While the last few weeks of the season mean very little for the Philadelphia 76ers organization, it means a lot for some individual players.
Looking towards the future, the Philadelphia 76ers have very little motive to put a lot of stress on the last few weeks of the season here. In all reality, losing more games better positions them for a higher draft pick, as any remote hopes of the playoffs have been pushed far out of the window at this point.
As a team, success is always a big thing for the Sixers. Brett Brown pushes his players towards that at all moments. As an organization, the winning and losing over the next few weeks isn’t a big deal. It’s important to note the distinction between the team and organization.
For some players, although when they play they will play to win, the next few weeks don’t really mean much in the grand scheme of their careers. The three free agent signings from this past summer — Jerryd Bayless, Gerald Henderson, Sergio Rodriguez — have played lengthy pro careers at this point and the last few weeks of this season won’t dictate how they’re remembered.
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Even some of the younger but more established players like Robert Covington and Nik Stauskas won’t have their careers resting on the final few weeks.
On the contrary, there are some players who may have a lot of what their careers end up being dictated by these last games of the season.
The Sixers, over the last several years, have become a place for young, hungry players to put themselves on display in order to kick-start their NBA careers. The Sixers offered these players something they needed — an outlet to prove themselves — and the players offered the Sixers something they needed — cheap players that were willing to be coached.
That tone has since changed a bit for the Sixers. While they do still offer some spots on their roster to young and developing players, this season was the first one in the rebuilding process where they were actually looked at as a good team for a decent stretch. This was due to the addition of Joel Embiid for the most part, as he has proven he is nothing to be taken for granted.
As the season has gone on, though, injuries have taken some, and trades have taken others. The Sixers lost Joel Embiid, Jerryd Bayless and Ben Simmons for the remainder of the season due to injuries. Nerlens Noel was traded away. So the tone switched back, as the team went back to being bad, and also went back to showcasing developing players.
Some of the players on this team will still have fine careers even if they have a poor last few weeks. One in particular, however, has a lot resting on these games. His name is Shawn Long.
The Sixers had an open roster spot after the trade deadline since they bought out Andrew Bogut‘s contract, and with it, they decided to bring Long on. Long was in the D-League, and was an inexpensive option that was first signed to a 10-day contract. With very little to lose in signing him, the team signed him for the rest of the season and the following two years on a non-guaranteed contract.
He has shown glimpses of being pretty good, and adding some depth to the frontcourt in a way that won’t clog it up, something that will be new and unique to the Sixers. Over the last three games, Long has gotten more opportunity and has taken advantage of that. He averaged nearly 20 minutes per game in those three games and put up 15.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 1.0 steal.
If he can keep that up, the Sixers will consider keeping him around for the final two years of his contract for sure, especially with how cheap he will come.
Aside from him, some others have the last few weeks to really jump-start their careers. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot will be around even if he flops in these final few weeks, but how well his next few seasons go may be dictated by how much ground work he can lay in the final games of the season here.
Luwawu has had an interesting season. Drafted in the late first round of the draft, he spent a lot of the beginning of the season with the Delaware 87ers working on a lower level. On the season he is averaging just 4.9 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game in 14.7 minutes of play. Over the last 15 games, however, he has been afforded more playing time as the season has neared the close, and had his minutes increased to 23.8 minutes per game. In those minutes, he’s averaged 8.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game.
Luwawu-Cabarrot took some time to get a feel for the game, and the team took it slow with his development and granting him playing time. That seems to have paid off, as the gradual introduction to the American style of the pro basketball world has been the approach TLC needed.
Still, there are several games left for Luwawu to learn.
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These are just two examples of what many players on the team are dealing with over these next 10 games. While team effort is important, and these players know that, they are also thinking about themselves and the future of their careers. The final 10 games of a season are often looked at as insignificant. If these players approach the games as such, they may not have careers to look forward to in the NBA for very much longer.