The Process

The Process

By: Evan Siegel

“The process”, as it’s been labeled, was among the most polarizing managerial decisions in recent basketball history. The Philadelphia 76ers plunged themselves into an almost expansion team-like rebuild that yielded relatively underwhelming results. Where has the entire operation left the team now?

Sam Hinkie’s goal was to assemble a super team by guaranteeing he couldn’t lose. He and his team were going to get so many bites at the apple in the draft there was no way his group could not come away with at least two or three blue-chip, once in a generation talents. While Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid have more or less lived up to that decree, virtually every vestige of what brought the team to this point has disappeared. 

Brett Brown was fired after another brutal playoff disappointment, and all of Hinkie’s Shakespeare-laden writing about his time with the team couldn’t save him from the Colangelos. Robert Covington, Arnett Moultrie, and Jerryd Bayless are long gone. Al Horford was a reflexive signing to try to find literally anyone who could potentially slow down Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. 

In contrast, other teams have assembled just as much, if not more talent than the Sixers without sinking to such depths as to win just 47 games between 2013 and 2016. For example, the Dallas Mavericks executed two different trades to land Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis despite having only one true “tank job” in 2017-2018, winning 24 games. The Mavericks have as reputable a head coach as the new one in Philadelphia, and the most electrifying young star in the NBA alongside their unicorn power forward. 

This goes to show that any insinuation that the NBA needed to step in to prevent a copycat league from breaking out is wrong. The 76ers were not getting out what they had endured so many years of unwatchable play for, and even though the entire “process” may not have been seen through to its conclusion, the recent firing and replacing of Brett Brown confirms it wasn’t going to produce any more positive results. 

Meet the Author Evan Siegel:

Evan was born and raised in Dallas, where he quickly became a die-hard Mavericks fan. His interest in sports goes back as far as he can remember and expands into football, baseball, hockey, and soccer. Evan is the play-by-play voice of the University of Miami’s football, basketball, volleyball and baseball teams and has written for Fansided.com for five years. He has worked professionally for the Washington Nationals and Texas Legends of the NBA G-league and continues to be affiliated with University of Miami athletics. Evan also is a major in jazz guitar and has been playing since early childhood.