Will Philadelphia’s process pay off this season?

CAMDEN, N.J. – A 10-year journey that has taken them to a dangerous NBA crossroad will continue for the 76ers Thursday in Milwaukee, where they once again will try to profit from a process, a player and a plan.

Most recently caught failing at competitive basketball in the second round of the last postseason, the Sixers will bounce out of an offseason that left them with no draft picks, marginal free-agency gains and a new coach in championshipproven Nick Nurse.

While James Harden has and continues to disrupt growth with name-calling and personal issues that have left him unprepared for the season, the Sixers do have the sitting NBA MVP in Joel Embiid. With that, at least in the regular season, they should not be out of place in any game or basketball fantasy. So the 41st attempt to win a championship since 1983 shall begin against the Bucks.

Maybe this time?

“Well, I think that we’ve got a long way to go,” Nurse said Wednesday, after practice at the training complex. “But I really like the pieces that we have. I think that there needs to be some growth there. I love what we have right now. Give me 20 games or so and get back to me with that question. But I certainly think it’s a viable one to ask.”

Even with their issues, some newness and the ever-looming questions about Embiid’s endurance, that is about where the Sixers are 82 games from the playoffs. They are at a spot where it is reasonable to sprinkle in a little championship talk but nowhere near as much as had been thrown around for the past five years.

Though Harden, who signed a $35.7 million deal to serve as a point guard for one year and immediately moped when he wasn’t traded, will not make the Milwaukee trip and is unlikely to play Saturday in Toronto or in the 7:30 home opener against Portland, Nurse’s team is built to compete. At 29, Embiid has ledtheNBAinscoringforthe past two seasons, is healthy by his standards and realizes he is in the heart of his career. He will be surrounded by veterans in Tobias Harris and P.J. Tucker, and boosted by quietly interesting freeagent pickups in Patrick Beverley and Kelly Obrue Jr.