As Joel Embiid talks about surgery and the Sixers look lifeless, the schedule says to tank the season now

Sometimes, the best thing a leader can do is listen to the universe. It is screaming at Daryl Morey right now. Five days ago, the Sixers president sat in front of a crowd of reporters and delivered the ol’ Inverted Jim Mora.

Playoffs?

Playoffs?

Are you kidding me?

“We’re just focused on the championship,” Morey said.

Maybe he was speaking for the mouse in his pocket. It sure wasn’t his players. A few hours after Morey’s news conference, the Sixers gave up 125 points to a Pistons squad playing without leading scorers Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey. Two days later, they were manhandled by another team that did not have its main man, losing to the Bucks, 135-127.

» READ MORE: Daryl Morey defends Joel Embiid extension, says he believes in star’s knee and Sixers’ roster

Super Bowl Sunday in Philadelphia: The thrill of victory and the agony of watching the Sixers before it.

The state of affairs is a sad one. After Morey spent the trade deadline tinkering around the blast radius of this epic crater of a season, he had little choice but to try to sell the fan base on the hope of a brighter tomorrow. First came that night, unfortunately. By the end of the weekend, Joel Embiid was fielding questions about the need for another surgery on his ailing left knee and the Sixers were losers of five of their last six. With a 20-33 record, the Sixers are 7.5 games behind Tobias Harris and the Pistons for the postseason’s last non-play-in berth.

It is officially Least Worst Option time. Annie, grab your garden hose. We’re filling up the tank.

A week ago, you could have argued the Sixers had too little to gain to justify turning the page to 2025-26. Their odds of making something of the season by winning weren’t appreciably worse than their odds of keeping their first-round pick by losing. Even now, the most they can reasonably hope to accomplish is to give themselves a 65% chance at landing a top-six pick and thus retain the pick rather than forfeiting it to the Thunder (who previously traded for the rights to the pick should it fall between 7-30). Even a full-scale tank probably wouldn’t be enough to bridge the 7-plus games they hold on the NBA’s four legitimate tankers (Utah, Washington, New Orleans, Charlotte).

Now? Any increase in their draft odds feels like a nice little bonus if it comes coupled with, a) the Sixers’ superstar (Embiid) getting himself healthy and thereby increasing his odds of being a championship-caliber centerpiece in 2025-26, b) the Sixers’ young players getting increased minutes and accelerating their development, and c) the Sixers’ fans getting to spend the rest of the season going to bed after Final Jeopardy.

Again, this isn’t about maximizing one’s draft position so much as it is about accepting the reality of one’s circumstances with the honor and dignity befitting true gentlemen.

Embiid is the most important piece of the puzzle, as always. The big man’s left knee is clearly a problem. The lack of consistent messaging from him and the team suggests a lack of a simple solution. During Sunday’s telecast, ESPN’s Lisa Salters reported that Embiid told her his knee “will likely take another surgery and a long recovery period, something he didn’t have after the initial injury last February.” A team source later told The Inquirer’s Keith Pompey that another surgery is not as foregone a conclusion as the ESPN report suggested.

When reality is this murky, the murkiness is usually the reality. Whatever the offseason plan for Embiid’s knee, we’re fast approaching the point where there is no longer anything to gain by postponing it any further. That surgery is even on Embiid’s mind, at this point, is enough to start dictating actions.

» READ MORE: Hope for the Sixers is on the shoulders of Paul George and Joel Embiid. It’s their only way through.

Speaking of hobbled stars, Paul George sure hasn’t looked like a guy who would mind banking some minutes for future years. The onetime star has looked positively lifeless since returning from his latest multiple-game absence. The Sixers have been outscored by a combined 26 points when he has been on the court over their last three games. Their total margin of defeat in those losses: 28. Tells you all you need to know, doesn’t it?

If George really does plan on sticking around for three-and-a-half more years, the Sixers might be doing him and themselves a favor by having him disappear for a while. The stat line is bad enough. He has scored more than 14 points once in six games dating back to Jan. 18. The lack of dynamism and energy on both ends of the court from a guy who was supposed to have been worth $50 million per year? He is a tough watch right now.

There is too much that goes on behind the scenes of an NBA team for us to confidently declare that it should hit the kill switch at any point in time. But, given the information at our disposal, that time sure seems like now. Three of the Sixers' next four games are against the two teams it will need to out-lose in order to gain (lose?) ground in the draft odds game. They entered Tuesday a game ahead of the 25th-place Nets, and 3.5 games ahead of the 26th-place Raptors. Also on the horizon are games against the Bulls and Trail Blazers, both of whom are clustered near the Sixers.

The word “tank” may not adequately describe what it is the Sixers should do. If losing is the ultimate goal, they’d be taking a risk by doing anything differently from whatever they’ve been doing lately. Fixing Embiid’s knee is the priority. It just makes sense to prioritize it now.