Jahlil Okafor’s recent public missteps, followed by the hiring of Jerry Colangelo to oversee the franchise, has put the Philadelphia 76ers’ prolonged rebuild back in the spotlight. Front and centre in the conversation is the criticism over their lack of leaders helping to groom their abundance of young players; their veteran-free locker room is forcing the babies to raise themselves.
It’s a decision that’s only stoked the fire, as many are quick to point out that without proper guidance, the NBA’s youngest team will never learn how to properly win. But in Philadelphia, winning won’t be a priority for the foreseeable future. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. They’re merely playing the system.
Many teams have tanked like Philadelphia is. The Sixers are just more honest—and ruthless—about it.
Following Okafor’s team-instituted two-game suspension, the Sixers suffered their largest home loss in franchise history and third largest home loss in the shot clock era. In the 119-68 loss to the Spurs, the Sixers were so putrid they went three minutes without a field goal on five separate occasions and their starting backcourt scored two points—total.
This was just a snapshot of an abysmal season in which they are last in the league in points, point differential and second-to-last in field goal percentage.
On the same day as that brutal Spurs loss came the report that Colangelo would be named Chairman of Basketball Operations. The rumour is that other owners complained to NBA commissioner Adam Silver about the dumpster fire that is the Sixers, and the Silver stepped in and brokered a deal to have Colangelo, who has done great work with the USA national team, join the franchise to give them some credibility.
However, the Sixers don’t need saving. They need patience and persistence, to let “the process” unfold. This route might be wrong, but we won’t know until it plays out.
The Raptors use “We the North,” the champion Warriors use “Strength in Numbers” and, true to form, Philadelphia’s rallying cry is “Trust the Process.”
So what is “the process”, exactly? Essentially, the plan is to intentionally bottom out for years in the hopes of accumulating top-end draft picks and hitting a home run with at least one or two, providing young star power to build around.
The reason more teams don’t use such a radical strategy is that most organizations can’t stomach being in the wilderness for this long. Not many owners want to be linked to losing. For most, it’s a source of embarrassment. For Sixers owner Josh Harris—as complicit in the plan as GM Sam Hinkie, though Hinkie gets the lion’s share of the blame—it’s become accepted. Long-term pain for longer-term gain.
Yet, despite what you may have read, the Sixers aren’t extorting their fans to watch sub par talent during their rebuild. Instead, they are discounting the experience while they restructure. Their beer costs more than the cheapest tickets to get in the building and you can sit courtside for just $90.
What’s more, the team that takes the floor plays hard. They lack talent, not effort, and that’s a critical distinction.
The optics certainly don’t help— tanking is perceived as a lazy way to build a team. But in criticizing the Sixers, people are addressing the symptoms and not the illness. The symptoms are tanking. The illness is that if you don’t have one of the top five players in the NBA you have virtually no shot of winning. Look at the players who have won this era: Curry, James, Duncan, Bryant, O’Neal, Wade, Nowitzki. They were all top talents when they lifted the trophy. Couple that with the fact that the draft lottery system incentivizes losing and you’ve really left teams like Philadelphia no choice.
The other owners should be blaming themselves. They created this monster. The owners shot down lottery reform and restricting player movement. It is hypocritical for them to complain now. Revenue sharing, salary caps and entry drafts make the NBA a socialist environment. It promotes parity and discourages dominance. To be dominant you need to find ways to circumvent the structured system. One way is by buying the top talent via free agency like Miami did en route to its last two championships. However, that route is not cost effective, and not guaranteed to succeed. Just look at the Brooklyn Nets.
And so the Sixers are trying to build a super team through the draft, like the Oklahoma City Thunder. Something both the Philadelphia and Oklahoma City markets have in common is they don’t have the allure for free agents like Miami, LA, Boston, Chicago, or New York do. It’s no coincidence the majority of the league’s championships have been won in those cities.
The system is set up such that you need to draft multiple talented players and keep them. New Orleans drafted Anthony Davis and he changed their franchise landscape, but now are already too good to draft elite players to put around him. Now they are stuck with the majority of the league in mediocrity with a frustrated superstar.
The Sixers have a younger, forward thinking ownership group. Why must they pursue success the same route as everyone else? The very economics of competition mean that if you are doing the same thing as everyone else you are not creating an advantage.
By contrast to the NBA, European soccer is capitalist. Rebuilding teams sell their star players all the time. So why do we care that the Sixers gave away former Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams and former all-star J’rue Holiday for draft picks? They determined those guys aren’t starters on a championship team, and most people would agree. The Sixers, you see, are mining for excellence. They are willing to be bad long enough to acquire enough picks to get lucky. If you stay at a craps table long enough, the law of averages says eventually you’ll win.
But luck plays a major role, too. And so far they’ve been incredibly unlucky, given where they’ve been slotted in the draft. Over the last two seasons they just missed out on Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony-Towns, two superstar building blocks for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
You can argue that Hinkie shouldn’t have drafted Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel, and Jahlil Okafor— three straight big men, two of whom (Noel and Embiid) were hurt—but that’s an argument against his scouting, not his plan.
In the criticism of the Sixers, people are conflating the two when they are separate issues. Even if you let Jerry Colangelo draft the players from here on out, the decision to tank in order to improve that draft position would still be a sound one with merit.
Hinkie is characterized as throwing away draft picks but in hindsight which of his major decisions do you disagree with?
Joel Embiid, selected third by Philadelphia, would have been the number 1 overall pick if healthy. The fact that he fell to the Sixers was thought to be great value at the time. If Hinkie passed on him due to health concerns, Embiid wouldn’t have fallen much further.
One of the best draft-day moves in recent memory featured Hinkie using the 10th pick to draft Elfrid Payton and then trade him to Orlando for Dario Saric and a 2017 first-round pick. Saric has looked good overseas and will make an immediate impact when he comes to North America.
The Sixers bamboozling the Kings out of shooter Nik Stauskas, a top-10 protected pick, and the right to swap first-round picks in 2016 and 2017 might be the best trade of the year. The ability to swap picks with the Kings for the next two years is proof positive they don’t think they’ll be bad for too much longer.
Next year they could have two top-five picks and another in the 20’s in the 2016 draft. Assuming they get the Lakers top three protected pick and get luck in the draft, their opening day roster could be quickly among the best in the East.
Factoring in potential 2016 draftees, their roster heading into next season could include: Okafor, Noel, Embiid, Saric, Stauskas, Ben Simmons, and Jamal Murray.
This is entirely hypothetical, sure. But it’s also entirely plausible. Look at those names. Still want to pump the brakes and blow up the train?
You don’t have to trust the process. You don’t have to respect the decision-maker at the helm. But you should at least wait until the plan is finished before casting judgment. Or better yet, present an alternative idea, one that’s plausible given the current NBA infrastructure.
Sam Hinkie and Josh Harris didn’t invent tanking, or the collective bargaining agreement. They are just trying to utilize both better than anyone has before. I can’t hate on those daring to be great, even if it means daring to be atrocious first.