Philadelphia 76ers Must Choose Roster Carefully

The Colangelo Standard

So as we prepare for the mock drafts, don our virtual GM hats and simulate NBA trades and free agent signings, and scoff at the idea that there is any complexity to the process, pause a moment.   Building a championship team is more that a shopping list of physical attributes or basketball skillsets.  It is an art-form, an assemblage of play-hard word-hard shared-vision professionals who not only buy in on the goals of the Philadelphia 76ers on the court, but who will be willing to take on the sports science, basketball analytics, sports psychology, nutrition and sleep monitoring, that goes with the team.

Compatibility is vital, but fleeting.  So if you can’t measure it, how do you achieve it?

Well, think back to school days where you were required to produce multiple copies of something.  Usually the teacher would have a pattern which would be traced onto the construction material, and then with sheers, tin snips, or saw blades, you could cut the pattern out based upon the tracing.  Each student in the room would then have a similarly shaped object with which to complete the project.

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In a similar manner, the Philadelphia 76ers are taking full advantage of Jerry Colangelo.  Using his personality as the “pattern”, the team can have high confidence in the selection process if Colangelo is similarly involved with each player. Why not general manager Sam Hinkie?  Why not head coach Brett Brown?  Neither has been on the other side of a building a successful playoff winning team.  While Colangelo’s team fell short, his team had a prolonged period of success in his day.  Success in the NBA changes players, and some coaches.   Rigidity sets in, as the mind begins to see the world as fixed (versus dynamic), which causes the player (or coach) to ignore the environment and attempt to reinvent historical success into the present outcome.  Colangelo has had intimate experience with various players who achieved success with the Phoenix Suns, but the impact of that success changed their ability to compliment and add to the overall team.

This team will benefit greatly from his guide rails on who to focus on – whether draft, free agency, or trade partner.  Colangelo comes from the mold of that traditional style, where a general manager had to rely on gut instinct, non verbal signals, and hunches of how a player would work out on his team.  But the Sixers team, as it currently stands, is setting the path along the flow of data, basketball analytics.   Innovation is incorporated into virtually every aspect of this team  Rigid thinking, or persons who gravitate towards rigid thinking, will have less likelihood of doing well.  And so, the team will be forced to blend the intuition of Colangelo, with the math whiz Sam Hinkie.  I, for one, think the pairing will have remarkable success.

Next: Short-handed Sixers Fall To the Pistons 125-111

So head on over to the Sixer Sense mock 2016 NBA draft board if you must.  Fire up the NBA trade simulators if you dare.  But keep in mind that whomever you believe is THE person to introduce to the team, there will still be that matter of will they embrace the city and the culture of the team?  When Jerry Colangelo suggested that the team needs to create a winning culture to attract NBA free agents, he was saying more than the team needs to be attractive to NBA players.   The culture phenomenon runs two ways, and the teams winning culture then becomes the standard for the team to identify who will perform optimally with the Philadelphia 76ers.

No, the team cannot just fill the roster with warm bodies now.  Building the championship team requires an immediate commitment to excellence, work ethic, and cohesiveness from all involved with the organization.  To attain and maintain that level of quality, the team may be required to pass over players or prospects whom we have our hearts set on joining the team.   Perhaps now more than ever, #TrustTheProcess is critical.  We’ll know how we’re doing soon enough.