It's More Apparent Than Ever That The Sixers Have Completely Squandered Their Years With Joel Embiid
Mitchell Leff. Getty Images.If you didn't see this coming, then you've just been lying to yourself. There was a moment in time when it seemed like maybe the Sixers actually had the pieces there to make something happen. There was a time when it seemed like maybe they were going to take a shot, and really take advantage of having the most dominant big man in the game during the peak of his physical capabilities. I'd say that time was 2019. Ever since then, there's really been no legitimate hope that this Sixers team could actually put together a championship caliber team. The past 5 years have all just been about salvaging whatever was left of Joel Embiid's prime. A prime that now seems to be in the rear view mirror.
I legitimately don't know how anyone could have seen this Sixers season playing out any differently? The moment it was preemptively announced that Joel Embiid wouldn't be playing back-to-backs this year, you knew it was over. He's 30 years old. His knees are hanging on by a thread. He's been injured every single year of his career. His body just doesn't have it anymore. If it wasn't his knee right now, it would be his back. If it wasn't his back, it would be his hip. If it wasn't his hip, it would be an ankle. It doesn't matter what alternative treatments and injections the Sixers' doctors come up with for Joel Embiid, his body will never allow him to be the same force that he was on the court ever again. His best days are now behind him, and what do the Sixers have to show for it?
Not a damn thing. Sure, he won an MVP in 2023 but everyone will always remember that as a joke. It's been nothing but blunder after blunder for the Sixers since 2019. It all starts with trading Jimmy Butler. But then you get the Ben Simmons saga, the James Harden saga, paying Tobias Harris a billion dollars, Doc Rivers being too horny to coach, signing a completely worn down and useless Paul George.
So what do you do now? Do you just shut him down for the rest of the season? If he gets some sort of surgery performed on his knee, then what level are we legitimately expecting him to be able to return to after that? Is it just going to be the same exact thing next year? And every year after that until his contract runs out?
We'll never get that peak Joel Embiid back. And if you put any lesser version than peak Joel Embiid out there with this Sixers team? They are garbage. So it really doesn't matter at this point. It doesn't matter if you shut him down, or keep sending him back out there, or get a surgery, or find different procedures. The result is always going to be the same. It's over. This year and every year after that.