Before their close win against a lowly Hornets team on November 11th, the Philadelphia 76ers were 1-7 to start the season, their worst start in over 30 years. Many chalked it up to the injuries of their “Big 3”: Joel Embiid (out for first 9 games), Tyrese Maxey (injured for at least another week), and Paul George (on a minutes restriction). However, the team contains enough talent in the middle and backend of their roster to scrape up more than two wins. It’s important to note that people shouldn’t overreact so early in the season, but this underwhelming play is certainly alarming.
The Problem with a Big 3
I’ve never liked this term in sports, and it rarely works in the NBA. Going into free agency, I was confident that Daryl Morey (president of basketball operations) would sign Paul George. This is not to say I was excited; it was more of a confident disappointment. Even with the huge contract George garnered, Morey did a solid job of filling out the rest of the roster, signing players like Caleb Martin and Eric Gordon. Although, the most important acquisition of all was getting Andre Drummond as an insurance policy for Joel Embiid.
Morey signed each of these “rotational” players assuming that Embiid, George, and Tyrese Maxey would carry the bulk of the load for the team. Without these three consistently playing well together, the team would not succeed. Spoiler: they haven’t played well together through the first month. The grievance I take with a “Big 3” is that it puts too much weight on too few players’ shoulders, especially when 2 of those 3 are constantly injured (and apparently won’t play back-to-back games). George and Embiid not playing back-to-back means one of two things – 1) they won’t play together 2 games in a row or 2) Maxey will be the only one of the 3 playing in one of the two games. This isn’t just a 76ers problem, and likely speaks more to aproblem with the league as a whole, but that’s for another time.
Significant Roster Changes
When all 3 stars come back healthy, the 76ers’ starting lineup should have three people that were on the team last year (Embiid, Maxey, Oubre), which may not sound like much of a setback. However, I’m worried that the starting 5 not playing together enough will create an issue early in the season, which would give them a deep hole to dig themselves out of in January and February, a time when they should be pushing into the top 3 or 4 in the East. Injuries tie in here, as well. The less that the new additions play with each other, the more challenging it becomes to get in a rhythm. It would be better to put Embiid and George on a minutes restriction than to have them play 1 on 1 off. At least this way they can be constantly playing together rather than creating a different scheme for a new starting lineup once every three games.
This is a team that also lost key bench contributors like Buddy Hield and Nico Batum, both of whom were traded for in the middle of last year. Morey’s history with in-season trades makes you wonder if he will pull the trigger again this time around? Although, I expect him to wait until all 3 stars get to play together to make a move.
The Bright Side
Jared McCain, the 16th overall pick out of Duke who wasn’t expected to have a major influence early in his career, has looked like another star. 
With Maxey out, McCain has been thrust into the starting lineup and has scored 25+ points in a large majority of those games. Joel Embiid has seemingly looked closer to his normal self the more he plays. He will need to continue to improve if Philly wants to get out of this slump. Caleb Martin has had a gritty start to the season, showing why he is regarded as a “glue guy,” and Ben Simmons is off to yet another rocky start, which is music to the ears of Sixers fans.
It’s not much, but if Nick Nurse and Philly can build off of these positives, a strong mid-late season push could get them back up to preseason expectations, and save the job of Daryl Morey for at least a little while longer.
