5 Sixers who shouldn’t be back next season with Philly in dire need of housecleaning

The Philadelphia 76ers are 0-6 since Daryl Morey told reporters that the Sixers are still contenders if you "squint." On Saturday, a fully healthy 76ers starting lineup gave up a 40-point first quarter to the Brooklyn Nets, who started Killian Hayes at point guard. The game ended on a buzzer-beating put-back from Nic Claxton after Nick Nurse benched Joel Embiid in the fourth quarter.

It was a productive trade deadline for Philly, adding two bonafide rotation pieces in Quentin Grimes and Jared Butler. That was not nearly enough, however, to move the needle on this disaster of a season.

It's cooked, y'all. We can stop pretending like there's a way out. This is not a team that can do damage in the Play-In Tournament. The top-seeded Cavs aren't shaking in their boots at the thought of playing Philadelphia in round one. The Sixers are a bad team. An embarrassing team, completely sapped of life. They don't play hard, they don't execute a discernible game plan on defense, they don't look connected on offense.

This team has taken too many punches. It's that simple. One almost finds it difficult to earnestly blame the Sixers. When fate is so relentlessly aligned against your team, it's hard to play every night with the proper competitive spirit. Joel Embiid has been hurt all season. We are watching one of the greatest scorers of all-time leak oil in real-time. Paul George has also been hurt all season. When asked about his experience with injuries and what kind of advice he has for Embiid, George's response was as bleak as bleak gets: "Drugs help."

The only real source of joy for the Sixers this season was Jared McCain, who went down with an apparent head injury one night and was reported to need a season-ending meniscus surgery the next day. That sort of random, heartbreaking news has been a staple of Philadelphia's season. Any time there's even a glimmer of positive momentum, it gets snuffed out in record time, undermined by some sort of cosmic curse that this organization can't seem to shake.

Something has to change next offseason. A lot has to change, honestly. I'll give Daryl Morey the benefit of the doubt for now, but he cannot sit on his hands and trust this team, as constructed, to contend in 2025-26. This is not a situation that can be fixed with "better luck."

Here's who shouldn't be back.

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5. Eric Gordon

The fatal flaw in Philadelphia's offseason plan (aside from handing Paul George $212 million) was Morey's strategy for rounding out the bottom half of the rotation. The Sixers essentially courted the services of experienced (read: over the hill) veterans with some sort of connection to the team. Eric Gordon is a longtime Daryl Morey staple. It was only a matter of time until he wound up in South Philly.

Frankly, Gordon has not been terrible. He's playing the fewest minutes of his career and averaging single-digit points for the first time in 17 NBA seasons, but he's still hitting 40.9 percent of his 3s and supplying, um, serviceable defense on the wing. He's just getting old (by NBA standards), which he can't be blamed for.

The idea of Gordon in Philadelphia was easy to get behind, but with Embiid's performance in the gutter, there's less utility for a pure 3-point shooter who now struggles to beat closeouts and create advantages with his handle. The Sixers also have a ton of younger, healthier wings like Quentin Grimes, Justin Edwards, and Ricky Council, who shouldn't be losing minutes to 36-year-old Eric Gordon down the road.

4. Kyle Lowry

Kyle Lowry is another aging vet with clear ties to the franchise — he's a Philly kid, a Nick Nurse staple, and oh yeah, he was on the team last season. Bringing him back was understandable, even smart, but Father Time has caught up with Lowry. It was inevitable. It's tough sledding for 6-foot-nothing point guards in their late 30s. Lowry has put together an incredible career, but his days in this league are numbered. It wouldn't be shocking if this hellish season is what convinces him to hang 'em up.

Lowry still competes his tail off, but he just can't stay in front of dudes like he used to on defense. The passing is still there, but Lowry can't put pressure on the rim as a ball-handler. His finishing inside the arc has completely bottomed out and he's not shooting well enough from deep to maintain positive offensive value.

There are undeniable benefits to keeping Lowry around as a veteran mentor and resident Eagles fan, but the Sixers just cannot be giving minutes to him when Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, and Jared Butler are all healthy next season. Lowry really can't be back if Nick Nurse is, because we know Nurse will ride with his guy until the wheels fall off. And folks, we're scraping metal on concrete at this point.

3. Andre Drummond

Andre Drummond was quite good last season in Chicago, but like Kyle Lowry, every vet reaches the point of no return eventually. At some point, one's skill set just does not align with what their body allows them to accomplish on a basketball court. Drummond's not ancient — he's 31 years old — but man, it has been rough this season.

If the Sixers are smart, they'll ramp Drummond's minutes up down the stretch and deploy one of the greatest tank engines in modern NBA history. The defense is atrocious. The finishing capacity, for a 6-foot-11, 279-pound center with Drummond's athleticism, is unfathomably bad. It's genuinely difficult to understand how poor Drummond's touch and coordination are around the rim.

Drummond trying to do a little bit too much offensively is a time-honored tradition. If he committed to only dunking or passing, there might be a second wave in his future. Until Drummond can lean into the small things and get a handle on his unwieldy skill set, however, he's borderline unplayable for a team serious about winning.

2. Paul George

Paul George, to his credit, has been to hell and back on the injury front this season. He has dealt with knee problems and now a tendon issue in his left hand, which has required medical injections to alleviate pain. For George to put together the kind of season he's having, on a team now 16 games below .500, and still want to push through pain and compete is admirable.

That said, the Sixers need to shut him down, embrace the tank (although George isn't exactly working against the tank right now), and trade him in the offseason. That may be impossible, but if just one team talks themselves into squeezing more production out of a healthier, well-rested Paul George, that's all Daryl Morey needs. The Hawks and Warriors both called about PG at the trade deadline. It's not completely out of the question for Philadelphia to dump his contract to a desperate pretender.

George has not been a bad player this season, he's just not performing close to the level mandated by his contract. He spends far too much time on the periphery of the offense, taking fewer shots than the likes of Kelly Oubre or Quentin Grimes when he's supposed to be the championship-level third wheel Embiid and Maxey lacked a season ago. It's time to get out from under George's contract while they still can.

1. Nick Nurse

Every Nick Nurse press conference has the energy of a funeral speech. I've never seen a coach look so bummed at the podium on such a consistent basis. Obviously, this has been an incredibly hard season for everyone involved. The emotional beating Philadelphia has endured would take its toll on any coach. That said, Nurse has to find a way to rally to troops — especially when the Sixers are allegedly attempting to win games and stay in the postseason race. Nurse has failed on that account.

It feels like the locker room has slipped away from Nurse. The defensive effort is abysmal on a nightly basis. The Sixers have ostensibly had a healthy rotation these last few games — Embiid, George, Grimes, Oubre, Maxey is a lineup that should competently generate stops. At least in theory. Philadelphia just doesn't have the schematic integrity or connectivity necessary to keep even a mediocre Nets offense led by Killian freakin' Hayes in check.

Nurse's rotations are baffling. He's at the point of just throwing you-know-what at the wall and hoping something sticks. When players aren't trying, the scheme looks half-assed, and your postgame energy can most readily be described as utterly defeated, you cannot coach a winning team. Nurse has the accolades to back up his reputation, but it's just not working in Philadelphia. He cannot, under any circumstances, be back on the sideline next season.