Philadelphia 76ers: Bryan Colangelo Needs Roster Balance

Bryan Colangelo is showing his hand, and he’s saying that he needs a Philadelphia 76ers roster with more balance.

Bryan Colangelo hasn’t made any roster moves, yet he’s made his mission with this team incredibly clear.

Colangelo came on in succession of Sam Hinkie, and was initially hated by some fans just because he was a part of the situation that pushed Hinkie out. Hinkie had been with the Sixers for three years, and implemented a somewhat unheard of rebuilding process. Hinkie fed Philly basketball fans the tanking method, but did it in a way that many had never seen. It was something different, that’s for sure, and many fans liked that. They liked that their team was embracing an “against the grain” attitude with their rebuild.

I had some initial stand-off feelings toward Bryan, but I fee like he deserves a chance. He isn’t all that different from Sam, and he will be able to do big things with this team. That should devalue what Hinkie has done, though. Anything Bryan completes will be with the help of what he accumulated from Hinkie.

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In an interview with Tom Moore of the Bucks County Courier Times, Colangelo showed for the first time his intentions moving forward. Although it’s nothing unexpected, it is somewhat different to hear real words from the leader of this team. Hinkie was distant with the media, and because of this we rarely heard his intentions, and were often caught off-guard with roster moves and changes. Even when he did talk with the media, he was bland, and very vague with what was to come. We were often left guessing with the mission.

Colangelo said that a roster of balance is one of his top priorities. In many facets, Colangelo believes having the pieces in the right places can be the difference between having a winning, successful season, and being a bad team in the playoffs.

Colangelo referenced one team, the Houston Rockets of this year who fell to the eighth seed and won just one game in their series before being knocked out of the playoffs. This team was expected to be great. They seemed to have it all together, with two superstars in James Harden and Dwight Howard. But according to Bryan, an imbalance is what made that success impossible.

“You have to make sure the pieces are complementary,” Colangelo said.

Hinkie did not build a roster that was balanced, and Colangelo knows that. So by saying he wants balance, he’s implying that the roster we see now, and maybe even the foundational pieces that exist with the team, will not be here moving forward. That means people like Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel are far from being a solid future piece on this team. Perhaps even Dario Saric won’t be kept around if he doesn’t fit as well as we hope he will. It would even be somewhat safe to say one of them — Okafor or Noel — will be moved within the year.

Additionally, Colangelo is saying that he may be looking for fit in the draft, and not best available. Hinkie often drafted the best players available — which is why they ended up with three top-prospect centers over the last three seasons — and that led to an imbalance with the roster. Colangelo will not do that, and that may mean that Brandon Ingram will be a Sixer, even with the top overall pick, and not Ben Simmons.

We should also expect to see a value with older players and younger players. Colangelo mentioned that he saw value in having a fair amount of veterans and up-and-coming players on a team.

Next: Sixers Adding Saric, Embiid, More

We know one thing following the recent media sessions with Colangelo — nothing is on the same trajectory that it was before, and Colangelo is still keeping most of his strategy a secret.