Despite a disastrous season, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey remain confident the Philadelphia 76ers can still be a legitimate title contender.
“I think with the personnel we have, I think with finding young talent (to help us). … I think we can be a team in the future that can compete for a championship,” George said ahead of Sunday’s regular-season finale, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
The Sixers began the campaign with championship aspirations but entered Sunday ranked 26th in the NBA. Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bulls dropped Philadelphia to 24-58, marking its worst record since 2015-16 and a dramatic fall from preseason expectations.
Injuries contributed to the collapse, as George, Maxey, and star center Joel Embiid missed significant stretches and were ultimately shut down early due to injuries.
“The one positive that I do take away is the only way we can go from here is up,” said Maxey.
The Sixers’ Big Three played only 294 minutes together across 15 games this season.
“The names on the paper … it looks nice. It does,” Maxey said. “And I think we’ve seen where our peaks can be this year. There wasn’t a lot of them. But there was some stretches where we all played, and we looked really good. We found the right rotations, we knew who to get the ball to, who we need to get the ball to them, everybody got shots, everybody looked good.
“So the sky’s the limit. That’s the thing that I can say. But the work has to be put in from Day 1, not from in the middle of the season. … Today is our last game. Whenever everybody decides to start working out again, that’s when our season for next year starts, individually and collectively. And it has to be taken serious.”
George appeared in 41 contests this campaign after signing a four-year, $212-million max deal with Philly in the offseason. He also posted his lowest scoring average (16.2 points per game) since 2014-15.
“It was just, to be honest, one of the toughest seasons for me,” George said. “Just with a lot of adversity on the court, off the court and, then again, the injury stuff was some stuff that I didn’t necessarily know I had going on … which was frustrating.”
Embiid played in 19 games, the fewest of the Sixers’ trio. The team announced earlier this week that Embiid underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, his second operation on that knee in the last 14 months.
“It sucked,” Maxey said of watching Embiid struggle with his injury. “At the end of the day, Joe is somebody who really wants to be out there. So to see him suffer, to see him go out there and actually try, and he just couldn’t be himself … you could tell.
Maxey added, “Hopefully, that surgery went well and all that, and he gets back to the Joel Embiid that we know and love.”
Sixers president Daryl Morey announced following Sunday’s loss that he and head coach Nick Nurse will return next season.
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