An MVP repeat for Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey’s All-Star debut and more 2024 Sixers resolutions

Nico Batum greeted Tuesday’s post-shootaround media scrum with a “happy new year,” then downplayed the actual significance of the calendar flipping during the middle of the NBA season.

“Nothing changes,” the 76ers’ veteran forward said. “It’s the same stuff as yesterday, or two days ago.”

Still, 2024 is shaping up to be a critical year for the Sixers. They have a 23-10 record, good for third place in the Eastern Conference standings. They left the James Harden saga in 2023. They are moving into 2024 with a team anchored by reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid, rising star Tyrese Maxey, and first-year coach Nick Nurse.

So in the spirit of New Year’s, here are five Sixers resolutions (and a bonus) for the next 12 months — ranging from realistic to the loftiest of them all.

Forget that Maxey had his worst performance of the season on a premier stage, going 4-of-20 from the floor in the Sixers’ Christmas loss at the Miami Heat. It would be shocking if Maxey did not become a first-time All-Star this February, another checkpoint during an excellent ascension into a lead guard and Embiid’s partner.

Maxey is averaging career highs in scoring (25.9 points), assists (6.4) and rebounds (3.7), while shooting 45.8% from the field and 38.8% from three-point range on 19.5 attempts per game. He dropped a career-best 50 points in a November win over the Indiana Pacers, scored 42 last week at the Houston Rockets, and has reached at least 30 points in 10 of his 32 games. Tuesday against the Chicago Bulls, he surpassed 100 three-pointers faster than any Sixer in history. He’s also averaging only 1.5 turnovers per game, with the ball in his hands much more than in his first three NBA seasons.

Maxey has also rebounded nicely from his Christmas clunker, a step in illustrating he can spearhead the Sixers when Embiid is sidelined with injury. And Nurse and Embiid continue to stress that Maxey still has far more potential to reach, an intriguing possibility as the months move toward the playoffs.

In ESPN’s first straw poll, Embiid was the overwhelming favorite to become the latest repeat winner of the sport’s most prestigious individual award. And for good reason.

He is leading the league in scoring for the third consecutive season (34.8 points per game). He is averaging a career-high 6.2 assists, including 10 in Tuesday’s blowout of the Bulls. He is adding 11.8 rebounds and two blocks per game, refocusing on being an interior defensive force who also contends for player of the year on that end of the floor. And he has regularly been putting up those numbers in three quarters, with scores so lopsided that he can remain on the bench for the entire final frame.

» READ MORE: Sixers center Joel Embiid is going to miss games. The key is getting him to the playoffs healthy.

That poll, however, came out just before Embiid sustained a sprained ankle on Dec. 22. And because of a new NBA rule that requires players to appear in 65 games to be eligible for awards, Embiid can miss only 10 of the Sixers’ remaining 49 games.

If he stays healthy, though, this year’s MVP narrative tips in Embiid’s favor.

Many outsiders diminished his worthiness last spring, after the Sixers face-planted in a Game 7 playoff loss to the Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić went on to win the NBA championship. Yet voters and pundits could find Embiid more deserving this year, given the way he has kept the Sixers thriving amid and following the Harden drama while putting up even gaudier numbers.

NBA conventional wisdom states that a team needs to finish in the top 10 in offensive and defensive efficiency to be a true title contender, although the Nuggets (14th in defense, fifth in offense) and Golden State Warriors (16th in offense, second in defense) have veered from that trend in the last two seasons.

The Sixers, though, have demonstrated they are capable of finishing even better than that top-10 threshold. They entered Wednesday fourth in offensive efficiency (120.4 points per 100 possessions) and second in defensive efficiency (110 points allowed per 100 possessions), yielding the NBA’s best net rating at plus-10.4. The only other two teams in the top five in both categories are the Celtics and the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder.

» READ MORE: Q&A with Sixers assistant Bryan Gates on his long history with Nick Nurse and building a defense

The Sixers have amassed those impressive numbers with only about 60% of Nurse’s schemes installed, the coach recently estimated, although they also benefited from a soft early-December stretch against the East’s worst teams. Still, the offense has hummed with Maxey as the initiator and Embiid as the dominant-yet-versatile hub, and is at its best when the full group pushes the pace and cuts. The defense, meanwhile, has fit Nurse’s aggressive style, entering Wednesday leading the league in steals (9.1 per game) and deflections (16.8 per game).

Nitpicks of the offense could point to the Sixers’ below-average three-point attempts (32.5 per game, 22nd entering Wednesday). Nurse, however, has compared their at-the-rim and free-throw success to a football team that consistently gains yards while running up the middle.

Defensively, the Sixers’ weakness is their 15.7 fast-break points allowed, which ranked 26th in the NBA entering Wednesday. Identifying the balance between getting back on defense and crashing the offensive glass has been an early season priority for Nurse.

A new personnel wrinkle debuted Tuesday night, with Batum and Kelly Oubre Jr. both in the starting lineup against the Bulls because starting guard De’Anthony Melton was out with back soreness.

Nurse said before the game that he was curious to evaluate the look, and was pleased following the Sixers’ torrid start to build a massive lead. However, that small sample size is likely not enough to shift away from the starting group of Maxey, Embiid, Batum, Melton and Tobias Harris that entered Wednesday leading the league with a plus-34 net rating in 219 minutes.

Yet consider that one of Nurse’s options while tinkering with a roster that might be the deepest of the Embiid era but has been in flux for much of the season following the Harden trade and Oubre’s rib injury.

When the Sixers are healthy, Nurse has often deployed a 10-man rotation. Following the five starters, spots for Oubre, backup center Paul Reed, and backup point guard Patrick Beverley are mostly cemented. Robert Covington and Marcus Morris Sr. have also gotten significant minutes as versatile forwards. That leaves out players such as Danuel House Jr., Jaden Springer, and Mo Bamba, who have flashed ability in limited minutes.

Postseason rotations are already typically reduced to seven or eight players. Yet there could still be one more step to finalizing the regular-season group because …

It would be an understatement to say that how president of basketball operations Daryl Morey builds the roster in the coming months will significantly impact this championship window.

The Sixers replenished their assets in the Harden trade, with draft picks and expiring contracts to either make another deal by the Feb. 8 deadline or utilize max salary-cap space during the summer transaction window. And now, the players acquired in that trade — Batum, Covington, Morris, and KJ Martin — are eligible to be “aggregated” in a future deal for salary-matching purposes.

» READ MORE: High marks for Joel Embiid’s return, and a new-look starting lineup in win over the Bulls

Elite perimeter defender OG Anunoby and high-level reserve point guard Immanuel Quickley came off the board last week in a trade between the Toronto Raptors and the New York Knicks. Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Pascal Siakam continue to float as splashier names that could be available at the trade deadline, while Lauri Markkanen, Donovan Mitchell, and Dejounte Murray hover as dark horses. The next tier could include players such as Bojan (and Bogdan) Bogdanovic, Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso, and Gordon Hayward.

If the goal is to maintain maximum flexibility heading into this summer, however, a smaller move for a more traditional backup point guard (think Tyus Jones or Monte Morris) or center (come back, Andre Drummond?) could be more realistic for the Sixers.

Is that too lofty for a team still trying to clear the second-round hurdle, and the Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks ahead in the standings?

With their current roster construction — and past playoff struggles — the Sixers likely would not be favored in a seven-game series against either opponent. They are already 1-2 against Boston (though a Dec. 1 defeat was admirably played with a depleted roster) and lost in Milwaukee on opening night, before the Harden trade.

Some outsiders would still already put the Sixers in this season’s “contender” tier. Nurse, who won a title in his first season as Toronto’s head coach, says there is still plenty to learn about this team. But the prove-it time won’t arrive until the spring.