The Philadelphia 76ers are pretty good these days, if you didn’t hear. Aussie Ben Simmons is out there dishing the ball around and thumping massive dunks down while Cameroonian Joel Embiid can post up on anyone and his trash talk is already at an All Star level. Two legitimate stars capable of taking them into the future and restoring a famous franchise to the levels of old. This was their first 50-win season since Allen Iverson was MVP in 2000-01.

It didn’t translate into playoff success though, at least not yet. They were too good for an overstretched Miami Heat team in the first round, dropping them in five games, but the Boston Celtics were a step too far. Flawless, switchable defence and rangy shooters across the court, coupled with energy and passion, multiplied by the magic of Brad Stevens and they got done in five. Yet with Simmons and Embiid – plus quality sidekicks like Dario Saric and Robert Covington – they still have the makings of a very enticing team. This was their first proper season together. This was only the first step.

Except that’s not really true, is it? The Philadelphia 76ers spent three full seasons losing as many games as they could in order to play the draft system odds and were pretty rubbish on either side of that all-time irrelevance too. Between 2013-2016 they won a combined 47 games out of 246. It was The Process. Fans just had to trust it.

Heaps has already been written about Sam Hinkie and The Process. Even on this very website there’s been stuff. What’s interesting about now is that we’re finally seeing the end product of The Process. It’s now more than an exercise in logic. Because, logically, The Process made perfect sense. Best way to win games is to get a star player or two. Best way to get a star player or two is to draft them. Best way to draft them is to pick as high as possible. Best way to pick as high as possible is to lose as often as possible.

But while that much works, The Process was always a troubling because of what tanking does to the legitimacy of the league and the effect it has on fans. The Sixers are far from the only team to embrace tanking, half the damn league gave it up after the All Star break this season, but they’re the only ones who turned it into a long term goal. Which on one hand is pretty brave… but asking fans to Trust The Process while the team engineered a 10-win season was nothing short of a betrayal, to be brutally honest, of the people who fill out the crowds.

A lot of those fans were able to rationalise it (too many of them, unfortunately) because it allowed them to dream of the next LeBron James or whatever. Then once they saw what Joel Embiid was capable of, and Ben Simmons after him, the rainclouds began to clear. Sixers jerseys are now selling with the best of them and their crowd numbers are way up again. Not sure that makes up for the travesties of the previous half-decade but at least it’s all over now.

With four consecutive top three picks, the 76ers took Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz, as well as trading up for Nerlens Noel. Five top three picks in four seasons and two of them are already off the squad, while Markelle Fultz is doing absolutely nothing after some weird injury stuff affected his shot so bad he could barely stay on the court. That’s a way more complicated matter than it’s worth getting into here… but how come all these 76ers draft dudes are always injured?

But it worked as intended. Simmons and Embiid are good to go, the 76ers have flipped the switch. The rest is all collateral damage. Which meant, ladies and gents, that after five years of rank uselessness, the 76ers are finally ready to start competing for titles!

Eh, not so fast, mate. Good as they were against the Heat in round one, that was a Miami team that didn’t have the firepower to last in the playoffs. The Boston Celtics, on the other hand, are a legit team and up against a legit team, the Sixers reminded everyone that old habits die hard. The lingering effects of the tank are slightly overrated. That stuff is real but it ain’t the full story – they knew what was going on there and Brett Brown and his staff have coached around it.

You can’t coach age, however, and this remains an extremely young team, albeit with a handful of veterans brought in to impart their veteranny wisdom. JJ Redick, Marco Belinelli and Amir Johnson, and the like. But it all runs through Embiid and Simmons. Barely a second goes by without at least one of them out there. You’re asking a duo with a combined 31 games of NBA basketball prior to this season to sail the ship?

For all the magic of his passing, Simmons is a hesitant shooter with a dodgy jump shot. Masterful with the ball in hand, kinda crap without it. Embiid has fewer technical worries but he’s got plenty of rookie errors in him, like bad decisions and silly turnovers – both on show against Boston. Neither of them have the experience to control a game over the full 48, which is what leads to runs like the 19-6 one that Boston closed the first half with in game five. Or the 10-0 run in the middle of the fourth quarter of that game.

These are normal, teachable lessons for young NBA players. It’s just that this natural arc is not going to be overcome at the click of a finger, just because the front office is trying again. It doesn’t work like that.

A reminder now that the Golden State Warriors drafted Steph Curry at 7th overall, Klay Thompson at 11 and Draymond Green at 35. Then they added Kevin Durant in free agency. The greatest team of generation and not a tank in sight (although early career injuries to Steph Curry helped the haul). Meanwhile the Phillies just lost to a Boston team that was missing its two top scorers and thus avoid even facing LeBron James, aka the measuring stick of the entire Eastern Conference. 16 straight wins to close the regular season proves that they’re getting there. A five game exit against a weakened Celtics team shows how far they still have to go.

And, hey, shout out to Brad Stevens for being a legit genius and all that but chill right out on the whole Stevens > Any Player debate. They beat an inexperienced 76ers side that had 88 prior games of playoff history in their starting lineup and every single one of them came from JJ Redick. Don’t you even think about comparing him to Gregg Popovic this soon. Anyone who agrees with the ‘Stevens does more with less’ debate obviously A) doesn’t rate Al Horford highly enough, B) needs to take a peek at how many top draft picks the Celtics have had since he arrived and C) doesn’t realise how bloody good Jayson Tatum really is.  

What would immediately bring the calendar forward for the Sixers is if they can leverage this current rise by signing a top notch free agent. The LeBron to Philly stuff feels massively unlikely (at a guess, his options are Los Angeles, Houston, San Antonio or stay in Cleveland… kinda leaning towards the latter, tbh) but what about Kawhi Leonard? He’d be an incredible fit here. Or Paul George. Maybe even an up and comer like Aaron Gordon, although that might not be such a great fit. Hey, Carmelo Anthony sounds like he… haha, nope. Can’t even finish that sentence with a straight face, sorry.

It was always too early for the Sixers to turn it all the way up, so don’t be too bummed about them copping the gentleman’s sweep. The important thing is that they made progress and did enough to set themselves up as a free agent destination.

The other important thing is that lottery changes are coming. This was a one-time-only experiment and the results are… strangely inconclusive. Did they set their franchise up for the next decade by tanking? Yeah, probably. Could they have done the same without shamelessly swimming in pig filth for three years? Yeah, probably. Depends on your perspective, really.

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