Philadelphia 76ers Fans Should Have Faith In Bryan Colangelo
Bryan Colangelo has already had ample opportunity to mess up the Philadelphia 76ers franchise, but so far he has taken all of the right steps to building the team the right way.
Since becoming General Manager of the Sixers back in April, Bryan Colangelo has shocked fans with his approach towards making the Philadelphia 76ers a championship-level basketball team. When The news of Sam Hinkie’s departure first hit the Sixers twitter waves it seemed as if the process was finished. Many Philadelphia fans were outraged that the Colangelo family took over what was supposed to be a calculated rebuild all credited to the man who gathered the plethora of assets and draft picks.
Everyone’s intial feelings were that Bryan Colangelo would come in looking to put together a winning team in 2016 at all costs without giving any recognition to Hinkie’s greatness. However since then the exact opposite has happened. Colangelo has acknowledged that the former GM before him set the team up very well, and commended the fans for feeling the same way. On top of that, he used a very process-esque method of drafting on June 23rd by taking the player with the most potential in Ben Simmons, and two european wings in Timothe Luwawu and Furkan Korkmaz. That’s right folks, it’s not just Hinkie that sees value in “draft n’ stash” players.
Bryan Colangelo still has a ways to go before the entire Sixers fan base gets behind him, and perhaps his biggest step to getting there begins on July 1st at the start of free agency. Diehard process trusters and Colangelo naysayers will be looking for the GM to make foolish moves, but that won’t be the case.
Expect the Sixers to make unhurried signings that focus on putting the team in the position to improve at a much faster pace in terms of wins and team development compared to the previous three years, while still focusing on the long-term future. The lack of overall development during the Hinkie-era was mostly caused by bad luck in the draft lottery, and the injury to Joel Embiid, and in a way you could say BC got the job right at the perfect time.
Regardless of the circumstances concerning how he came into power, it is clear that Bryan Colangelo plans on continuing the process with his own spin. If he had any intentions of making this franchise a perennial 8th seed in the Eastern Conference he would’ve made a rushed decision by now.
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A couple examples that could’ve been mistakes came via the typical trade rumors leading up to the NBA draft. The reported talks with the Houston Rockets about swapping Nerlens Noel in a package for Trevor Ariza, Patrick Beverley was a great chance for Bryan Colangelo to show he was in “win now mode” above all else, but things did not materialize. The Sixers ultimately rejected the offer and still have yet to find a suitor for one of their bigs on the trade market.
Another situation that was thankfully averted was the reported talks between the Sixers and Celtics that went on until the eleventh hour. The Sixers were supposedly offering Nerlens Noel, and Robert Covington, as well as the 24th and 26th pick. That is quite a hefty package to give up for one player, but some argue a potential franchise point guard like Kris Dunn is worth it. What is most important is that when the Celtics stuck to their guns and demanded more from Philadelphia, Bryan Colangelo didn’t budge. That shows major patience on his part.
Colangelo has willingly done quite a few interviews over the past month or so, and he has confidently stated many of the same concepts in several of those interviews. Something he said while he was on the Doug Gottleib show last week really expressed how he is planning the restructure of this roster. Gottleib asked Colangelo why deals with Boston fell through despite both teams having obvious logjams on their depth chart. Colangelo responded with this.
"“There’s teams that are in deal making mode, and there’s teams that are in systematic measure mode and I think that’s where we are right now. We’re in systematic measured mode. We don’t want to do anything to jump out and give up too much just to get to the middle of the pack.” -Bryan Colangelo"
That right there is a man who has priorities in order. Whether you are a fan of Colangelo or not, you can’t argue that he has the correct strategy in place going forward. His transparency and willingness to be in the public eye is refreshing compared to the more reserved Sam Hinkie. In the same interview with Gottlieb BC went on to make in known that not every reported trade during the wacky times of the NBA draft were true, and that some had bad information. Between Celtics GM Danny Ainge and Colangelo there were bound to be plenty of smokescreens thrown out there, but again, the biggest takeaway is that Bryan Colangelo avoided making a bad deal despite having every chance to do so.
A lot of folks like to bring up Colangelo’s mistakes while he was GM for the Toronto Raptors, but if he was going to make the same mistakes twice we would’ve seen him take Euro prospect Dragan Bender number one overall like he did Andrea Bargnani. We would’ve seen him move Noel and/or Jahlil Okafor in questionable deals like he did when trading for T.J. Ford, and then Jermaine O’Neal. We would’ve seen player disinterest in playing for his team like when Chris Bosh left for the Miami Heat. Instead there are already rumors that top 15 free agent players like Dion Waiters and Harrison Barnes are in contention to come to Philly. The fact of the matter is Bryan Colangelo is defying all negative expectations.
It’s a little odd to hear words like measured and systematic because those were terms that defined what Sam Hinkie wanted to do here, and no one (including myself) expected Bryan Colangelo to take that same approach. Yes, there are differences to their overall ideologies, but both men reach/reached for the same goal, and that is a contending squad built through the draft first and make moves that put them in a position to be the next Golden State Warriors. Much of the hardship is behind us now, and you can see the light out of the proverbial tanking tunnel. All that’s left to do now is enjoy the growth and watch this team’s climb to the top.
I’m not going to say there absolutely no chance Bryan Colangelo doesn’t mess up in the future because it’s still very early on in his tenure with Philadelphia. There are no guarantees in the NBA even when you seemingly do all of the right things. What I can promise the Philadelphia fans is that the journey will be a lot more enjoyable if you have confidence in the team’s front office going forward. That all starts by entrusting Bryan Colangelo to continue his successful 2016 offseason.