The 2024-25 season is over. Thank God.
The Sixers’ 24-58 record for 2024-25 is their fourth-worst record of the 21st century. The only three seasons that were worse were The Process years in which Sam Hinkie intentionally designed for the team to lose games. A strong argument can be made that the 2012-13 season, infamously marked by the zero games Andrew Bynum played for the Sixers, was worse than this season. Both 2012-13 and this season were marred by nonstop injury updates and a lot of losing in between updates that made fans wonder if better health was even a serious remedy.
When you look back on the season that was over the last six months, and look ahead to what might be next for the Sixers, it’s simply impossible to envision things getting worse. Yes, I’m aware of the slightly better than one in three chance that Philadelphia sends what would be the seventh or eighth overall pick in this summer’s draft to Oklahoma City during next month’s lottery. If that is to happen, it would only be one final punctuation mark on this atrocious season. For an academic analogy, the body of the essay has already been written and the paper’s going to get a bad grade whether the last sentence is punctuated correctly or not.
The Sixers could retain their pick and it would be a springboard into an offseason that hopefully gets things turned around. But, even if they lose their pick, now that we know Daryl Morey and Nick Nurse are returning, don’t think for one second that the franchise is about to peel back on its efforts to win next season and beyond. Morey and Nurse simply don’t have the security to scale things back and engineer any kind of larger rebuild.
Knowing that the Sixers will make every attempt to return to next year’s playoffs, is it really possible for them to have ANOTHER terrible offseason? Heck, the cap space isn’t even available for Morey to make another Paul George-sized mistake. Even if the summer is a mostly quiet one from the Sixers and they opt for a run it back approach, is it really possible for them to have ANOTHER year of terrible injury luck?
Morey stated in his exit interview on Sunday that he anticipates Joel Embiid, George and Tyrese Maxey to all be 100% at the start of next season. Even if that is not the case, surely there’s a middle ground in which next season is healthier than this season was for Embiid and George especially. Jared McCain will also factor into the equation next season, likely in a big way.
If Philadelphia is to have all four of the above players more available than they were last year, it will make the various marginal victories from this season be more apparent next season. This obviously assumes the returns of Quentin Grimes and Guerschon Yabusele, who are set to hit free agency. But if both players are Sixers next season and Justin Edwards and Adem Bona can take steps forward in 2025-26, then there’s no way it’s a worse season than the one we just suffered through. All of what we just said has nothing to do with adding a rookie drafted in this summer’s top six into the fold because the point is that even with forfeiting the pick to the Thunder, next season will be better than this season.
I hope the month in between Sunday’s regular season finale and the draft lottery allows for fans to come to this realization. Don’t tense up over the 36% chance the Sixers lose this year’s first-rounder. Tankathon is a great website, but don’t do a bunch of simulations between now and the lottery. It’s probably best to just take a step back and think about how EVERYTHING went wrong for the Sixers this season and realize that there is no way that happens again next season.
Given how bad this season was, there is of course the possibility that next season is still pretty bad, rife with injuries and the Sixers win anywhere from 30-40 games and we’re still shrugging our shoulders saying, “Now, what?” It would still be more wins than this season but it wouldn’t have anyone feeling any better. But, let’s cross that bridge when we get there.
For now, everyone should take a deep breath and be relieved this dreadful season is over. The lottery will either be the final blow to a season that’s already had lots of stabs to various body parts, or it will be a happy launch into an offseason that allows us all to turn the page with some excitement. Either way, the worst of all of this is over.