Losing Is No Longer An Option For Philadelphia 76ers

Break down or break out?

There is no more ifs, ands, or buts about it.  The Philadelphia 76ers with or without Joel Embiid, Dario Saric, Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, or even the first pick of the 2016 NBA draft are no longer able to play for tomorrow.  Tomorrow is next season.  It’s fish or cut bait time.  But the fact that the team is stuck in another losing streak cannot overshadow the fact that this is a far more improved team than the one who limped into the season.

Then, it was a cast of “we don’t know who or what we have” characters, shuffling among starters to see who can and who cannot pull the weight of an NBA opportunity. Some did not make the cuts, but did find homes on other rosters.  Some did make the cuts, but are having difficulty getting playing time.   Some are seeing playing time, but with a turnstyle of healthy players parading onto and off the court, it’s tough to get any true sense of the progress of this team.

And so, we try to isolate our favorite player and catch glimpses of him as he rotates onto the floor.   Or we can try to catch the highlights of this team and see if we can determine whether mistakes are simply those that happen in a basketball game, or egregious errors of lack of effort, or lack of knowledge, where the player sets himself up for closer scrutiny going forward.

Or we can sit back and take the words of the experts, such as those of head coach Brett Brown.

One reason I like using Brown’s commentary as a resource is that he is a fairly straight forward kind of guy. While he seldom calls out an individual player, he has been known to do so when needed. But more importantly he knows what the team is attempting to do in the game, and what the challenges are to each player. If someone plays hurt, I won’t know but the coach will.  But the stakes are simply far too high right now.  The morale of the team is shattered.   The hope is for “next year” but there are players on this team who have bled, fought even though outmanned, and kept coming back.

This is our team, and up to now I think the Philadelphia 76ers fans have been patient and willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.    But the team is on track to flirt with, if not tie, the worst record of the franchise.  The rumbles of the discord are already between the lines.  Brown has said it.  Executive Jerry Colangelo has said it.  The team is going in a  different direction next season.  The free agency avenue opens up to the team next year.  Trades are an option.  And the NBA draft is coming with potentially four draft picks.  There is hope coming down the pipeline. But is it just hope, or is the team seriously about to bust out ?

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