There’s a new era of basketball in Philadelphia.
One of the biggest winners of the 2024 offseason, the 76ers have added free agent Paul George to form an All-Star trio with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. With George in tow, the Sixers now look to make a leap to contend in an Eastern Conference that features the defending champion Celtics and a much-improved Knicks team.
Before returning to the 76ers, Embiid is set to represent Team USA in the Paris Olympics. The 2023 MVP recently opened up on his new-look team and the expectations that face Philadelphia in the upcoming season.
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Joel Embiid eyes championship for 76ers All-Star trio
During training camp for USA Basketball, Embiid gave an introspective look at how Philadelphia got to this point and the team’s prospects for the upcoming season.
“When you are presented with a plan, sometimes it goes wrong, sometimes it goes right. We’ve still got long way to go,” Embiid told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “On paper, it looks great. But we still got to go on the court and make it work.”
Embiid’s responses were notably measured, seemingly an acknowledgment of the franchise’s well-documented shortcomings in this millennium. The Sixers last advanced past the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2001 and have come one win shy of the East Finals in 2019, 2021 and 2023 since selecting Embiid in 2014.
After forming an All-Star trio, the expectation will be for Philadelphia to get over that hump. As measured as Embiid was, he also provided an in-depth look at how he feels the group will complement one another.
“It is great, especially when you got a big … I don’t like to call myself a big, but when you got a player that posts up and that isos quite a bit, you need to have willing shooters and guys that are not afraid to pull the trigger.
“[George], great shooter, 40 percent, 45 percent catch and shoot; [Maxey], we know great shooter, off the dribble, catch-and-shoot.”
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Last season, George averaged 22.6 points per game while shooting 41.3 percent from 3-point range. Maxey averaged a career-best 25.9 points per game and was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player. Embiid, who averaged 34.7 points over 39 games, will be the team’s No. 1 option but should take on a much lighter workload given the team’s new makeup.
On top of the longstanding history of misfortune, an injury-riddled 2023-24 campaign and an early exit in the 2024 NBA Playoffs add important context to Embiid’s insistence on mentioning the roster looks good “on paper.”
With that in mind, he’s still aware that the ultimate goal is to win an NBA title.
“The goal is always to win a championship, but it just doesn’t happen overnight. And hopefully, it doesn’t take us as much time as it should when you’re trying to bring up everybody on the same page and making sure everybody knows their role and what they got to do to make sure that we achieve that goal.”
Philadelphia’s roster certainly has championship potential but it is on Embiid and company to make it happen.