This is the factor about gamblers and playing: Typically the perfect of bets — the neatest of plans — nonetheless leaves you broke, bedraggled and not sure of what comes subsequent.
That is the state of issues as we speak for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Lower than a yr in the past, within the golden-hued afterglow of what then appeared like a surprising offseason coup, Philly was the toast of the league. Daryl Morey, the workforce’s common supervisor and president of basketball operations, had wagered massive on a free-agency overhaul.
He had, it appeared, received massive.
However Friday’s announcement by the Sixers that they’re shutting down Joel Embiid simply hammers dwelling the dangerous run of luck Philly has had this season, and the colossal failure Morey’s strikes appear to be they will find yourself being.
Paul George, acquired final summer season in free company with a four-year, $212 million deal, was not, in truth, the sure-thing profitable transfer all of us thought.
The opposite additions, too — a complete overhaul of the roster, outdoors of Embiid and Tyrese Maxey — on the time appeared equally like Morey being Morey: Swinging massive, taking possibilities, aiming for the moon, and touchdown a top-level NBA championship contender.
Vegas had them at 9-to-1 to win all of it simply earlier than the season began, the NBA’s fourth-best odds. Pundits praised Philly. Rival entrance workplaces listed the Sixers as an elite workforce, proper up there, or so the pondering went, with the Celtics, Thunder and Knicks.
Actuality, as we speak, has them at a dismally completely different spot: Sitting at 20-38, putting out team statements that reinforce, in truth, the one sure factor at this level with Embiid and his workforce is that it’ll not get higher anytime quickly — if it does certainly get higher in any respect.
“The Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Embiid have been consulting with high specialists concerning ongoing points along with his left knee,” Philly’s assertion learn Friday afternoon. “After additional analysis, it has been decided that he’s medically unable to play and can miss the rest of the season to deal with therapy and rehabilitation.
“We’re working with medical consultants to find out the precise therapy plan and can replace media when now we have extra info. The workforce and specialists will proceed working with Joel to make sure the perfect path ahead for his long-term well being and efficiency.”
It is simple to say you may’t blame Morey for Embiid’s continued damage woes, however that is the place the gamble inherent to Morey’s method — ambition may be a kinder description — pins this season and its short- and long-term realities squarely on him.
The actual fact is, Morey has all the time taken dangers to herald expertise. He did it with James Harden, a saga that resulted in acrimony and private insults. He did it in Houston with Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook. Hell, Morey did in again in 2012, when Houston drafted proficient however clearly dangerous prospect Royce White with the sixteenth general decide.
And so Embiid’s precarious health — and what appeared a presumably closing window final summer season — meant any massive strikes would succeed or fail via the prism of how they labored, or did not work, due to Embiid.
Not way back, Embiid was a reigning MVP dropping 70-point basketball masterclasses. However that was then, that is now, and the very fact stays that maybe Embiid’s window is at present, or doable already has, closed. And if that is the case, the identical shall be true for the Sixers reliable hopes of turning issues round subsequent yr, or past.
Take PG’s contract. He turns 35 in Could, has proven virtually no flashes of greatness even this yr, and lately introduced, on his podcast, that he was putting it on hiatus, partially, “to deal with getting my physique proper, getting mentally proper.”
Far be it for me to state the plain right here however: It is February. Should not your physique and psychological state be “proper” already? And if a podcast will get in the way in which of that, should not it have been paused, say, months in the past?
Both means, that is the man Morey introduced in and paid massive cash with massive years as a part of the plan for the Sixers to win now, and George has not precisely coated himself in glory in Philly.
With that contract beginning to look as problematic as Embiid’s well being, it looks like one other celebrated Morey gamble will truly finish very, very badly.
And on it goes. Nick Nurse, effectively regarded, finds his seat extremely popular. The workforce that regarded good on paper however hadn’t, you understand, performed collectively by no means gelled. This workforce as soon as considered as a Finals contender will virtually definitely fail to make even the Play-In Event.
It is good the Sixers have shut Embiid down. They’ve a top-six protected decide, and so dropping video games, and making an attempt to maximise the chances their first rounder in a traditionally loaded draft would not go to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, could be very good.
It additionally might in the end not matter a lot.
If Embiid can’t return to common and dependable greatness, if PG’s contract seems to be an albatross as an alternative of a solution, then all the opposite particulars — Maxey’s promise, the injured Jared McCain‘s early season emergence, Morey’s undoubtedly spectacular basketball mind — could also be particulars of a still-sinking ship.
Gamblers win. However additionally they lose, too, typically catastrophically. And this Sixers group is wanting increasingly more like a good suggestion gone dangerous — a wise wager, in the long run, that may maybe value the whole lot.
