‘You guys wanna see a dead body?’ The slow death of the Philadelphia 76ers’ Process era

This is a roster built for 2006, not 2026. Iso-heavy, big-man-centric, predicated on one dominant center, Embiid, taking over games through sheer will and free-throw volume. The league has moved past this. The Knicks – deep, switchy, young, relentless – looked like they were playing a different sport as they swept the Sixers.

And there is no way to write honestly about the 2026 76ers without confronting what Embiid has become, and it’s uncomfortable as hell.

He was, for a few seasons, one of the best basketball players alive. The footwork, the face-up game, the passing out of the post, the three-point shooting – at his peak, Embiid was a legitimate case for best offensive center since Shaquille O’Neal. His MVP season in 2022-23 was a masterpiece. His ability to carry a structurally compromised roster to the second round of the playoffs, year after year, while fighting through injuries that would have ended other careers, deserves respect.

That Embiid is gone. What remains is far inferior.

Embiid hasn’t played more than 40 games in a regular season since his MVP campaign. He was injured in Game 1 against the Knicks, missed a game, came back limping, and was reduced to holding his hip, his back and his ankle. There was no better encapsulation of this version of the Sixers than the sight of Embiid’s teammates attempting to pick him up from the floor and failing.

But the decline in his body isn’t even the most troubling part. It’s the decline in his conduct.

Embiid has spent recent seasons cultivating one of the dirtiest reputations in the NBA. The sweep-through moves designed to draw fouls that don’t exist. Flops so theatrical Buster Keaton would blush. The crystallizing incident came in the 2024 playoffs, when Embiid fell to the floor and grabbed the Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson by the foot, dragging him to the floor and injuring him in the process. Yes, pun intended.

The 76ers fans who spent 13 years trusting a process deserve better.

But here’s the strange, almost perverse mercy for the Sixers: despite everything, they have something most failing contenders don’t. They have two young cornerstones.

Maxey is 25 years old. He’s fast, creative, a legitimate offensive engine who was systematically double-teamed into submission by the Knicks because his supporting cast was demonstrably non-threatening. Maxey operating in an offense with shooters, athletes and a coach who actually designs plays rather than letting it free-flow into George post-ups is a 25- to 28-point scorer who can lead a team deep into May.

Edgecombe is 20. He had 34 points in his NBA debut. He had a 30-point game in the Boston series. This is a young, explosive wing with Dwyane Wade-level upside.

Those two players are a gift. Most rebuilding teams don’t get one player like that coming out of a failed era. Philadelphia have two.

The draft capital situation, while complicated by the obligations owed to Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, is far from hopeless. The Sixers own their own picks in 2027, 2029, 2030, 2031, and 2032. They hold the Clippers’ 2028 first-round pick – potentially a high one, depending on how Los Angeles continues their rebuild. They have swap rights with the Clippers in 2029. There are second-round picks scattered across multiple teams through the decade, several of them from contending or mid-tier franchises that could carry real value.

A new front office, with a mandate to rebuild fast and modern, has modern ammunition.

The path forward requires doing things the current regime has shown little appetite for: acquiring speed, athleticism, perimeter shooting, and youth. Players who can switch defensively, run in transition, and make open threes at a league-average clip. Fix the roster around the edges first. Then find your third piece. Do not – under any circumstances – sign a 34-year-old maximum contract player to anchor the next era. Focus instead on unloading the albatross contracts of George and Embiid.

But unfortunately still in the present. Philly just got swept. Left with a dead man walking for $60m a year.

It is time to end this. Blow it up. Fire the coach. Fire the general manager. Hire a developmental coach who knows how to build young players, someone who can turn Edgecombe and Maxey into the most dynamic backcourt in the league.

The body has been lying in the road long enough. It’s time to bury it, and finally, actually, start over.