It’s possible that amongst the agita and encroaching disinterest, 76ers fans have felt something oddly familiar in recent weeks.
As one Joel Embiid injury update has dissolved into the next, in a swirl of facial fractures and foot sprains and swollen knees, timelines have been set and re-set. “Questionable,” “out, indefinitely”: It’s all become a word salad signifying little.
If that’s familiar to Sixers fans of a certain age, perhaps it’s the echoes of 12 years ago.
Through a process that brought the franchise as low as any team in NBA history, through seven straight playoff appearances but no more than one series win in any, the 76ers of 2025 are back where the 2013 team was: Held captive to the health of a center.
Then, it was Andrew Bynum. Now it’s Embiid. And while they are two very different players, the composition of both 76ers teams hinged on the health of a center who could never seem to find it.
When the 76ers acquired Bynum in a four-team trade on Aug. 10, 2012, it was the turning of an era.
Gone was Andre Iguodala and the first post-Allen Iverson era. In was Bynum, the final throw of the dice for a young nucleus after having maxed out, in ownership’s estimation, with Iguodala and Elton Brand.
The summer of 2024 may end up being recognized as a similar inflection point.
With Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, the 76ers made perhaps their final bid to find a fit around them.
It hadn’t worked with Jimmy Butler or Ben Simmons or James Harden or Tobias Harris or the half-dozen first-rounders who had flamed out. Paul George would be the fin de siècle option, one more chance to build around Embiid and try to — heck, win two consecutive playoff series, much less a championship.
So far, it hasn’t worked. The 76ers limped home after an 0-3 road trip sans Embiid, thanks to the knee, and with George missing two games.
With George back, the 76ers no-showed in Denver for a 144-109 loss, a seventh straight setback and 10th in the last 12 to drop a season-worst 12 games under. 500.
Like 76ers teams of the past, the only way out is for the star in the middle to be healthy.
The analogy has its limits.
Embiid is a way better player than Bynum, in absolute terms and relative to his generation. Bynum was a good center in an era where you could build a team around a traditional pivot. Embiid, when healthy, has been a transcendent talent.
Bynum was once an All-Star. Embiid was once an MVP. Bynum never got healthy in Philadelphia. Embiid can’t stay healthy. Bynum played his last NBA game at age 26; Embiid is about to turn 31, with seven All-Star appearances to show.
There’s a difference in quality, even more than Embiid’s average of 27.8 points over 446 career games to Bynum’s 11.5 points and 7.7 rebounds in 418 games.
Bynum’s best season brought an average of 18.7 ppg. Embiid’s worst was 20.2. Embiid should someday be in the Hall of Fame. Bynum should get his number retired at St. Joseph’s in Metuchen.
And Embiid belongs to Philadelphia, drafted and reared here, where Bynum was acquired after one elite season with the Lakers.
Bynum’s acquisition made plenty of sense in 2012 in every area, save for the structural decrepitude of his knees. He looked to be heading into his peak and into the last year of a contract, with Bird rights offering a pathway to an affordable extension.
The 76ers needed a center, a deficit since Iverson’s time. With Jrue Holiday — Maxey’s rough analog — reaching All-Star levels and Thaddeus Young — Kelly Oubre Jr.? — a valuable regular, the 76ers could swap the unaffordable Iguodala for Bynum and veteran shooter Jason Richardson.
Those plans didn’t work. Bynum never played a game, his experimental knee treatments not solving what ailed him. The timeline went from days to weeks to months to a shutdown.
He wasn’t retained, then ended his career with 26 games in Cleveland and Indiana in 2013-14.
The 76ers went 34-48, a record that would require some acceleration for the current bunch to reach. They’d have to go 19-21 from here on out, four games better than the first half.
That July, the 76ers traded Holiday for (essentially) Nerlens Noel, Dario Saric, a cascade of draft capital. Brett Brown replaced Doug Collins. Sam Hinkie replaced Tony DiLeo.
Thirty-four wins became 47 over the next three years combined. And those losses became Embiid, and a bunch of other guys whom propriety dictates we leave unnamed.
More than a decade later, another era may be ending. The club preached patience.
It took a delayed payoff for dumping Harden to the Clippers, prioritizing roster flexibility at seasons’ end.
It reupped Maxey and signed George, a Hall of Famer though aged 34, for the long haul, knowing a roster with nearly a dozen new faces would need time to cohere.
The upheaval made 2025 probably too soon to contend but rather to build toward 2026.
“With Joel, with Tyrese, with Nick (Nurse) as our coach, we are all in,” owner Josh Harris bloviated on a dais next to George in July. “We’re all in for this city.”
Instead, Embiid has played 52 of a possible 124 games since being handed his MVP trophy in the summer of 2023, Paris Olympics notwithstanding.
He’s appeared in just over 52 percent of games in his NBA career. With the team in freefall, 2025 seems lost, the 76ers by Wednesday seven games out of sixth place in the East and three out of the play-in tournament.
The 76ers rarely have given an experiment around Embiid more than a year or two to grow, and a deadline fire sale would thus be the wrong tack.
But each iteration has been built around Embiid. Only when he’s no longer capable of being that central pillar will the teardown begin.
It’s never felt closer than now.
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com.
Source: Berkshire mont
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