The 76ers went out in a pitiful way losing in a game six in the first round to the New York Knicks. While all of the games were close, with the exception of game 3 where the Knicks won 125-11, the 76ers kept it relatively close with each game with the 4th quarter deciding who would win.
As a 76ers fan, I thought the officiating in the last quarter of most games were terrible. In particular, game two where the NBA themselves said they made a mistake when the Knicks clearly push and grabbed on Tyrese’s Maxey’s jersey on an inbound where the 76ers were leading but with missed calls, the Knicks found themselves with the ball and hit a 3 to take the lead. Even though the 76ers would force a game 6 while being down 2-0, they clearly gave up a certain points in every games thus leading to them loosing the series.
However, I am much more optimistic about going into this offseason than last offseason. Last year, the 76ers still has Doc Rivers as their head coach, James Harden was on the roster, and their was much less depth to the roster as a whole.
This year, we have a top 5 coach in the league in Nick Nurse, Tobias Harris contract is up, Tyrese Maxey won MIP, and Joel Embiid is coming off of his best statistical season if you take into account that he played less than 45 games this year.
With more cap space, I hope the 76ers get a player like Paul George this offseason with Tobias Harris being gone. This would actually give Embiid a third star on the team. The last time that happened, the 76ers had Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons on the roster back in 2019. If the 76ers has George, Maxey, and Embiid. It would certainly be a tough task to guard that talent combined with good coaching.
The 76ers should also try and get more depth coming off the bench. They need a player who can shoot, play defense, or both. I would hope to see Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Malik Beasley as they both can shoot but KCP has had recent success with the Nuggets as a 3 and D specialist.
If we could, I would like to keep someone like a Nic Batum as Batum has show to be a valuable forward who makes good decisions, plays solid defense, and can hit open shots. If we could as well, extending someone like Kelly Oubre Jr. would help the 76ers with wing death and good off the bench scoring and defense.
It is a lot to ask as the 76ers would have 3 max contracts and adding good death around that is difficult. I don’t doubt Daryl Morey as he has put together good teams in the past. I would like to see one finally go to the promise land.