The Philadelphia 76ers are finally getting a glimpse of what they actually envisioned when they put this roster together during the offseason. It may have taken them a lot of pummeling, losing, and adversity to wake up, but at the very least, the squad is back to winning games consistently thanks to some high-quality basketball they have been putting out on the hardwood as of late.
After basically two months of unwatchable basketball, the 76ers front office became the subject of much scrutiny around the league as they seemingly failed to hit on most of their free agency acquisitions. But recently, the new faces on the team have finally made their imprint on the many wins they have helped racked up.
While there are still some players whose performances remain pretty lacking — like, well, the nine-time All-Star on the team who has seemingly forgotten his caliber — Philly has nonetheless improved to such level that it would be pretty surprising not to see them in the playoffs come April. Put simply, this ball club is beginning to resemble a contender trending in the right direction.
The 76ers were right not to go after All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who has struggled this season
The 76ers aren’t only winning now; in retrospect, they also tallied a big dub. Dating back to free agency when the front office had a boatload of cap space to fully exhaust, a slew of All-Stars were linked to them well before they ended up with Paul George.
One player who was rumored to be a potential target for Philadelphia was DeMar DeRozan, the six-time All-Star who was eventually signed-and-traded to the Sacramento Kings. Unfortunately, the move has quickly become an iffy and ugly one for Sac-Town, as they now find themselves lagging behind in the 12-team race in the jam-packed West.
Despite still posting fringe All-Star numbers, DeRozan has clearly been a misfit in Sacramento, especially next to De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. The veteran has been a forced addition offensively, and his sheer lack of defensive acuity has been further magnified in a Kings team collectively struggling on that end.
It has gotten so bad that their former coach who was abruptly fired and made the scapegoat, Mike Brown, reportedly asked him to do the unthinkable and move to the bench — an unfortunate and unforeseen development for the well-loved All-Star.
Part of it is outside DeRozan’s control, but fortunately, the 76ers did not even bother dipping their fingers into that impending mess. The link between him and Philadelphia was subliminal at best, and it’s not rocket science to infer about the reasoning why the front office did not push hard on that button, if at all.
While the Philadelphia 76ers cannot really be considered to have aced that part of the offseason given that Paul George has struggled even more individually, the dynamics of shorhorning DeMar DeRozan into the roster would have still been uglier.
Just look at the Kings.