Heading into this NBA season there were rumors about the possibility of teams potentially “tanking” in the hopes of improving on their draft positioning. A few years ago the Philadelphia 76ers appeared to be an up and coming team in the Eastern Conference. In 2012, the Sixers won a playoff series for the first time since 2003. The 76ers gave the Boston Celtics all that they could handle in the Eastern Conference Semifinals before bowing out in seven games. The summer of 2012 saw the 76ers participate in a four-team trade that sent swingman Andre Iguodala to the Denver Nuggets and in turn Philadelphia received center Andrew Bynum from Los Angeles Lakers. After undergoing off-season knee surgery, Bynum never appeared in one game for the 76ers before departing as a free agent last summer to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bynum’s absence in the 76ers lineup hurt the team for the 2012-2013 NBA season as they only won 34 games.
The Sixers organization began a new chapter last May when Sam Hinkie was hired to replace Tony DiLeo as the team’s general manager. Hinkie appointed former San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown to become the 76ers new head coach and the two men began the process of overhauling the roster in Philadelphia.
After receiving an extension from DiLeo, Sixers All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for the sixth overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft which was used on center Nerlens Noel. In his one year of playing college basketball at the University of Kentucky, Noel suffered an ACL injury which has kept him out of the 76ers lineup all season.
The Sixers used the 11th overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft to find Holiday’s replacement at point guard as they drafted former Syracuse University point guard Michael Carter-Williams. On the season Carter-Williams is averaging 16.7 points per game which is third on the Sixers and his 6.2 assists per contest are tops on the club.
The Sixers were picked by most basketball experts to have a bad 2013-2014 campaign, but they came out of the gates with a 3-0 start that was highlighted by a 114-110 victory over the two-time defending NBA Champion Miami Heat. Reality set in very quickly for the 76ers as by December 16 their record was 7-19.
The 76ers were falling behind the pack in the Atlantic Division and by the NBA’s trade deadline, Hinkie traded center Spencer Hawes to the Cavs and swingman Evan Turner and power forward Lavoy Allen to the Indiana Pacers. In the two trades the Sixers received forward Earl Clark, center Henry Sims, and a pair of second-round draft picks from the Cavs while they received a second-round pick and small forward Danny Granger from the Pacers. Of all of the players that the 76ers received, only Sims is still on their roster as Clark was waived and Granger was bought out.
The 76ers received a ton of criticism from the fans and the media alike as they appeared to be throwing away the season or just simply “tanking”. The contracts of Turner and Hawes were set to expire at the end of this season and Hinkie wanted to get some value in return for these players. Also, Hinkie was not the general manager that brought Holiday, Turner, or Hawes to Philadelphia and he wants players that fit his system.
Now the Sixers find themselves in the midst of a 26-game losing streak as they have become the undisputed laughing stock of the NBA. Of those 26 losses by the 76ers, only 7 games were decided by single-digits.
The Sixers have clinched their seventh losing season since 2004. Philadelphia is well on its way to its first 60 loss season since the 1996-1997 NBA season which was Allen Iverson’s rookie season with the 76ers.
But all is not lost on the 76ers. Coming into the season Hinkie expected his 76ers to be bad; so why not be a bad team that doesn’t cost a lot of money?
On the Sixers current roster there is only one player that is more than 26-years of age and that is shooting guard Jason Richardson who is 33. The biggest bread winner on the Sixers current roster is power forward Thaddeus Young who is earning $8.85 million dollars.
Hinkie and the Sixers will be in possession of two first round picks as long as the Pelicans do not finish within the top five in the NBA’s Draft Lottery. Hinkie feels that he has building blocks in the form of Carter-Williams and Young. The jury is still out on Noel as he has yet to even suit up in an NBA game. Before joining the 76ers last year, Hinkie was employed by the Houston Rockets as their vice president of basketball operations. Hinkie was in the Rockets front office when they stock-piled young players which allowed them to swing a deal to acquire shooting guard James Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder just before the start of the 2012-2013 NBA season. It is not out of the realm of possibilities that somewhere down the line that the 76ers could send some of their young players to another NBA team in exchange for a star-caliber player. With the current collective bargaining agreement in the NBA it is not difficult for a team to have a quick turnaround. Two years ago the Charlotte Bobcats were 7-59 and now without making a gigantic splash through the NBA Draft they are on the verge of making the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history.
For the 76ers, this is an organization that has been home to some of the greatest players to ever step onto a basketball court in the NBA which includes Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, Julius Erving, and Iverson just to name a few which makes it tough for the fans in Philadelphia to watch this team. This season the 76ers are tied for last in field goal percentage (.429) as well as points allowed as they are surrendering 110 points per game.
Hinkie has some work ahead of him heading into this summer. Hinkie must decide whether or not Brown is the right head coach to lead this team or will the 76ers start looking for their eighth head coach since 2003? Without a franchise player in this year’s NBA Draft the Sixers must continue to build this team in the hopes of a quick turnaround. Will Hinkie use the extra salary cap space to bring in more veterans? Whatever the case may be this will be an important off-season for Hinkie and the 76ers.
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