Sixers’ warped ‘process’ never allowed for surprises

When the 76ers chose seven years to lose first and win later, no one expected that a virus hysteria someday would throw the NBA into its strangest season.

When Sam Hinkie chose to underline that he knew nothing about basketball, nothing at all, with a disgusting plan to force Sixers fans to watch an inferior product for four years, no one could have known that one of their prizes for that patience, Ben Simmons,

would have his kneecap dislodged before the 2020 playoffs.

When simpletons were screaming, “Trust the Process,” and when weak, soft analysts were nodding along, and when Josh Harris was claiming a 19win season to be a huge success, no one could have foreseen a situation where the Sixers would have the best center in the league and still lose in the first round of the playoffs. But odd things happened. So don’t blame them for the virus panic.

And don’t blame them for Simmons being injured.

And don’t blame them that the process they began in 2012 ended Sunday with a 110-106 loss to the Boston Celtics in an

Orlando bubble.

Don’t blame them for that. Just blame them for lacking the fundamental street smarts to begin with, the kind that come with one unwavering rule: Don’t pay up front for anything that comes with no guarantee of delivery.

That’s what the Sixers did. They calculated that in any seven-year period any NBA team would win a certain percentage of games and would lose a certain percentage of games. Their plot was to pile up their losses early, then roll up so many wins later that their trophy room would need a redesign. It wasn’t a difficult scheme to understand. Indeed, the fundamental concept was one that both its supporters and critics could accept: To win an NBA championship, it requires three superstars, or maybe three superstars plus someone, say, at the Tobias Harris level. The only debate was in how to achieve that. Some recommended a commitment to good talent evaluation. The Sixers chose unprofessional early surrender.

It almost worked. The franchise enjoyed two consecutive years of second-round postseason penetration. But the Sixers never could deliver what they implied they would deliver. By Sunday, it was over, all of it. By Sunday, Brown, the constant throughout the process, likely had coached his last Sixers game. By Sunday, Josh Harris had to know that another rebuilding was necessary, which meant that even the most valued pieces from the “Process Era” had to be in trade play. By Sunday, when the Sixers proved they couldn’t even win one (1) playoff game, it was time to calculate the flaws. And there were many, with most involving hideous talent evaluation.

The Sixers’ ploy would not allow for mistakes. Yet mistakes, they would make, in the draft, in their judgement, in just about everything. They believed that if they saved enough money they would be able to lure LeBron James to Philadelphia as a free agent. They were wrong. They believed Simmons would respond to one of the most respected basketball voices ever to work in Australia. They were wrong. They drafted Joel Embiid when he was injured and insisted they could load-manage him to consistent pro-sports health. They couldn’t. They thought they would be the only team in history not to be disturbed by Jimmy Butler. They weren’t. They thought Harris and Al Horford were worth a combined $289 million. They missed by about $200 million. It never worked.

That means the process flopped.

“I just feel like a couple years ago when we made the playoffs for the first time, we had a bunch of good players,” Embiid said Sunday. “We had a bunch of guys who were in a great situation. We had JJ (Redick) and Marco (Belinelli). We had Ersan (Ilyasova). I felt like going into those playoffs, we were just young, we were just learning. And then we decided to trade a lot of it for picks and stuff, and for Jimmy and Tobias. We got a bunch of good player in return.

“Then, it just didn’t happen. We could never find the rhythm this year. It’s disappointing. There’s a lot of regrets. I felt our focus wasn’t always there. And we’ve got to do better.

“We’ve got to do better.”

The Sixers knew the situation Sunday. They knew if they’d lost, Brown would have a problem. Isn’t that what Josh Harris implied a year ago, when he said it would be “problematic” if his coach couldn’t lead the team deep into the playoffs? Isn’t that what Elton Brand has implied, never really giving Brown more than temporary verbal support?

Isn’t that the way it works in Brown’s business, especially at his level, when seven years later a high-paid team can’t win a playoff game?

“I mean, you can drive yourself crazy playing the ‘what if’ game,” Brown said. “You could do it with Ben Simmons. You could do it with saying, ‘I wish we didn’t have the turnover at the end of Game 3.’You could do it in a bunch of ways.

“What I do know is this is life. In every facet of everyone’s life, that’s just the way it works.”

The Sixers could have been great this season. But they had injuries. And there was a virus going around. And they never had their preferred lineup together long enough to matter. No one could have seen any of that coming. The smart ones, though, warned about a willingness to lose, aware that anything could happen.

Then, everything did.