The Philadelphia 76ers just finished up a disappointing 2019-20 season where they fell well short of expectations being swept in Round 1 by the Boston Celtics. Inevitably, a finish like that brings changes to the organization.
The first domino was coach Brett Brown being fired on Monday in a difficult decision that had to be made. The next decision will be looking at an awkward roster that did not fit well together all season. Naturally, some would consider looking at moving Ben Simmons or Joel Embiid, but general manager Elton Brand shot that down fairly quickly on Tuesday.
“I’m not looking to trade Ben or Joel, I’m looking to complement them better,” said Brand. “They’re 24 and 26-years old, respectively, and you try to make that fit for as long as you can. They want to be here, they want to be with our organization, and I can see them here for a long, long time.”
So, that then begs the question, what about the rest of the roster? Clearly, this specific roster did not fit around Simmons and Embiid as they did not have the shooting. Al Horford did not fit well offensively next to Embiid and Tobias Harris did not perform in the playoffs. Josh Richardson is also not JJ Redick so where will the changes come from?
“When you fail like we failed, losing in the first round, getting swept, albeit, without Ben Simmons, there will be tough decisions that have to be made,” said Brand. “There’s going to be a lot of time to figure those out.”
Embiid has received a lot of criticism in the past for not being in shape and not doing enough on the floor in order to get the job done, but this is the first offseason where he is really going to be healthy. He has always had some type of lingering issue with his health, but that is not the case this time around and this is why the big fella is ready to put the work in the offseason.
“This is the first offseason that Joel Embiid will be healthy,” Brand added. “So I look forward to seeing what he does with a full offseason to get right and improve his game. He gets a lot of stuff in the media criticizing, but I’ve seen his work first hand and I see the work he puts in.”
The Sixers definitely have a lot of decisions to make to better improve this roster and there is a lot of pressure on Brand to make sure this all works out for the future. The only for sure thing is that they will not move Simmons or Embiid and that is the right thing to do for the future of the franchise.