Window of Opportunity, Thanks to Minutes Restrictions
The team had walked past the cliff of utter disaster for three years, and it the end, had a handful of draft picks in the top ten as a result. Unfortunately, three of those top selections all played the NBA center position.
And that complicated the team’s future, a future where winning was quickly becoming everything. But the team still had hope. They could timeshare the three centers, and overflow the excess playing time at power forward.
Embiid would come on minutes and load restrictions. Okafor would come with minutes restrictions. Noel could fill the gap and allow Richaun Holmes to pick up minutes at power forward. But the team had hopes.
Perhaps the team had too high hopes.
Bryan Colangelo: "I will not make a bad deal for this organization."
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) December 19, 2016
However it fell out, the “it’s Hinkie’s fault” ended with the publication of the resignation letter. Colangelo said as much when he arrived, insisting that the team needed to fix the center position. Remember the press conference when the team opened the new training facility in New Jersey?
"“We have a lot of time for things to work out,” Colangelo said during the team’s media day at its new practice facility. “Some of it will happen in the preseason. Some of it will happen in the regular season. But I don’t feel like we are up against any kind of deadline of any sort.”"
And so, the urgency of a new season was never admitted to the public. Oh, lots of messages DID make it through. Too many rookies. Too few veterans. Too many centers. Too many speculations. Too few frank discussions with players.
A ticking time bomb.