Magic Mountain
Finally, he looks at the Orlando Magic, and determines they have tried to walk the line between the two camps. In the end, the Magic end up without a clear superstar in their roster either:
"The Magic suffer from the same problem as the Celtics in that you don’t know who their best player is. The difference is that if Isaiah Thomas is the Celtics’ best player in two years, they’re in major trouble. If Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton, Aaron Gordon, Tobias Harris, Hezonja, or Nikola Vucevic is the Magic’s best player in two years, it means they made the leap."
Ultimately, Moore concludes that the Celtics have done well. But the catch-22 of doing well is that is raises the bar of expectations, forcing the team to attempt a “leap of faith” to win in the playoffs, or blow things up and start over.
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Got What We Wanted
But of the three rebuilds, the only team with the discernible franchise changing player is Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. However, the Philadelphia 76ers may soon discover that Ben Simmons is equally talented. If the talents of Embiid Simmons and Saric are as good as advertised, the 76ers, in spite of their record, are further ahead on their rebuild than either the Celtics or the Magic, and the team sill awaits the lottery results of the 2017 NBA Draft – a very strong draft class in virtually everyone’s assessment.
Pilot Program
At the end of the 2016-2017 season, the Philadelphia 76ers will have begun to improve so noticeably that perhaps some NBA franchise will once more risk the ire of the NBA, tap Sam Hinkie to join their front office, and work The Process in some new city for some new team. But until that happens, the Philadelphia 76ers are the pilot program of this new rebuild.