The Philadelphia 76ers are coming off a dreadful season, so the focus now in the City of Brotherly Love is to right the ship and get back on track to winning a championship. The franchise has not been past Round 2 of the playoffs since 2001 and they have not won a title since 1983.
The 2024-25 season was supposed to change all that when considering the moves made in the 2024 offseason to bring in Paul George to join Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. The Sixers also brought in some proven veterans who have produced in the playoffs and it seemed like 2025 was going to be the year.
Instead, the season was lost to injuries. The Sixers used an NBA record 53 different starting lineups and saw 30 players get action for them. Coach Nick Nurse never had a chance to see what the roster can do.
One has to wonder how involved governor Josh Harris has been with the team. There has been a lot of speculation that he is more focused on the NFL team he owns, the Washington Commanders, but President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey gave a lot of credit to Harris for his commitment to the Sixers.
While appearing on “The Mike Missanelli” Show on 97.5 The Fanatic, Morey stated:
So first thing, he’s not diverted. Obviously, he is sort of a mogul, and owns many businesses, both in sports and without, but he is so committed to turning this franchise around. Obviously, a lot of that could start with Monday. We could get some positive news there that’ll help the franchise. The conversations during the year probably the same ones you guys have in the radio, which is, this isn’t going well. How do we make it better for next season? We sort of knew that the final sort of nail in the season was post deadline. When we traded for (Quentin) Grimes who came in and did great work. We thought we could make a run, do like a Miami and play our way in and play our way into the finals. Obviously, that didn’t work, and Joel wasn’t healthy, and then multiple players got hurt. So last year was sort of like, I think it was one of the most injured seasons in the history of the NBA. It’s got to be in the top few, if it wasn’t. So the conversations are in the air with Josh was like how do we take advantage? How do we develop players? How does Nick try out new things that he can build on next season? How do we make a trade for a Grimes who can be a building a key rotation player in the future? How do we set ourselves up, even in a bad season to be even stronger next season. Our roster going into next season will be better than if we went into last season, where, again, we were the third-best odds to win the title.
It’s important for this franchise that Harris continues to be committed to them. He has spent money on a lot of different players to put the Sixers in the best position to contend so there is that factor in all of this. He deserves a lot of credit for that and if he continues to provide resources for them, then the Sixers will be back in the championship conversation sooner rather than later.