Same Problems, Same Result: Sixers swept by the Knicks and nothing changes until the top does

The 2025-26 Sixers season ended Sunday afternoon with a 144-114 loss to the Knicks in Game 4 at Xfinity Mobile Arena. A sweep. A 30-point blowout at home to close the season. Knicks fans celebrating in our building. Again.

New York turned South Philadelphia into their personal playground while the Sixers’ franchise player sat on the bench watching his team get dismantled in an elimination game.

Three weeks ago this team completed the greatest comeback in franchise history. They came back from 3-1 against the Celtics. Embiid waved off TD Garden. Maxey closed Game 7 with two driving layups on fumes. Edgecombe made NBA history at 20 years old. It was the most incredible stretch of Sixers basketball I’ve ever watched.

I was ready to run through a wall for this team. Again.

Then the Knicks showed up and reminded everyone that three great games against Boston doesn’t fix the fundamental problems that have been rotting this franchise from the inside for years.

The Knicks Swept Us. Moving On

The Knicks won four straight games. They were better in every single one of them. Brunson was unstoppable. Bridges consistently outplayed his averages. Towns held his own against Embiid when Embiid was even available.

The role players showed up every night while the Sixers’ bench contributed almost nothing across the entire series. New York was deeper, more physical, better rested, and more prepared. Knicks fans were in the building celebrating.

I don’t really care about that part. Fans buy tickets. That’s how it works. What I care about is the product on the floor being so bad that an opposing fanbase feels comfortable enough to take over in the first place.

If the Sixers are winning, nobody is selling their tickets. If the Sixers are competitive, the building takes care of itself. The takeover is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is the roster.

Daryl Morey Needs to be Fired

Here are the numbers that should keep Daryl Morey up at night.

he salary cap was $154,647,000. Embiid and George combined for $106,890,616 on the cap sheet and logged 75 combined regular-season appearances. Over two-thirds of the cap committed to two players who can’t stay on the court.

The result? A 69-95 record across two regular seasons under Morey’s grand vision of three max-contract stars carrying a franchise to the promised land.

The rest of the league figured out years ago that the three-star model is dead. Teams are investing in depth, in rotation-caliber players who can fill multiple roles, in roster flexibility that allows you to absorb injuries without your season collapsing.

Morey went the opposite direction.

He doubled down on star-chasing, handed out three max contracts, gutted the bench, sold at the trade deadline, and then watched his team get swept in the second round because the supporting cast couldn’t support anything.

The Boston comeback happened because Embiid, Maxey, and Edgecombe played the best basketball of their lives for three straight games.

The Knicks sweep happened because the depth that was supposed to carry the load when the stars faltered simply didn’t exist. Morey built a team that can beat anyone on its best night and gets swept on its worst week.

Joel Embiid’s Supermax Is About to Strangle This Franchise

I will never blame Joel Embiid for anything. He doesn’t deserve the blame. He has NEVER deserved the blame. The only ones who want to blame Joel Embiid are sports talk radio listeners and people who simply don’t know ball.

That said, Embiid’s three-year supermax kicks in now.

$187 million over the next three seasons with a $67.2 million player option for 2028-29 when he’ll be 35 years old. That contract is untradeable. No team in the league is taking on that money for a player who has missed as many games as Embiid has over the last two years. The Sixers are locked into Embiid at a supermax number regardless of how many games he plays.

Again, I love Joel Embiid. I’ve defended him through everything. The blood oath to Trust The Process is real and it doesn’t expire but the reality of his contract and his injury history creates a ceiling for this franchise that no amount of emotional attachment can ignore.

If Embiid can’t play 60-plus games in a regular season and hold up through four rounds of the playoffs, the Sixers cannot win a championship. Period. The Boston series proved he’s still capable of dominance when healthy.

The Knicks series proved his body can’t sustain it for more than one round. Both of those things are true at the same time and the supermax locks the Sixers into that reality for three more years.

George Might Need to Go

Paul George is set to make over $110 million over the next two seasons. His post-suspension surge showed he can still play at a high level when engaged. His three-point shooting in the Boston series was elite at 52.5 percent.

He also disappeared for entire halves of playoff games against the Knicks. Fifteen first-quarter points followed by zero the rest of the way in Game 3.

That kind of inconsistency from a max-contract player in his mid-30s is devastating to a team with no margin for error.

Could the Sixers move George this summer? It’s not impossible.

One team willing to take on that salary for a player with George’s pedigree is all it takes. If Morey could flip George for depth pieces and role players who actually show up every night, the team might be better for it in the long run even if the star power takes a hit on paper.

The question is whether Morey has the courage to admit that his three-star experiment failed and pivot to a different approach. Based on everything I’ve seen from him, I doubt it. He’ll run it back and bet on health. He always does.

A Rebuild Isn’t Possible So Don’t Try To Sell Me One

The Sixers can’t tear it down. Maxey is 25, entering his prime, with three years left on his deal and representation from Rich Paul. You don’t waste the prime of Tyrese Maxey on a rebuild. Edgecombe is 20 and developing into a star. You don’t waste his early years in a tanking environment.

The Sixers are stuck in the middle with max contracts they can’t move, depth they can’t afford, and a core that’s good enough to beat anyone for three games but not deep enough to survive a full postseason.

That’s the trap. Too good to rebuild. Not good enough to contend. Locked into contracts that prevent flexibility. It’s the worst place to be in professional sports and Morey put the Sixers there with his own decisions.

Some guy named Sam Hinkie had a way around that, but I doubt we’ll see another Process anytime soon, ya know?

Edgecombe Is the Only Reason to Feel Good About Anything

VJ Edgecombe logged over 2,600 regular-season minutes and 400-plus playoff minutes as a 20-year-old rookie. He made NBA history against the Celtics. He played fearlessly at TD Garden and Madison Square Garden. He handled defensive assignments against the best guards in the East. He never looked overwhelmed by a single moment all postseason. His development alongside Maxey is the most exciting thing about this franchise and the only genuine reason for optimism heading into next season.

The Maxey-Edgecombe backcourt is the future. If the organization builds properly around those two, the Sixers can be a legitimate contender for the next decade. If Morey continues to chase stars and ignore depth, the Sixers are going to keep running into the same wall every April and May until Maxey gets fed up and demands out.

Nurse Coached Through Hell and Deserves Acknowledgment

Nick Nurse’s brother Steve died unexpectedly between Games 5 and 6 of the Boston series. Nurse coached through it. He flew from Boston to Iowa for the funeral and flew right back to rejoin the team. He coached the three best games of his Sixers tenure while grieving. Whatever your opinion of Nurse as a tactician, the man’s resilience and professionalism during the worst week of his life deserves respect.

His tenure in Philadelphia has been disappointing overall. The results haven’t matched the expectations. The Sixers went 24-58 last year. They needed a 3-1 comeback just to survive the first round this year. But the decision to empower Edgecombe from day one was the single most impactful coaching decision of the season and it’s going to pay dividends for years.

What Happens Now

For the first time since Morey arrived in 2020, there are real whispers about whether he’s the right person running this franchise. His star-chasing philosophy directly caused the depth crisis that killed the Sixers against New York.

It also directly led to the personnel that made the Boston comeback possible. Whether the organization views the Celtics series or the Knicks sweep as more representative of what this team actually is will determine the direction of the franchise this summer.

Josh Harris continues to own this team while sitting courtside with Epstein-adjacent cabinet members. Morey continues to build top-heavy rosters with paper-thin benches.

The results continue to be first and second round exits with the same structural problems showing up every postseason. The Eastern Conference Finals drought extends into yet another year with no end in sight.

The Process gave this franchise Embiid. Embiid’s window is closing. Maxey is entering his prime. Edgecombe is ascending. The clock is ticking louder than it has ever ticked and the people running this organization have shown zero evidence that they understand the urgency of the moment.

Fix the roster. Find the depth. Stop chasing stars and start building a team. Or keep watching the Knicks celebrate in your building every spring. Because that’s what’s going to keep happening until something fundamentally changes at the top.

I love this team. I’ll ride with them until the wheels fall off but I’m tired of watching the same movie every year and pretending the ending is going to be different.

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