Philadelphia 76ers Must Choose Roster Carefully

Precision is vital as the Philadelphia 76ers begin to build a team around players. Fit requires more than basketball skill-sets. To build a true team, there must be a shared vision, and compatible personalities. One disgruntled player can undo years of work and sacrifice

It seems silly to suggest that these Philadelphia 76ers should begin to be rigid in their gate-keeping functions when considering who to pursue in upgrading the team roster in the off-season, doesn’t it?  You would think that a nine win team would be happy to get anyone who could dribble, shoot, score, and perhaps even throw in a little defense, right?

Not really.

The team bonding remains fragile now, so very fragile. While the coaching staff, the infrastructure, and even the players themselves have been through so much shared sacrifice, delayed gratification, and struggling to keep the faith in the process, the losses have piled up.  The team has only had one basketball season together to build a level of trust, of respect, and the self-confidence in themselves and confidence in each other.  This roster began the season making introductions to one another.  As the season progressed, injured players became healthy enough to join their teammates.   But the youth, health, unfamiliarity, and slowly developing skillsets as individuals and as a team resulted in far more losses than victories.

We believe that changes next season.  But only under certain conditions.

You see, bringing new faces to the team can do as much damage to whatever progress the team has made as it can place the team on a fast track to building a winner.  Select the wrong player, someone who is selfish, self-centered, egotistical, or even someone who has no respect for teammates, authority, of the painful history of the team, and you will see a rapid devolution of the infantile camaraderie still under construction.

We’ve watched it happen in other Philadelphia sports franchises.  When Terrell Owens was dissatisfied with the Philadelphia Eagles, he turned on his teammates, particularly his star quarterback Donovan McNabb, and tore the locker room apart at the seams until the team cut him.  He was very talented, but his actions tore apart the teamwork that had taken years to build – together.  So too did former Phillies closer Jonathon Palpebon call out teammates and team management to the carpet as he vexed unhappiness with being contracted to a non-contender.

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Beware the players who believe they are larger than the games that they play.  But the right fit extends beyond the basketball court, beyond the front office, and down to the entire staff of the organization.  When the team recruited Dr. David T Martin to come onboard as the Director of Performance Research And Development, they did not appeal to being a pioneer in the field with a basketball team.  They gently emphasized the common goal of excellence, and that was the selling point.

For now, the Philadelphia 76ers have almost no risk of that.  The team is cohesive, has a perceptive head coach in Brett Brown who constantly drills to the team that it is a privilege to play in the NBA, and that each opportunity should witness the maximum effort of anyone who dons the 76ers jersey.   So far that has worked, because most of the players on the team are either too young to have built up a calloused attitude of self-importance, or, as in the case of the few true veterans on the roster, have been selected because of their quiet self confidence and willingness to give back to the younger players as well as to the NBA itself.

Next: Build Me Up Buttercup

Build Me Up Buttercup

But when the team begins the true build, the off-season before the 2016-2017 NBA season, the team will have every opportunity to build through multiple picks in the 2016 NBA draft, through trades, and even through free agency.  The team will have a tremendous amount of assets to use in the rebuilding process: extensive free money to use on free agency, numerous developing players and picks to use as trade currency, and even the draft picks being used to select NCAA top prospects in the NBA draft.

So many chances to get it right.  But just as many chances to get it wrong.  For a team that has fought hard, worked long hours in the gym to build their skill-sets and improve overall, the current season is both a lesson in humility and a bond that is being forged.  These players are becoming close through adversity.  In fact, adversity builds relationships that can be stronger than even family ties.  This team, while still growing together, is drawing close.

But when the off season begins,  some of those relationships will be strained, and even severed.  Some teammates will remain with the team, while others could be traded to another NBA team.  Some players may not even make the roster next season, whether due to expiration of their existing contract, or waived to make room for the busload of new faces on their way to the team.  Each new face, each new player, will force the relationship process back to square one, only to start all over with the new team roster.

During the spurt of mini success by the Sixers, Jahilil Okafor gave some thoughts about the team which he observed by sitting on the bench for the final five minutes:

"It was definitely a great team effort,” Okafor said. “After the road trip, we really tried to encourage each other to come back on this home stand and get some games won. So we’re 1-0 right now, and we’re all pretty confident. We’re just going to keep trying to get better, but it was a great team effort for sure.” – Jahlil Okafor"

Jahlil Okafor is the team’s leading scorer.  Would a Kobe Bryant be as humble and team promoting, or even a LeBron James?  I don’t expect the results  of the interview would be nearly as gracious.

If the team overcompensates a newcomer to the team, ill will can form from the players who have fought over the years to improve the team.  If the team parts ways with a popular teammate, his replacement could suffer a cool reception.  But if the team accidentally brings in a player who is too brash, too cocky, egotistical or selfish, that would be a bad experience for everyone concerned.
It’s tougher to avoid than it sounds.   Should the team pursue a free agent who has had plenty of post season experience, can they refrain from citing that post season experience to teammates who have yet to even compete for a playoff opportunity?   If the team struggles with a losing streak, can a player who has only known NBA or college experience remain upbeat, and be a positive motivator to himself and his teammates?

It’s just not that easy to do.  Just review the experiences of rookie Jahlil Okafor this season.  His rookie struggles were neither unique nor unexpected.  But the response of the team to his rookie decisions may have given the team the last piece to truly build a winner.

Next: The Colangelo Standard

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.

ALSO ON SIXER SENSE:  Philadelphia 76ers Playing For The Love Of The Game

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.