The Philadelphia 76ers have hit their first rough patch of the season. With multiple players landing in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, including star center Joel Embiid, the team has taken a tumble down the standings.
Philadelphia has lost five games in a row, dropping their record to 8-7. Moral victories don’t count for much in the NBA, but they were rather competitive in all five of the games, except for the most recent one against the Utah Jazz.
With four more games on their road trip, things could really continue spiraling. They have visits to the Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, and Golden State Warriors on tap. Without Embiid, it would not be a surprise if the losses continue piling up.
With the team struggling, the topic of Ben Simmons being traded has come up again. There is still no timetable for him to return and at this point, it feels unlikely that he will suit up for the 76ers again.
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While Daryl Morey and people within the organization are holding out hope that he will return, there need to be alternative plans in place. But, it is not yet time for the team to give in and make a trade just for the sake of getting a deal done.
Yes, the recent losses could cause some panic. No team wants to go on a long losing streak, but this can be attributed to the COVID-19 outbreak the organization had. It started with Tobias Harris, then included Matisse Thybulle and Isaiah Joe and concluded with Embiid. Danny Green has also missed multiple games in this stretch as well because of injury.
It is very difficult for a team to overcome one rotation player being sidelined, let alone four. No team has the depth to overcome that, especially when the players sidelined are as important to the team’s success as the players the Philadelphia 76ers were losing.
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Their course of action should be staying the course and seeing how things are going once they have everyone back in the lineup. If they return to the level of play they had at the beginning of the season, when they started 8-2, they can continue riding things out.
But, if they struggle to find that success and become inconsistent, they could turn up the aggressiveness in finding a trade partner for Ben Simmons. Judging the team without Embiid and other key players would be short-sighted. They have held out things long in Simmons trade negotiations, a few more weeks finding the right deal isn’t going to hurt them anymore.
