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PHILADELPHIA -- When the Philadelphia 76ers brought Paul George in on a 4-year $212 million deal in free agency, the idea was that he was going to come in and help the Sixers get over the hump and past Round 1 for the first time since 2001.
Instead, it was an injury-riddled mess. The Sixers will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2016-17 season and George had a down year hampered by first a knee issue and then a left finger issue as well as a groin injury. He played in only 41 games and his numbers were down across the board.
"Obviously, we didn’t see ourselves being 13th or whatever we are in the East," George said on Sunday. "Given personnel, but we did have a lot of unfortunate things go on throughout the year with injuries, not being able to stay healthy, but obviously being hopeful that we could be successful right away. To be honest, I think it was gonna take time for us to get to where we really wanted to get to."
It's always a challenge whenever a team puts together some serious talent like the Sixers did. It's not like these guys come together and then boom! Chemistry! It does take time. However, the Sixers just never for that talent due to injuries and all of the other issues that popped up. The goal now is for Philadelphia to get healthy and just move forward as a group.
"Obviously, you gotta be optimistic in every situation given the talent that we have," George added. "I think moving forward, hopefully, we can get healthy, work extremely hard this summer, I think it’ll be a different summer. At least for me, I’m not deciding where my future is or who I’m gonna play for in the upcoming season. I know exactly where I’m at and what I need to do this summer and kinda go from there."
At the end of the day, this was a tough season for everybody. The Sixers will come up way short of their goal and George will have to battle through the criticism as well as all of the injuries thrown his way. All of that is hard for anybody to handle.
"To be honest, it was one of the toughest seasons for me, just with a lot of adversity on the court, off the court," George added. "The injury stuff was some stuff I didn’t necessarily know I had going on until deep diving and finding out. There was other stuff I didn’t know that was going on that was causing a little limitation, which was frustrating — not being able to do things I normally could do, and then finding out the reasons why. Those things are being addressed, so that’s the positive. I think just not giving up. With all the frustration, just not giving up. Try to keep working, keep being positive, optimistic."
Coach Nick Nurse all season long had to jumble the lineups and try a bunch of different things. George gave a lot of credit to his coach for handling a bunch of different things in Philadelphia in a tumultuous 2024-25 season.
"I think we were just in scramble all year," the 9-time All-Star finished. "To be honest, I think we were just in scramble. One player comes in, one player goes out, and it kinda was just that cycle all season long and I give coach Nurse a ton of credit for just kinda picking up pieces. Literally in trying to figure things out as we were going throughout the year, but I think again, there was no consistency in terms of lineups, personnel, and who was just on the floor in general so, again, I think past the injuries, part of it—you kinda just keep saying it. There’s no consistency with just the guys being on the floor together."
All George and the Sixers can do now is move forward and hope they're healthy to make a run again in the 2025-26 season.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Paul George opens up on tough 1st Sixers season, what comes next
Continue reading...
Instead, it was an injury-riddled mess. The Sixers will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2016-17 season and George had a down year hampered by first a knee issue and then a left finger issue as well as a groin injury. He played in only 41 games and his numbers were down across the board.
"Obviously, we didn’t see ourselves being 13th or whatever we are in the East," George said on Sunday. "Given personnel, but we did have a lot of unfortunate things go on throughout the year with injuries, not being able to stay healthy, but obviously being hopeful that we could be successful right away. To be honest, I think it was gonna take time for us to get to where we really wanted to get to."
It's always a challenge whenever a team puts together some serious talent like the Sixers did. It's not like these guys come together and then boom! Chemistry! It does take time. However, the Sixers just never for that talent due to injuries and all of the other issues that popped up. The goal now is for Philadelphia to get healthy and just move forward as a group.
"Obviously, you gotta be optimistic in every situation given the talent that we have," George added. "I think moving forward, hopefully, we can get healthy, work extremely hard this summer, I think it’ll be a different summer. At least for me, I’m not deciding where my future is or who I’m gonna play for in the upcoming season. I know exactly where I’m at and what I need to do this summer and kinda go from there."
At the end of the day, this was a tough season for everybody. The Sixers will come up way short of their goal and George will have to battle through the criticism as well as all of the injuries thrown his way. All of that is hard for anybody to handle.
"To be honest, it was one of the toughest seasons for me, just with a lot of adversity on the court, off the court," George added. "The injury stuff was some stuff I didn’t necessarily know I had going on until deep diving and finding out. There was other stuff I didn’t know that was going on that was causing a little limitation, which was frustrating — not being able to do things I normally could do, and then finding out the reasons why. Those things are being addressed, so that’s the positive. I think just not giving up. With all the frustration, just not giving up. Try to keep working, keep being positive, optimistic."
Coach Nick Nurse all season long had to jumble the lineups and try a bunch of different things. George gave a lot of credit to his coach for handling a bunch of different things in Philadelphia in a tumultuous 2024-25 season.
"I think we were just in scramble all year," the 9-time All-Star finished. "To be honest, I think we were just in scramble. One player comes in, one player goes out, and it kinda was just that cycle all season long and I give coach Nurse a ton of credit for just kinda picking up pieces. Literally in trying to figure things out as we were going throughout the year, but I think again, there was no consistency in terms of lineups, personnel, and who was just on the floor in general so, again, I think past the injuries, part of it—you kinda just keep saying it. There’s no consistency with just the guys being on the floor together."
All George and the Sixers can do now is move forward and hope they're healthy to make a run again in the 2025-26 season.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Paul George opens up on tough 1st Sixers season, what comes next
Continue reading...
