The Philadelphia 76ers dropped yet another game Monday night, this time a 106-89 loss to the Miami Heat, despite having both Joel Embiid and Paul George in the lineup. It puts the Sixers at 2-11 on the year, a dismal start for a team that was built with the intentions of playing deep into June.
Injuries have certainly played a part, George has missed six games, Embiid’s total is already at 10 and Tyrese Maxey has been out for the last six games with a strained right hamstring, though he’s expected to make a return sometime this week. Philly’s Big Three has yet to share the court together. But that aside, no one expected the Sixers — a team that committed a ton of money to build a championship-level roster this summer — to be this bad.
After Monday’s loss, the Sixers had a team meeting to address the early-season struggles. During this meeting in Miami, Maxey reportedly called out Embiid for being late to team activities, per ESPN.
“In the meeting, Maxey challenged Embiid to be on time to team activities, calling out the former league MVP about being late “for everything” and how it impacts the locker room, from other players to the coaching staff.”
Embiid received the comments well, per the report, and also chimed in to say there’s times where he “is confused about what the 76ers are attempting to execute sometimes on the court.” This was coupled with several other Sixers players voicing to coach Nick Nurse that they wanted to be coached harder, and wanted players to attack practice with more “purpose.”
In regards to Embiid being “confused” about what the team is trying to accomplish, that makes sense when you consider that the Sixers rank 30th on offense. The injuries to their All-Stars certainly impact that, and even when George and Embiid or Maxey have shared the floor for a short period of time, the offense has been stagnant as there has been zero chemistry built since George and other key role players joined the team this summer.
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From the sounds of it, it feels like this meeting was needed even when most of Philadelphia’s struggles can be explained just for the simple fact that injuries have wrecked what could’ve been a strong start. It’s still early and, in a weak East, the team still has plenty of time to turn things around, as our Sam Quinn wrote Monday night.