How to Destroy an NBA Team

shot clock down to three bass up top to Rondo puts up another three Rojo Rondo again the Boston Celtics win game seven here at the TD Garden there's only one reasonable conclusion to draw the process was a disaster the process is dead and the NBA should be celebrating this take that trust the process lingo and go to hell with it foreign when looking at the Eastern Conference over the late 2010s and early 2020s there's been a handful of teams that have consistently been contenders each year all of them have eventually broken through into the NBA Finals the Miami Heat Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks haven't been perfect every year but they've still had their one shiny moment where it all came together for that there's a level of respect that these groups have from their peers they've shown that at least on one occasion they can defeat their doubters but there's one team I failed to mention that's also on this list a franchise that at one point had a brighter future than all these squads a team that was put in the best possible position to succeed only to play their cards so poorly that they never got their Shining Moment I'm talking about the most mismanaged contender in the NBA the Philadelphia 76ers for all the biting ridicule they receive on social media I don't think people realize just how badly they mess things up in 2017 they had a boatload of cap space dozens of first round picks to work with and a talented young Corps that was revered across the league in the matter of only a few years they squandered it all with zero Eastern Conference Finals appearances to their name at the end of it they destroyed their team in reputation and lost the trust of their fans the Sixers initially committed to building a contender in 2013. so what mistakes did they make that ultimately killed their Championship hopes as it turns out it's way more than you think the Sixers had four separate Executives who oversaw the current Joel embiid process era that is stretched for the last decade first up was Sam Henke who has the most admiration from Philly fans pinky did some great things for one he drafted dwell and B the MVP himself after a draft day injury caused him to slide down the board he also traded Michael Carter Williams for what would end up being the 10th pick in the 2018 draft not to mention he fleeced the kings in a deal that would help the Sixers jump from the number five pick to number three during the 2017 draft with all these excellent moves there did come the occasional blunder one of the first moves hinky made as an executive was to trade guard Drew holiday for the sixth pick nerlins Noel during the 2013 draft a big man who would turn out to be a bust in that same draft he also selected the aforementioned Michael Carter Williams over Giannis antetokounmpo two years later in 2015 he selected another bus with the third pick Julia lokaphor over Chris Taps porzingis and Devin Booker why didn't they pick one of these two in reality Booker wasn't drafted until later on at the 13th pick while porzingis was rumored to have a distaste for Philly refusing to work out with them so this mistake is more understandable all in all if these were the biggest errors Philly made during the process era they'd be swimming in the lake of championships right now the truth is Sam hickey wasn't perfect but he was sure as hell better than any anyone else who would come after him in December 2015 Adam Silver and the NBA forced the Sixers to hire Jerry Colangelo as the chairman of basketball operations which all but unofficially ended the Sam Henke era the Sixers had been infiltrated from the outside and hinky stepped down four months later as all the power he once had to make decisions was given to Jerry for as much hate as members in the Sixers front office scat for the team's failure I rarely see that criticism directed towards Josh Harris the Sixers owner there's multiple poor choices that he made or chose not to make that hurt the franchise one of them was letting Adam Silver and Jerry Colangelo bully their way into the organization and subsequently kicking hickey out Jerry Colangelo hired his son Brian who then became the second executive during the process era ah nepotism at its finest if you think hinky made a few poor choices then Brian made a boatload of them colangelo's first move was to handle the number one overall pick in which he chose Ben Simmons from LSU Mr free throw himself huh it's easy to become a victim of revisionist History here and claimed the Sixers should have chosen Brandon Ingram or Jalen Brown first instead but in actuality Ben Simmons was worth a top pick his tenure ended poorly of course but he was a multiple time All-Star and defensive player of the year candidate with Philly at the time during the 2016 draft picking Ingram or brown number one would have been a fireball fence Simmons was the consensus top guy the real mistakes came during the later part of the first round with the 24th and 26th picks they chose timate luau cabro and vercon quarkmons over Pascal siacom and dejante Murray instead of picking embiid's friend and fellow cameroonian in siakum Colangelo invest than quote unquote Shooters who would turn out to be Duds it ain't easy to pick a useful player deep into the draft in the NBA it's almost like closing your eyes and throwing a dart at the wall but as you'll soon find out the Sixers whiffed so many times over the years that it's genuinely comical this draft is looked at favorably compared to the atrocities the Sixers would commit in future years nowadays the Sixers have been plagued by such massive cap issues that it's completely destroyed any chances of them picking up big name free agents where did these issues start the summer of 2016. Jared Bayless a so-called Sharpshooter was handed a three-year 27 million dollar deal in July 2016. he played Just 42 games for the team in three seasons Philly fans would end up despising Bayless as he was paid far too much for his lack of production it's fascinating looking back to a point where the Sixers worst paid player on the roster was a guy who was being given just 9 million dollars a year simpler times for sure to add Flames to the fire Christian wood would also be let go by Philly during the summer too the then g-leaguer would go on to become a useful player that surely would have helped the Sixers in their title Chase speaking of valuable big men Jeremy Grant the now well-known offensive power forward was traded by Philly to OKC just one game into the 2016-17 season aerosan eliasova in a pick was received in this deal the Sixers got fleeced Grant like wood would also become a great starting level player but the first cracks in the domain of the Sixers title hopes didn't it start forming and until a few months later at this point in early 2017 the Sixers were admired for having an incredible situation they had a boatload of picks young players and cap space to work with for the future but the promising hopes surrounding this team would soon take a turn for the worse the summer of 2017 particularly the 2017 draft for the Sixers would go down as one of the most wasted opportunities in MBA history they first started off by making a bold move Philly traded up from the third pick to the number one spot bringing up their fan base's excitement tenfold this would be the championship winning move it was a chance to establish a dominant big three of young players Marco fultz Ben Simmons and Joel embiid all who were projected to be future Superstars now here comes the part where revisionist history overwhelms the mind of the average NBA fan was taking Marco fultz with the number one pick a bad decision at the time was trading up for him the wrong choice too all Philly ended up trading to move to the top pick was Romeo Langford who was the 14th pick in the 2019 draft it's a trade that 10 out of 10 teams would make Philly literally moved up two spots for free the problem arises with their selection that being Marco fultz he was a player who was touted as a unanimous top pick a Flawless Prospect would fit in perfectly with him being in Simmons unfortunately full soon developed a shorter condition called thoracic outlet syndrome after being drafted this ruined his time in Philly as fultz's strongest trade in college his three-point shooting was taken away from him in an instant not to mention the Celtics ended up with Jason Tatum at the third pick damn the sixer selection of folds marked the first time that they were somewhat vulnerable in the process era they had made their first enormous mistake folks not panning out meant the Sixers had to scramble for a third star to fill in shoes the picks that followed volts in this class were equally as cringe-inducing the Sixers left the draft with Andres pasignch Jonah Bolden and Matthias lazor never heard of them huh that tells you all you need to know they lost out on guys like Kyle kuzma Josh Hart and Monte Morris at the end of the 2017 draft the Sixers who had five draft picks left with zero long-term pieces it was a historic level of incompetence from their front office ever wonder why Philly will never win a ring with Joel embiid this draft is why 12 months later Brian Colangelo was fired following the Sixers disappointing second round exit to the Boston Celtics it must have been because Philly woke up and realized he wasn't a good executive right wrong they fired him because he was exposed for having secret burner accounts on Twitter used to criticize the players on his own team yeah you heard that right a laughable event that's all too fitting for this organization Josh Harris the owner had a big decision to make who do they promote as the executive to replace Colangelo after all the crucial 2018 draft was coming up they chose Brett Brown as the temporary substitution the head coach at the time with no front office experience unsurprisingly a guy with no history of making trades ended up making one of the worst trades in Sixers Draft Day history after selecting Hometown kid Mikel Bridges with the 10th pick they traded him to Phoenix for Zaire Smith in a 2021 heat first round pick Zaire Smith almost died due to a peanut allergy that he sustained before playing a single game as a pro while the first round pick ended up being a nothing Burger Mikel Bridges as we all know is an incredible three and T wing and Fringe All-Star the Sixers had him in their grasp and let him go the guy was from Philly for crying out loud it would have been the perfect story but this team just had to screw it up if Mikel Bridges was added to the Sixers who knows how differently the last half of the decade could have gone for them maybe he would have been the push to lead Philly past Kauai in 2019 or perhaps he could have helped them beat the Celtics in 2023 but I guess we'll never know the third executive for Philly was Elton brand who unlike hinky and Colangelo wasn't afraid of going all in he had no problem gutting the team's Assets in cap space as long as it ended in a championship they couldn't even make it past the second round like Brett Brown he also had no experience in being a general manager why in an incredibly important stage for the franchise did Josh Harris and his team insist on bringing in Executives with no experience its nonsensical decision making the big two moves from Brands were trading for Jimmy Butler's bias Harris during the 2018-19 season they traded for Butler because it became clear Marco fultz could not be the third star the team needed they traded for Harris because the Jeremy Grant trade two years prior left them with no good power forwards the problem here wasn't necessarily the trades themselves but how they handled it afterwards following the famous Kawhi Leonard game 7 buzzer beater in the 2019 playoffs the Sixers entered a crucial off-season that would decide the future of their franchise What followed was one of the worst off seasons ever they chose to give a Max contract to Tobias but not Jimmy a move that would perhaps go down as the biggest error they ever made letting go of Jimmy Butler a certified Superstar and culture changing player was such a massive fumble that it can very well be the sole cause for why the team never won a ring during this era to add insult to injury Butler was disrespected on his way out he reported that members of the Sixers front office asked each other if they could control him which was all Jimmy needed to hear the unmerited smugness affili's front office was on full display here and it would cost them immensely Butler chose Miami and the heat sent back Josh Richardson an off the benchman in exchange for him in a silent trade Josh Richardson for Jimmy Butler the jokes right themselves the Sixers followed this mistake by giving Tobias Harris 180 million dollars over the next five years this crippled their cap space indefinitely this contract would be the reason why Philly consistently had little to no flexibility in terms of trying to get bench pieces a high percentage of the money was going to Tobias Harris a player who always shriveled under the pressure come playoff time they then gave the money that would have gone to Butler to Al Horford which would become a bottom five contract just a few months after the pen hit the paper giving a 33 year old big man who played the same position as your best player 109 million dollars is bad the 2019 off-season for Philly was horrible and led to a miserable 2019-20 season that ended in the round One Sweep to Boston [Music] Elton brand and his team speedrun the how to destroy a team in one year challenge unsurprisingly brand lasted just two years as the main executive on the team until Daryl Mori came to town and took his job but that didn't stop ran from hiring Doc Rivers as head coach before he was demoted his final mistake that would once again screw the team now we enter a new time of Sixers basketball a Time removed from all the old faces of the past the Sixers have a new coach and a flashy new executive named Daryl Mori from the Houston Rockets ready to steer the ship immediately an opportunity was given to them only for the ball to be dropped once more a name that you'll become quite accustomed to hearing became available for the first time that name being James Harden what people forget was that in 2020 James Harden said that he wanted to go to Philly after requesting a trade from the Houston Rockets this wasn't washed hardened this was MVP level Beast Hardin pairing him with Rising Superstars well embiid surely would have competed for a championship if not 1-1 not to mention getting rid of Ben Simmons before he would self-implode would have been a huge win too some Reports say the Rockets denied everything the Sixers offered because they had personal beef with Mori While others say the Sixers refused to part ways with young guard Tyrese Maxie and that's why it didn't work out if the latter is the reality then they should have gotten rid of Maxie James Harden was an MVP candidate with Brooklyn before his hamstring injury he would have been incredible with Joel embiid Maxie is talented but he was also a rookie at the time and wasn't contributing anything towards winning yet either way the trade fell through and Harden was sent into Brooklyn instead things went poorly for Philly soon after her in the 2021 playoffs they lost an embarrassing fashion to the underdog Atlanta Hawks in round two Ben Simmons played horribly after receiving criticism from his coach and his teammate in their post-game interviews he refused to play another game for the squad demanding a trade the situation sucked but Daryl Mori soon had a light bulb while Simmons was holding out another opportunity at getting his favorite player James Harden had arrived this time he succeeded but it was a mistake on February 10 2022 the Sixers gave up Ben Simmons Seth Curry Andre Drummond and two first-round picks for the beard which wasn't necessarily a bad move itself the bad move was not having a concrete plan in mind regarding hardin's contract situation James wanted to get paid and Daryl became firmly against it this would eventually lead to an emotional explosion the other poor decision with this trade was skipping out on tyree's halibur who was reportedly on the table for the Sixers to get for even cheaper than what Harden cost Halliburton is not only the better player than Harden now but he's also 10 years younger and would have extended Philly's contention window exponentially but mori's infatuation with the bearded one made him lose all common sense he became convinced that he needed his former Houston Rockets players of the past on his team PJ Tucker Danielle house Jr and montrez Harrell were all brought to the Sixers within the span of a few months Daryl Mori tampered for Tucker and house costing the Sixers valuable second round picks that they needed money that went to these guys should have gone to a much better role player like Bruce Brown who instead went on to win the championship with Denver but how did they get this money to begin with in June 2022 James Harden after tense negotiations took a pay cut to help the Sixers sign better players under the table the two agreed that in the following summer Hardin would receive the Brink's truck that didn't happen why the reasoning is because the play on the court from James Harden was underwhelming when his team needed him the most all that resulted from this blockbuster trade were two puny second round exits and now I'd like to shift my criticisms from the front office to the players in these two second round exits in 2022 and 2023 the players on this team specifically the top two stars Joel embiid and James Harden were a disgrace the moments that highlighted this the most came in game six and seven of the 2023 second round Series against Boston Philly took a 3-2 lead only needing to win one more game out of the next two to finally make the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2001 but in the ensuing two games Hardin and embiid refused to step up in game six the Celtics were all but begging to be sent home but the Sixers just couldn't do it everyone on Philly played terribly and they choked a late game lead to lose Hardin shot all six in the fourth quarter wall embiid was invisible in Game 7 the Celtics finally woke up and destroyed the Sixers and beat and Harden combined for 8 of 29 shooting and 24 Point loss the two stars mentally checked out look around the league and other superstars jokic Giannis LeBron Curry Luca KD they may not be perfect every time in the playoffs but they have never gone as far as to check out and give up on their team in the most most important game of the season the role players on the Sixers followed the lead of the best players and if the star Duo is sulking around with loser energy then so too will everyone behind them the 2023 playoffs for the Sixers were a golden opportunity for them to end the negative narrative surrounding their Posies in history but all they ended up doing was confirming what everyone already believed they just weren't good enough there's only two common denominators for why the Sixers have been such pathetic franchise over the last 10 years it's Joel embiid and Josh Harris who have been there every step of the way Harris seems more concerned with managing NFL teams than giving a second thought to the Sixers he let the NBA and other owners walk over him with the Sam hickey firing and he has led a losing culture infest the team from top to bottom he is the worst owner out of the major three Philadelphia sports teams and it's because he doesn't have a passion for managing the franchise while other owners around the league run their organizations with the motive of winning the motive for Harris is money Joel embiid embodies everything wrong with The losing culture for as talented as he is his physical toughness doesn't translate to mental toughness on the court the moping and poor body language he displays the second things aren't going perfect for him is pathetic why on Earth does he need to be given a motivational speech by his teammate with one minute left in the fourth quarter of a playoff game shouldn't he be driven and aggressive by default he had the largest points per game dropped by an MVP in NBA history going from a strong 33 in the regular season to a measly 23 in the playoffs a similar case happened with him in 2022 where he dropped from 30 to 23. he has the sketchiest poses in history out of any superstar in the league no Conference Finals appearances few iconic moments just loss after loss after loss his biggest Defenders point to this playoff regression and say it was all caused by injuries which is a fair statement on the surface but the reality is Joel embiid is never healthy when his team needs him the most every single playoff run except the bubble in 2020 and beat has been hit with an injury that has derailed his play sometimes it's a facial injury other times it's a knee or stomach sickness that hurts him so yes maybe it's not his fault that he's often injured and tends to play worse in the postseason but it's damn near impossible to win it all when your best player goes down every playoff run the Sixers have made so many poor choices over the years that nothing can save them they've spent every asset used all their money and burnt every bridge speaking of Burning Bridges James Harden and Daryl Mori now despise each other hardin's pay cut in the summer of 2022 was met with the expectation that he'd get huge amounts of money the following year once July 2023 arrived and Philly said no thank you hardened through a fit vowing to never be a part of an organization Mori was a part of these two had an incredible relationship for years in Houston Maury said Hardin changed his life now it's all come crashing down the big hardened trade turned out to be one more failure just another story to add to the inevitable 30 for 30 on this franchise there's fewer teams that have made as many mistakes as the Philadelphia 76ers have in such a short period of time whether it's handing out terrible contracts that crippled their flexibility or time and time again swinging and missing when given a top pick in a draft class or them letting go of valuable pieces that were in the palm of their hands the blunders are endless in 2012 the Sixers lost to the Celtics in seven in round two it was the last playoff series before the process started 11 years later the Sixers once again lost to Boston in seven and none other than round two they started the process to end their early playoff exits once and for all but they ended up in the same spot they were before it all began the Sixers have dug themselves into a hole that's too deep the only way to get out is by Starting Over Again [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: dylandoesbasketball

Views: 557,325

Keywords:

Id: kY_8E7ginVE

Length: 23min 13sec (1393 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 02 2023