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What a waste. Sam Hinkie’s sacrifice had come to nothing.
The Philadelphia 76ers’ four-game sweep by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs is the biggest argument against the tank.
Hinkie’s “Trust The Process” was supposed to catapult the Sixers into championship contention, but along the way the mad scientist’s successors lost patience and didn’t allow “The Process” to run its course.
First, it was the exchange that brought Jimmy Butler to the City of Brotherly Love. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jimmy Buckets, but that trade in hindsight was a wash for Philadelphia.
With Butler, general manager Elton Brand eventually brought the Sixers closer together, but in exchange for that he didn’t allow superstars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons to grow into the role. Also in trade for Butler’s two-way magnificence, the 76ers also had to part ways with 3-D specialist Robert Covington and up-and-coming Dario Saric.
However, it can be argued that the Sixers came within a few rebounds of a desperate triple by Kawhi Leonard to reach the final. Who knows, once there, KD and Klay Thompson also get injured and the Sixers would be polishing their fourth Larry O’Brien trophy rather than cannibalizing his core.
They were also wrong to pick Markelle Fultz No. 1 overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, considering they gave up the No. 3 overall pick and a first round in 2018 and 2019 to get former Washington star Huskie.
We all know what happened to Fultz through no fault of his own (no pun intended), as he barely played in his rookie season due to a mysterious shoulder injury that caused his highly publicized jump shot to go haywire in the pros. .
The trade for Butler at the start of the 2019 season raised expectations for the 76ers and Fultz was traded to the Orlando Magic for a basically replacement trade (Jonathan Simmons).
So when the Sixers came up short in the 2019 postseason thanks to The Claw’s Hail Mary Shot, the Sixers’ championship lineup or flop was a toast. The first to go was Butler, who was forced to sign and trade South Beach for Josh Richardson.
Tobias Harris, who was acquired from the Clippers a couple of months after Butler in exchange for Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala and Landry Shamet, was inexplicably signed by Brand to a maximum deal.
The Sixers then tried to bounce back with the loss of Butler by hacking Al Horford from the Boston Celtics. And to make matters worse, Brand let the only genuine shooter left in the starting lineup, JJ Reddick, walk without compensation. The former Duke star went on to sign with the New Orleans Pelicans.
With Embiid, Horford, Harris, Richardson and Simmons, the 76ers had a starting five to count, albeit in the late ’80s and early’ 90s, as they didn’t have enough shots in this small-ball era where teams generally jack up. 100 triples per game.
The imbalance in the lineup showed throughout the regular season and carried over to the NBA reboot in the Orlando, Florida bubble.
To add insult to injury, Philadelphia was losing an all-star game when the playoffs came with Simmons sidelined with an apparent knee injury. He never saw action against Beantown.
In his first-round sweep at the hands of the Celtics, 76ers coach Brett Brown also did the team a disservice by trading Horford from the starting five and again failed to surround Embiid with floor spacers.
And now Brown has been “processed” out of Philadelphia and Brand is left picking up the pieces. He already said he won’t trade Embiid or Simmons. However, there are no such guarantees for Horford and Harris, but it is as if any team is interested given their top salaries and underperforming seasons.
Time to tank back and trust the process? I do not think so.
Mark Rabago is a former reporter for The Manila Times. He has continued his journalism career abroad, but is still a true fan of the NBA and PBA. He can be reached at [email protected].
