The 76ers are an…interesting franchise. They haven’t finished a season with a record better than .500 since the 2004-05 season(wow that’s a long time), when they went 43-39. Last year they won 18 games. The year before that, 19 games. This year, they’re 1-28. I repeat. ONE and TWENTY-EIGHT. That’s so bad. Historically bad. And of course, we know what they’re doing. It’s the same thing they do every year. Tank, tank, and tank some more. They’re trying to get Ben Simmons, presumably(although another frontcourt player is the last thing they have. They already have Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, Joel Embiid, and Dario Saric(who will reportedly join the team next season).
The strategy makes some sense. Be bad for a few years(or a decade if you’re the Sixers), stockpile young talent, and then be really good after the tanking is complete. It’s a flawed strategy though, as not every prospect pans out. The real problem, and what irritates fans the most, is that it just sucks to watch. The NBA is an entertainment business. And let me tell you, this 76ers team is not entertaining in the slightest.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently spoke to FiveThiryEight’s Neil Paine about the 76ers’ strategy. He didn’t sound pleased. From FiveThirtyEight.com:
Neil Paine: Are you personally, as the commissioner, OK with the way that the 76ers have run their franchise the past three seasons?
Adam Silver: I don’t want to answer that directly. As I said, there’s a marketplace of ideas and approaches that go into managing a franchise.
Am I fan of that strategy? Put it this way: No. But does that mean that it’s not acceptable under the league rules? It doesn’t.
So it sounds like as commissioner, Silver accepts their strategy, though from a fan standpoint he doesn’t like it.
While talking to Paine, Silver also refuted the rumors saying that he intervened and pressured the franchise to hire Jerry Colangelo. On that topic, Silver said:
Those reports are not correct. Josh Harris, who’s the principal owner of the 76ers, decided on his own that he needed to change course. He and I had many conversations along the way about the utility of the strategy that he was following. And he came to the conclusion once this season began, and he saw how his team was performing on the floor, that he needed to change his strategy.
Colangelo also spoke out against the 76ers poor management today. From the Twitter page of ABC’s Jeff Skversky:
#Sixers chairman Jerry Colangelo tells #ESPN the #Sixers are lacking basketball people & knowledge – that's why they hired Mike D'Antoni
— Jeff Skversky (@JeffSkversky) December 21, 2015
