The pressure exists. It is constant and clear. LeBron James said it himself.
“I didn’t leave my family to lose in the second round.”
I have written a season preview of sorts each year dating back to Joel Embiid’s rookie season. It has taken many shapes and forms. I boldly labeled the 2019-2020 Sixers as a potential defensive stalwart. They won zero playoff games.
Fans either think too highly of their team, or not highly enough. The latter folks have been beaten down too many times to possibly think anything else. I have written how an upcoming season marks the most important in franchise history at least a half dozen times. Fans speak in hyperbole more than the average three-year-old.
But this year is big. Nobody can deny it. There is noise. Ready to pounce. Loud and eager for failure.
Embiid has advanced to the second round six times. A sweep. In five and in six. It went the distance the other three. He is the constant. The one casual fans and even the diehards overtly criticized. Opposing fans despise him. Maxey was in high school during a couple of them. Tobias Harris, James Harden, Ben Simmons, and Jimmy Butler are long gone. It has been 11 Octobers since Embiid made his debut, alongside Sergio Rodriquez, Gerald Henderson, Dario Šarić, and Robert Covington, against Oklahoma City. An electric and memorable atmosphere. Two full seasons after the Sixers drafted him third overall. The reason Cleveland didn’t pick him first in 2014 was a broken bone in his right foot. The Sixers could afford to wait. The Cavs signed LeBron a few weeks later. Now, he’s here.
There is that old adage about a four-letter word. It is popular this time of year.
Hope.
For LeBron having enough left in the tank.
Two stars in Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown in the prime of their careers. VJ Edgecombe’s two-way impact with unlimited potential.
Anfernee Simons, Dean Wade, Adem Bona, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope off the bench. Jabari Walker, Labaron Philon, and Dominick Barlow should help, too.
Flexibility for another move or two.
And yet.
It’s never fun to write about what could be. You hear the caveat in any preview. “If healthy, this team is unstoppable.”
Hope.
For Embiid’s health.
They don’t need peak Embiid. But they sure as hell need close to it. Preferably one where he has mobility to be an impact defender.
The East is loaded. It isn’t the same conference LeBron left in 2018. The champs. Indiana. Miami. Boston. Toronto. Cleveland. Detroit. Atlanta. Basically relevant East team from the 2000s. It’ll be intense to avoid that dreaded play-in tournament. The new lottery rules make it so teams don’t want to have one of the worst three records, which means there is no gimme on the schedule based on tanking teams. (There will still be bad teams.)
This will be my last post like this for a while cause beginning next week “That Stat” officially takes off. Each week I will write about recent trends, feature a stat of the week, track milestone progress, and share whatever else feels relevant about the stats behind this year’s Sixers as well as the occasional NBA nugget. It’ll be a different way to write about the team I care most about since I was six years old.
Jaylen Brown ended his statement after being traded by Boston in the best possible way.
PHILLY #THROWTHEBALLUP LET’S GET IT!
It is now. It is time. Here we go.
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