Philadelphia 76ers: Jerry Colangelo is Not Transparent About Moves

Jerry Colangelo is not at all transparent about the upcoming moves for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Since Jerry Colangelo was brought onto the Philadelphia 76ers as vice president of basketball operations, fans, media, and anyone involved with the Sixers has tried to understand his mind and what he’s thinking about the future of the basketball team. Although Colangelo has visited Philly and made himself to the media on multiple occasions, the quotes he gives them can often not lead fans or media to make any solid conclusions on anything that is going to be coming up for the team.

This upcoming offseason is quite possibly the most important one as far as being important to the rebuilding process, and Colangelo is being extra secretive about where the team is planning on putting their chips.

As we move towards this offseason, which seems to become more and more important each day, fans and analysts are really starting to wonder and hypothesize about what is to come. There is a point where you have to move on from relying on building through draft prospects, and build on what you’ve done there. The Sixers drafted great this year, bringing in a great prospect in Jahlil Okafor that has exceeded expectations, and it looks as if they could draft even better this season if the ping pong balls fall in their favor. The typically accepted way of building is moving on from the draft one offseason after you leave the lottery, but the Sixers might be able to swing some free agents their way on the basis that they have a really bright future.

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If they draft well, they could pitch the fact to their free agents that they have the best young talent in the league. Some free agents might go on the basis of unproven NBA players that look like they will be good, but the smarter ones know that the NBA is a different level compared to college, and they shouldn’t gamble their futures on NBA players that have yet to see a minute of floor action.

Jerry Colangelo talked about this issue with the media before Friday night’s game against the Washington Wizards.

"“You have to create an atmosphere that is really attractive to free agents, and you need to create a pool of players that others want to join… We could talk, in theory, about what’s going to happen, but we just need to go out and start doing things. And when we do, I think we will have a shot to become a destination. That’s our goal.”"

Now here’s where we get to the part where indications from what the people in the front office are saying become less transparent, and more murky. Obviously Colangelo knows that the only way you attract free agents is by having a team, or as Jerry calls it, a pool of players, that is one that players want to play with. As Jerry puts it, the way to do that is to “go out and start doing things.”

Now, what exactly does that mean? Does that mean that Colangelo and Sam Hinkie need to go out and start actively talking to players’ agents and seeking out free agents? Or does he mean that the team itself needs to start doing things, like winning games? When Colangelo said this, he was standing in the locker room, perhaps literally meaning, “when we leave the locker room, we have to go start winning games.” As you can see, Colangelo is being far from clear with what he means about attracting free agents.

That is what I gathered from the quote, that Colangelo means they need to start winning games — or at least showing value for the future — in order to become attractive to free agents. The theme of the night was improving in-games for Colangelo, and staying focused for the final 25 games. “The more minutes they get, the more you see. We ought to just observe for these last 25 [games], and be better prepared to make those decisions when we make those decisions”

Colangelo seems to want to make this team a winning destination and then go out and get the free agents.

“All players want to win. It’s a little premature for us to think that we are that destination, but our goal is to become that. That’s our goal.”

So does that mean that it’s not in the plan to move to free agency with all effort this season? Will they bring in draft prospects, hope they win, thus making Philly more attractive, and then pursue free agents two seasons from now? According to Colangelo, in order to bring in free agents, they need to have starts to draw high-level free agents to Philly. Those stars aren’t all here yet, some are still in college — assuming the Sixers can grab Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram — and will need to prove themselves in the NBA to draw those free agents. It just seems like the Sixers are further off from being active in free agency than we thought, thus putting the rebuilding process possibly a year or two behind where we thought it was.

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Colangelo and Hinkie hopefully have some sort of road map to go by over the next few months. But the truth is, they are certainly not going to come right out to the media and tell them what it is. Colangelo’s words are not easy to dissect, but we can only hope the constant losing for a better future is almost over.