76ers move forward with or without Simmons

PHILADELPHIA » Their injury-prone players were sore, their defensively challenged players overwhelmed, their coach outmaneuvered, their competitive drive so flat that their home-court advantage would vanish.

That’s how last 76ers season ended, in a secondround playoff loss to the Atlanta Hawks smeared with boos and subtle fingerpoints.

Encore?

“Yeah, I mean we love, love the team,” Daryl Morey said. “We have young players who are all on the upswing, save for a few wily vets that we love as well. We’re going to have internal improvement. If opportunities arise, it’s my job to look at those. But we’re really, really excited about where we’re at.

“And we’re really excited about taking the next step.”

Not that the truncated 2020-2021 Sixers season was worthless, as the Sixers did win 49 games, including eight of their last 10 to earn the No. 1 seeding in the Eastern Conference tournament.

They had a strong MVP candidate, with Joel Embiid never playing better.

There was growth among some young guards. They shot well from the perimeter.

Yet as they prepared to convene in New Orleans to begin the 39th renewal of their search for their next championship Wednesday night at 8, there had been no offseason effort to improve the meaningful nucleus.

And as for their preferred starting point guard, Ben Simmons was making it so plain that he didn’t want to spend another night in a Philadelphia uniform that he had to be suspended for the opener after being accused by the head coach of being a “distraction.”

That doesn’t mean that Morey, known for his willingness to make major roster changes, won’t make some in-season changes. But it is a virtual invitation for all who enjoyed whatever it was the Sixers accomplished last season to sit back and enjoy it again.

“Obviously, we haven’t done anything in the postsesaon,” Embiid said. “I’ve got to be better. Everybody’s got to be better. But in the regular season, we have been so good and so dominant that we know it’s working.”

Those were their words, and they were matched by Morey’s offseason actions. Despite lacking a dominating multi-threat scoring presence at the top of the offense since Jimmy Butler left, Morey chose to recommit to a starting group that was last seen losing three home games in a best-ofseven.

He again will complement Embiid with Tobias Harris, who is not a superstar no matter how much his paycheck will argue otherwise. He will trust the perimeter to Danny Green and Seth Curry, who are a combined 65 years old. And while he must employ Simmons, who has four years left on a contract, he will continue a year-plus effort to trade him somewhere else for value.

Matisse Thybulle continues to rise as a feared defensive specialist and should, in his third season, begin to reduce his fouls of overagression. Tyrese Maxey is a gifted scorer despite his unreliable outside shot, and he has been running the point when Simmons wasn’t holding out or sulking.

But that’s about it for anything that would give an opposing scout or coach a headache: One MVP candidate, a very good forward, two old shooters and some young guards with incomplete skill portfolios.

“Like I told our guys,” Doc Rivers said, “last year we almost pulled off a miracle run.”

They have spent eight years, mostly shameful, trying to build a championship team, have a responsible payroll and the best center in the Eastern Conference. Yet they had themselves convinced that finishing in first place in their conference last season was some supernatural occurrence. And even if any coach has a preseason hyperbole option, Morey’s offseason actions were those of a general manager who believed Rivers’ hype.

The Sixers drafted for the future, not the present, spending their first-round pick on 19-year-old wing Jaden Springer, who wasn’t even able to permanently crack the starting lineup at the University of Tennessee. As for free agency, they essentially exchanged Dwight Howard, whose ability to bring an edge justified his offensive shortcomings, with Andre Drummond, the beleaguered center who had been publicly dominated and insulted by Embiid for years.

Morey also brought in stand-still defensive liability Georges Niang to effectively replace the useless Mike Scott, no doubt putting the check-out clerks at the souvenir stands on red alert.

That was about it. Decent shooters Shake Milton and Furkan Korkmaz simply won’t go away, even though they are too incomplete to make a postseason different.