The Big Three couldn’t stay healthy. Warnings signs were there for the Sixers since preseason.
The Sixers needed Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey to be healthy together for the team to reach its expectations. But that didn't happen from Day 1.
The warning signs were always there for the 76ers.
On Oct. 20, Joel Embiid was being billed as the NBA’s best scoring center. Paul George was recognized as one of the league’s most versatile wing players, and Tyrese Maxey was said to be close to unstoppable on the open floor.
On paper, the Sixers’ Big Three made up arguably the NBA’s best trio. And they were the main reason the team seemed to have a legitimate shot at ending its four-decade title drought.
But it was clear in preseason, with all three stars dealing with injuries already, that the Sixers had to remain healthy to live up to expectations. It was a major miscalculation by the team.
Maxey left the Oct. 18 exhibition game against the Orlando Magic with a bruised right thumb. He didn’t return for precautionary reasons.
Embiid had virtually been a bystander throughout the preseason. The seven-time All-Star, who suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee last season, did not scrimmage at practice or play in a game this preseason.
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And George, a nine-time All-Star, was sidelined since suffering a left knee bone bruise in an Oct. 14 exhibition game against the Atlanta Hawks.
Maxey went on to be the only member of the Big Three available in the Sixers’ 124-109 season-opening loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Oct. 24 at the Wells Fargo Center.
Fast-forward to Thursday, and the three stars were among eight normal rotation players who missed this season’s fourth and final game against the Bucks: this time, a 126-113 loss.
Embiid, who will have arthroscopic left knee surgery next week, has been officially shut down for the season since Feb. 28, six days after his final game of the season. George’s last game was March 5. The team officially ruled him out for the remainder of the season after he received injections in his left groin muscle and left knee on March 17. And Maxey hasn’t played since March 3. A source confirmed the Sixers don’t intend to play him during the final five games of the season.
This is where the major miscalculation comes in.
The banged-up Sixers aren’t close to being a playoff team. A team with such high expectations will miss the postseason for the first time in eight years.
And when it became obvious that this season indeed was a disaster, the Sixers (23-54) began tanking with the hope of keeping their first-round pick, which is top-six protected. And they just might be in a position to keep it.
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The Sixers are riding a season-long 10-game skid while losing 27 of 31 games. But most important, they remain two games ahead of the Brooklyn Nets in the race for the league’s fifth-worst record with five games remaining. The Sixers are also 1½ games behind the fourth-from-last New Orleans Pelicans.
Right now, the focus has been on developing young talent and giving fringe NBA players a look while compiling much-needed losses.
“Even though we are losing, I feel like we are coming in with the right mindset,” said Quentin Grimes, who was acquired from the Dallas Mavericks at the Feb. 6 trade deadline. “And that will carry over to next season, stuff like that. … But we are in every game. It’s just like that fourth quarter, it just kind of explodes a little bit. We only got eight [available] guys … here rotation-wise.”
On the positive side, rookie center Adem Bona finished with a career-high 28 points on 13-for-15 shooting to go with six rebounds, three blocks and two steals on Thursday. He joined Hall of Famer Charles Barkley as Sixers rookies to score at least 25 points while shooting at least 85% in a game.
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Grimes finished with 24 points and 10 assists for his third career double-double, all in his last eight games dating to March 17. The combo guard has also scored at least 20 points in 14 of 24 games since the trade.
But Bona and Grimes weren’t supposed to be the main attractions months ago. Back then, the focus was on the Sixers’ Big Three trying to build the continuity needed for a long postseason run. Embiid, George, and Maxey would have to learn how to co-exist. And George needed to learn when to take over games while Embiid was on the floor.
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To truly develop chemistry, the trio would have to stay healthy. But none of that happened, as Maxey, Embiid, and George played only 15 games together.
All the signs were there in the preseason. Embiid talked about his knee ailments since media day. George kept getting nicked up. But we knew nothing would matter unless Embiid, Maxey, and George were healthy late in the season.
And unfortunately for the Sixers, that didn’t happen, and it wasn’t that way from the start.