Smile, Philadelphia 76ers have 3 championship pieces on roster
By Bret Stuter
Basketball Analytics of NBA Championship teams suggest the Philadelphia 76ers need three NBA elite players. Smile, Sixers fans. They may already be on the roster
The Philadelphia 76ers did not tank for the top pick in any NBA Draft. Asserting that is simply inaccurate. But the Philadelphia 76ers did fast-cycle through players in hopes of finding elite pieces for an eventual run at an NBA Championship. And in doing so, landed enough NBA Draft currency to follow up the 2016 first pick with a trade to get the 2017 first pick.
It was all part of a grand design to construct an NBA Champion. Not just by building the right roster. But to build a lasting NBA Champion, the Philadelphia re-engineered their entire organization. And they constructed a state-of-the-art Training Facility in Camden, New Jersey to train these NBA future greats. The team created a “machine within the machine” to serve the needs of each player on the team.
Basketball Analytics
When the time was right, the team changed the focus of player analysis from optics to basketball analytics. And as the team mired as one of the worst teams in the NBA, the organization used that time to build an infrastructure worthy of a championship NBA team.
And the team had the blueprint for doing that as well. An NBA Championshp team requires three special players as the core, with a strong supporting cast assembled around them. The mistake most teams make is building the team sequentially. That is, they get one great player, try to find the second, then try to find a third. Once a core is intact, they scramble to assemble complimentary pieces around them. The NBA salary cap makes that all but next to impossible.