Saquon Barkley ran himself into a spot of trouble, then managed to hurdle out of it.
The Eagles running back was explaining last week what was so different about the team that had rattled off five straight wins (and would add a sixth Thursday night against Washington) from the one that started 2-2. The positioning of a Week 5 bye was crucial, Barkley said. With many Eagles starters, including quarterback Jalen Hurts, not playing in the preseason, that four-game stretch became a de factor preseason, a way to ready for the rigors of a long season, even if they counted in the standings.
“We kind of treated it like the preseason games, to be honest,” Barkley said. “That was kind of the mindset. We were like, all right, we’re done with preseason, now let’s go get things shaking.”
The quote didn’t sit well with a portion of the Eagles’ fanbase that derives what some might deem an unhealthy percentage of its mental and emotional well-being from 17 games played by men they will never meet. But six wins later, the struggles against the NFC South to open the season seem mighty distant from the summit of the NFC East.
It may also offer some solace for the predicament the 76ers find themselves in now.
Things around 76ers land are not good right now, even as the “days since a columnist confrontation” counter ticks steadily upward. Things are 2-10 bad. They’re still-waiting-on-a-regulation-win bad. They’re bad enough that Jared McCain is the runaway feel-good story in an Ish Smith kind of way.
Joel Embiid has played two games, Paul George six, Tyrese Maxey seven, the trio not yet on the court simultaneously. Many of the presumed offseason upgrades – looking at you, Eric Gordon – have underwhelmed at best and are flatlining at worst.
And yet … if the alarm bells ringing for an on-paper well-built Eagles team 25 percent of the way through their season proved premature, then isn’t it possible that that sirens clanging 15 percent of the way through a 76ers’ season that seemed well-conceived could prove ignorable?
Certainly there are differences. The 76ers are closer to the equivalent of an 0-4 Eagles start than a .500 opening. The competition in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, where everyone is fighting for second place behind the reigning champion Celtics, is different than an NFC in which there may only be one or two contenders and certainly distinct from an NFC East propped up by two putrid teams.
The 76ers’ plan coming into the season, load management aside, was sound, so long as their stars played like stars. George has looked fine, accounting for some rust coming off a knee injury incurred in the preseason. Maxey was affected by having to shoulder a disproportionate load of the offense early on without George and Embiid. It would be unfair to judge him by that standard, and there are no indications that his steady upward trajectory as an All-Star is reversing. Embiid is, whatever you may think about him, a transcendent talent and one of the best big men of his generation. The team is deeper than it has been in several incarnations, with a bona fide second unit that may eventually get to play that role, actual depth at center, defensive bite and better rebounding.
It should work. Just like Hurts and Barkley and all the Eagles pieces should’ve worked over the first four games of the season but didn’t.
Time is a nonfungible factor. The Eagles needed time to adapt to two new coordinators, to let two rookie defensive backs and a slew of young defensive contributors grow into a new scheme, to carve a new identity among the recently dominant offensive line in the absence of Hall of Famer Jason Kelce.
The 76ers need time, too – in year two of coach Nick Nurse’s tenure, with George’s arrival, with the fact that only Maxey, Embiid and Kelly Oubre were on the roster on opening night in 2023. Everything was going to start at zero this year, then when George went down and Embiid’s load management plan played out, it went back even further.
Seventy games remain in the 76ers’ season, starting Monday night in Miami. While they’re 11 games back of still unbeaten Cleveland, they are five games out of third place, held by an Orlando team that they let off the hook in Florida Friday night. There’s no readymade bye week as in the NFL, but there will be a respite in mid-December, should they miss the NBA Cup finals, with two games over 11 days among the also-rans of the competition.
That will fall just after the season’s quarter pole. It may still be too early to be sure what to make of this team, but the trendlines will be suggestive. If they’re still nosediving as at the moment, or if more injuries crop up, then it’ll be a time for panic to start creeping in.
But the 76ers were 31-8 with Embiid in the lineup in 2023-24 and 29-7 with Maxey. Add in George and there’s every reason to believe that kind of form can be replicated. The onus will be on three stars – two bound for the Hall of Fame, one building toward that direction – to figure things out.
Then we’ll see if the vibes around the 76ers feel more like what the Eagles are enjoying now.
Contact Matthew De George at [email protected].
