Thoughts on Paul George, Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz (?) as the Sixers Start the Home Stretch
MOC gets reflective about the legacies of three Sixers past and present.
The Sixers are back! Did you miss them?
Well, they haven’t been gone entirely, but injuries, trades, and off-court suspensions have left them a shell of themselves for nearly the past two months. With Paul George back from his suspension and Joel Embiid returning from his 13-game injury absence, we are finally once again seeing something resembling what you all would consider to be The 2026 Sixers. Embiid’s 35 point night along with PG’s 28 in a resounding win against Chicago Wednesday night was a great refresher on what this team can look like when mostly healthy.
In case you (understandably) tuned out in the time that the stars were gone, the Sixers held down the fort pretty well. They went a respectable 13-12 over the PG suspension, which has left them still firmly in the mix for a playoff / play-in spot. They are currently sitting at seventh with no more than a game of space in either direction in the standings.
Anyway, let’s get to some big picture thoughts as the regular season winds down — plus a very necessary reflection on Markelle Fultz.
Paul George, is there any boat in you?
With PG returning to the court after his 25 game suspension, I thought it might be a good idea to zoom out a bit and discuss the perception of him and his Sixers tenure.
When Paul George signed with the Sixers, one could have easily predicted that he would have become somewhat of a background character in the minds of Sixers and NBA fans in general – his mild-mannered, non-controversial personality combined with his extremely malleable game and a willingness to be the third banana made it somewhat inevitable.
But I’ve got to say, I do find the ratio of how pathetic his Sixers tenure has been vs. the amount of criticism he’s received to be a bit out of whack. Man, this has been one of the saddest stints that any great NBA player has ever had, and you almost never hear it spoken about that way.
Last year, Bleacher Report ranked their Top 100 NBA players of all time, and George came in at 78th. Of all the players in George’s vicinity, give or take 10 spots, I’m not sure you could find a single one with a stint as truly sad as his Sixers tenure on their résumé – talking and behaving like he’s still in his prime while making a max salary, but playing in only half the games, at a performance level equal to about half the value of his salary. Not to mention the mild but “this could only happen to him” off-court stuff — getting caught in traffic at an Eagles parade; letting out a disgusted “hell naw!” when asked by streamer Speed if he was from Philadelphia; getting suspended 25 games for an undisclosed, non-PED substance. Just a bizarre comedy of errors combined with extremely underwhelming play on the court.
And that makes the situation that he’s in now much more interesting. He’s coming off of a two-month, non-injured rest. He still has the ability to transform games on the defensive end and occasionally go off for 30 points. A 2-3 week heater for PG in April could legitimately lead to the best playoff series win the Sixers would have on their résumé for this entire era. He has a chance to lock in for a month and change the perception of his Sixers tenure from a complete and utter joke to a very respectable and fondly remembered stretch.
My only question is if he has the willpower to do it. Does he even care? If he goes down as a universally negatively perceived Sixer and becomes perceived as irredeemably washed by the entire league, would it even bother him? Would he be somewhat happy about it, given that it’d make him more likely to be traded? As the famous Ricky voicemailer once asked, is there any boat in his gut?
I don’t know, to be honest. I think PG is kind of a loser – I said as much before they signed him – but he certainly has had some very respectable playoff runs in the past, along with some very bad ones. If he’s got any motivation left whatsoever to shift the perception of him in this town and elsewhere, we’re gonna have to see some borderline legendary shit over the next month or so out of him.
If there’s one positive thing to look forward to the rest of this season, I’d say it’s that we have a high probability of the Sixers being mostly healthy and playing meaningful basketball in April. If nothing else, we will get to see what these guys are really made of and whether they were ever worth investing our energy into.
Joel Embiid discourse
There really is no point in trying to have a good-faith discussion about Joel Embiid with anyone these days. I often debate whether or not to even weigh in; everyone is completely dug in at this point and there is no desire for anyone to change their mind. As a self-avowed Embiid centrist, I so often feel as though there is no one else sharing my ideological perspective on him.
A couple weeks ago, a viral tweet went around about how Embiid’s total number of missed games (then 485) was equal to his number of games played since entering the league. And naturally, like every time a fancy new “Embiid bad” stat drops, the haters ate it up.
And yes, he is the most injury-prone star of his generation. No question. I suppose my only question is why all of the discussion around this feels so mean-spirited and hate-fueled. He has been injured many times, almost all of them from bad falls, contact from opposing players, or just freak accidents. It’s not like he has been racking up non-contact soft tissue injuries year after year. Insofar as Embiid has ever been “out of shape,” it’s never been more than perhaps 5-10 percent below the conditioning standard of where you’d want him to be – and I’m not making an excuse for that! I’m merely asking where the impetus for all the hate and/or eye-rolling comes in.
Let’s instead make some attempt to discuss his career in the proper context and discuss how Embiid arrived at these numbers. 164 of those missed games came from missing two seasons at the start of his career, caused by a navicular bone injury that has outright ended the career of multiple legendary big men, including Bill Walton and Yao Ming. Practically no one thought he’d come back from that injury and have a 10-plus year career, let alone a Hall of Fame one.
He then came back and all he did was become the NBA’s all time leader in points per minute. He is one of 18 players ever to have three top two MVP finishes. He is perhaps the greatest scoring big man ever, who also happened to make two all-defense teams (which should have been more – he deserved in in 2020-21 and 2021-22).
Jonathan Kuminga fell on his knee when he was at his absolute peak and he’s never been the same. Another 126 of those missed games have come since that incident. He bounced back more than anyone expected this year and put up All-Star caliber numbers for over a month. Not quite a miracle, but a pretty cool comeback story.
And yet, around 65 percent of basketball fans look at him and go “what a loser, fuck him.” It’s insane. These people are unwell. You would think this guy was like an Andrew Bynum-level player who was wildly overhyped, became a constant malcontent, ate his way out of the league and hated basketball.
I am not saying and have never said there aren’t valid criticisms to be made of Embiid. I have made them many times! But the level of bloodlust for the guy and the attempts to remove all context for what he career has been is unlike anything I have ever seen. When future generations discover him, I predict there will be a massive shift – perhaps even an overcorrection – on Embiid. They will see the stats, the story, and the injuries, and the failures that he had in the playoffs will become more and more of faint memories. At that point, I may have to help try to swing the pendulum back to reality by reminding everyone just how bad some of those playoff performances really were.
In the meantime, I find myself bewildered by how such a large portion of present-day basketball fans look at an incredible, yet tragic career and just despise him. I promise you all, it will not age well.
Markelle Fultz is back
In case you missed it, former Sixers No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz is back in the NBA. He recently signed a 10-day contract with the Toronto Raptors after a brief stint with their G-League team.
Last week, when I saw a clip of Markelle Fultz hitting a game-winner pop up on my timeline, and a lot of thoughts came racing across my mind. First of all, even though it’s a G-League defense, that clip was still a marvel to watch. Fultz still has that insanely smooth, slippery quality off the dribble that combines elite athleticism with incredible rhythm and coordination. I don’t think there are 20 players in the league today who could execute that exact move in that exact way.
As I watched it, I thought to myself, “man, he would have been a goddamn monster if he never lost the shot.” He would have been a taller, longer, stronger, better-passing C.J. McCollum. He remains one of the best guard prospects I have ever watched.
And as I’m thinking about all of this, another thought occurs to me. How do we not talk about Markelle Fultz every single day? How has any Sixers fan or person with knowledge of the situation moved past it? How are we not overcome with dread with the realization of how different life would be if Fultz had never lost the jumper?
Fultz self-destructing was really the original sin that sent this entire thing careening into a perpetual cycle of risky gambles – you could easily argue that none of the Butler, Tobias, Horford, Harden, or Paul George acquisitions occur if Fultz just meets expectations.
And what if he was better than expectations? If he really pops as a rookie, do they make the Finals as early as 2018? It might sound ridiculous, but think about how much the Celtics series that year changed when T.J. freaking McConnell entered the starting lineup. If the Sixers have normal guard play, they have a chance against that Celtics team.
With Fultz being a good, normal, developing young prospect who fills the huge void they had at self-creation on the perimeter, there is no desperate cycle of Jimmy Butler-Tobias Harris-Al Horford moves trying to fill out the roster around Embiid and Simmons in a way that complements them – they would’ve already had it!
Robert Covington would have been a career Sixer. Dario Saric would have lived out his prime here and eventually transitioned into the backup stretch five that was promised. JJ Redick probably re-signs on one-year deals until he retires. With Fultz in the mix, why would they trade away the Mikal Bridges pick for another guard in Zhaire Smith?
Let’s pretend Simmons still blows up when he does – can you imagine what watching the Sixers would have been like from 2018-2021 with that outcome? We could have watched a Fultz-Bridges-Covington-Simmons-Embiid starting lineup, with total cap flexibility through 2019, and no missing future draft picks.
I just… I don’t know how to ever get over knowing what we missed out on. Instead, we got this never-ending cycle of mistakes that has been one desperate attempt after another to fill the void of talent and assets originally left by Fultz going sideways.
I’ll never get over it, sadly. I’m sorry for harping on it, guys. The world just needs to be reminded of what could (should!) have been. I may need to write this exact column once a year just for my own emotional well-being. We will call it Markelle Fultz Remembrance Day.
Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA. Mike’s writing is brought to you by Body Bio, supplements based on science, focusing on your gut and brain health.