76ers one more shot to make nucleus work

CAMDEN, N.J. >> Once, twice and then again last season, the 76ers changed their minds, changed their roster and changed their direction.

Once, twice and 10,000 times last season, Brett Brown mentioned as much.

Sometime, that perpetual flux would have to end.

Sometime, the Sixers would have to decide on a nucleus and keep it that way.

Sometime, the years and years of building, the endless upgrading and the eternal indecision would have to reach a conclusion.

That time has come. Though Elton Brand has a few roster spots to fill before the start of the 2019-2020 season and has enough money and personnel loopholes to make the Sixers better, his job is done.

Last season, the Sixers’ first-year general manager tried to win first with the remaining nucleus from 2018. Next, he tried to find contentment with an essential exchange of Dario Saric and Robert Covington, two prizes from the celebrated Process begun by Sam Hinkie, for Jimmy Butler. Finally, he chose to flip some assets and Landry Shamet and take a shot with Tobias Harris.

With that, the Sixers had an 82-game season sliced almost evenly into three hunks. While the topic was as often tossed his way as initiated by him, Brown owned that theme. “It feels like I have coached three teams this year,” he repeatedly said. He did.

The Sixers didn’t win more than one playoff round for the second consecutive season, but there was at least a reasonable explanation: Their preferred starting lineup, whether due to roster upheaval, injury or load management, had played 10 games together prior to the postseason. The players barely knew each other. In some situations, and the Brown-Butler relationship was one, they could barely professionally tolerate each other. Often, their All-Stars and near-All-Stars were caught between trying to score points and making certain that the rest of them would have the opportunity to score points. That the Sixers would come within a four-bounce shot of reaching the Eastern Conference finals was an achievement, given the situation.

This season will be different. There will be no upheaval. For in a swirl of reported and confirmed activity within hours of the opening of the NBA’s free-agency period Sunday, the Sixers formed a nucleus nearly impossible to crack. By night’s end, they had Joel Embiid signed as the franchise signature figure through 2023. They had Tobias Harris committed to a contract that will pay him more than $40 million by the 2024 season. They had Al Horford under a $109,000,000 guarantee until he was 36 years old. They had Josh Richardson in their control through 2022. And reports say, they were readying to extend Ben Simmons long-term at maximum cash.

So that’s it. Save for a few moves on the perimeter, the 76ers will either win something of substance with Embiid, Harris, Horford, Simmons and Richardson, or they will be trapped. They will either see a third playoff round or Brown will not have the opportunity to coach them the following season.

There are no more mysterious prospects in Turkey that they will imply will make all the difference.

There will be limited opportunities for them to readjust at the next trade deadline.

The Sixers are not likely to be helped soon by draftlottery luck.

The tornado that Brand has sent through the locker room for over a year has passed. On the surface, his plan looks solid. While Harris, Butler and J.J. Redick all could score, they were too similar of size and on-court disposition to coexist for a full season. And though Butler was enough of a fan favorite that the chanting of his name was the last sound heard last season in the Wells Fargo Center, his reputation as a coachagitator was upheld in his brief time with the Sixers.

So Horford, a big man who can shoot, effectively will replace him in the rotation while also providing Brown with a real alternative backup to the often-unavailable Embiid. Redick, bound for New Orleans, was the best shooter the Sixers ever employed, but he was beginning to show some age. Richardson, a little younger, can be an effective alternative. Without Butler, Simmons can return to full-time point guard. Mix in some veterans, as every NBA team does, and Brown should have a team able to contend in the East.

Yet if Sixers history shows anything, it is that massive and significant roster overhauls are risky. The most horrifying example of rotisserie basketball gone wrong was in 1986, when, within hours, they exchanged Moses Malone for All-Star Jeff Ruland and scorer Cliff Robinson, and traded the No. 1 overall pick in the draft for role-playing and inconsistent forward Roy Hinson. In the moment, it all sounded good. Ruland was said to be a better passer than Malone, which wouldn’t have taken much. Hinson was the prototype for the forward of the future. The Sixers were still in a win-now mode and wouldn’t have the patience, anyway, for that pick to develop, no matter how high.

None of it worked. None. And the Sixers are still looking for a repeat of their 1983 championship.

The next time they were over-fantasy-leagued was in 2001 when, for no reason other than that Larry Brown believed he knew better, the Sixers broke up a championship-ready team just to add Dikembe Mutombo midseason. The idea was for the center to match up well against Shaquille O’Neal in the NBA Finals. The matchup occurred; O’Neal was the postseason MVP.

So rampaging roster changes don’t always work. And for the Sixers last season, they yielded but clumsy results. But maybe this time, it all will click. Either way, there won’t be a next time.

To contact Jack McCaffery, email him at jmccaffery@21st-centurymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery