The Eastern Conference is as open as it has ever been. Any discussion about the Sixers’ offseason needs to start there. It’s a good thing. A great thing, really. Desperation rarely leads to good decision making. The Sixers have an opportunity to make some immensely consequential decisions this offseason. Things are not nearly as desperate as they seem.
Here’s the reality: We are adjusting to a post-LeBron world. Maybe not the NBA in general, but the Eastern Conference for sure. It isn’t a coincidence that the closest the Sixers have come to a conference finals during the Joel Embiid era came in 2019. That was the first year in a decade-plus that an Eastern Conference contender did not have to contend with a team that included LeBron James. The previous eight conference titles had gone to the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Miami Heat.
The only difference between them from one year to the next was which team happened to be built around the greatest player of his generation. Think about that. For eight straight years, the question every team asked itself after every unsuccessful season was the same. How do we build a roster that can beat LeBron?
