Conference Semifinals: Boston Celtics (2) vs Philadelphia 76ers (3)

[fightinfunbags]

Of course. The NBA just doesn't want their dirty little secrets acknowledged publicly, and tanking is one of them.

Forcing the hire was just weird. It's one thing to force out a guy, but naming his replacement instead of the team doing so is just bizarre.

A layer of blame here that hasn’t been brought up yet is Josh Harris and his ownership group. How the fuck do you allow that to happen? They were pussies and just rolled over.

 

[fightinfunbags]

I think that is the difference though.

When most people talk about “the process”, that is the tanking part that ended when Hinkie was fired and they started trying to win.

You seem to be defining the relative success of the process by their failures after it ended.

IMO, the process worked because it left the 6ers with multiple star players, cap space and other highly valuable assets.

They just squandered what they had.

I also can’t wrap my head around the decision to merge two distinct steps together when two entirely different leadership regimes were in charge of each of the distinct steps. It wasn’t even the same people?!?!

 

[eaglesnut]

I am not a 6er fan.

I firmly believe the process would have yielded multiple championships if the post process was handled better.

They completely whiffed on a 1st overall pick, made trades giving away incredible assets like Mikal Bridges, failed to trade Simmons before cratering his value, failed to retain Jimmy Butler and failed to sign any impact free agents when they had cap space.
Lastly, Brett Brown was not the culture setter they needed in place when they had their best teams.

It was a comedy of errors and they still had some teams who were capable of contending.

Solid summary

 

[eaglesnut]

A layer of blame here that hasn’t been brought up yet is Josh Harris and his ownership group. How the fuck do you allow that to happen? They were pussies and just rolled over.

Looks like he is just buying franchises that are "distressed assets." Doesn't care about the teams.

 

[fightinfunbags]

Looks like he is just buying franchises that are "distressed assets." Doesn't care about the teams.

He’s the only guy that’s “won” in this whole era. The arena is packed. The franchise is now worth 3.15 billion on valuation and he got in for 280 million. All you need to do is sell imagination and a dream to make money in sports in a die hard environment like Philly. That valuation will jump even higher when he gets the new arena built. Within 1-2 years of opening the new building they will cash out. They’re the only winners here.

 

[tlance]

Hinkie was responsible for drafting Jahlil Okafor and MCW. In 2014, injury-prone Nerlens Noel was traded to Philly, that was on Hinkie, not Colangelo. Drafting was a shit show before Colangelo came in outside of Embiid. Can't blame new management over drafting.

The Process was meant to bring success to Philly basketball. It improved Philly basketball, but the only "trophy" they got to show for it is 1 division title. If winning that division title was the goal, they congrats, it worked. But if the goal was to reach the finals, at the VERY LEAST, then it was a failure and it doesn't matter why it was a failure because it doesn't change the fact that it was a failure.

Let me compare it in this way:

Company A has CEO A and they miss their profit projections. If Company A is required to fire CEO A and hire CEO B, does that just automatically negate that the missed their goals? No. They still missed their goals. Now, Company A goes year after year with CEO B and their margins are better but they still miss their goals, did they have success? No. They still missed their goals. Yes, they were better against their goals but they still missed the goal. Philly is Company A, Hinkie is CEO A and Colangelo is CEO B. Yes, the Sixers have improved, but ultimately miss the goal every year.

But see?

That was the brilliance of the process.

They took big swings on high upside, low floor prospects because they correctly identified the at they needed to land a superstar in the lottery to build a contender.

When it was clear they had missed, they sent those pieces packing for more assets and kept the tank going.

It absolutely worked. They got their man in Embiid, they should have had their Robin in Simmons, and they had a 3rd #1 plus many other assets to go with those players.