After a surprisingly energetic Philadelphia 76ers team ended their record-tying 26-game losing streak with a 123-98 pounding of the reeling Detroit Pistons on Saturday night, most Philadelphia fans are simply rejoicing in the fact that they narrowly missed out on the embarrassment of setting a new mark for the longest losing streak among all four of the major North American sport leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL). There is, however, much more that the city of brotherly love has to be happy about regarding their beloved basketball team: the worst is over, and the future is much brighter than it seems.
Even if you are just a casual NBA fan, you realize just how outrageous this statement is. The 76ers are not just bad. They are, in fact, historically bad. Before Saturday’s performance, they hadn’t even come remotely close to winning a game in over two months. The truth, however, is that the Philadelphia 76ers are intentionally bad. “Tanking” is a phenomena that actually does exist. It does not exist in the mind of a player, of course, but the 76ers disastrous season very deliberately set up by the team’s own front office.
The 76ers had absolutely no desire to be an average team that barely qualifies for the playoffs, loses in the first round, and ends up with no shot of drafting any top talent, especially in a draft class as loaded as this year’s is. They began the process of rebuilding their team last offseason, when they traded star point guard Jrue Holliday to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for the draft rights to Nerlens Noel, and the Pelican’s first rounder this year. Noel has not played for the Sixers yet, as he is recovering from a torn ACL, but he is an extremely talented power forward/center with the potential to develop into a star in this league. They then proceeded to trade the second overall pick of the 2010 draft, Evan Turner (SG) to the Indiana Pacers, along with Spencer Hawes (C), who was shipped to the Cleveland Cavaliers, freeing up enough cap space to allow them to make a run at at least one big-name free agent over the next two offseasons.
In addition to holding the rights to the Pelican’s first round pick, the Sixers also stand a very strong chance of landing the top overall pick in the NBA draft this June, as only the woeful Milwaukee Bucks possess a worse win-loss record than them. This means that they could go into the 2014-15 season with a legitimate point guard in Michael Carter-Williams, who will likely win the Rookie of the Year award this season, Nerlens Noel (PF/C), an elite draft prospect such as Andrew Wiggins (SF), Jabari Parker (SF), or Joel Embiid (C), and another lottery selection from this year’s draft class.
Simply put, it is obvious that the Philadelphia 76ers have put themselves in prime position to turn their franchise around and become a competitive, playoff-contending team once again. While everyone else was was laughing at their remarkably lackluster roster, the Sixers’ front office was busy stockpiling future draft picks and freeing up cap space to set themselves up for success in the future. If they can make the right decisions over the next few years, and develop the young talent that they already have, the 76ers could very quickly make everybody forget just how bad they were this year.
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