It's a lot to Process
The Sixers faceplant in an elimination game. Now what?
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Friar Pedro Shoots El Maragato as His Horse Runs Off, Francisco Goya, 1806
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: the Philadelphia 76ers melted down in the second round of the NBA playoffs.
Facing elimination, the Sixers let Jimmy Butler — Jimmy Butler! the Joel Embiid co-star who got away! — ravage them in the second half and didn’t put up much of a fight. The Sixers got booed to Cancun. The Sixers let Jimmy get the close-out win in Philly and skip through the tunnels dropping slander like this:
(Side note: the GMIB Discord has been thumping during the postseason, and this video sparked an incredible joke from reader mgk: “What is Jimmy, if not resentment persevering?”)
At the center of the negative attention is one James “Jim” Harden, who finished with 11-4-9 and four turnovers, shooting 4/9 from the floor. Harden, a three-time NBA scoring champ, did not score a single point in the second half, shooting 0/2 while playing all but 68 seconds. Butler, the Sixers’ old lead guard, had 23 in the second half.
Embiid was asked about Harden’s performance. People on the internet are, big surprise, trying to make something out of it. Embiid went out of his way to acknowledge reality — Harden is not the same as he was prior to the Brooklyn trade, let alone the Philadelphia trade — while still taking ownership of the team’s failure at the team level.
Tim Legler doesn’t need to protect vibes. His breakdown on Sportscenter with Scott Van Pelt looks completely right.
Brutal.
The good news for the Sixers is that Embiid is under contract for four more years and hasn’t given any indication that he will agitate for a trade. Philadelphia has an MVP-caliber player in-house; that’s the hardest thing to get in the NBA, and it belies a lot of the “where did The Process get you?” jokes.
Where did The Process get the Sixers?
Did the Sixers have an MVP-caliber player under contract before The Process? No. Do they now? Yes.
It’s been nine seasons since The Process began. In the nine seasons prior to Sam Hinkie taking the Sixers job and tanking out, the Sixers had a .462 winning percentage in the regular season, made the playoffs five times and won one playoff series. In the nine seasons since The Process began, the Sixers have had a .448 winning percentage in the regular season (worse overall), made the playoffs five times (same) and … won four playoff series.
Is there a path for the Sixers to get from their current stage (capped out in the second round) to the next level? Not an easy one.
Nine years later, The Process remains fascinating, especially because the architect became so notorious his leadership of the project was short-circuited. And ironically, the initial short-circuiting of the project by trading for Butler led to the most successful version of the late-Process team.
There’s much ado about what to do with Harden now. But the ball’s in his court: it sounds like he might plan to opt in to his contract, delaying free agency a year. That would buy Daryl Morey and the Sixers some time to either see if Harden is committed to traveling the Chris Paul body transformation path (consider me skeptical) or to develop a Harden exit strategy that doesn’t upset Embiid. If we’ve learned anything over recent years, it’s that there are GMs and coaches and stars out there who think they can rejuvenate any old star player. Right, Lakers fans?
Tobias Harris trade rumors are currency of the realm right now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sixers shop Matisse Thybulle, who surely has some huge fans out there. Embiid and Tyrese Maxey are the future of this team, Harden is a bridge for now, and Harris, Thybulle and future picks (whatever is left, at least) are the chips to reshuffle the supporting cast. Having given up Ben Simmons to get Harden, the Sixers no longer have the assets to get involved in a potential Damian Lillard sweepstakes, but there are enough teams in flux to keep some other avenues open. We know Morey will knock on every door until he finds one that’s unlatched.
What about Doc Rivers? It’s always hard to know what Morey’s thinking, it’s unclear what Rivers is thinking. I don’t know that it really matters whether he stays or goes. Spending too much time focusing on that is probably a misuse of energy. The problems and opportunities for this team go way deeper than him.
Post-script: For the record, the Miami Heat are really freaking good and there’s no shame in losing to them in a series in which Joel Embiid missed two games and played four with a broken face and torn thumb ligament. The only shame is in how the effort caved in the second half of the close-out game at home. And that’s not on Embiid.
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