Embiid, Yabusele, and the Sixers’ calculated collapse in Philadelphia

The 2024–25 NBA season, as ever, has produced its fair share of failures. Some came down to poor planning, others to a brutal run of injuries – and a few to a perfect storm of both. The Suns were a full-blown disaster, a case study in mismanagement. The Pelicans could blame injuries. The Sixers? They offered the full package. Like the Suns, they’ve delivered one of the most spectacular meltdowns in recent NBA memory.

The hope and fall of the Sixers in 2025

With the benefit of hindsight, Daryl Morey’s big gamble – the pivotal season to finally break Joel Embiid’s glass ceiling – never looked quite right. Embiid, the MVP and seven-time All-Star who has still never played in an Eastern Conference Final, was surrounded by veterans like Eric Gordon, Kyle Lowry and Andre Drummond, none of whom had much left in the tank. There were reasons for cautious optimism among the role players – Kelly Oubre, Guerschon Yabusele, and a promising group of young players including Adem Bona, Justin Edwards and especially Jared McCain, who was storming toward Rookie of the Year contention until a season-ending injury struck. The front office also made a sharp February move, swapping a struggling Caleb Martin for rising prospect Quentin Grimes – a player who could become key if Morey finds a way to keep him, Yabusele and Oubre around.

But the central issue – the one that defined the Sixers’ collapse – lay in their so-called Big Three: Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey. Less than two years removed from his MVP campaign, Embiid’s season was derailed by a lingering knee injury. He managed just 19 games, looking nothing like his usual self. With him on the floor, the team went 8–11 – a 42% win rate, a steep drop from the seven straight years above 65% when he played. Tensions grew with the team over whether to play through the pain or undergo surgery. Ultimately, he ended up under the knife. It’s unclear whether the damage to his body – and perhaps to his relationship with the franchise – is irreversible.

Maxey, in his first season on a star-level contract, played 52 games and had flashes of brilliance mixed with inconsistency. His outside shooting suffered and he looked unsettled in a rotation that never quite found its rhythm. The biggest bet, though, was Paul George. Signed in free agency, he managed just 41 games and delivered a miserable season – sluggish physically and uninspired mentally. On a clear downward slope. And the worst part? All three are locked in through 2028, with significant guaranteed money.

The impact of the end of Embiid

On March 2, the Sixers confirmed the worst-kept secret of the season: Embiid was done for the year. At 21–38, the idea of a heroic late-season playoff surge was dead and buried. They finished 24–58, with just five wins in their final 36 games. The breaking point had come at 19–27 – their last gasp, on January 30.

From then on, there was only one plan: lose. A team that once dreamed of challenging the Celtics devolved into full-on tanking mode, forced to consider the brutal possibility that Embiid’s prime may already be over. A disaster – but one that demanded cold, practical thinking.

Draft save for Sixers

With the season in ruins, the only salvageable piece was the 2025 draft. It’s expected to be one of the most talent-rich in years, and Philadelphia needed to aim high – or, more accurately, finish low. Their first-round pick comes with a top-6 protection. That means if they land a selection between first and sixth in the May 12 lottery in Chicago, they keep it. From seventh on, it goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The risk was real: finishing poorly but not quite poorly enough could hand a top-10 pick to the regular season’s best team and leave the Sixers with nothing after a nightmare campaign. Embiid, George and Maxey appeared together in just 15 games – and even that trio finished with a losing record (7–8).

So the Sixers doubled down and turned bad into worse. With the fifth-worst record in the league, they now hold a 64% chance of landing a top-6 pick and securing access to one of the draft’s elite prospects. But there’s still a 34% chance they lose the pick to OKC. The most statistically likely result is seventh overall (26.7%) – just outside the safety zone – followed by sixth (19.6%). Their odds for a top-four pick hover around 10.5%, including the coveted No. 1 spot, which would bring them the college basketball sensation Cooper Flagg.

It’s all or nothing now. If the Sixers keep their pick, they’ll owe OKC their 2026 first-rounder instead, with lighter protections (top-4). The same applies in 2027. But 2028 gets trickier – the Brooklyn Nets are in play, following the James Harden trade to Philadelphia.

The Horford decision

All of this started with one of Morey’s first big moves as GM: sending Al Horford to OKC to shed his contract after the failed experiment of pairing the veteran center with Embiid. Horford had signed a four-year, $97 million deal in 2019 but played just 67 games for the franchise.

He was traded in December 2020 as a salary dump – yet five years later, at 38, he’s become a crucial figure for the 2024 champion Celtics, who could well repeat it in 2025.

A disastrous move that still haunts the Sixers – and one that makes this year’s draft lottery a nerve-wracking, high-stakes affair. Their final stretch of the season was pitiful, even shameful – but entirely calculated. The end justifies the means, right?

A season of extremes for Yabusele

When Guerschon Yabusele left Real Madrid to return to the NBA with Philadelphia, he expected to join a team competing at the top of the Eastern Conference. Instead, he found himself stuck in the misery of a team deep in tanking mode. Still, on a personal level, it paid off: he’s proven he belongs in the best league in the world.

Yabusele signed a minimum one-year deal to prove himself, and the Sixers are now exploring a contract extension to reward the risk he took leaving Europe. In an interview with Tolis Kotzias for SDNA, Yabusele reflected on the season: “It went very well. The team finished far below expectations, but on a personal level I felt great. I’m happy to be here, playing my game, getting big minutes and proving I belong.”

The power forward has no doubts about which competition is stronger. “The NBA, no question.” Nor does he see himself returning to Europe any time soon: “That’s not the plan for next season. I want to find another contract in the NBA, I’m not going to lie. But I’m always keeping an eye on the EuroLeague, just to see how things are going. For example, with Paris Basketball – how well they’ve done and how hard they compete every night.” As for the next EuroLeague champion, his pick is clear: “Real Madrid, for sure.”

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