This Offseason Is Pivotal For Philadelphia 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers are clearly in losing mode yet again this season, but next season they need to win. That makes this offseason a big one.

The Philadelphia 76ers are not having a winning year, that was made immensely clear through the first 10 (and so on) games of the season. Despite boasting a new rookie center that is battling for the Rookie of the Year award, and finding one of the best unknown rookie point guards that went un-drafted (I’m talking about Jahlil Okafor and T.J. McConnell), the team simply can’t win a game.

Things have gone poorly for the team. Through 27 games, they’ve only won one, and are ranking very low in just about every statistic. They are dead last in points scored per game, which is not going to set them up well to win.

This past offseason was a good one, and picking up Jahlil likely set a foundation for the next several seasons, and a foundation for the rebuild process itself. But a foundation means nothing if it’s not expanded on.

After going through some incredible tanking two years prior (the Sixers didn’t win 40 games combined from 2013-2015), it’s finally time we see things go in the right direction. Getting Jahlil was the right direction.

This is a team that hasn’t seen the playoffs since 2012, and hasn’t seen anything more than a mediocre playoff team since 2001. Ever since Allen Iverson left, it was tough to rekindle the flame of excitement for Sixers basketball, but Okafor seems to have done it.

Still, these next few offseasons, specifically this immediately upcoming one, are very important.

Getting Okafor was big, expanding on that is even bigger. It’s clear the pieces are not all there for the Sixers. Guys like JaKarr Sampson and Hollis Thompson are not going to win you games when they are starting games regularly for you. Simply put the team needs better players, and what better place to do that than the draft?

The Sixers have a possible four first round draft picks, with a possibility of three of those picks being in the top 15. The options they have with those picks are limitless. They can trade around for an assimilated good NBA player with some of those picks, or they can take the Hinkie route and get some of the best young college players in the draft.

Who’s out there for the Sixers to grab? Ben Simmons is a name that’s been brought up a lot. The LSU forward is doing a ton this season, and the idea of him being a Sixer is enticing, especially since the Sixers could use him on a starting lineup. Although he doesn’t have much of a range on his shot, he’s averaging 19.9 points and 14.9 rebounds per game.

The shot does need to be improved. With Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, and (maybe) Joel Embiid, the key is already way too clogged up to have more action there. If he could just spread his shots out a little bit more, he would be the perfect pick.

On top of the draft, the Sixers have a star player from Croatia, Dario Saric, coming over next year, according to Saric’s father. Saric is an incredible multi-purpose player. He’s 6’10”, but is shooting 45% from beyond the arc in Croatia this season, which is impressive.

Saric’s shooting and Simmons dominance could be something that gets the Sixers out of this huge hole they’ve been in.

Lastly, the look to improve next season was made even more clear, as Jerry Colangelo, former owner and general manger of the Phoenix Suns was announced as being hired as a special advisor to Sixers’ general manager Sam Hinkie and the Sixers. Colangelo being hired shows that the Sixers are ready to dive into the free agent market with all of their available cash, and realize that they can’t do it with Sam Hinkie’s reportedly bad relationship with player agents.

Next: Did Hinkie Mess Up By Not Re-Signing Sixers?

This offseason was good, but one win through well over 20 games is not going to cut it. They need to do something this offseason that will set them up to be competitive, and competitive soon.