This time of year is different for every team. Depending on their expectations, their trajectory, their health, any number of factors, teams could be viewing what they’ve done and what they have to do very differently. Some have a feverish need to make moves and get better fast. Some decide to chill and work through internal improvement.
That appears to be the route the Philadelphia 76ers were hoping to take. As a fan, I get that it's very easy to be wary about that. Even with the third pick coming in, all three of Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey were banged up to end the season. Extremely up.
Well, there is some good news. A tweet! A tweet for you!
The good news, as good as it gets anyway, is that Daryl Morey states “based on the information we have — we feel good about all our players being available there for game one.”
That means everybody, but especially Joel Embiid! Remember when he won MVP? Yay! Let’s give that as much joy as it deserves! Some!
But isn’t Daryl Morey a liar?
We do have to consider this. It was in the offseason that James Harden went on his “Daryl Morey is a liar” world tour. We don’t know that Daryl Morey is a liar, but maybe does this mean that Daryl Morey is only a liar in the offseason? Perhaps Daryl and James have an understanding of like “we’re good between November and April, but the other half of the year we keep separated.” That might be healthy. It’s important to have rational boundaries.
But assuming we can take Daryl at his word, the Sixers fans also have the draft to look forward to. They’ve moved up a little too high to take my best friend Collin Murray-Boyles, but that’s probably a good thing for the Sixers.
So there’s a hope vector here. The Sixers have health, a high draft pick, and hopefully some remaining belief in the idea that this team, as presently constructed and playing to the capacity it presumably can, can win a championship. That’s a fair bit of good stuff, honestly. Maybe it won’t be the most motivated one’s ever been going into the season, but it’s something.