Ron Harper says 76ers should shut down Joel Embiid and possibly Paul George: ‘TANK’

Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

With the Philadelphia 76ers owning a record well below the .500 mark 58 games through the 2024-25 campaign, the team is staring down the barrel of a failed season.

The 76ers have a lengthy playoff streak going, as the squad has qualified for the playoffs in each of the past seven seasons. But that streak is in great jeopardy right now with Philadelphia currently sitting as the No. 12 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Former NBA guard Ron Harper thinks that with all that’s gone wrong for the 76ers this season, the team should shut down big man Joel Embiid and maybe even forward Paul George and tank for a chance at a high draft pick.

Philly will only be in control of its own 2025 first-round pick if the pick lands in the top six of the draft order. If it falls outside of the top six, it will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

George agreed to a very lucrative four-year deal with the 76ers last summer but hasn’t quite found his footing with his new team just yet. Through 39 games played, he’s averaging just 16.4 points per game, his lowest mark in a season since his sophomore NBA campaign (excluding his 2014-15 season in which he appeared in just six games).

He’s looked like a husk of the player he was with the Los Angeles Clippers just one season ago. In the 2023-24 campaign, he averaged 22.6 points per game while shooting 41.3 percent from deep and earned an All-Star nod.

As for Embiid, he simply hasn’t been available consistently for the 76ers. He’s logged under 20 appearances with the team so far this season.

However, the 76ers haven’t played all that well even with Embiid in the lineup. Philadelphia has a record of 8-11 with him on the floor and recently lost to a lowly Brooklyn Nets team with him out there.

Maybe if the 76ers were to shut down Embiid and George, they’d have a real chance at drafting a franchise-altering prospect such as Duke University star Cooper Flagg. Flagg has shown an impressive two-way skill set across 28 games played with the Blue Devils so far. He’s averaging 19.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks per contest.

That may be a pipe dream, but merely having a first-round pick to make would be a notable development for the 76ers.