Courtside with Aaron is a regular sports column by Sports Editor Aaron Rigby.
Just a little less than two months away from playoff basketball, the Philadelphia 76ers find themselves on a downward spiral, fighting to stay out of the play-in portion of the standings, (7-10 seed).
Unfortunately, at this point, it seems inevitable that they will end up fighting for a playoff spot until the very end.
As of today, the Sixers have exactly 18 games remaining on their schedule. They currently obtain the fifth best record in the Eastern Conference, however, only 1.5 games above the eighth seed Orlando Magic, who would be in the play-in tournament if the Playoffs were to begin today.
The Sixers lead the Miami Heat (6), Indiana Pacers (7) and Orlando Magic (8) in the standings. Indiana has won 6 of their last 10 games played, and both Miami and Orlando have won 7 of their last 10 prior to February 27. Conversely, Philadelphia has been victorious in only three of their last 10 bouts prior to February 27 (and only three out of the seven games since then).
On top of this, the Sixers by no means have a favorable schedule. On February 27, they lost to the Cetlic by 18 points (but, the Boston Celtics have not lost a regular season home game to an Eastern Conference team since the New York Knicks defeated them by two points on March 5 of 2023).
Since March 1, they have lost to the Brooklyn Nets, the Memphis Grizzlies, once to the New York Knicks (though they did win one game against them) and even the freakin’ New Orleans Pelicans. They managed to eek out some wins against the Hornets and the Mavericks, but even those were close.
The Sixers played teams which are in the upper-echelon of their respective conferences, who all have championship hopes in their own right. Some other notable upcoming matchups for the Sixers include the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns, and Miami Heat. The difference, though, between these teams and Philly is that all of the mentioned teams have a guy, or two, or a complete and complimentary roster. The Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Heat have Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, the Suns have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, the Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard and it continues for the rest of the teams.
The Sixers are one of a very few teams in the league who are without a superstar level player. They do have a rising star in Tyrese Maxey, but he alone is not on the level of other superstars around the league yet, and the Sixers do not have a definitive co-star for Maxey, if they have one at all. Ask any Sixers fan on Earth, and the majority of them will tell you it is not Tobias Harris, although he is the second highest paid player on the roster behind Embiid. Kelly Oubre Jr. is constantly in and out of the starting lineup, and De’anthony Melton is still working his way back into the rotation off the back of an injury which kept him sidelined for significant time.
However, the Sixers were active during the trade deadline on February 8. The Sixers traded veteran guard Patrick Beverly to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Cam Payne and a 2027 second-round pick. Most notably, the Sixers acquired Buddy Hield from the Indiana Pacers, in exchange for Marcus Morris, Furkan Korkmaz and three second-round picks. The Sixers also traded both Danuel House and Jaden Springer for picks, which opened cap space for the Sixers to acquire veteran guard Kyle Lowry from the buyout market.
Despite initially feeling like good additions to the team, neither Hield, Payne nor Lowry offer anything significant to the Sixers that they did not have prior to the trades. Lowry averages only two more points and one more assist than Beverly did, and I would argue that Beverly was more valuable to Philly than Lowry will be simply due to the aspect of leadership and mentality. Beverly also averaged more assists and rebounds than Payne, and their point per game average is equal.
Beverly, in my opinion, provided the intensity and leadership that the Sixers needed, the on-court coaching aspect. I vividly remember the Sixers being without the majority of their starting lineup in a road matchup against Denver, and Beverly was mic’d up for that matchup. He was constantly in the huddles, or on the sideline getting in the young players’ ears and educating them on the game. And although Beverly may not be the meat bucket-getter, he is one of the greatest minds in the game today, and that is not easy to come by.
This is not to say that Lowry doesn’t have what it takes to be a leader in the locker room, but Beverly seemed like the perfect fit for this team — and his rough, rugged mentality meshed well with the Philadelphia aura and fanbase.
As it pertains to the Buddy Hield addition, it was miraculous how they were able to acquire a starting level player for essentially scraps, or end of rotation players. However, one thing that will quickly become apparent to Philly fans is that although Hield is undeniably one of the best 3-point, catch and shoot players in the game today, the highs come with the lows, and very often there are more lows than highs with players that heavily rely on their shooting ability. Ask any Warriors fan, including myself. Yes, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are two of the greatest shooters to ever grace a basketball court, but when they’re struggling, it has a negative effect on the team. Especially when both Curry and Thompson are struggling at the same time, it can seem impossible to win games. Essentially, Hield’s highs will be amazing, but when he’s not clicking and can’t get shots to fall, it can lead to tremendous losses.
One problem the Sixers front office failed to address during the trade deadline was their lackluster size. With Embiid out of the rotation for an extended period of time, the team’s tallest active player is Mo Bamba, who is 7’0”, however he is relatively unplayable. The second tallest active player is fan favorite Paul Reed who is listed as 6’9”, he is also officially listed as a Small Forward. In short, the Sixers have no true center, and they failed to add size through trades.
The Sixers lack both size and superstar power, which are both gaps that Embiid fills. However, Embiid will not return to the court until late March at the absolute earliest. By the time Embiid would be cleared to return to action, the Sixers will likely be in a play-in scenario in the standings, and Embiid will likely force himself back to try to escape the tournament. Though, if the Sixers are play-in bound, I say the wise move would be to shut him down for the remainder of the season.
If the Sixers are guaranteed to be in the tournament, that means they will probably have to face either the Celtics or the Bucks in the first round of the Playoffs — especially if it ends up being the Boston Celtics, just forfeit the season then and their, because if any team in the league has the Sixers’ number, it the Celtics. The Sixers have not defeated the Celtics in a playoff series since the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals.
However, I believe that the Sixers will be in favor of playing Embiid regardless of their position, as long as they are still in playoff contention. The Sixers indicated this themselves with how active they were during the trade deadline. I completely understand the effort of not “wasting” a year of Embiid’s prime, but essentially forcing a player back before fully recovering from knee surgery is a risky move, especially considering Joel Embiid is 7’0”, 280 pounds and always injured.
Overall, the Sixers have an eventful couple of months ahead of them, and some potential career-altering decisions will have to be made.
