Philadelphia 76ers Need Vast Improvement Next Season

How good do the Philadelphia 76ers need to be to attract top NBA talent? Far better than .500, which translates into the Philadelphia 76ers need to make vast improvements next season.

We’ll get better. When you sit on a mere nine wins in a season, improvement is practically the only direction left. The Philadelphia 76ers have exhausted decline to the point that any further erosion to the team would cause questions even in a fan base who has waiting patiently for a sign of the team to get better.  In fact, the three year timeline has taken us all to the point of limiting expectations of this team going forward.  Simply out of the practicality, a team with just nine wins, that doubles it’s success, ends up with an 18-64 record, the point of origin in the 2013-2014 season.  And so, four years to improve to the point where it all began seems a little, um… too low in the stretch goal department.

But the team is sitting on just nine wins.  Even if the team nailed four draft picks and had the appearance of both Joel Embiid and Dario Saric, what could the team possible hope to do? Twenty wins?  Thirty wins?  The New York Knicks have veteran players and rookie talent, and will settle in at the 30 win plateau this season.   The Minnesota Timberwolves will finish in the 25 win range.
But for the Sixers to attract good free agent talent at the end of the 2016-2017 season, we cannot simply sit back and see how we do.  We know that the team will have a myriad of new talent, new combinations, and even a slow introduction to the NBA game for Joel Embiid.  All of that translates into a slow pace out of the gate next season.  Perhaps not the comatose performance as this years opening was, but still not a fast jump out of the gate either.

With the team buried in youth this season, and as many as six new faces potentially being added to the mix, the team will once more have too many young players to address effectively.  There will be no film, no basketball history, no NBA analytics, from which to base decisions upon, leaving the team with a heavy skew towards the science and math realms to decide from gut instincts.

Doesn’t sound like a good way to jump start the team to get anyone’s attention in next year’s free agency, does it?

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As the roster sits right now, even with oncoming talent, the team is probably in the low 20’s to low 30’s win range.  That’s where the team projected this season with the arrival of Jahlil Okafor paired with Nerlens Noel.  The team faced an onslaught of detours along the way, compounding the problems and delaying any improvements next season.  So what does the team need to do to place the improvement on a fast track?

Well, the team cannot wait this off-season.   As interesting as the trade deadline rumors had become after the fact, the Philadelphia 76ers will need to secure veteran talent with elite upside in the off-season.  What is the cost of that kind of trade?  The price will be dear, as the rumored trade for reserve Atlanta Hawk point guard Dennis Schroder was described to be.  A first round pick and player(s) at a minimum for a serviceable starter is the likely asking price.  While the team is waiting to witness the production from Joel Embiid, I would not expect to see Embiid, Okafor, nor Noel in the trade rumors.

The other option is the NBA draft in 2017.  Should it become clear that the Los Angeles Lakers first round pick will not convey, that first round selection becomes even more valuable in 2017, as next year’s draft class is expected to be a more talented group.  After the NBA lottery, the Philadelphia 76ers will know where they stand in terms of picks this year and next, and can plan accordingly.

If it were a fantasy world, and Philadelphia 76ers executive Jerry Colangelo were truly connected with all top talent in the NBA, we might even hope for a free agent at the highest level, like say a Kevin Durant, to come to Philadelphia…

But that would only set us up for a huge disappointment on par with Philadelphia Eagles fans who held the flame of eternal hope for the team to acquire Marcus Mariota from the Tennessee Titans.  It didn’t happen and likely never had a chance.

Another more realistic option is to slot more playing time to this season’s reserves:  T.J. McConnell, Nik Stauskas and perhaps even Hollis Thompson should be considered for more minutes next season, determined by how well they finish out this season with a heavier share of court time.

A final option, revisiting the free agency, is to dust off the checkbook and take a run at a free agent on a short lucrative deal.  Somewhat like a deal constructed by the Sacramento Kings to sign Rajon Rondo, a one year, $9.5 million dollar deal which would give the team a solid look at a veteran, while enabling the player to build market demand at the end of the contract. One such player who could contribute on a short term deal would be New Orleans Pelicans shooting guard Eric Gordon.  The injury-prone shooting guard Eric Gordon has not been able to live up to a lucrative contract with the Pelicans, but he would be a serviceable scoring guard for the Philadelphia 76ers.  He has a good offensive assortment, and his defense is outstanding.  He’s a true two -way player and the Pelicans, having been burned already, show no signs of trying to resign him.

Next: Does T.J. McConnell gives Sixers confidence to pick Simmons?

Orlando Magic Evan Fournier is another projected free agent shooting guard who could make an immediate contribution for the Sixers next year.  Averaging 14.7 PPG, 2.7 APG, 1.3 SPG, and 2.9 RPG, Fournier is another player who could make an immediate impact for a Sixers team desperate to find two-way players at the wing position.

However the Sixers elect to move ahead, one thing is very clear.  If they are truly planning to be a deep playoff contender in three years, they have to see next season as something far more urgent than “let’s see what the draft can bring us?”.   To improve to the level some expect, the team will need to be both proactive and aggressive in the off-season.  How aggressive is tough to say.  You see, that’s something this team has very little recent history doing in a forward direction.