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For more than a half-decade, the Sixers have spent the vast majority of their games on the right side of a talent discrepancy. Their objective has been to ride an enormous collection of talent to wins. For the time being, they must maximize every bit of ability they have. Because for now, they are on the other side of the talent spectrum.
"The situation right now," Nurse said adder the loss to Detroit. "Our guys are going to have to play at an average to above-average level [to win games]."
Nurse's lone available star expressed a similar sentiment moments later.
"Without [Embiid and George], there's not much margin for error," Maxey said. "We have to be on our Ps and Qs at all times. That's offensively, that's defensively, that's coming out of the huddle... We have to be more prepared than the other team."
Maxey harped on three of those words again.
"That's what we had to realize. Like I said, the margin for error is so slim to none."
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