As the NBA attempts to annoint next years best NBA teams, the current chaos at the Cleveland Cavaliers makes it difficult to predict the Eastern Conference winner. Blame the Philadelphia 76ers
It’s a simple narrative. On one hand, the challengers Golden State Warriors upped the ante. On the other hand, the Cleveland Cavaliers failed to follow suit. In the end, the results were predictable. In the current environment of “What have you done lately?”, the Cavaliers are now the team forced to respond to the Warriors, and the pressure is tangible. So how are the Philadelphia 76ers remotely involved?
Let’s review the Cleveland Cavaliers offseason so far after losing to the Warriors. Joel Embiid claimed the Philadelphia 76ers would dethrone the Cavaliers. Then Cavaliers general manager David Griffin learned the Cavaliers would not retain him going forward. The news surprised LeBron James
No one will believe this but just got off the phone with a source that said that LeBron camp was surprised Griff was out.
— Russillo (@ryenarussillo) June 20, 2017
Bombs keep dropping on Cleveland
But even more, it derailed any hopes the Cavaliers hoped to overtake GSW this off-season.
In the interim, the reports now project the team promoting interim GM Koby Altman to permanent General Manager. Still, the fact that star LeBron James found out after the fact cannot be ignored too hastily. But more surprises were coming his way. The bombshell exploded when Kyrie Irving reports surfaced over his desire to be traded to another team featuring him on offense.
That one dropped jaws across the nation
#Miami_Heat mailbag: Making sense of Kyrie Irving’s trade request https://t.co/lykJfVE7fq via @allucanheat1 pic.twitter.com/Ift7bzqBdY
— FanSided NBA (@FanSidedNBA) July 25, 2017
What gives?
In another simple narrative, the Philadelphia 76ers changed the NBA paradigm. Put another way, the Sixers successfully challenged the NBA at the most basic fundamental. Winning now is not everything.
More from The Sixer Sense
- 3 Sixers players who could help Team USA Basketball
- 76ers 2k24 ratings: 3 most underrated players on Philadelphia roster
- 76ers head coach Nick Nurse bares lofty plans for Paul Reed this season
- Grade the Trade: 76ers swap Tobias Harris for superstar PG in mock deal
- Sixers Podcast: Danny Green returns + James Harden bombshell
Joel Embiid is exactly what the team needs on social media. Rather than force team execs and coaches to defend basic philosophy on social media, he does so willingly. In fact, his humerous nature allows the NBA’s toughest topics to find debate on social media, the same media fraught with land mines of dissent with opposing views.
Embiid challenged the best teams in the NBA to rethink why selling everything out for the future at a chance of winning now is the only option for playoff teams. Simultaneously, he challenged his team, a product of the future-think mentality, to reel in the glorification of the NBA Draft and new rookies. To win, players must play now.
In one fell swoop, he accomplished it all.
So what does that have to do with the Cleveland Cavaliers? Everything.
If you don’t win it all, you are rebuilding in this NBA
There is only one NBA championship each year. If you do not win it, you are rebuilding in an attempt to win the next one. And there is the rub. When the Warriors upped the ante, the Cavaliers, the epitome of tactical win-now strategy, had nothing left to gamble. The Warriors simply did the “all-in” bet, and the Cavaliers are out of NBA credit to match their wager.
That strategy is fine in other years. But suddenly the Philadelphia 76ers have Joel Embiid, Markelle Fultz, and Ben Simmons leading at team into the Eastern Conference of the NBA, and they will simply get better each year. And Joel Embiid reminds all other NBA teams of that fact.
Marathon, don’t sprint
In the race to win, 29 teams had been sprinting. Only the Philadelphia 76ers chose to treat a championship run like a marathon. Now, other teams are noticing their strategy and adapting a similar strategy.
Next: Philadelphia 76ers: Slow and Low, basketball and BBQ
Teams which put all their energies into the single season dash are left breathless and scrambling to reload for the next season. Now, some players are questioning that philosophy. Some veterans, like J.J. Redick, is gambling his chance at a championship on the marathon approach.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are weathering a bit of chaotic storms right now. But the winds of change are blowing out of Philadelphia. And like all winds from the southeast, warmer weather is on it’s way.