The Philadelphia 76ers had a relatively successful campaign this past season, but the franchise is clearly not in the mood to be content with a participation trophy. As evidenced by the seismic changes made to the front office, the organization remains committed to bringing a championship to the city. However, their new-look brain trust has already shown early signs of reneging on the promises they made.
Just recently, Bob Myers (who makes decisions for the 76ers ownership group basketball-wise) was quoted saying that the front office will double down on getting the team some help when it comes to three-point shooting and rebounding. Well then, why in the world did the team not even get linked to two players who have been traded recently in Isaiah Stewart and Isaiah Joe?
Stewart is a prolific rebounder and one of the best rim protectors in the NBA while Joe has shot the three-ball better than 40 percent in each of the last four seasons. Even worse, the teams that eventually got them barely paid anything of significant value to acquire their services. It would appear that the 76ers were not pushy enough to even throw their hat into the ring.
The new-look 76ers front office has already failed its early test
With the 76ers not having ample spending power this offseason, it is imperative that the front office get more creative when it comes to building the roster. They have a pretty top-heavy payroll that hampers their financial flexibility, and the ownership group's recent aversion toward paying the luxury tax only limits their optionality.
As such, missing out on quality role players like Stewart and Joe, who were both obtainable for dirt cheap when scaled to their level of production, is a failure in and of itself. The 76ers clearly could have used either of those players, yet they chose to let other ball clubs have all the fun while they remained idle on the sidelines.
Until proven otherwise, the front office has not delivered the goods so far this offseason. Obviously, it is way too early to brand them as a complete failure, but strictly speaking with respect to their promise of bringing more three-point shooting and rebounding to the squad, they are certainly off to a bad start.
Hopefully, this early inaction does not end up being a sign of things to come for the 76ers this summer. Sure, they may not have the infrastucture to effectuate a drastic change, but they already have enough talent on the roster that improving on the margins could be more than enough to get them over the hump. As such, the front office should wake up.
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