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The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the more interesting teams in all of basketball because they currently have a player on a huge contract who just has not played.
They have been disappointing in the past few playoffs and that doesn't look like it's going to change because they simply just don't have enough to compete with the other top teams in the Eastern Conference such as the Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn Nets, and at this point, the Chicago Bulls. The front office has done a terrible job in dealing Ben Simmons as they are just waiting for something that is never going to happen because he is not as good as the the front office thinks of him.
If Philadelphia is going to want to make a NBA championship and potentially win one, they're going to have to avoid some major obstacles along the way. Let's take a look at three areas the Sixers must avoid to win an NBA championship.
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Sixers Must Avoids 2022
3. Need to stop waiting to trade Ben Simmons
It is unclear what exactly Philadelphia is waiting for, but it clearly isn't getting solved because they still haven't moved this guy many months after they decided that they wanted to trade him.
Philadelphia has to realize that Simmons is not good enough to get back a top 25 talent and if they keep waiting to do that, they're only going to hurt themselves. If they wait till the NBA trade deadline, they will have zero leverage because every other team is going to know that they are going to want to move him at that moment and they can get him for a cheaper price.
It doesn't mean he's a bad player by any means, but he's not with Philadelphia needs and he never has been. Waiting to trade him just is horrible from a front-office perspective because they are waiting for a trade that is unrealistic and is never going to happen.
This has been a major mistake from the Sixers and the longer they wait, the bigger this mistake is going to be. It is unfair to the players on the team at the moment that they have to be without a max contract player when there are many other options out there for him to be traded. Joel Embiid cannot be happy about this situation. If Philadelphia doesn't make a move sooner rather than later, they're going to be disappointing once again in the playoffs
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2. If Philly doesn't win again, it's time to change the scene
If Philadelphia does not win this season, they do need to think about getting rid of Tobias Harris and a few other pieces. Harris really isn't that good for the type of contract that he is on and he is at best a third option on a championship team. That is fine if Philadelphia can go out and get another start next to Embiid, but with their current roster, he is not the answer to be paired next to Joel.
They do have some young pieces that they could decide to keep and that would be a smart decision from this team because they do clearly have some talent with those younger guys.
It would make sense if Philadelphia decides to move one of them at least because they can probably get back a decent return and they could be paired with Simmons to get back that star player that they do want.
1. Can't choke in the playoffs again
There isn't much more to say about the Sixers besides that they have choked the past few seasons in the playoffs. Regardless if people want to put all that blame on Ben Simmons last season or not, Philadelphia has choked.
If Ben Simmons did not play as bad as he did for the Sixers last playoffs, there could have been a potentially different outcome but a lot of fans also seem to forget that Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris were also horrible in the fourth quarter of those playoffs. With how bad Simmons played, it let a lot of blame not be put on Embiid and Harris but they were both horrible last season in the fourth quarter of playoff games as well.
Philadelphia needs to change that narrative this season and find a way to win at least the Eastern Conference because when you have a guy like Joel Embiid, you should certainly be a team that competes for a title every season, and Philadelphia has failed to do that. Last year, they had their easiest way to a Conference Final that they could have imagined but ended up losing to an Atlanta Hawks team that was playing way over their heads.
