The Philadelphia 76ers have had a bit of a renaissance this season. While the team is still among the worst in the league, it has been noticeably better than years past. The biggest change, of course, has been Joel Embiid.
The Sixers’ center is finally on the court after missing the first two years of his career with injuries. While still playing limited minutes, Embiid has been a revelation, impacting games in multiple ways.
It appears that success has gotten to Embiid’s head. The big man is now talking playoffs as he told reporters (via ESPN):
“I think we have a chance. We’ve been hot lately,” he said. “We’ve won three out of four lately, so I look at it, and I think we have a chance, and we’re really figuring things out. We’re starting to learn how to win games.”
The Sixers are currently 10-25 and 13th in the Eastern Conference. They are 7.5 games out of the eighth seed with 47 games remaining. With only three games separating the fifth and twelfth seed teams, it seems unlikely that Philly makes a run for the postseason.
And of course that’s perfectly fine. As head coach Brett Brown has routinely stated, the Sixers are still in a developmental stage. The redeeming quality of their record is that Joel Embiid has already shown signs of being a star, if he isn’t already. If you’re that good, you can talk about the playoffs even if your team is 7.5 games under .500.
