Move for Fultz a giant leap, but plenty of smaller steps to come
For all those Sixers fans out there who think having the No. 1 pick is an immediate cure for all the team’s ills, think again.
It’s just another step in the process.
It’s going to take more than Markelle Fultz, if that is who the Sixers take at No. 1 Thursday night barring another trade, to turn around a team that has won an average of 19 games over the last four seasons, has not been to the playoffs since 2012, and has not reached a conference final since 2001. History tells us that. It took the return of Lebron James for the Cleveland Cavaliers to get back to the NBA Finals after the team suffered through four sub-.500 years when King James decided to take his talents to South Beach.
Golden State went 2343 in 2011-12, the first year Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson played together. It would take three more years, and a number of moves, for the Warriors to win it all.
Oklahoma City was 2359 when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook played together for the first time in 2008-09. The Thunder did win 50 games the next year, but it would be two more seasons before OKC reached the finals.
Kyrie Irving (2011) is the last overall No. 1 pick to reach the finals and win an NBA title. Irving, Andrew Bogut (2005) and James (2004) are the only overall No. 1 picks in the last 15 years to win NBA titles. Irving and James are the only players in that span to do it with the team that drafted them. Bogut had to be traded to the Warriors to get his ring.
Greg Oden (2007) in the only other overall No. 1 pick to play for a team that reached the finals, and that was as a deep reserve on the Miami Heat team that lost to the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. So having the No. 1 pick is not an automatic stepping stone to championship-level success in the NBA.
Those are the facts and cannot be disputed. Having the No. 1 pick does not guarantee success.
It’s not a bad place to start, though.
Adding Fultz to a solid core of young players that includes last year’s No. 1 selection Ben Simmons, alongside Joel Embiid and Dario Saric, and letting that group grow and learn together is a step in the right direction.
“We’re taking the next step, I believe, in formulating a solid young core of players that ultimately will lead to a successful and sustainable product,” Bryan Colangelo, the team’s vice president of basketball operations, said Monday. “That’s our goal and that’s where we want to be. With the certainty of No. 1 we know we control our circumstances.”
There is no more wondering what the Celtics or the Lakers are going to do. The Sixers have their man, the only thing left is for NBA commissioner Adam Silver to make it official sometime after 7 o’clock Thursday night.
Fultz is the right fit, a versatile guard who can play on or off the ball and be the perfect complement to Simmons, who the Sixers plan to use as their chief ball-handler and facilitator. Simmons has not played in an NBA game, so it’s going to be interesting to see how that experiment works out. The lack of experience is among the core group is a concern. Embiid has 31 games on his NBA resume. Saric was a rookie last season.
Veterans win in the NBA and the Sixers are sorely lacking in that department. Last season Jerryd Bayless and Gerald Henderson were the only players on the roster with seven or more years of experience, and Bayless only played 20 games because of a wrist injury and Henderson was a role player.
So the Sixers need several more pieces before the puzzle is completed. Fortunately, thanks in large part to Sam Hinkie, the Sixers have the assets and the cap space to add those necessary pieces.
The team has four picks in the second round this year: Nos. 36, 39, 46 and 50; and three first-round and six second-round picks in the next two drafts. That’s a lot of flexibility. They can use those picks or package them in trades, so expect Colangelo to do a little more wheeling and dealing.
“Whether we are selecting No. 1 or just staying at three there’s been some talk in us acquiring another pick,” Colangelo said. “I’m not going to give up those efforts because we have moved up to No. 1.”
There are reports the Sixers reached out to the New York Knicks about a possible trade for Kristaps Porzingis, but that’s a stretch and would be costly. The Sixers would have to give up one of their core players, possibly Saric, and maybe Okafor, as well as a No. 1 pick to pry the 7-3 forward away from the Knicks. And even that may not be enough.
Colangelo wants to see what this core group can do, how much they grow together, but he is leaving his options open. He wants to add more pieces, either through a trade or free agency.
“You have to take advantage of those opportunities when they present themselves,” Colangelo said. “If we’re just not ready, so be it; we can wait as long as we maintain that flexibility and that’s going to be the key objective in this whole thing.”
In other words, Sixers fans, be patient. It takes time for young players, even the best ones, to develop and learn how to win at an elite level in the NBA. There is no doubt that having the No. 1 pick in a major plus, but it is not an instant cure for all the team’s ills.
History has proven that.
To contact Terry Toohey email ttoohey@21stcenturymedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TerryToohey.