A Team from the Ashes

Philadelphia has always been synonymous with basketball, it is the home of one of the strongest basketball scenes in the country with numerous world-class players, college teams and a very interesting professional basketball team coming from this region. On an amateur level, teams such as DeMatha Catholic High have become known for producing highly talented guards such as Kehinde Babatunde Victor Oladipo and Markelle Flutz whereas colleges such as Villanova has burst into an era of dominance by pioneering a three-point shooting style that not many college teams can keep with up. Coach Jay Wright is simply carrying on where other Philly colleges such as Temple left off. During the 1980s, Temple was the Beast of the East, a constantly tough challenge for blueblood powerhouses such as Duke or Kentucky. Philly has also produced two very different guards in the form of Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant, both guards are hall of famers and contributed to the NBA culture in two very different ways. Bryant proved a ‘Mamba Mentality’ and insatiable work ethic was the way to win championships whereas Iverson brought a swaggering style to the Sixers.

The Philadelphia 76ers are a storied franchise, one of the great NBA franchises but recently the team has risen from the ashes due to the play of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Philly have always had stars, Iverson, Dr. J and Moses Malone are just a few examples of these players and it seems that in Embiid and Simmons, the lineage continues after years of misery caused by Sam Hinkie, a misery for Philly’s own good. Sam Hinkie has been called everything from a genius to a madman but it is undeniable that his policy of tanking for draft picks and completely rebuilding the roster and culture in Philadelphia has been essential for the 76ers becoming a contender in 2018.

To understand the actions of Hinkie, you must understand the man himself and the history of the franchise. In the years prior to ‘The Process’, the Sixers were a middling team who were consistently mediocre. It was a team that seemed to be comfortable in the middle of pack except for the fact Philly’s owner Josh Harris was not happy with being mediocre. He handed over the keys to Sam Hinkie, an advanced statistics wizard who built teams that defied conventional logic. Sam Hinkie, a business graduate who had learnt the trade in Houston, an environment that prioritises the long game and the use of player analytics had a plan.

In a similar manner to a company liquidating its assets, Hinkie traded away veteran rebuild and set a stage for a ground-up rebuild that would focus on young players who had manageable contracts so that maximum flexibility could be retained. The point of Hinkie’s process was to lay out a three-stage plan that would take Philadelphia to constant contention in a similar manner to the Lakers and Celtics in the 1980s. The first stage was to acquire blue-chip talent and role players through the draft who would then incubate and develop in a Spursian culture established by Brett Brown. The second stage would be becoming a play-off team with just a few veteran players who provide a guiding hand for younger players. The last stage would be to acquire a superstar player who have already been to the promised land and won a ring. That was the ‘Process’, it just required a lot of losing.

Sam Hinkie started the process by tearing down the last remnants of the middling Sixers, Jrue Holiday. Jrue Holiday was a first time All-Star in 2013 and was traded to the Pelicans for Nerlens Noel and a first-round pick in 2014. Hinkie also traded away players such as Evan Turner, a former second overall pick and Spencer Hawes for picks that would be helpful in maintaining flexibility for the future of the 76ers. The other part of the ‘Process’ was to acquire D-League talent who could potentially be turned into NBA quality players. One such player was Robert Covington.

Robert Covington was undrafted during the 2013 draft and spent time in the D-League establishing his credibility. Robert Covington is now the archetypal 3 and D guy who knocks the three-ball down at a ridiculous and being incredibly effective on defending on ball and in a team situation.

The ‘Process’ did have some misses but it has meant that Philly have a collection of players who have varied skillsets which can mean that the team can run different line-ups such as five-out line-ups or a huge line-up that completely towers over other teams. Philly’s starting five is Ben Simmons, JJ Redick, JJ Redick, Dario Saric and Joel Embiid and the bench is also strong with Markelle Fultz, a number one overall pick, Bellinelli and Ersan Ilyasova all making up the bench unit.

Ben Simmons is possibly the most exciting young player in the league as he has a unique style in the sense he does not have a jumper and just barrels to the rim for easy looks. And he is the closest thing to a Magic Johnson or LeBron James that this current iteration of the NBA. To many fans, this would be a sacrilegious term to compare an Aussie rookie to possibly two of the greatest player but there are certain parallels between Simmons and the greats. In comparison to Magic Johnson, Ben Simmons is an oversized point guard who simply makes passes that smaller guards cannot simply make. Magic could sling pass across the court by using his height and length advantage, in a similar manner to Ben Simmons, as a result of this both players averaged around 7.7 assists during their rookie season. In terms of a LeBron parallel, it is to do with their ability to elevate a team beyond what was previously expected. In the case of Ben Simmons, he led the Sixers to fourteen straight wins to close out the year which many critics did not expect at the start of the year due to the fact the Sixers were significantly worse without Joel Embiid. In the last stretch of the season, Ben Simmons proved that he could adapt to situations and find a way to win. LeBron James is similar in his cerebral dissection of series and teams. The most recent example of this is LeBron assessing the weaknesses of his roster and the Pacers’ strengths and then adjusting his game to win.

The starting shooting guard is one of the few veterans on a very young 76ers team, JJ Redick has been around the block but one thing has always been consistent with the play of Redick, his ability to score the long ball with ease. For his career, JJ Redick has shot 41.5% from deep, a percentage which is almost unrivalled in the league in terms of being able to maintain that level of performance over a twelve year professional career. The only other person who is in a similar bracket to JJ Redick is Kyle Korver, another specialist three-point shooter who has made a career out of being a great shooter. JJ Redick in many is the perfect veteran for a young Sixers team for the fact he is a consummate professional by all accounts. Redick also provides a vital role on the Sixers in terms of being able to work off-ball and allow Ben Simmons to handle the majority of the ball and drive into the lane at will. The Duke veteran does not need the ball and is more than happy to sit in the corner and allow the offence come to him.

The next key piece of the Philadelphia 76ers is Robert Covington who is very much the team’s glue and holds the blue-chip base of the team together with the grit of an undrafted player. Robert Covington went completely undrafted for the fact he was a relative unknown coming out of Tennessee State before establishing a reputation for himself in the D-League as a player with an unnatural work ethic. It is telling that when Robert Covington had one of his first player profiles with Sports Illustrated that he was watching film of his play and other players. He is purely dedicated to developing a wide variety of skills such as being able to shutdown the opposing team’s primary option while also knocking down the three-ball at a decent clip. For his career Robert Covington has shot close to 36% from deep which again spaces the floor and provides more room to operate for Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, the two centerpieces of the 76ers. RoCo is also hugely versatile and can feasibly defend four positions as he is 6"9 and weighs roughly 225lb, the right amount of muscle to hang with power forwards while also being tall enough to make it very easy to challenge perimeter shots taken by players such as Kyle Lowry or Steph Curry. It means he can lock down a Paul George or a Victor Oladipo while allowing his team-mates to conserve energy on the defensive end so that they can go hard on offence.

Dario Saric is possibly the strangest member of the Sixers band of brothers for the fact he was a myth first before he was an actual NBA player. Dario Saric who is affectionately known as the ‘Homie Dario’ was drafted in 2014 but had to serve a three year contract with one of the powerhouses of Europe, Efes Anadolu Istanbul, the first club he played for that was outside of his homeland of Croatia. In Europe, he developed his trade as a stretch four who could do a little bit everything, he had the ability to shoot the three, work on the block or find his team-mates with languid flowing passes out of the elbow. As Saric grew with Efes so did his myth in Philadelphia, fans determined to ‘Trust the Process’ as they had possibly one of the hottest European draft and stashes coming to develop a fledgling. It is strange to say but it also seems that Saric was never supposed to be an integral part of the Sixers especially when their draft history is considered. In three consecutive years, they took Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor, all three players were big men and crowded out the front-court. Yet, all of those players dwindled, Okafor repeateldy displayed an outdated basketball style and was quickly outcast from the 76ers’ rotation, Nerlens Noel strained in a back-up role to Joel Embiid before he was eventually traded to Dallas where he currently languishes awaiting an uncertain free agency.

This gave the ‘Homie Dario’ time and a space to develop his NBA skills while playing around thirty minutes a night. To begin with, Saric was like most rookies, he was chasing the game and could not really deal with the pace of the NBA and the overall athleticism of the league but it eventually clicked and he put together a dark-horse Rookie of the Year Candidacy. In his sophomore NBA season, Saric looks a lot like the modern NBA four, a player who can float into the three-point land and drain buckets, a player who can work down low and create easy opportunities for his team-mates through his passing. He is a player who has gone beyond the role expected of him to possibly be the third option on a Sixers team that has been built around blue-chip talents such as Markelle Fultz, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

The last cog in the Sixers starting squad is possibly the most charismatic player in the league, Joel Embiid. Embiid is the ‘Process’ as he is the living embodiment of Sam Hinkie’s vision for Philadelphia. Embiid is an incredibly mobile seven-footer who could do pretty much anything on the court as is the case with ‘unicorns’. The ‘Process’ can score from a variety of different areas and has even began to bring back a post game of sorts in order to confuse current NBA defenders who rarely defend on a post-up especially during a pace and space basketball era. Embiid is the main offensive option for the fact his scoring seems effortless, his lanky agile frame allows creative finishes around the rim while his smooth jumper allows him to drain the three at a fairly respectable rate for centres. While Embiid is not as comfortable as Al Horford as a stretch-five, he has the potential to be the best centre of the modern era due to his high basketball IQ and physical attributes.

The Cameroonian centre makes the Sixers work on the defensive end as well, he has quietly turned in a potential candidacy for Defensive Player of the Year based off his rim protection. Joel Embiid is a legitimate 7ft footer who has a ridiculous which makes it much easier for him to block the opponent’s shot and be an interior defensive anchor. But the most important thing about Joel Embiid’s defensive effort is that his presence operates as a deterrent to guards who like to slash to the basket. For a player like Russell Westbrook or even Isaiah Thomas, it is a serious deterrent to see the ‘Process’ in front of the rim for the fact it makes draining baskets around the rim much more difficult.

Philly also has a very deep bench unit with battle-proven veterans such as Marco Bellinelli and young players such as Markelle Fultz or TJ McConnell waiting to be called upon. The versatile bench means that Philly could effectively run a five-out squad of shooters or an oversized line-up that can get up and down the court while being able to stay in front of faster players. For most teams, they have the option to switch up lineups but Philly is one of the only teams in the league in which they are not sacrificing any efficiency by swapping pieces around.

The ceiling on this team cannot yet be determined, it seems likely that there is at least one title in the 76ers future providing that the core guys stay healthy and the ownership does not get squeamish about the luxury tax in a similar manner to Clay Bennett in 2012. The combination of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Fultz could provide a serious roadblock for any Eastern conference team for at least the next five years. The last part of Hinkie’s program may still come into fruition and that last stage may come faster than anybody predicted. The King, LeBron James is hitting free agency and there are not many attractive teams who can compete instantly. Cleveland is obviously an option as well as Houston but Philly would be the ideal landing spot. The salary cap is relatively controlled and it would only take a renouncement of Redick’s and Amir Johnson’s cap hold in order to create the necessary cap to sign LeBron to a max deal. If Philly sign LeBron, the East is their playground and they will be a worthy opponent to Houston or Golden State. The team who was turned into ash have risen and could be the next great Eastern Conference dynasty.