Wow @ Philly having won 6 of their last 7 with Embiid.
I don't think you'll find a single Philly fan at this point who wouldn't say the 3 brief tank years were worth it.
They haven't even suited up Simmons yet. I gotta say the biggest benefit of having SImmons miss these last few months are all of the developmental minutes they got to give Dario Saric. He had a great game tonight. Coming into the season people expected him to get something like 8-10 minutes off the bench as he adjusted to the NBA, but instead he was force-fed 24 mpg and he seems to have made the most of it.
It's actually kind of insane to talk about, but Embiid has been saying he and the team are trying to make the playoffs this season. It sounds incredibly laughable at first. But considering superstars are gonna superstar and they are 6-1 in their last 7... Who knows. I'd say it's SUPER unlikely, but it could actually happen if Embiid keeps this up and Simmons can make an impact right away.
They are 13-26. That's 13 games under .500. With 43 games left, as long as they win 2 games to every 1 loss, they will end up going 28-15 over the remainder of the season and finish with a .500 record (41-41)... Which might actually be 8th seed this season (8th best team currently has a .500 record).
It might seem far-fetched, but the Celtics were actually in mid-tank two seasons ago when suddenly they started rallying. They had an identical 13-26 record (13 games under .500) and end up finishing 40-42 and getting a playoff seed.
They are in the exact same position Boston was in when they turned it around. I still think those guys are way too young and it's going to impossible with Embiid missing back-to-backs... but maybe.
