The Philadelphia 76ers have been living by and pushing the slogan “trust the process” since the 2013-14 season when they decided to undergo a huge rebuilding phase. The results so far have been disappointing as the team has made the playoffs for the last three seasons, but they have nothing to show for it.
The latest playoff disappointment was a Round 1 sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics where the team was preaching championship expectations throughout the season. Granted, the team did not have Ben Simmons, but being swept is still unacceptable.
So the question now becomes whether the process is a failure. All of the picks and the assets that process author Sam Hinkie collected turned into some solid players in Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, but Butler bolted after half a season and Harris just finished up an extremely disappointing postseason.
“We decided to trade a lot of it, the picks and stuff, for Jimmy, Tobias, we got a bunch of great players in return,” said Joel Embiid who embodies the process. “It just didn’t happen. We could just never find a rhythm this year. It is just disappointing. There’s a lot of regrets. I felt like the focus was not always there and we got to do better. We got to look at ourselves in the mirror and just do better.”
Other than Hinkie, recently fired coach Brett Brown was the co-author of the process and he was fired on Monday after seven seasons on the job. The consensus on Brown’s tenure is a mixed bag. Some would say he did a great job of developing their younger players, but others would say that he failed to produce the proper results needed after such a big rebuild.
“As of now, yes, it’s failing,” said general manager Elton Brand. “It didn’t produce the results that we expected. It’s a results-based business and we’re trying to right those wrongs and make sure we do better. Currently? Yes, we’ve failed. Will we position ourselves to win? Yes.”
The first playoff run for the Sixers in 2018 included a lot of solid veterans such as JJ Redick, Marco Belinelli, and Ersan Ilyasova just to name a few and they were important to that run due to their shooting. Their ability to space the floor allowed Embiid and Simmons to do what they do.
They fell short to Boston in the semifinals in five games, but there was a lot of optimism surrounding that team.
“I just feel like a couple years ago when we made the playoffs for the first time, we had a bunch of great players that were drafted here or either formed in Philly,” Embiid added. “We had a bunch of guys that were in a great situation. We had JJ, Marco, Ersan, I just felt like going into that playoffs, we were young. We were just learning.”
They learned enough to come to within a win of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019, but then Kawhi Leonard happened. That then led to the optimism for the 2020 playoffs with the moves they made, but those flopped and it resulted in the sweep.
Now, the Sixers have to figure out what the next move is for them to truly contend in an Eastern Conference that is only going to get tougher with the Brooklyn Nets having Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving return from injury. [lawrence-related id=37197,37194,37191]