Paul George believes 76ers can compete for a title in future

Paul George believes 76ers can compete for a title in future

Now that the Philadelphia 76ers’ tumultuous 2024-25 season has been put to rest, star forward Paul George has changed his tune about the team’s future outlook heading into next season and beyond.

The 76ers concluded the season losing 31 of their final 36 games, going 24-58 with a rash of injuries that plagued stars Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, George and rookie Jared McCain, among others. George, who only played 41 games in his debut season with Philadelphia, is optimistic about the team’s outlook heading into next season.

“I think with the personnel we have, I think with finding young talent [to help us],” he said. “I think we can be a team in the future that can compete for a championship.”

I was much lower on the 76ers heading into the season, but I didn’t expect them to win fewer than 25 games. Nobody did, but when your three-best players play in 15 games together, that’s what’s going to happen.

“I think we were just in a scramble all year, to be honest,” George said. “I think we were just in a scramble. One player comes in, one player goes out, and it kind of was just that cycle all season long, and I give Coach [Nick] Nurse a ton of credit for just kind of picking up pieces, literally, and trying to figure this thing out as we were going throughout the year.

“But I think again, it was just no consistency in terms of lineups, personnel and who was just on the floor in general. So again, I think past the injuries part of it, you kind of just can say it was just no consistency with just the guys being on the floor together.”

As of right now, while I think Philadelphia will be better–it’s hard to be worse–I don’t think there’s any way this team competes for a title. I’ve been wrong before, and I will be wrong again, but I don’t see it here.

There’s so much uncertainty with Embiid’s knee that it’s impossible to ignore; George isn’t getting any younger the supplementary pieces outside of Maxey and McCain are objectively bad. There’s no sugarcoating it. There were some young players who stepped up toward the end of the season–such as Justin Edwards, Guerschon Yabusele and Jared Butler–but this team is still far from contention.

A lot can change. The 76ers will almost certainly have a top-5 pick. If they land Cooper Flagg, the calculus changes. If they land Dylan Harper, the calculus changes. There are multiple franchise-altering talents. Even then, the team’s fate may still rest on the team’s two highest-paid players in Embiid and George–and their health.

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