Why This Is the Sixers' Jigsaw Season & Zo's Season Predictions
Spike will play this game.
I didn’t quite realize what a high-wire act this season was going to be until a conversation I had with a distraught caller to our WIP show earlier this week (feel free to subscribe!).
It was immediately after the Sixers had announced that Joel Embiid wouldn’t play in the opener (or entire first week of games for that matter). It was the understandable and expected wave of people who have had enough of the Embiid experiment, and just want to move on, knowing for sure that this entire experiment isn’t going to work.
“All right fine,” I told the caller, “you win. We’ll move on from him. But what now? In what way are you positioning the team to have a better chance at a title any time soon?” He realized, like the organization already knows, there isn’t a better way. This isn’t an optimal way, but at this point, it’s the best way. It’s a true basketball Jigsaw. A true “cut off your own tongue with this rusty knife or be killed” moment.
And therein lies the framework for the set of Jigsaws the Sixers must entire to get this entire thing to work. The entire season is a complicated web of undesirable choices, that we hope will somehow lead to winning the ultimate game. We should have seen this coming over the summer.
The first Jigsaw was the acquisition of Paul George and the decision to make that Plan A for free agency. “Should the Sixers bank their entire hopes at a title on a free agent who could decide to go anywhere? And, oh by the way, the free agent is 34 years old and has been injured a lot over the last several years. And also he might not even come here. But he’s literally the best player available.”
The next Jigsaw was the Joel Embiid Olympics experience. Now, to be clear – the Sixers didn’t really have a choice here, they really had to just let Embiid do whatever he wanted. But again, not a clear decision: “Should Joel Embiid go and try to win a gold medal, surrounded by the best players in the world – from whom he may pick up better habits and relationships with other great players – but risk further damaging his obviously already-damaged knee, putting the start of the season in jeopardy?”
Now, as the season begins, they’ll face more of them. Walking on a very thin line between undesirable outcomes, stemming from undesirable choices.
Should the Sixers give PG and Embiid days off on the same day, maximizing the games they’ll play together to build chemistry – or should they give them days off apart from each other, maximizing the chance that the Sixers win more games, gain better seeding and home court advantage, and giving them a chance to figure out how to win if the other player is injured?
Should the Sixers give heavier minutes during the regular season to players like Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon, giving them a better chance to win more games – or keep them better rested for a longer playoff run?
Can the Sixers withstand the public and league pressure on resting George and Embiid constantly, even though neither of them is injured? I know we’d like to think they will not listen to everyone else, but history proves otherwise quite often. And it’s incredibly difficult for the vibes within the team to be excellent if the vibes around the team are bad.
“I… miss you,” as Doug Collins says in the Jigsaw intro. That’s not really related to anything written above, but I didn’t know how to end this and it’s stuck in my head.
ZO’S LONG-AWAITED 2024-25 SEASON PREDICTIONS
East (Top 8)
Celtics
Sixers
Knicks
Cavs
Pacers
Magic
Bucks
Heat
West (Top 8)
Wolves
Thunder
Mavericks
Grizzlies
Kings
Nuggets
Suns
Rockets
ECF
Celtics vs Sixers
Winner: Sixers in 7
WCF
Wolves vs Mavericks
Winner: Wolves in 6
NBA Finals
Sixers vs Wolves
Winner: Sixers in 6
Finals MVP : Tyrese Maxey
NBA MVP: Luka Doncic
NBA Rookie of the Year: Reed Sheppard
My reasoning/formula:
No formula, just half head & heart. I think the first step in the Sixers winning anything of value is me actually believing it. I know we’ve said this – maybe not last year but in years prior – that “they’re in good as shape as ever to win this year” now, present bone bruises and ramp-ups aside, I do think this year’s combination of depth and a sincere third star really do put them in a place to do something worthwhile this year.
Also, why the hell not? We’ve seen time and time again in this league, outside of some very clear outliers (Lakers, Bulls, Warriors runs) it really isn’t all talent-based, it’s the proper mix of health, cohesion and then talent. Whatever, just humor me. I'm trying to be positive this year!