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Facing The L.A. Lakers Is Not Ideal For 76ers

Facing The L.A. Lakers Is Not Ideal For 76ers

Win at all costs. That’s a common motto.   Right now, the young and desperate Philadelphia 76ers team is hungry for the taste of success, any moment of success.  A win resets the streak, giving the players, coaches and support staff at least another two months before winning again becomes nearly as headlining.  But most of all, it can restore confidence in the shaken egos of some pretty talented prospects of this team.  Check out the latest headlines of Jahlil Okafor if you think that they have no problem with losing.  If you think this Philadelphia 76ers team will struggle to find ten wins in an 82 game season that will carry us all into April 2016, then facing the Los Angeles Lakers is the ideal opponent at the ideal time for the Sixers right now.

The 0-18 Philadelphia 76ers are favored at home to defeat the 2-14 Los Angeles Lakers. By all accounts, the Sixers have gotten close to defeating some much better teams in the NBA in recent games, and I can see the team winning this one.

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But winning is not ideal for these Sixers right now.   Not for the long term, not against the Lakers.  You see, the Sixers actually hurt themselves with a victory against the Lakers.   The Sixers own the Lakers first round draft selection, as long as the lottery ends up placing them out of the top three picks.  Right now, these Lakers are destined for the second pick of the NBA draft.  That pick is protected, and would force the Sixers once more to await cashing in on the Lakers team.

The 2016-2017 version of the Lakers will not be immediately successful.  Once a proud basketball franchise, whose star shone more brightly than the Philadelphia 76ers, the team has fallen into pure anonymity.  Next year’s team is not projected to load up on grade A talent.  Kobe Bryant will have retired.   The Lakers will not return to the playoffs in the immediate future.   More likely, they will begin the same process initiated by the Sixers several years ago: convert draft picks for the rights to swallow contracts, multiply draft assets by developing second round draft picks into basketball players, stashing marginal NBA talent overseas, and leveraging the Lakers status to attract prospects with huge upsides from free agency or the ranks of undrafted players.

It will be a multi year project. They are a proud team that has yet to grasp just how badly things can get for them as they fall.

Right now, the Lakers have no draft currency unless they remain incredibly bad for the next several years.  They owe the 76ers their first round draft pick, which loses protection in 2018.   Following that, they then will ship their first round pick to Orlando in 2017.  If they do not ship their first round pick to Orlando by that time, they will send the Orlando Magic their second round picks in 2017 and 2018.   They owe their 2019 second round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

If you haven’t connected the dots, the Lakers will not be rebuilding their team through the draft unless they are very very bad and retain a top three pick in 2016 and 2017.  How does this all play into the Sixers?  The Lakers are a bad team in a good division.  With merely two victories, they are solidly in next to last place in the NBA.  If they lose to the Sixers, a team improving each week, they will remain at two wins for the foreseeable future.  It’s quite likely that a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers will essentially shut their team out of the win column for the month of December.   With the next tier of futility sitting at four wins by the New Orleans Pelicans and the Brooklyn Nets, and the Laker team showing no signs of improvements, their likelihood of wins will not increase as the season advances.

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The Sixers will see the return of Tony Wroten, and will see both Carl Landry and Kendall Marshall in a Sixers Jersey for the first time.   Their arrival, and the maturation of a very young squad who continues to work through introductions with one another gives the Sixers a much better chance of finding success as this season moves on.  These Lakers resemble the 2013-2014 Philadelphia 76ers in many ways.  A team that can score somewhat but has no defense.   A team that just acquired a highly rated point guard in the draft, but whose fit is not an exact match for the team.   Will the Lakers team attract free agents to fill the void vacated by Kobe Bryant?  Perhaps.

But Sixers fans know where that leads a team.   If the Lakers lose, they may end up with the top draft pick of the 2016 NBA draft.   But their team appears to be years away from the NBA playoffs.