Well, here we are. After years of both pro-process
and anti-process hot takes, the Sixers are about to open a playoff series with home-court
advantage after winning 52 games in the regular season and closing out the
season on a 16-game winning streak. As a 23-year-old who grew up with Sixers
teams that were mediocre at best, that was easily the best regular season I’ve
ever seen the Sixers have.
Before it all started, rooting for the Sixers in the post
Larry Brown era was one big cycle of nothing really happening. A new coach
would come in who you might fall for, the team would win anywhere from 30 to 40
games, they might make the playoffs, but they certainly wouldn’t get out of the
first round. Acquiring high-profile players coming out of their primes like Chris
Webber and Elton Brand did nothing other than tease fans. Right when it looked
like the Sixers were moving out of NBA purgatory, Andrew Bynum’s knees happened.
In 2009, the Sixers lost in six games against the Orlando Magic in the first
round. But, Andre Iguodala hit a big jump shot in the first game of that series
and for a split second, it looked like the Sixers might have a chance at
pulling the upset. Lou Williams drained a jumper against the Miami Heat to
stave off elimination two years later. Even though it took an injury to Derrick
Rose, the Sixers finally got out of the first round in 2012. These were the highest
of the highs for the Sixers from 2003-2013, which says a lot about how irrelevant
they were.
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| Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images Hinkie, the architect of "The Process" is not around anymore, but his plan is still coming to fruition. |
For some, even after the franchise’s best win-loss record in
17 years, “The Process” is not vindicated yet. The anti-process crowd has
shifted from “How can you waste so many seasons?” even though the Sixers wasted
tons of seasons before Sam Hinkie took over as the team’s President of
Basketball Operations and General Manager in May 2013, to “They haven’t won
anything yet.” It’s a lazy take from a group of people that for whatever reason
were never willing to embrace the path with the best odds of winning a
championship in today’s NBA. It’s impossible against the claim that the draft
is the easiest way of acquiring a franchise player in the NBA. Hinkie decided to
maximize his odds at doing so. He refused to let Joel Embiid’s medical
concerns, the entire reason he was available at No. 3 overall in 2014, get in
the way of drafting him. Dario Saric was contractually obligated to remain in
Turkey for two years after the Sixers made a trade for him later in the lottery
four years ago. The whole idea was about maintaining the longest view in the
room for a reward greater than anything lots of Sixers fans had ever seen.
While Hinkie was forced out by an ownership group that didn’t
have the patience he thought it did, “The Process” later produced Ben Simmons
with the first overall selection in the 2016 draft. Hinkie provided his successor, Bryan
Colangelo, with ample draft capital to move up in last year’s draft for
Markelle Fultz. Hopefully, Colangelo can finish what Hinkie started and both
men can be a part of bringing Philadelphia its first NBA championship in at
least 35 years. Head coach Brett Brown is still around and is a candidate for Coach of the Year after a 24-win improvement from last season.
In the three years the Sixers tanked, they only had the worst
record in the NBA for one of the three seasons. In January 2017, the Sixers
appeared to be on the brink of the playoffs, until Embiid went down with a torn
meniscus and their playoff push lost steam. But, Embiid played 63 games this
season, more than twice as many as he played last year. Simmons played in all
but one game this year and is the favorite to win Rookie of the Year after
missing all of 2016-17 with a foot injury. Embiid and Simmons are the two most talented
players to have suited up for the Sixers in at least a decade. So, get ready
for the Sixers to be really good for a really long time, and to be reminded for
a while about how “The Process” worked.
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