At times, it feels like the Sixers are doomed, but do they actually have the worst outlook of any team in the Eastern Conference?
On a recent episode of The Zach Lowe Show, the host and his guest Wosny Lambre went through an interesting thought experiment in which they ranked the team’s in the Eastern Conference based on who has the best outlook over the next five years or so.
It’s certainly not a shock that the Sixers showed up in the bottom of the list, but Lambre went even further. He proclaimed that Philadelphia is the worst situation going forward and from his tone, he doesn’t think it’s particularly close.
“They’re done, they’re finished! Stick a fork in them! I’d rather be every single other team in the Eastern Conference for the foreseeable future than the Philadelphia 76ers.”
Now I’m not going to say that it’s a good outlook, or even disagree with Lambre’s reasoning for putting the Sixers there. The Joel Embiid and Paul George contracts look really bad without any sign of relief any time soon.
Though as Lowe went on to point out, the Sixers are still in possession of Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain and the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 draft. Having one All-Star still reaching his prime with the ability to develop another one or two gives the franchise something to work with. Even if they can’t make the pieces fit, there are pieces to work with and avenues to make changes.
So I decided to look at the rest of the conference and evaluate how many situations are worse than the Sixers’ in the near future. I also decided to stay in the Eastern Conference, but still want to point out that the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz are also in worse positions than Philadelphia.
Honorable mention: Milwaukee Bucks
This was tough to place, and perhaps by the end of the summer they should just have a place on this list. The situation with Giannis Antetokounmpo is hard to predict. If I had to put money on it, I’d bet that he doesn’t change teams this summer, but I’m not super confident in that.
Even if he stays, the Bucks have almost no avenues to get better around him. They traded up all the last of their assets to pair him with Damian Lillard, who will turn 35 this summer and will likely miss all of next season rehabbing a torn achilles. It’ll cost them more if they want to keep trying with this group as Brook Lopez is a free agent this summer.
The one advantage they have is Antetokounmpo can play basketball on a consistent basis compared to two of the Sixers’ stars. Admittedly, that is a fairly consequential advantage. The only thing more depressing though than having an MVP unable to stay on the court is having an MVP and still not being able to win more than one playoff game. At least they have a top-15 coach of all time to right the ship.
Chicago Bulls
This is a team that has fully embraced the purgatory of mediocrity that the Bucks are quickly falling into. Even after they finally decided to blow things up by trading away Zach Lavine, the Bulls once again found themselves in the play-in tournament.
They may actually have something to get excited about after a strong rookie season from Matas Buzelis, but it’s not like he is a game-changing talent. A big reason the Bulls find themselves on this list is that all signs point to them being ready to hand an extension to Josh Giddey that will pay him over $30 million dollars a year.
Their roster is finally bad enough that they could go into an all-out rebuild, and yet they’re prepared to give a ton of money to a player who just isn’t that good. Perhaps Giddey will hit another game-winner next season that will cost them the No. 1 overall pick.
Washington Wizards
This is a good example of being lucky at the wrong time. Washington has been in the lottery each of the last four years, but has only come away with a top-four pick once. That was in the 2024 draft, widely accepted as one of the weakest classes in recent memory.
They came away with Alex Sarr, who may turn out to be an adequate big man. He averaged 13 points and 1.5 blocks per game in his rookie season. They might have gotten a nice player in Bilal Coulibaly in the prior year’s draft as well. This is a franchise in desperate need of a cornerstone though. Someone they can truly call a building block.
They don’t have any big time money tied down to aging stars like the Sixers do, but they also don’t have anyone on the roster with as much star potential as Maxey or McCain. Spending year after year winning 20 games hoping the ping pong balls will be kind has to get demoralizing when it has yet to pay off.
Charlotte Hornets
The only thing worse than having no players on the roster to build on, is finding those types of players and still being terrible. The Hornets have hit on two top-five picks this decade, landing LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, and they’re still no closer to competing than before.
Health is a big factor here. Forty-seven games of Ball was the most he’s played in three seasons. Miller missed nearly all of last season after being shut down with a wrist injury in January. There still is enough of a sample size to show Ball can put up gaudy numbers without it translating to wins.
As disastrous as this past Sixers’ season was, the Hornets still couldn’t beat them. Charlotte accounted for 16% of the Sixers’ wins last season. So no, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Philadelphia moving forward — far from it actually. It’s fair to say though that it definitely could be worse.