Summary judgments: Do the Sixers even have the option of tanking? Plus Stafford in the snow and Hurts in the cold

Wasting away the days until another NFL playoff weekend …

One good thing about the Sixers this season is that they are easy to ignore. As a friend of mine said to me the other night: They aren’t even the fun kind of bad. I’m pretty sure he said this as Jeff Dowtin Jr. was checking into the game. Though, maybe I’m projecting.

I’m going to be careful about the expression I use to define the Sixers’ current situation. Some would call it ironic. Others, poetic justice. At 15-24, they are closer to the bottom of the NBA than they are to the top, yet they aren’t close enough to either to create any form of intrigue. Really, they are at the place they were when The Process began: trapped in the middle, except without even a middling draft pick to look forward to.

The question has been raised at numerous junctures over the last few months. Should the Sixers pack it in and play for draft position rather than a one-and-done playoff bid? Two games away from the season’s midway point, they are 5½ games away from the No. 8 seed and 7 games from the No. 4 seed entering Thursday night’s games. If the season ended today, they wouldn’t even earn a play-in game.

The chatter about a potential Tank 2.0 took a holiday break as Joel Embiid returned from a facial injury and suddenly looked like some version of his old self. The injury-plagued big man averaged 26.4 points, 4.0 assists, and 41.9% from three-point range over a nine-game stretch. The Sixers won seven of those games and 11 of 15 overall to pull within five games of .500. The top half of the Eastern Conference was in reach. The ship had been steadied. Embiid hasn’t played since.

After an overtime loss to the Knicks dropped the Sixers to 1-5 in their last six, the answer to the question seems as obvious as ever. Except, the question is no longer the question.

» READ MORE: The Eagles aren’t losing to the Rams. But if they did, here’s how they would.

The real question isn’t “Should the Sixers tank?”

The real question is “Can the Sixers tank?”

As unentertaining a team as the Sixers are, they will be hard-pressed to come anywhere close to winning this year’s race to the bottom. The Wizards have made it clear from Day 1 that they will not be defeated for the best lottery odds. At 6-33, they have it all but sewn up. The troubling thing for the Sixers is the four teams behind them: Toronto, Charlotte, Utah, and New Orleans, all at nine or 10 wins. In other words, even a full-scale effort to tank the rest of the season could leave the Sixers fighting for the No. 6 odds, at best. That would give them an outside chance at the No. 1 pick, but also an outside chance at picking worse than sixth. In which case, their pick would convey to the Thunder because of a previous trade.

Given the odds of landing outside of the top six even with a full-scale tank, and the hit to their reputation should they engage in such a thing, I’m not sure the cost-benefit analysis is as clear as it might seem while watching the Sixers play on any given night.

It’s kind of strange to be in January and find that it actually feels like January. But here we are. The afternoon dusting we saw on Thursday lends an air of credibility to forecasts that are calling for an accumulating snow that could last throughout Sunday’s Eagles-Rams showdown (kickoff, 3 p.m.). The obvious story line involves Rams quarterback Matt Stafford, who had the misfortune of playing quarterback at Lincoln Financial Field in 2013 when an early December snowstorm dropped six inches on the Eagles and the Lions.

“It’s not the same as a sunny day, that’s for sure,” Stafford said that day. “But you’ve got to make adjustments.”

Stafford completed just 10 of 25 passes for 151 yards as LeSean McCoy’s 217 rushing yards powered the Eagles to a 34-20 win.

Jalen Hurts is just 3-4 in his last eight games when the game-time temperature was 45 degrees or lower, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com. Last week’s win over the Packers was one of the victories. So were this year’s wins over the Steelers and Ravens. Make of it what you will.

A couple of years ago, Johan Rojas was the most interesting man in spring training. It ended up being a silent spring for the center fielder, but he was starting for the big league club by the end of the season.

This year, the headlines go to Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller, and Justin Crawford. Deservedly so. But I’m also interested in seeing young Otto Kemp, who isn’t all that young in the grand scheme of things. The 25-year-old utility man tore up the Arizona Fall League, posting a 1.194 OPS with six home runs in 63 plate appearances. This, after climbing from low-A to triple A in 2024.

Hey, whatever it takes to get through the end of Sixers season.