Top 2016 Offseason Priorities for the Philadelphia 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers are not a very good basketball team. There probably isn’t going to be a lot of controversy over that statement. That they aren’t that far from being one probably is controversial.

The Sixers started their offseason before the season ended when they hired Jerry Colangelo to advise management. In layman’s terms, that means he was brought on board to drive a stake through the heart of #TrustTheProcess.

“The Process” was the idea of being bad by design to accrue high draft picks, mine for gold in passed-over prospects and then, when the time was right, spend money in free agency to complement the young stars.

On April 7, general manager and president of basketball operations Sam Hinkie resigned. Over the course of his three years at the helm, Philadelphia won 47 games, 18 fewer than any team in the league, according to Basketball-Reference.com. The being bad part of the plan was working. But patience was wearing thin with both the fans and the owners.

On the last day of the season, shortly before the Sixers got blown out in Chicago, Colangelo told Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News:

The thought was, obviously, when ownership reached out and wanted me to be a part of the process, that was an indication that they had tired of three years of whatever they saw. So there was going to be a detour of some kind, and it was the conclusion that we needed to reinforce the front office.

No one ever, ever had an intention of Sam being let go, fired or anything. That was never a consideration. Everyone was on the same page, including myself. This was more about bringing help into the organization, share responsibilities, and we would be a stronger front office.

What I told Sam was, ‘You need to listen to ownership. If you’re listening, they’re saying they want to do what they want to do.’ So this means they’re a little tired of the wait or the pain or whatever, which means the first step was when they brought me in, that was an indicator. And then the second step was they wanted to add someone in the front office, and they tried to retain Sam. I said to Sam, ‘This would be great if you’re willing and have someone come in here and share. We’d be stronger than heck.’ Our front office would be out of sight, I thought. Sam made his own decision and I respect that. I respect the fact that he said, ‘I can’t do that.’ That’s what happened.

The funny thing here is that the new GM, Jerry’s son Bryan, actually gets to inherit all the benefits of the “process” without taking the dings that come with it. And it’s with those intact that he can go about establishing a better tenure in Philly. Making the right moves this offseason will go a long way toward building a bright future. 

Spring Cleaning

My wife loves garage sales. The good thing about them is you can get some really cool stuff on the cheap. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and all that. The bad part of that is you also collect a lot of junk you don’t need. Hinkie was the NBA equivalent of that, picking up other teams’ discarded players and collecting them on his roster.

Here is a look at players presently under contract for next season, according to Spotrac.com:

* Non-Guaranteed, **Club Option

There is obviously no problem with cap space here, but the issue is with roster spots. There are 12 players under …

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