Philadelphia 76ers
The 2021-22 Philadelphia 76ers can be defined by another monster runner-up MVP season from Embiid, finally trading Ben Simmons for James Harden, and then losing in the second round of the playoffs all the same.
What did we learn?
Joel Embiid was even better this season than last.
No Ben Simmons, no problem for Embiid and the Sixers, plowing through the regular season once again without their former All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive 25-year-old.
Embiid was somehow more durable this year despite taking on an even more extensive workload. He played in a career-high 68 games. He averaged the most points per game in the entire NBA at 30.6 points, the first center to lead the league in scoring since Shaq. Embiid was a resplendently dominant force on the inside every time he stepped onto the court. He also averaged a career-high 4.2 assists, improving as a passer quite substantially.
It felt like Embiid was the MVP for the first 75 percent of the season. Alas, the final 25 percent matters a lot. But it was also progress from last season when he was just the first-half-of-the-season MVP.
Without Simmons, Embiid got the most help this season from Tyrese Maxey. Maxey had a phenomenal sophomore season, more than doubling his points per game from 8.0 as a rookie to 17.5 as a sophomore. We said that Daryl Morey should wake up every day and thank the basketball gods for Tyrese Maxey, who without a doubt made the Ben Simmons situation much easier to stomach for Sixers fans. Maxey is the anti-Ben Simmons, a stand-up dude, going so far as to end an immediate on-court post-game interview by saying, “Hope y’all have a good night.”
At the trade deadline, the Sixers and Nets finally pulled the trigger on the Ben Simmons-James Harden deal.
The Sixers — and in particular, Daryl — finally got their man. (And they finally got rid of that other guy.)
The Beard officially made it to Philly and it got off to a rollicking start.
Philly’s new and improved Big 3 (Embiid, Harden and Maxey — sorry, Tobias) put up 89 and 87 points combined in the first two games. That’s some serious firepower. It was against the T-Wolves and Knicks, yes, but the Embiid-Harden pick-and-roll game with Maxey slashing was potent from the jump.
We could not help but wonder how long the honeymoon phase would last.
The answer was not long. There was that embarrassing ass-kicking handed to them by the Nets at home, and a 3-game losing streak that included a bad loss to the Pistons. And Harden not getting the ball to Embiid at the end of that Bucks game was a tough look. We knew the spotlight would be so bright on his late-game execution in the weeks to come.
It was encouraging that Doc Rivers showed capable of being cognizant enough to stagger lineups competently, keeping Embiid with Maxey and Harden with Harris — one of the duos on the floor at all times. It seemed like the Tobias Harris with the bench lineups that Doc played down the stretch of the Eastern Conference Semis in last year’s playoffs came a long, long way.
But it was not encouraging that Doc actually played DeAndre Jordan real minutes. This was a guy who couldn’t even cut it on the Lakers! It seemed like a joke, except Doc wasn’t joking. He was serious.
Also no joke was the fact that the Sixers missed Seth Curry’s deadeye shooting a great deal. When Curry was still in Philly before being included in the Simmons-Harden trade, he was an enormous contributor for this team, coming up big in the clutch time and time again with his deft 3-point shot. Curry was a 50-40-88 guy, and losing him (and Drummond for that matter) depleted the Sixers already shallow depth, and it withered their precious floor spacing.
No Seth Cury made the Georges Niang, Danny Green and Korkmaz minutes even more important. But then Korkmaz was basically taken out of the rotation completely, and Danny Green went down with the torn ACL in that last game against the Heat.
It was Embiid’s most durable season yet — until the playoffs when he played through a broken face and torn ligament in his thumb. Zombie Embiid did absolutely everything that he could. He gave it everything that he had.
The Sixers needed Harden, their newly acquired star, to step up against Miami in the second round. But Harden no showed in a playoff elimination game once again. That is what he does and who he is at this point. The results speak for themselves. Even worse is that it doesn’t really seem to bother him too much. That can be the difference in getting the job done in the postseason. To come back with a fire stronger than ever. We know that Embiid will. Harden, not so much.
Philly and Daryl have a serious pickle on their hands now in deciding how to proceed with Harden.
It’s like Embiid said, Harden is not who he once was in Houston. He is still a great playmaker, yes, but Embiid deserves so much more.
We have declared The Process dead so many times. But if Embiid is still in Philly, is The Process not actually still alive?
If so, by the skin of its teeth. By the hair on its chinny chin chin.
But Embiid IS The Process after all.
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Additional Notes
Post-script: For the record, the Miami Heat were a really good team, and there’s no shame in losing to the #1 seed in a series that Embiid missed two games entirely and played four games with a broken face and torn thumb ligament. The only shame is in how the effort caved in the second half of a close-out game at home. But that’s not on Embiid. Not in the slightest.
Harden had two field goal attempts in the second half of the Game 6 elimination game against Miami, the same EXACT number of field goal attempts as Ben Simmons in Game 7 against Atlanta. You really can’t script it any better than that.
Tobias Harris’ lasting moment from this season (and perhaps forever) is Jimmy Butler yelling, “Tobias Harris over me!?”
For as great as he is on defense, Matisse Thybulle in the playoffs is no bueno. You just can’t play 4 on 5 in the playoffs on offense. Thybulle needs to hang out with Maxey this summer. (If he’s not traded.)
Philly led the league in free throw percentage this season at 82.1 percent. A benefit of not having Ben Simmons around.
The Sacramento Kings have made the Conference Finals more recently than the Philadelphia Sixers.
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Did our preseason Over/Under prediction hit?
For the first time in a long while, we’re fading Philly. Under 51.5 wins.
Sixers 2021-22 record: (51-31)
Yes! But it doesn’t get any closer than that.
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What’s Next?
The Sixers have the #23 pick in tonight’s NBA draft since the Nets elected to defer this year’s selection to snag Philly’s 2023 pick.
Harden has a $47 million player option... With Embiid, Harden and Tobias combining for $118 million (if Harden picks up the option), that makes it exceedingly difficult to find any roster flexibility. They have to keep Harden considering what they gave up for him, so trading forever-in-trade-rumors Tobias seems like the likely path. That is if you can find anything worthy in return.
But we have to advise against signing Harden to the largest contract in NBA history at five years and $270 million. GULP.
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Favorite Sixers Highlight of the 2021-22 Season:
The Sixers and Nets rivalry should be one of the best for years to come. (If KD, Kyrie and Ben Simmons are still on the Nets that is.)
The Sixers signature win of the season was when Mad Maxey and the sans-Embiid Sixers took down the Grizz in OT. Maxey tied his career high of 33 points with a layup at the buzzer.
