Philadelphia 76ers Hopes Go Beyond 2017 NBA Draft.

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Jun 23, 2016; New York, NY, USA; A general view of a video board displaying all thirty draft picks in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports /

We’ll Get Him Next Time

To many, the shopping list of the Philadelphia 76ers covers all positions not currently played by Joel Embiid. And for all intents and purposes, there is nothing wrong with establishing lofty goals.

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But the very conservative Analytics approach to an NBA championship team clarifies the team compostiion relies almost entirely on the top three players on the roster. Those top three may already be on the team in the form of Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Ben Simmons, and Dario Saric. We won’t know until the end of the 2017-2018 season, at the earliest.

Even then, the pieces may be at or nearly elite, but the sum of the team may fall short due to bad chemistry, bad scheme, or just bad timing.

But the mindset of this team has become so accustomed to the undrafted, long-range future of the strategy, that many are finding it difficult to kick the habit of automatically seeking today’s answers in tomorrow’s draft.

Many of the answers may already be on this team, and simply need time to develop. The back court play may tempt us to shop for a solution for two guards next season, but neither Ben Simmons nor Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot has seen significant action yet. Are we making a shopping list of the items already in our cupboards?