Sixers continue to run themselves into the ground, even without Joel Embiid

For reference:

There’s no happy way to frame this article, and I really wish that wasn’t the case. If you're a Philadelphia 76ers fan, this is your warning to get out now if you can’t handle any more of this particularly miserable train of thought. Unfortunately, it’s the only train that’s running at this hour.

Still here? You are very brave, and I am proud of you. Just to make what’s about to come less awful, here are some happy things going on in the world:

1) Paczkis are on sale in many markets right now. They’re a traditional Polish Fat Tuesday tradition. My 100-year-old grandpa had one today. I saw a picture. He seemed very pleased.

2) Spring is coming! Sure we might have some cold snaps and snowfall to come before summer hits, but the air is starting to feel different again on warm days. It’s very exciting.

3) Many pets are very cute.

That’s about all I got. I tried the "I'm so sad I'm laughing" thing. I don't know how effective that is either. You have one last chance to back out.

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Sometimes procrastination is a self-defense mechanism against thoughts or feelings we don’t want to have

Like thinking about the 2024-25 Philadelphia 76ers season. There’s no getting around the fact that the optimistic outlook for this year was a true shot at getting out of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Joel Embiid, presumably, was going to heal up after an injured end to last year. Before he went down at the end of January 2024, he was putting up more than a point a game. He didn’t have to get back to that level necessarily, but the thought of it was tantalizing.

Tyrese Maxey proved himself capable of carrying the team to imperfect but remarkable playoff success with a hampered Embiid and a maligned Tobias Harris.

And Paul George was probably the least controversial free agent signing of the offseason. “Do you want to replace Tobias Harris with Paul George?” “Yes.” “That sounds like a good idea to me too.”

The fact one could make an argument that Tobias Harris is having a better season than Paul George says just about everything. Unfortunately, there is more to say.

Joel Embiid is out for the year. In his last 11 games, Paul George has only exceeded 20 points once and is averaging his fewest points and field goal attempts in a decade. And Tyrese Maxey is a tough young man making tough decisions emblematic of painfully fraught emotions:

One time I had food poisoning and threw up at work. After throwing up in the bathroom, my manager asked if I was feeling better. If I had to guess, the way I said “Nope!” probably matched Maxey’s inflection. I didn’t go home either.

I think I get it. Players don’t tank. Organizations do. And the 76ers are only 2.5 games behind the Bulls for the last play-in spot. There is still something to fight for, despite the odds. There would be a strangely hopeful message to their fighting through all of… this… to get a two-game crack at a postseason berth.

But then what?

That’s an awful, awful question to ask. I give you permission to shoot the messenger in this case. “Discretion is the better part of valor” is not my purest or most heartfelt basketball take, but I am relaying a perspective that’s difficult to fight against in this case.

Again, the goal of this 76ers season was not to find a backdoor into the playoffs. It was for Tyrese to take another step, for Paul George to fill the gaps that many felt Tobias Harris could not, and for Embiid to find a responsibly dominant regular-season gear that would allow him to be as healthy as possible for a deep postseason run.

We’re 0-3 on those things. We’re also 21-39 on the season. If anything, the best one can hope for from this point on is moral victories.

It’s difficult to imagine what shape that takes though. If Maxey is playing through injury, and doing it in an openly defiant way, then that risks long-term complications. I want to admire it so much more than I can muster. An enduring aspect of professional sports is that many personal decisions are based on things like grit, and passion, and joy, and competition, and fight, and self-belief. (You know, not just the bottom line, or asset management, or impersonal metrics.) But there also has to be a way to guide these laudable aspects of each individual’s humanity in a way that not only best serves the team but best serves each individual player, even against their earnest protests.

I want it to get better. But I also fear it’s more likely that things get worse, not just for this season but for seasons after.

Okay, if you’re so smart, then what should the 76ers do?

I don’t know. I genuinely don’t.

If they can get right and position themselves for a mini run, the play-in is still a possibility. Per tankathon.com, they have the sixth easiest remaining schedule, giving them a leg up on both the Bulls and the Nets for the 10th seed. There are 22 games to figure out what they can and maybe finish the season on a somewhat high note after months of drudgery and decay.

But their pick this year is only top-six protected. If the pick is seventh or later, OKC gets another lottery piece to weave into their core. How exciting for them.

The 76ers have the sixth-worst record in the league right now. That sounds like reason enough to tank until you realize that even if the 76ers finish the season in negative-sixth place they don’t even have a 50 percent chance of holding onto their own pick. You could well sit everyone, tank it out, destroy all hope, regroup for next year, and come out of the draft with absolutely nothing to show for it but hurt feelings and a vague air of distrust in the locker room.

And again, players don’t tank. Try convincing someone to do something they love worse so that maybe they can be replaced by someone younger and not necessarily better. And even if basketball isn’t loved by players, it’s still their job. Probably the thing they’re best at in the world. The notion of trying to tell anyone in those positions to “hey, hold back a bit tonight” seems like an incredibly stupid thing to do.

So again. I don’t know. If there’s a responsible option here, it’s not without drawbacks.

But short of a miracle (or the opposite of miracles happening to a lot of other teams), this year will not be the year 76ers fans wanted.

Just try to make it out alive.