76ers co-owner Josh Harris is way too optimistic about team’s current outlook

76ers co-owner Josh Harris is way too optimistic about team’s current outlook

From the start of the season, it’s been a disastrous season for the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Sixers lost seven of their first eight games of the season and started 3-14. While they were able to get within four games of .500 by the end of December, they have been 7-17 since the turn of the calendar with the NBA’s seventh-worst NET Rating over that span.

Yet, 76ers co-owner Josh Harris remains overly optimistic about the team’s outlook for the remainder of the season.

“When [Joel Embiid], Tyrese [Maxey], and Paul [George] are all on the court, we are a great team,” Harris said last weekend, according to Keith Pompey of The Inquirer. “So we got to keep everyone healthy. In particular, Joel is a warrior. I know he’s fighting through some stuff, and I’m really optimistic that we are going to make a playoff run now.”

At the time the comment was said, Embiid, Maxey and George played 12 games together. That was 51 games into the season. We’re now 54 games in and the trio has appeared in 13 games together. The when is part of the problem. Embiid’s dealing with an ongoing knee injury while Paul George has a steep (lower-body) injury history. How can you rely on them to stay healthy?

Philadelphia is also only 7-6 in those games; that’s a 44-win pace. That’s modest, but when at least two of those three players are on the floor, the 76ers have a minus-3.7 NET Rating, according to PBP Stats. No bueno.

As an executive, your goal is to keep your fan base optimistic and pump life into your players and coaches. He was never going to bash the team–but he also didn’t have to say that. Nobody is optimistic; most 76ers fans are still probably riding high from the Eagles winning the Super Bowl–hoping the adrenaline lasts long enough until the Philadelphia Phillies’ season begins.

The 76ers are fighting for their life to make the play-in, let alone make a deep postseason run. If they do, it will be a work of magic that only Harris predicted–nobody else. Then again, who earnestly expects this team to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in a postseason series? Even the most sunshine-pumping 76er fan couldn’t.

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