The Philadelphia 76ers are bringing back memories that no one in this basketball town want to relive.
Back in 1973, this NBA franchise set new standards for incompetence, stumbling through a 9-73 season that was the worst in league history.
This season, we may be going back to the future.
Heading into this week, the Sixers were the only team without a win during the regular season. They are constantly fighting off speculation they are deliberately tanking the season in order to rebuild from ground zero with lottery picks.
The Sixers are preaching patience but their declining fan base is getting antsy about GM Sam Hinkie’s grand plan to trade marketable players for future draft picks. The Sixers had two in both the 2013 and 2014 draft. They will have two more in 2015 plus three second round picks. Hinkle has made 19 trades since he was hired in 2013.
The Sixers traded away starters Evan Turner, Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes and Jrue Holiday to create cap space and then rolled the dice in the draft.
Only one of their lottery picks– 23-year old, 2013 Rookie of the Year guard Michael Carter-Williams — has gotten any meaningful playing time, starting for a 19-63 team that lost a franchise record 26 straight games at one point last season. Carter-Williams joined Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson as the only rookies to finish with at least 16 points, six rebounds and six assists per game. But he has just been cleared to play this week after off season shoulder surgery in May. Nerlens Noel, a 6-11, 20-year old shot blocker who was the sixth pick in the 2013 draft, missed his entire rookie year with a severe injury and has already missed games during this young season with a ankle tweak, leading to questions about his durability. Center Joel Embiid, a 20-year old seven-footer who was the third pick in last June’s draft, is months away from his debut with a stress fracture in his back and 6-10, 20-year old Croatian star Dario Saric is over in Europe, locked into a two year contract in Turkey before he can make his first NBA appearance.
The Sixers’ ever changing roster is filled with unknowns and has a distinct D-League flavor. The team just signed free agent cenetr Drew Gordon from its NBA Development League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers, this week. In a related move, the Sixers waived injured forward Malcom Thomas.
“When all of the players your team used high draft picks on over the past couple of season haven’t been on the court the lineup is filled with young, inexperienced talent, it’s going to be a train wreck,” Sixers coach Brett Brown admitted recently. “We are undermanned every night and we have to find a way to arrest things and control tempo because if you blink, a game can escape you really quickly.”
Hinkie is a huge advocate of analytics and was the youngest vice president in the league when he worked for the Houston Rockets before joining the 76ers as general manager two years ago.
In the best of all possible worlds, his long term strategy will work and his lottery picks will combine with some of five players Hinkie has stashed overseas like Saric, wing Jordan McCrae, the former Tennessee star who is playing for Melbourne United in the Australian National Basketball League; and power forward Asslen Kazemi from Iran, who plays Assalen Kazemi, who stood out at Oregon and is now with the Chongging Fyeing Dragons of Chiness Professional Basketball Association to create a contender within four years.
In a worst case scenario, this season could become a disaster of epic proportions with the Sixers being accused of being as a team that is deliberately attempting to lose by putting an group of inexperienced group of players on the court. The team’s best young players would eventually leave when they reach free agency, signing with better teams. The franchise will have room on its salary cap, but there is no evidence prime time free agents will any rush to play here. Eventually, the declining crowd base will completely crumble.
It is a huge gamble, one that openly bothers Larry Brown, the Hall of Fame coach who coached the Sixers to the NBA championship series in 2000 when Allen Iverson was at the height of his ability. Brown, now the head coach of SMU, went off on the franchise in New York City when he at the American Athletic Conference media day.
“I hate what’s going on in Philly,” Brown said. “They don’t a basketball person in the organization. It makes me sick to my stomach
No i wouldn’t do it. We wouldn’t lose. Brett Brown can coach. He’s one of Pop’s guys (Greg Popavich) But what they are doing to the city to me is mind boggling.
That’s the greatest basketball city in the world with its fans and you want them to sit back and watch you lose.
“Can you imagine telling Allen Iverson that this is a rebuilding season so we;’re going to be bad on purpose. I love Nerlens Noel. I love Joel Embiid, but you can’t put that stuff onto them. Again, it boggles my mind. I understand you have to get assets to get better, You get assets by developing young players, draft picks and moving contracts. But how much teaching is going on.”
Brown is classic old school. He learned from the best– Dean Smith, Mr. Iba and John McClendon.
He can see it for what it is. Basketball is an eye test that is played on the floor. It is a different statomatic than analytics, Put into context, analytics can dress up players and use stats to back up decisions. But analytics should be a a tool, not a compass. The Sixers can keep up the charade, trying to sell their fans on the idea that the Sixers are competitive on paper. But there are three pieces where they are not competitive– wins and losses, on the floor and fan dollars.
Right now, the Sixers are not a good product. If a meal doesn’t taste good, people don’t eat it how matter how good it’s supposed to be for you. It’s worse than cod liver oil for kids and there is no appeal to any of the five senses. the Sixers are starting players who couldn’t start in the D-League.
Heading into this week, the Sixers were last in free throw shooting, 29th in rebounding, 28th in points given up, 27th in opponents’ three point defense, 26th in turnovers, 25th in field goal percentage and 24th in points scored. The over under on the number of games the Sixers will win? The Westgate Spots Book in Vegas has them penciled in to win 15 1/2 games…
If the Sixers win more than that, it will be a surprise.
