The Sixers are the talk of the town these days, but for all the wrong reasons. The latest chapter of the saga featured a team meeting in which, depending on what you want to believe, Tyrese Maxey called out Joel Embiid for constantly being late to team functions, the team asked Nick Nurse to coach them harder, and Embiid said he didn’t understand what the team was trying to do on offense. The meeting may or may not have been short and those things may or may not have been said; the next wave of reports was that Embiid was upset and trying to figure out whoever leaked the details of the meeting. “Moel Embiid” is right there for the taking.

So, not great. On top of all that, Paul George suffered another left knee hyperextension and Embiid is dealing with more left knee swelling. The mushy middle of the Eastern Conference will give this team a shot to get back in the playoff chase if they can ever get healthy, but things are quickly circling the drain here. Nurse has done a speed run of the gripes management had with him in Toronto, the stars aren’t healthy and one is mad that meeting details leaked, with no real denial of the allegations of chronic lateness.

Jared McCain has been a bright spot and the Sixers might need to get unorthodox to turn this around, especially if Embiid and George are out for a serious stretch of time. That they have already promoted McCain over Kelly Oubre and Eric Gordon is a good sign, as is the fact that Guerschon Yabusele is already picking up starts at center. The Sixers aren’t going anywhere without the big guns but fantasy managers might get some interesting assets out of this as they swing wildly in the dark to try and stay afloat.

History is against them at this point. The Sixers can do it, but there’s a lot to sort out before we even get close to figuring out if they will. Just try and look for the surprise fantasy contributors as this drama machine chugs along.

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