CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers went into the 2024-25 season with a plan.
Joel Embiid would eschew training camp and show up for games deemed to matter.
He and Paul George would write off one-sixth of the season in back-to-backs they’d halve. Daryl Morey would declare a focus on “April, May, June.” The Sixers wouldn’t christen themselves championship-or-bust contenders, but their actions strongly hinted in that direction.
Whether that hubris played into the injury disaster that the season became can only remain speculation.
But 361 days later, when the 76ers reconvened in Camden to launch the follow-up to last year’s 24-58 atrocity, the messaging at least had been strengthened.
They’re powerless to do the same to the ligaments and tendons holding Embiid together.
But Friday, th