The Philadelphia 76ers’ nightmare season has seen the team officially removed from postseason competition.
From the start, writing was on the wall, and the 2024-25 season didn’t go as planned for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Recently, it has been revealed that the 76ers have given up. Joel Embiid was officially ruled out for the rest of the season after playing in just 19 games and coming and going into the team’s lineup. He may have to undergo another operation in the upcoming offseason.
Paul George followed Embiid in the injured situation his team was suffering. The big free agency signing failed to meet expectations. He was later deactivated as well, finishing his hopes for a second half of the season push.
A 118-95 loss to the Miami Heat on March 29th this year brought the 76ers down to 23-51, effectively ending their hopes for a 2025 playoff appearance.
And then on the post-game presser, Nick Nurse head coach spoke about what went wrong with the Philadelphia team this year.
“Obviously it’s not near where I wanted when I left this summer and this fall. That’s certainly true,” the nurse said. “That’s the only thing you can say, it was a super struggle.
“You know, I think most of the time, I only had a few times more momentum. Is that so?
“We had four or five games in a row in December, and there we had a four or five game wins, and we were always hoping that the team would play better, get some wins and hopefully get the players back.”
“I’ve said this many times and it didn’t seem like the injury bug would leave us.
“Every time we played a good game and got a win or something, it seemed like the next player would cost one or two players.
“We never really got the momentum going, so obviously, super, very disappointing. It’s not where we want to be perfect. That’s about it.”
Beyond Embiid and George, several other 76ers players endured injuries. Taylese Maxie, who took a big step in his game, only appeared in 52 games.
After creating the hype as an early favorite to win the Rookie of the Year Award, Jared McCain was down in December with a Meniscus injury that made Cutsis shine in his first season.
The 76ers slowly fell apart as they produced the hype and expectations of a championship heavyweight projected last summer.
This is the first time that Philadelphia has not been in the NBA playoff arena since 2016-17. Despite this, the Six are still determined to close the season with a high note.
“It’s difficult, but when they came in, they got hurt a lot,” Grimes said.
“Looking back at Joel, Tyrese and PG, it’s a tough season where everything comes in.
“We got eight games. We’re really trying to sharpen things.”
With a passionate, healthy and rejuvenating offseason onwards, the 76ers are crossing their fingers that next season offers them something better.