Adam Silver owes Masai Ujiri a thank-you letter. He should accompany it with a hefty donation to the Toronto Raptors general manager’s Giants of Africa Foundation.
And while he’s at it he should arrive at James Dolan’s door with some flowers and a vintage guitar for the wannabe rock-and-roller and owner of the New York Knicks.
The reason the NBA commissioner should be sending thanks is because of the two teams on the floor at the ACC Sunday night.
One team represents truth and light. The other was the Philadelphia 76ers.
The contest between the Eastern Conference leading Toronto Raptors and the scourge of the NBA unfolded exactly as anyone would have expected: The 76ers (0-7) never had a chance in a game the Raptors won 120-88 – the 76ers scored the game’s first basket and never led again.
Why does Silver owe the Raptors a big thank you?
Because they are in first place in the Eastern Conference with a 6-1 record, the best in franchise history.
They are proof that you can build a winning NBA team without selecting a superstar at the top of the draft; that superstar calibre players like Kyle Lowry can be plucked from the roster of other teams in trades. They are proof that a winning culture and continuity matter.
Sunday night began what should be one of the best weeks in recent Raptors history. All three games will be televised nationally in the U.S. culminating with Thursday night’s showdown with the Chicago Bulls — the Raptors first appearance on the signature Thursday night broadcast in more than a decade.
The Raptors are proof that winning doesn’t require losing.
This makes them the perfect contrast to the 76ers who, much to the shame of Silver and the NBA, have embraced not winning as the best way to win big.
This year marks year two of Philadelphia general manager Sam Hinkie’s plan to be the worst team possible and then score at the draft. Last season they went 19-63 and this off-season they traded Thaddeus Young, their best returning player. Twice in a row they’ve drafted players – Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid – who were injured and wouldn’t play as a rookies. Another top pick Dario Saric, will be stashed in Europe until its safe to cross the Atlantic. Their starting lineup last night featured one first-round pick and four undrafted free agents.
The result is a team that has no chance or expectation of winning, leaving their head coach, Brett Brown, sounding like the parent on the bench of an over-matched minor soccer team who resorts to counting passes completed at halftime rather than the score as a way to track progress.
“You have a bunch of 20 year olds who have spent maybe a year or two in college … it’s a challenge,” Brown said. “You try to convince them that it will pay off, it will add up, that you are doing this for a reason. I don’t want them to get beat down with the win and loss column.”
It’s a legitimate concern. I talked to Sixers guard Alexey Shved, who has been playing professional basketball since he was 16. What was the longest losing streak he’d ever experienced in basketball? “This is it,” he said.
Who knows how big it will be by the time this season is done.
The 76ers have only played seven games but small sample size or not, it seems pretty predictive of their short-term potential.
The last time the 76ers started a season this badly they went 0-15 to start the 72-73 season and finished 9-73, the worst single-season record in the NBA history. It is the only bit of NBA history that is in reach for this group.
The biggest concern of Silver and the NBA is that the 76ers’ scorched earth approach to losing eventually works and that their collection of elite, top-of-the-draft talents will win and win big, which is obviously Philadelphia’s goal even if they seem at the moment like the Bruno Caboclo of franchises: two years away from being two years away.
But what will Silver do after a blueprint of systematic, purposeful, long-term losing proves a path to championship heights?
The fear is there.
So blatant is the 76ers attempt to subvert all that sports is about that one of the orders of business at the recent NBA Board of Governors meeting was to change the draft lottery so that teams would be less tempted to tank a season to in order to be in position to draft the next Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant or LeBron James; the kind of generational talents that quickly turn also-rans into contenders and are almost always only available to teams picking in the top-three of the draft, and usually only first overall.
The motion failed to pass for two reasons: Changing the draft was thought to be a potential overreaction to the 76ers’ multi-year approach to tanking, and teams wanted to preserve the chance to tank for No. 1 when it suits them. They just don’t want to make a habit of it.
The Raptors are Silver’s handy exhibit that teams don‘t have to go all in on losing to have a chance at winning. Ujiri’s commitment to continuity and incremental change is proof that success doesn’t always have to look the same.
The Raptors’ dirty little secret was that they were going to be one of the tankers last season with an eye toward positioning themselves for a shot at No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins. A year ago Toronto was 3-4 after seven games, on its way to a 7-13 start. The Rudy Gay trade was the beginning of what was supposed to be the great dismantling. Lowry was next out the door until Dolan nixed the deal that would have sent Toronto’s current cornerstone to New York.
The Raptors, Ujiri and Silver will forever be grateful to Dolan as a result.
With Lowry in the fold and bolstered by the bench depth the Gay deal returned from Sacramento, the Raptors got on a roll that is showing no signs of slowing. They are 47-22 in their last 69 regular-season games since the deal, and the best seems yet to come.
It is a wonderful thing for a franchise that can count six playoff appearances in 20 seasons. It may not be exactly by design, but Silver can only be happy about the Raptors’ good fortune as he looks at Philadelphia and how ugly a grand plan can get.