The Philadelphia 76ers will be one of 22 teams returning to the 2019-20 NBA season at Walt Disney World in Orlando late next month.
For Philadelphia, the pre-suspended portion of the season did not paint the team in the best of lights. One star player in that of Tobias Harris is now calling them out on it.
Philadelphia 76ers star calls team out over chemistry issues
“I’ll just say, and I’ll keep it real, we haven’t had the best chemistry throughout the whole year,” Harris told ESPN’s First Take (h/t NBC Sports Philadelphia). “It took us a while to kind of get everyone together, we battled injuries from the start to the end. And right now, if we’re the sleeper, then we’re the sleeper.”
Harris isn’t wrong. There’s also a ton of different layers to this. At certain points in the season, stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid were sidelined together.
That makes it more difficult to create chemistry, especially with Harris in his first full season in Philadelphia and Al Horford having just signed the previous summer.
Even then, the Sixers have failed to live up to expectations heading into the restart of the season. It’s led to speculation that moves could be on the horizon once the campaign does come to a conclusion.
Philadelphia 76ers trade rumors
Both Simmons and Embiid have been involved in trade rumors throughout the season. The former just recently signed a rookie-level max extension with the team. Though, head coach Brett Brown has also called Simmons out over an inability to expand his game on offense.
As it relates to Embiid, injury issues and drama with the Sixers’ fan base has led to speculation that he could be on his way out. Heck, Philadelphia general manager Elton Brand previously wouldn’t commit to retaining Brown throughout the remainder of the season.
While that took a back seat with the campaign being suspended, Browns’ future with the organization is up in the air.
All of this comes with Philadelphia likely being a sleeper once the season resumes. Despite their struggles, the Sixers boast a 39-26 record and are currently the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.