Another season with Embiid wasted
PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid gingerly plopped into his seat set to explain yet another season-ending playoff loss, a familiar scene year-after-year for Philadelphia’s oftinjured All-Star center. Embiid, though, wasn’t alone. He usually dissects defeats by himself on the news conference dais. Tyrese Maxey was by his side this time, though — just as the All-Star guard was on the court, just as he’s expected to be for as long as their contracts allow.
Yes, one more empty season is stamped on Embiid’s prime years.
Will his postseason fortunes ever change in Philly?
Maybe the future really will be different this time for the 76ers. After a decade churning through Embiid sidekicks — Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, James Harden and others — the Sixers at last believe they have a perfect partner for Embiid. Maxey’s career skyrocketed this season with his first AllStar berth, the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, and a season-extending 46-point effort in a Game 5 win in New York.
Embiid and Maxey. Maxey and Embiid.
It sounds like the dawn of something good in Philly.
Just like it did with Embiid and Simmons. And Embiid and Butler. And ... and, the only guarantee in Philly, no matter the supposed dynamic duo, is a postseason flameout. The Sixers first-round exit against the Knicks made it 41 years since their last NBA championship. The Sixers haven’t even advanced out of the second round since 2001, when Maxey was seven months old.
“I still believe if everything went right, we had a chance,” Embiid said. “But everything didn’t go right.”
The 76ers finished 31-8 in the regular season with Embiid — about a 65-win pace — and a woeful 16-27 without him.
As Embiid goes, so go the Sixers.
He just needs more help and, outside of Maxey, the 76ers were ill-equipped to deliver it for him.
“Every single year it’s always been one person comes in, and the following year they’re gone,” Embiid said. “The same thing just kept happening, kept happening the last few years. This is really the first time where you got him, and obviously, (Maxey’s) taken a step, and he was amazing this year. One of the 10 best players in the world this year. And then you finally get the chance to build around it.”
The summer is set-up as a pivotal one for team president Daryl Morey. The Sixers have the cap space to build a winner around the 30-year-old Embiid, who has two more years and a player option left on his deal. Either way, the 76ers promise to have yet another makeover ahead of next year.
Embiid played on one good leg and through Bell’s palsy in the postseason. Injuries are just part of the deal with Embiid, who has never even played 70 games in a season.
Last season’s NBA MVP, Embiid is set to play this summer for Team USA at the Paris Olympics.
While there’s clearly value in playing with a team full of superstars, — some who know how to win an NBA championship — do the Sixers really want the 7-footer logging more minutes in the summer when he could be resting, recovering and trying to enter training camp completely healthy?
“I feel like coming back this year, I could have taken more time to heal and get back to myself,” he said. “That’s always been my mindset. I’ve always played through stuff, it’s never been an excuse and it’s not an excuse so, for me for the most part I was healthy.”