Colangelo speaks at 10:30 so I’ll squeeze this post in before more news comes out. The one positive I’ll give the Sixers is that they have everyone talking about them. I’ve heard mostly negative comments about the trades regarding Ilyasova and Nerlens. Most people say they received nothing for these two players. The people who are holding on to dear life are saying that they weren’t part of the long term plan anyway. I have no idea what that means.

I’m going to throw some facts, not wishful thinking, about what is actually transpiring and why the Sixers could very well be in tank mode for the next 3 years.

  1. The good ol’ days.

    The Sixers are winning games! – The past 3 seasons the Sixers won 19,18, and 10 games with Brett Brown at the helm. This year they have already won 21 and pointing in the right direction. I’m going to point out that the combined record of the teams they have beaten are 506 -689. Only 3 teams out of 21 had winning records and the Clippers didn’t have Chris Paul. Their wins are coming against bad teams. Noted.

  2.  Joel Embiid – The Sixers are 13-18 in the 31 games that Embiid has played in. He is a game changer. If you want to believe that the Sixers have a chance, you’re entire belief should lie in this man. Remember, he got injured again on limited minutes and not playing back to back games which is serious concern. It’s hard to believe that he’ll ever play more than 60 games in a season. Also trading away his best friend seems moronic.
  3. Simmons will be back – Ben Simmons put up on Instagram a frown face and then took it down last night. People are speculating it could have been about the trades or bad news on his foot. Colangelo may elaborate. The problem is that Ben has played exactly 0 games in the NBA and is recovering from a Jones fracture. KD missed 60+ games with the same injury in ’14-’15 and seems to be back to full health which is a good sign for Simmons. At this point in time, it’s hard to know exactly what you have in Simmons but he’ll still be an upgrade at the point guard position.
  4. They can’t draft – The most common argument to why the Sixers will be good is because they have lots of draft picks lined up. Over the last 3 years they’ve missed on most every pick except Embiid and hopefully Simmons should work out. MCW was picked at 11 and “wasn’t the future.” Okafor isn’t worth a 1st round pick anymore (he went #3). Nerlens (#6) was traded for two 2nd round picks. Saric (used Payton at the 10th to obtain) is a fine role player but I don’t see him developing into a superstar. The best pick they made in the last 5 years was Nik Vucevic in 2011 who was traded away by the old management. Nice slideshow of all their picks over the past 5 years.

Why the Sixers Are Back to Tank Mode

They don’t have good basketball players. Embiid is a beast. When, and only when he plays, are the Sixers going to win games. Simmons will improve the team. The rest of this team stinks. Sam gave TJ McConnell an A- for this season. That’s great but he averages 6 points a game and shoots 21% from 3 point land. An A should be given out to A players. Stauskus is limited on defense and wouldn’t start on most teams. Sam writes “solid all-around player” for Gerald Henderson. When did avg 9.7pts, 2.1 rebs,1.7 assts, and .2 blocks a game turn into a solid all around player? These standards are great for a team that stinks.

I’m not a hater. I’m giving an opinion on a team that has spent 3 years being the worst team in the league and you have to be critical at what those 3 years have got you. As such, it’s an All-Star center who can’t finish a season, the 1st pick of the draft who we’ll see what he delivers (hopefully soon but we’ll be waiting another year), and a bunch of, well, players. This trade deadline and the moves they made was not forward progress. You’re still banking on picks that haven’t delivered in the past as sure things.

Per Jeff’s Comment