Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Is it time for the Sixers to start tanking again? (I’m kidding, but the last time their offense was this bad was in their pitiful 10-win season during the depths of The Process.)
In today’s SI:AM:
📈 New NFL power rankings
⚡ How things are different for the Chargers
🏇 Why Skenes isn’t like his peers
City of Brotherly Yuck
There’s currently a two-way tie for the worst record in the NBA at 2–11. One of those teams should come as no surprise: the Washington Wizards, who had the league’s second worst record last year. The other, though, is a team that began the season with championship aspirations: the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Sixers fell to the Miami Heat on Monday night, 106–89, and have now lost nine of their last 10 games. Their only two wins on the season have come in overtime against a pair of teams (the Indiana Pacers and Charlotte Hornets) that are a combined five games under .500.
After bowing out in the first round of the playoffs last season, Philadelphia dramatically overhauled its roster this offseason. The headline move was signing Paul George to a four-year, $212 million contract to form a new “big three” alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. But the Sixers also revamped their supporting cast. Tobias Harris, Nicolas Batum, De’Anthony Melton and Paul Reed—who all ranked in top seven in games started for Philadelphia last season—are gone. Helpful trade deadline acquisitions Cameron Payne and Buddy Hield have also left. In their place, the Sixers signed role players like Caleb Martin, Reggie Jackson, Eric Gordon and Guerschon Yabusele.
The most obvious problem for Philadelphia this season has been that its new star trio has yet to share the floor. Embiid missed the first nine games of the season due to injury management and a suspension. George sat out the first five games of the season with a knee problem. Maxey has missed the last six games with a hamstring issue.
That’s the risk you run when you have two of the most oft-injured superstars in the NBA, but the most frustrating part of the Sixers’ struggles is that Embiid and George haven’t played like superstars when they have been healthy enough to be on the floor. Embiid is averaging 14.7 points per game on .324 shooting in three games this season. George is averaging 16.7 points per game on .396 shooting and has a three-point percentage of .288 on 7.4 attempts per game. Certainly it’s going to take time for Embiid and George to adjust to playing with each other, and the offense is going to be out of sorts with starting point guard Maxey unavailable, but the Sixers are going to need more from their two highest-paid players if they’re going to turn their season around.
The Sixers’ struggles are no mirage, either. This isn’t a case of a team getting unlucky and losing a bunch of close games in quick succession. The stats back up just how terrible they have been. They rank dead last in the NBA with 103.3 points per game, a dropoff of more than 10 points from last season, when they ranked 15th with 114.6 per game. They are getting out-scored by their opponents by 9.0 points per game, the third worst point differential in the league this season. They are last in the league in field goal percentage, second from the bottom in three-point percentage, last in assists per game and second-to-last in rebounding. The defense hasn’t been terrible (ranked 15th in points allowed per game) but the Sixers are still allowing the fourth-worst opponent field goal percentage in the league.
The lone bright spot for the Sixers has been rookie Jared McCain, who was selected with the 16th pick out of Duke in this year’s draft. He played sparingly before Maxey’s injury but has thrived in a bigger role since Maxey went down. Over his last six games, McCain is averaging 25.2 points per game while shooting .442 from three. He has started the last three games and is making a case to remain in the starting lineup once Maxey is able to return.
The Sixers’ terrible start is especially galling because this is a team that had been expected to be a contender in the Eastern Conference. Now, they will face an uphill battle just to make the playoffs. Of the 108 teams in NBA history to have started a season 2–11, only eight have gone on to make the playoffs, and only four teams have done it in the last 30 years. It’s early in the season, but the Sixers don’t stand a chance of reaching the postseason if they can’t improve their league-worst offense.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Gilberto Manzano was impressed with how the Chargers stepped up in the clutch to beat the Bengals in a situation where previous Los Angeles teams would have crumbled.
- There were a few small but meaningful moves at the top of Conor Orr’s NFL power rankings.
- Two of college football’s best Cinderella stories this season will face their biggest tests this weekend as Indiana and Army put their undefeated records on the line against Ohio State and Notre Dame, respectively. Pat Forde has more on the underdogs’ quests to stay unbeaten.
- Tom Verducci broke down why NL Rookie of the Year winner Paul Skenes has what it takes to be a workhorse pitcher in an era when pitchers are throwing fewer and fewer innings.
- Kevin Sweeney wrote about a few of the biggest surprises from the first two weeks of the men’s college basketball season.
- The PGA Tour approved some significant changes for the 2026 season, Bob Harig reports.
- The Rays released more photos of the severe damage to Tropicana Field after Hurricane Milton.
- Army has revealed the uniforms it will wear for this year’s Army-Navy game.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Sixers Are in Deep Trouble.
