Philadelphia 76ers need succession plan

We have all wanted the Philadelphia 76ers to find success.  But as the organization stands in the doorway to what will likely be a very promising season, it’s time to visit the team’s succession plan

“My dog is bigger than your dog”.  “My dad can beat up your dad”. While these may read as quite strange to you today, there was a day and age where these were quite common phrases heard on playgrounds and schoolyards across the nation. And the underlying message is very important to the future of the Philadelphia 76ers right now. More important than many of you may realize.

We’ll get back to this a little later.

The Philadelphia 76ers stand at the cusp of their first playoff appearance in years. While the team is not a certainty, the front office must plan as though it is.  Ultimately, waiting for it to happen is too late.

What’s our “Plan B”?

Why the fretting? Why the doom and gloom from me, the guy who is typically upbeat and optimistic to a fault?  Well, I can sum that up in one word: succession.

Succession is the plan of each and every organization of who takes over in the case of absence of a decision maker. Often involved in disaster planning, the concept is just as important in cases of attrition, or mass departures. Every professional sports team performs succession planning when considering how free agency will affect the team.

Think of it in terms of “plan B”.

No successor plan dooms this team before it gets started

From head coach Brett Brown down to the ticket takers at the Wells Fargo center, this Philadelphia 76ers organization stacks up in the best way to meet goals. The current organizational chart clearly defines the myriad of  roles, responsibilities, authority, and expectations necessary to enable the team to function at peak performance.

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Until they are not.

Don’t disregard D’Antoni

Much like the NBA Draft strategy of former Philadelphia 76ers executive Sam Hinkie, the team cannot rely upon luck nor random chance to ensure the team’s success.  As the team learned after a 10-72 season, if the NBA believes that one of the team’s coaches makes sense in their organization, nothing prevents that team from poaching from the Philadelphia 76ers.

That 10-72 season team had no safety in obscurity, as assistant head coach Mike D’Antoni bailed out to lead the Houston Rockets. With the level of success those Rockets enjoyed in the 2016-2017 season, you can bet other teams shopping for new coaches will not hesitate to shop from Philly.

Ah, but there’s the rub….

Nothing lasts forever in the NBA. Nothing.

Philadelphia 76ers incubate players, businesses, and …. coaches

Some teams live for the moment. Right now, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors are two team focused on the moment, as their roster is mature and their chances of winning championships is here and now.

Sir Charles In Charge

Conversely, the Philadelphia 76ers have built the entire organization to develop that success: tomorrow. In fact, the organization built a brand new training center in Camden, New Jersey whose very focus is innovation.  The concept brings the latest and greatest of many contributing disciplines under one roof to help foster rapid development in the team’s players.

Development focus is a rare perk

Now, dealing the organization’s focus on tomorrow works very well at first. On one hand, a tomorrow focus gives strategists an alignment to do what’s best for the team LONG TERM.  In the constant trade off environment of spending today or saving for tomorrow, the approach sets the compass point of everyone associated with the Philadelphia 76ers organization towards tomorrow.

On the other hand, that strategy enables the team to align the coaching staff towards developing young players.  And it also added the incentive to each coach that the team would assist in developing their careers as well.

The best facility in sports

When the Philadelphia 76ers bought into then executive Sam Hinkie’s vision of a champion team in Philadelphia, the plan required a complete makeover of the entire organization. Building a championship training facitily for a struggling NBA team took a lot of faith, and guts, to pull off. B

Training at one of the best facilities in the nation brings out the best of all involved. It raises the bar to all as well.

Players know this when then first step foot within the facility. Business know this as the apply for the opportunity to stage from the various “incubation labs” on the premises. And the coaches, surrounded by the most recent technologies, certainly become aware of this quickly.

Open-mindedness is more than a virtue

But there is more to the innovation philosophy than just lip service. There is the principals embedded within innovation which are critical to the Philadelphia 76ers organization. Open-mindedness. Self-awareness. There is such a simple strength in the foundation which propelled the Philadelphia 76ers to this point of growth.

PistonPowered

Embrace the possibility of failure.

The multitude of trades in past NBA drafts were not just simply an attempt to multiply a handful of draft picks into an entire future of multiple picks. It was that basic principal of “what if we’re wrong?” in practical application.

In essence, the team was willing to sell the draft pick short at that moment for a future premium.

So how does this all wrap up into the topic at hand?

The three principals of succession

Principal I. Develop talents from within the organization capable of assuming a leadership role

Principal II. Accept that someone else will always have deeper pockets

Principal III. Embrace attrition of key personnel as a need to move closer to the championship goal.

There is a lot to take in from each principal. So of course, i will be more than happy to elaborate

Develop talents from within the organization capable of assuming a leadership role

The Philadelphia 76ers owe a great deal of thanks to the San Antonio Spurs.  Not only did the San Antonio Spurs train current Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown to lead an NBA team, but they did so knowing that he would assume an head coaching position someday.

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And they did so happily and willingly.

Now that did not stop the San Antonio Spurs from continued success. They continue to be one of the NBA’s most successful teams. But it demonstrates one of the key principals. Developing talents is not to suggest that you are encouraging defection. On the contrary, you develop the skillsets within the organization to develop loyalty, expertise, and capacity.

Developing talents from within is win-win for organization

Any organization which is known for “promoting from within” has a distinct advantage over other organizations. People are eager and willing to take on more today, in the hope of promotion tomorrow.

And those who have benefited from a caring mentor are far more likely to take rookies under their own wing and help them transition to their new team.  We did an annual review of the Philadelphia 76ers coaching staff recently.  One of the surprising facts uncovered is the team hired assistant coach Lloyd Pierce to work under head coach Brett Brown, a position he interviewed for earlier.  This is the perfect scenario.

By bringing Pierce to the staff, the Philadelphia 76ers have already ignited the mentoring process. Pierce came to the team in the belief that his career would benefit from the experience. That’s how developing organizations attract superior talent.

Accept that someone else will always have deeper pockets

So we’ve finally come full circle. The schoolyard disputes about the size of dogs, or the toughness of Dads boils down to this basic principal.  Someone else will always have deeper pockets.

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Do you steer clear of coaches and players who may succeed so well as a Philadelphia 76er that another team may be interested at the end of their contract? Certainly not. In fact, the idea of the signing or hiring is that very matter.

The deep pockets principal is hugely important in the modern NBA.  As teams rushed to overspend in free agency and overpay players, the Philadelphia 76ers wisely refrained from the chase of currency.

Spend today means no spend tomorrow

Now, as the NBA salary cap settles into a modest slope, many teams find that they overestimated the inflation of the cap and are fettered in terms of future contract signings. While I am not suggesting an austerity budget of NBA minimums, I am insisting that any spend of dollars not only is the fair value to the team today, but relative value in terms of what the team foregoes signing tomorrow.

While the team committed to J.J. Redick for the 2017-2018 season, do they have a plan for the 2018-2019 season? Likely yes, as that places the signing of Furkan Korkmaz to the team this year.

Embrace attrition of key personnel as a need to move closer to the championship goal.

The last, and perhaps most important, principal is the willingness to embrace the departure of key personnel.  In the NBA, that is an annual event as teams reshuffle their roster decks in the hopes of dealing themselves a winning lineup.

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But the flip side is the impact to the former team. Does it paralyze them into making no moves? Does it motivate them to panic and react with unwise moves? Or can the team maintain their composure, place their own succession plan into place, and target economical free agents while reinforcing the position with young talent?

Hinkie, Houston, Harden

You have to look no further than the Oklahoma City Thunder to see how several versions of the team’s history resulted in the eventual outcome.  The Thunder once boasted the services of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook.

When the team traded Harden, they feared losing him to free agency and getting nothing in return. So they unwillingingly traded him to the Houston Rockets. The team hoped to retain Kevin Durant, but was unable to persuade him to remain. Now the team is pinning the hopes of the franchise to Russell Westbrook.  By the way, Sam Hinkie was part of the Houston braintrust which pulled off that Harden trade.

The Thunder has taken three different approaches to attempting to retain elite talent on their roster. So far, that talent level has slowly declined. Unfortunately, the Philadelphia 76ers sit on what may be a similar pool of elite talent.

Spur development along its natural course

The San Antonio Spurs have remained relevant in the NBA for years, despite being a small market franchise, and despite the erosion of time over their established stats. This is the team which once boasted both Tim Duncan and David Robinson. In their time, their were one of the most dominating pair around the basket

The Spurs of today are completely different.  And that is possible because they have placed their trust in their head coach, Gregg Popovich.  And Coach Popovich mentored Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown

Philadelphia 76ers succession plan starts today

The Philadelphia 76ers are about to begin a journey. How far will it take them towards an NBA championship? It’s hard to say standing here today. On one hand, perhaps to the playoffs and no further. On the other hand, perhaps the journey will carry them to the semi-finals or finals. And even moreso, perhaps the journey will result in the NBA championship the city deserves and desires so desperately.

But before the expiration of player contracts, before the NBA begins poaching the coaching staff, the Philadelphia 76ers must set their succession plan.  The team must do so not hoping to succeed, but in the expectation that they will succeed.

Today’s youthful potential is tomorrow max contract

With a roster of Simmons, Saric, Embiid, Fultz all garnering significant playing minutes and with just two years NBA playing experience among them, the Sixers will face the challenge of the Spurs and Thunder someday.  Will they embrace and adapt the Spurs route, or hold on and try to retain Thunder way.  However the team chooses, they had best decide now.

Next: An update about our EuroBasket players

Success not only is incredibly fun, but it happens lightning-fast. That is why the team’s versatility is significant. That is why the team’s ability to flip from tall ball to small ball is so important.  And once this team makes the playoffs, it’s already too late.