Forget running it back. Forget about what you built to get here. “The Process” has failed, and it’s time to move on.

After the Sixers woeful loss in Game 7 to the Celtics, which was their 5th second-round exit in the last 6 seasons, the team is once again looking in the mirror to figure out what went wrong. James Harden s of his first full season as Sixer was “great”. Embiid feels that he’s “got to be better” and “can’t win with just (him) and James”. Coach Doc Rivers thought “this was the group” to get the job done.

Enough.

Your star players are supposed to show up much like the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum did, dropping over 50 points to eliminate the team that just can’t seem to get over that second round hump. Instead, James Harden failed to achieve a double digits point total, Joel Embiid looked disengaged from the jump, and others like Tobias Harris, Tyrese Maxey, and PJ Tucker could not be consistent enough to help pick up the slack.

Although Doc Rivers did a decent job with his rotations this postseason and pushed some buttons that worked (see House Jr. In game 5), he couldn’t seem to adjust to what the Celtics were throwing at his team, leading to constant breakdowns on defense. The offense looked very slow and discombobulated with careless turnovers and hesitation. With the early exit, it would be very, very hard to see Rivers being retained for another season in Philadelphia.

James Harden has a player option this summer, and I don’t think too many people would be surprised, or upset if he declined it and moved on. He did have a very good regular season but aside from 2 or 3 good games, he looked like an old man playing a young mans game in the postseason.

Tobias Harris as a max player shows just how much the organization screwed up. Aside from the obvious that Jimmy Butler is in the ECF and should have still been here over Harris , he came up extremely small when he was being counted on. He missed a few crucial layups in game 6, committed some costly fouls, and missed open looks from three when the team desperately needed him to come through.

The front office is going to be taxed with some big decisions in the near future, but one thing is certain. They need to hit the reset button.

Find a taker for Harris. Let Harden walk. And as insane as it sounds, if you can somehow get a deal that blows you away, trading Joel Embiid should not be completely off the table.

The MVP may not ever have a higher value. He provides such an important energy to this team, but as we saw in Game 7, he checks out when things get tough. More factual, is his health come playoff time. Year after year, he gets to the postseason and is either dealing with a preexisting injury or gets hurt, hampering his production when the team needs it most.

If I am the Sixers brass, I am making calls to the likes of Nick Nurse this week. I am feeling out ideas to get a younger, quicker team on the floor. I am ok with keeping guys like Melton on my bench because I know they can provide some production off the bench, but more consistent shooting would be welcomed. For instance, Georges Niang, in limited action this postseason was hard to count on as he missed some wide open shots.

The process era came to a close today. Now we have to deal with the destruction left behind by salvaging the pieces that seem worth building a new foundation on and scrapping the rest, no matter how painful that may be.