Rock Bottom: 76ers are the worst team in the NBA and continue to make headlines for all the wrong reasons

What if I told you that the Philadelphia 76ers are in dead last not only in the Eastern Conference, but in the entire NBA standings? After a Summer that was filled with optimism, the start of the 2024-25 season has been nothing short of a disaster.

The lack of transparency from the Philadelphia 76ers regarding Joel Embiid with his knee injury and “load management” plan, Paul George getting hurt in the preseason delaying his debut, and now Tyrese Maxey out with a hamstring injury was literally only the beginning of this team’s struggles.

Now, we have reports that after the 76ers let the Heat storm back from a 19-point deficit last night in South Beach, the team held a “players only” meeting.

Why do we know that? Because someone within that meeting decided to leak the context to the media so that Shams could tell the entire world that Tyrese Maxey called out Embiid for “never showing up on time” to team meetings and practice.

Just great, right?

Awkward: Tyrese Maxey challenged Joel Embiid during team meeting after 2-11 start

Rewind: Here’s What Happened to the 76ers Last Night in Miami:

Despite a hot start and jumping out to a 19-point lead agains the Heat, the 76ers went ice cold in South Beach, losing 106-89 and dropping to 2-11 on the season.

The Sixers officially rank dead last in the NBA in Points Per Game, dead last in FG% (2nd to last in 3pt%), and dead last in OPPONENT FG%. So yeah, the record does hold some weight and it shows in the numbers. The 76ers are the worst at shooting in the league, and the worst at defending shots in the league.

Knowing this, you can certainly blame every single player on this roster along with every single member of the coaching staff and front office for the way this season has started. All of which is important once we get back to the “Team Meeting” down below but before we do that, here’s what we witnessed on the court last night.

Joel Embiid

Add the Joel pre-game injury status to the long list of mystery’s surrounding the big man’s health this year.  As mentioned by Kate Scott 1000 times too many during the broadcast, Embiid was playing through an “illness” in Miami.

I have my doubts. For whatever reason, that was all we heard over and over again. Joel Embiid was battling an illness. Fine, I guess but for a medical staff that operates with the same level and trust as cable news networks across the United States of America and a front office that literally makes everything worse with any word they speak, I definitely have my doubts.

Why can’t they tell us what Joel Embiid was dealing with? What was the “illness”?  Does he have a cold?  Is he shitting his brains out?  It’s bad enough that they are not telling us whether or maybe it’s something even worse? Is Joel Embiid’s knee permanently deteriorated? Why wasn’t he wearing his typical compression pants under his shorts? Does that brace suck the life out of him and make him completely useless on the basketball court?

Are we sure he wasn’t ill on Friday against the Magic when he was coughing (illness pun) the ball up every play in the second half?  

76ers fall flat in Orlando, drop to 2-10 on the season and 0-2 in the NBA Cup >>

It’s been Embiid’s usual style to work his way into a rhythm each season, but this looks noticeably worse.  He generally passed the ball well out of the frequent Heat double teams, but that is the only positive you can take from his game tonight. 

This was the first game of Embiid’s CAREER where he played 25+ minutes without getting to the foul line, despite a few embarrassing flop attempts.  He only took 11 shots, and could not get any position inside or any easy looks towards the rim.

Embiid’s jumper from the nail has been completely MIA this year, where he was absolutely elite in prior seasons. Defensively, he was attacked inside over and over again by the Heat, and was flat footed / immobile / uninterested in closing out on any Heat shooters outside.

I am still thinking that Joel will snap out of this early season funk, but if this continues throughout December, I wouldn’t be surprised if there murmurs of shutting him down for the season.

Then of course, you have Tyrese Maxey “calling him out” in a team meeting which makes Embiid’s performance look even worse. You’d think that Embiid not playing would mean that he’s the first man in the building and the last one out. How can he possibly be late to everything? I literally can’t comprehend it.

Paul George

Ah, yes, our max contract “missing piece.” Pedestrian, average, slow, and uninteresting. He scored 12 points in the 1st quarter, and only 6 points for the remainder of the game.  The problems aren’t all on Paul George, but he’s getting $50 million dollars this season, and I’m sorry, but expecting him to steal the 76ers some of these games shouldn’t be a problem.

PG again seems incapable of beating his defender to the rim, and has to rely on some tough contested shots to get his Tobias-like numbers. He did say the main struggle of his bone bruise recovery would be getting his “cardio” back up – well it’s time to hit the fucking elliptical Paul because we’re dying out here. 

Kyle Lowry

As mentioned, the Sixers leading into tonight’s matchup ranked dead last in Scoring, and 2nd to last in 3pt%.  Knowing that, Nick Nurse once again inserted Kyle Lowry into the starting lineup.  Some stats over the prior 6 games from our starting point guard: 3.5 points per game, 26 minutes per game, 2-20 from 3.

Kyle followed that beautiful streak up going 0-3 from outside, with a resounding 0 points in 19 minutes. I’m not expecting Reggie Jackson to come out there and look like Steph Curry, and he’s had his ups and downs in limited playing time so far this season, but Lowry has certainly not earned the nod over a proven scorer like Reggie Jackson. 

Nick Nurse needs to be asked nightly about why he thinks Kyle has earned this amount of playing time. As mentioned in my Liberty Line debut – this has to be a blackmail campaign.  There is no other explanation.

Where are the bodies, Nick?  What did Kyle Lowry witness Nick Nurse do in Toronto?

What dirt does he have on Nick Nurse? 

Jeff Dowtin

Jeff is an above average G-League player, playing like an above average G-league player that was just thrown into an NBA game.  There are no real surprises here.  Other than a couple of nice buckets against Charlotte last week, he has been another Lowry-like zero on offense for a team desperate for scoring.

Suspiciously, Dowtin is another one of Nick Nurse’s former Toronto guards – scoring 2 points in 20 minutes on the worst offense in the league.  Am I taking fucking crazy pills?  Everybody is seeing this right?  Where are the bodies, Nick?

Jared McCain

Yet another frustrating loss with the lone bright spot being Jared McCain.  If I was the coach, and I wasn’t being blackmailed by a fat 38 year old point guard and a G-league player, I would have McCain in lead ball handling duties at all times he’s on the floor.

The Heat started sending double teams at him early in possessions, which he will certainly improve at navigating – and it’s a good thing that opposing teams already know that they need to send those kinds of looks at him in only his 13th NBA game.

Once again he was their leading scorer, and put up 20 points.

Caleb Martin + Kelly Oubre

These two still get grouped together in my book.  An underrated aspect of this abysmal start to the season is that these guys have yet to put a good game together at the same time. Their streakiness is unmatched.

Both Caleb and Kelly seemingly possession to possession are capable of making some of the worst plays you’d ever see on a basketball court.  Caleb’s twitchy line drive shots are a little easier to watch when they’re going in, and he started out hot in this one as the Sixers built their 19 point lead.

Overall a bad shooting night from 2 players that are key to the rotation.  Kelly has been cold all season, and needs to at least get back to a below average 3pt% if the Sixers want to start winning some games.  

The Team Meeting…

Let’s all hope that ESPN hit-piece was exactly just that. I think everyone needs to hear directly from Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid before the Memphis game tomorrow night and explain a few things now that the private meeting’s dirty laundry is all over the internet.

My top two questions:

• WHO LEAKED INFORMATION FROM THE TEAM MEETING?
• WHY DOES IT SEEM LIKE RICH PAUL HATE PHILADELPHIA?

“Team Meeting” 🐀 🐀 https://t.co/Mx9zHyTeuK pic.twitter.com/Yc51FgUTyz

— The Liberty Line (@LibertyLinePHL) November 19, 2024

Seriously though, this locker room is a mess and someone needs to be held accountable for allowing information to get out of a players-only team meeting. That simply can’t happen while you’re trying to “right the ship” and something about Shams getting that information and sharing it all over social media seems like nasty work, ya know?

On top of that, I need to know what Nick Nurse is doing. There were a few things in there about “not being coached hard enough” and by breaking down last night’s game against Miami, I think it’s evident that this 76ers team is completely lost both on the court and in the locker room.

Somebody please figure it the fuck out. I can’t take much more of this.

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