--
They’re far from the first team to do it.
There were the 1996 Spurs, and the Nuggets and the Cavaliers
in ’03. Then there were the Celtics and Sonics in 2006-07.
No, the Sixers are far from the first team to set themselves
up to struggle for a season, they just may have been the most blatant and
transparent about their intentions to ‘tank.’
After a decade of being stuck in the NBA’s equivalent of
no-mans-land, the Sixers, led by a new, analytically-inclined brain trust,
developed a plan that would allow them to utilize the league’s lottery system to
their advantage in rebuilding the roster. The plan may require a couple seasons
of struggle, but in the NBA if you’re not contending, you should be building,
and for a decade plus the team from Philadelphia wasn’t doing either. They were
merely existing, trapped in some annual basketball purgatory, where the team
was never bad enough to land high enough in the lottery to draft a difference-maker
(Evan Turner aside), but never good enough to truly contend.
Being entombed in such a maddening state of mediocrity for
so long is one reason that the Philadelphia faithful have been so receptive to
Sam Hinkie’s wrecking ball rebuilding plan, even though it has required a
couple seasons of sacrifice. Hinkie doesn’t have a long track record of NBA
success, but he does have direction.
In the NBA, there are two ways to improve a roster: Through
the draft, and through free agency. In the absence of superstars eager to suit
up for the struggling Sixers, the organization’s best opportunity to improve is
through the draft. More specifically, by landing in the lottery for a few
consecutive seasons in order to acquire assets, form a foundation, and establish
a deep talent pool.
In a little over a year, the Sixers have begun to do that.
Two years in a row they selected potentially the top player in their respective
draft classes in Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid. They have Dario Saric, an
ultra-talented, multi-faceted forward, stashed overseas, improving his game in
Turkey until he is ready to come and contribute to a contender. They have been
able to find talent deep in the draft, and in other team’s castaways. K.J.
McDaniels, Jerami Grant, and Jordan McRae are popping with potential. Hollis
Thompson and Tony Wroten could be nice rotational players. The team has over
$30 million in salary cap space for when the time does come to add some
formidable free agents. Pieces are in place, and for the first time in a long
time, the team appears to be driving in the right direction.
But just as the Sixers begin to figure out an answer, the
NBA is looking to reform the question.
Despite showing support for the Sixers and their rebuilding
route just a few short months ago at Allen Iverson’s retirement ceremony at the
Wells Fargo Center, Adam Silver is looking to shake the system so that
basically, the Sixers can’t do what they’re doing.
Image from thesixerscave.com |
Proposed changes to the lottery, which could take effect as
early as next season, would give the league’s bottom four teams an equal
opportunity to land the lottery’s top pick, and would balance the odds for all
of the teams in the lottery.
The idea isn’t awful, as the lottery process could probably
use some tweaking, and the proposition is certainly better than that of the
wheel, but the Sixers have a point when they say they see it as a punishment
for simply following the rules that have long been in place. Teams at the
bottom need access to top incoming talent in order to improve, and the Sixers
are simply providing themselves that access.
“I think what this organization is doing is absolutely the
right thing,” Adam Silver told a mass of media members from a podium behind the
Sixers locker room back in March.
“What they are doing is planning for the future and building
an organization from the ground level up, and if you look at what has happened
here over the last several years, it is badly needed. Somebody needs a plan,
somebody needs a vision to win here and that is what is happening here.”
Silver sounded pretty understanding, even supportive of the
Sixers’ chosen rebuilding route back then, so why now does he now feel it
necessary to make the Sixers the franchise face of tanking reform.
One word: Perception.
Teams have tanked before. Teams have sat players and made
moves to improve their draft standings time and again throughout NBA history.
But the Sixers’ transparency, from drafting players that can’t contribute
consecutively, to trading talent for future picks, to spending none of their
copious cap space, is unparalleled. But
again, Silver understood, and publicly accepted the team’s approach.
“I accept what they are doing here,” Silver said back in
March. “It’s a zero sum game in terms of wins and losses in the NBA. Not every
team will be successful every year. What you ask for as fans is that there is a
strategy and a vision in place to win over time.”
As Silver suggested, the Sixers have a strategy and a vision
in place. They’re not good now, but they’re building to be a couple years down
the road. The problem is perception, Silver said so himself.
“I am concerned about the perception,” he stated when asked
if he was concerned about how people perceive the product.
“I am not concerned about what is happening in Philadelphia.
I am concerned with the perception in the league that it is not in the team’s
best interest to do its very best on the court.”
Makes sense. Of course he doesn’t want the public to get the
impression that his teams aren’t trying. The Sixers may have made too obvious a
show of their struggle, but their approach has brought to center stage an issue
that has long needed addressing.
Silver understands that the Sixers’ route of rebuilding may
be the best, and potentially only available option for teams trying to build
from the bottom. He knows that teams can’t contend every year, and for those
teams not contending, their best chance of improvement if landing high in the
lottery. That’s the way the system is established. Until it is altered, what
Silver is facing isn’t a tanking problem per se, but more of a perception
problem.
It would be great if the Sixers’ self-imposed struggles
serve as a catalyst for lottery reform and an improved system. Instituting such
major changes to the league’s lottery system for a season that sits only a
couple months away however seems sudden and reactionary. Solidify the system,
make the changes known, and then institute them a few years down the road when
they won’t have such an immediate impact on teams, such as the Sixers, that
have been working within the confines of the previous system.
Throwing games and seasons should always be equally as illegal. That those without shame are headed in exactly in that direction should hardly inspire sympathy merely because their cowardly ploys have not yet fully worked to the disadvantage of their competitors and the rest of the league. Screw Philadelphia and the poor sportsmanship so fully embraced by the corrupt owners of the Sixers' franchise. Shame on you, Philadelphia. Just shut up.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the Sixers are throwing games. They do not have the talent to compete. But in order to get ahead in the NBA, you need to totally rebuild the team or else be in the basement for a long time. The NBA's biggest problem is that there are too many teams and this spreads out the talent too thinly. Eliminate some of the teams so every team could have more talented players. This would lead to better basketball and higher ratings.
ReplyDelete15.07.21daigege
ReplyDeletecoach factory outlet
cheap jordans
soccer shoes
true religion outlet
louis vuitton
oakley sunglasses outlet
true religion outlet
ralph lauren
kate spade handbags
toms outlet
true religion
burberry sale
cheap oakleys
michael kors bag
air jordan
michael kors outlet
coach factory outlet
michael kors handbags
cheap true religion jeans
burberry handbags
pandora outlet
michael kors
mont blanc pens
chanel handbags
nike air max
soccer jerseys wholesale
air force 1
oakley sunglasses sale
sac longchamp
ray bans
soccer jerseys
gucci uk
ralph lauren
gucci outlet online
kate spade
kate spade outlet online
ray ban sunglasses
michael kors outlet
louis vuitton pas cher
jordan shoes