Sixers are ready to win with team they’ve built
CAMDEN, N.J. » The layers of protection were thick and comforting. And for four years, the 76ers had been covered by them all.
They were losing, but they were excused. They were excused because they were honest. They were attempting to build a successful basketball team through an unholy process, but they were not prepared to apologize. They would ask for patience and, because no one had much choice, they were granted 328 nights of peace and quiet. Emphasis on quiet.
The quiet time, though, is over. And as soon as Brett Brown realizes that, the better. For the past week, Sixers insiders have been boasting that they have sold 14,000 season tickets for the next 82 games, and they are expecting to play to 100-percent-plus capacity. That’s what happens when a franchise has acquired consecutive No. 1 overall draft choices, has accumulated two recent No. 3 overall selections, has two of the three finalists for Rookie of the Year and has cash to spend in free agency.
This time, it is not just the outside-the-process chorus making win-now grunts. No, it is the Sixers organization itself that has mothballed the “Together We Build” marketing risk and has begun to use “Welcome to the Moment.” And it was Markelle Fultz, the top pick in the draft last Thursday, not waiting even 24 hours before blurting out his expectation to be in the postseason by the spring. And it was Joel Embiid, before his fourth annual season-ending injury last season, discussing the playoffs.
So, it’s time. It’s time to shoot for the Pete Mackanin mark — play .500 ball — and hit the postseason. It is time for fans to look at the standings every day, but not to look at them upside-down. It’s time to play the best players when they are healthy, on back-to-back nights, even in games that are not nationally televised.
The Sixers are built to win. And that’s their story … a story that Brown is close to believing, but not just yet. So … when?
“I think when we start talking about who else is on the team, because we haven’t even gone through free agency,” the head coach said. “I think then we can look at each other and have an intelligent conversation. At this stage, my mind is all about the growth and piecing this together with what I do know that we have. I think that still, for me, is what’s most important. I understand that’s not very sexy. But it’s true.”
The Sixers will add a veteran shooter or two in free agency. Ersan Ilyasova is one likely target, and he would be ideal. He can play and score, and he was a sturdy mentor for Dario Saric. He likes Philadelphia and Brown and the Sixers’ direction. He was popular with the fans. He trains hard. For purposes of this exercise, include him (or a similarly accurate seasoned shooter) into the mix. And at that point, it should be clear: The Sixers will be out of most excuses. Aren’t they?
“You are going into a season with a 19-year-old, a 20-year-old and Joel Embiid,” Brown said. “And as much as we love him and see how special he is, the reality is those three have played a cumulative 31 games.” Fultz is 19, Ben Simmons 20, Embiid undependable. So Brown is resisting roaming around South Jersey with his chest out and his index finger hoisted. But that’s where the Sixers can be criticized. It was their plan, their choice, their unprofessional plot to win through the accumulation of draft choices. And draft choices, by definition, are young. It would be ridiculous to say the Sixers have the maturity to compete with the seasoned Warriors or Cavaliers in a June bestof-seven. But it is not unreasonable to expect the team they conspired to build to be capable of squeezing into a No. 8 postseason seed. That is … unless … That is, unless Simmons is not a sport-changing talent. That is unless it is not insignificant that Fultz’s team won just two games in a good, not great, college conference last season. That is unless the organization’s panel of scientific wizards has not been able to sufficiently prepare Embiid for the task of playing 70-plus games in a regular season.
If any of those worries prove real – if Simmons can’t shoot, Fultz can’t win and Embiid can’t walk – that will not be the result of bad luck or a lack of growth opportunities. That will be the failure of the process. Already, seasons spent on the notion that Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor would be franchiseboosters have been proven wasted. If the same happens with Simmons, Fultz and Embiid, then the Sixers will start to make regular trips to the lottery the old way: By losing by accident, not on purpose.
That could be why Brown, the leading basketball mind in the operation, is the only one not oozing pennant fever. Or maybe the four years of on-court catastrophe have compromised his optimism. But if Ilyasova returns, Simmons turns heads with his passing, Fultz scores, Robert Covington defends, Saric competes, Jerryd Bayless shoots and T.J. McConnell does winning things every trip down the floor, then remove those layers of protection.
The 76ers. They were built to be a playoff team. And to the skeptics and believers alike, anything else must be unacceptable.