The numbers game: must Philadelphia 76ers prune young players?

Have the Philadelphia 76ers overstretched themselves by bunching four young wings nearly simultaneously? Now, the team faces a logjam at shooting guard and must remedy the situation quickly and likely painfully

The Philadelphia 76ers are no longer a team with limitless opportunities for young men with a burning desire to play the game of basketball. But that is not to say that the team philosophy has changed, nor has the team strategy. As a matter of fact, It’s simply the matter of timing. The Philadelphia 76ers now find themselves competing with NBA veteran teams.  At this tier, all teams are on the hunt for post-season success. As a result, the Sixers must now, in part, fight fire with fire. What does that mean?

Simply stated, tough decisions. The timeline for the Philadelphia 76ers is too short. There simply isn’t enough time on this team necessary to develop young talent at a reasonable rate. If necessity is the mother of invention, then success is the death of patience. We reviewed the current logjam at the wing position in a recent article.  While detailing the demise and potential way to remedy the Philadelphia 76ers bench, a more subtle and dangerous problem surfaced.

Uh-oh, Colangelo

With the absence of Furkan Korkmaz and Markelle Fultz, and the underperformance of Justin Anderson and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, the 76ers have a logjam at wing. Four players desperately in need of coaching and playing time are in a virtual dead heat in terms of ability to generate quality minutes.  In 2017-2018, only two players have been healthy enough for playing time.

But what of 2018-2019? With two new crops of young players intent on landing with the Philadelphia 76ers, the likelihood for the team to reboot developing strategies for four returning players is highly unlikely.  It makes sense for the team to focus on Fultz much the way it focused on Simmons. That means TLC, Korkmaz, and / or Anderson are on the bubble for the team already.