If We Lose Our Pick....

[the_process]

If we lose our pick, we’ll have some flexibility to figure out our direction for next season, and I believe we’ll set a certain point of the season to decide whether to push for the playoffs or commit to a full on tank.

Normally, that kind of decision has to be made in the offseason, but our current roster gives us the luxury to stay adaptable. We’ve got players who can contribute immediately, complement our top players, and also young pieces who could both contribute and lead a tank if needed.

This roster is naturally built to compete for a playoff spot but can pivot to tanking if necessary, which is a far better position than being stuck with a roster designed to tank and then scrambling to contend.

You don’t need to have the worst record to have the top pick.

And if we hand over our pick to OKC, we’ll have our our own unprotected pick no matter what our record will be.

There is little chance the Sixers will be able to recoup as valuable an asset as that pick would be, even at 6, in next year's draft.

They will not tank next year. And Morey won't be in selling mode, he'll be in buying mode.

It's also really hard to imagine Maxey and George being as hurt and ineffective next year as they were this year.

I unfortunately agree regarding the direction Morey will take, [b{which will lead to a repeat of the Iggy years. [/b] Especially if he tries to go "all-in" if we are competitive in the first half of the season and Embiid appears to be 'healthy'.

That's where they are if this pick doesn't convey. Even with the pick it's gonna take some work that Morey isn't ready to do.

[elchengue20]

As a believer that the NBA is into pick rigging for specific cases, i hope they are going to make sure we keep our pick.

Signing multiple year max extensions to two rapiding declining players then sucking all season to lose your pick it's too much of a hit for any fanbase. Plus we are a big market who's going to transition to a new arena soon. A new arena we made sure the NBA was ok with.

It's unlikely they give us Flagg, because it's not like we are starving for talent or some kind of hope, and we also don't deserve such big of a prize. But i don't see it's good business to make us lose our pick, they are going to make sure we keep it (i hope at least lol).

That being sayed, if they really want Flagg to make noise quick, we are a good destination, great basketball fit, big market and a team that if everything goes right could contend as early as his rookie season.

[76ciology]

I’ve been thinking a lot about how our season might go next year. And what I’ve noticed is that most fans seem locked into one scenario: that Embiid won’t return to form. It’s fair to consider that, and I get why people think we should just tank. It’s a reasonable take.

But then I started reflecting on the teams currently in the playoffs and on Daryl Morey’s career. It struck me how our recent experiences have shaped our thinking, maybe too much. We’ve started defaulting to certain heuristics: Tanking is good. The Iguodala era is bad.

That got me thinking about the Iguodala era. I went back and looked at that roster: Jrue, Lou Will, Iggy, Thad, Elton, Hawes (or Dalembert?). That’s a well-balanced team. And in 2010, we had the No. 2 pick. What if we’d drafted DeMarcus Cousins or Paul George? A lineup of Jrue, Lou, Iggy, Elton, and Cousins could’ve been something. Maybe that era wasn’t as far off as we thought.

Look at the Celtics. They weren’t tanking, they were just treading water. But they kept making smart moves: adding Horford, Smart, Jaylen, then hitting on Tatum. They upgraded Brogdon into Jrue. Upgraded Smart into Porzingis. It was incremental and strategically targeted, not like building thru the draft where you may be given 4 wheels to build a boat.

So what’s my point? Maybe being stuck in the middle isn’t as bad as we think. The Pacers didn’t tank, and yet here they are, possibly heading to the ECF. Sometimes “mediocre” is just another stage on the road to contention. Specially in today’s NBA that is promoting more collective talent less big 3 and musical chairs of teams winning the championship. Yes, Pacers will likely lose the next round. But maybe they can do incremental improvements and land themselves their Jrue Holiday and Porzingis too.

Landing a generational talent like Wemby or LeBron is great. Being able to land KD, Harden and Westbrook is also great. But there are many paths to a title. Boston won it all with a “beta” superstar in Tatum. They might not even need a player as good as Jayson Tatum to win it for them last year. And maybe, just maybe, we could’ve made it past the ECF with Iguodala, if we’d had Morey running our 2010 draft.

[mjkvol]

I’ve been thinking a lot about how our season might go next year. And what I’ve noticed is that most fans seem locked into one scenario: that Embiid won’t return to form. It’s fair to consider that, and I get why people think we should just tank. It’s a reasonable take.

But then I started reflecting on the teams currently in the playoffs and on Daryl Morey’s career. It struck me how our recent experiences have shaped our thinking, maybe too much. We’ve started defaulting to certain heuristics: Tanking is good. The Iguodala era is bad.

That got me thinking about the Iguodala era. I went back and looked at that roster: Jrue, Lou Will, Iggy, Thad, Elton, Hawes (or Dalembert?). That’s a well-balanced team. And in 2010, we had the No. 2 pick. What if we’d drafted DeMarcus Cousins or Paul George? A lineup of Jrue, Lou, Iggy, Elton, and Cousins could’ve been something. Maybe that era wasn’t as far off as we thought.

Look at the Celtics. They weren’t tanking, they were just treading water. But they kept making smart moves: adding Horford, Smart, Jaylen, then hitting on Tatum. They upgraded Brogdon into Jrue. Upgraded Smart into Porzingis. It was incremental and strategically targeted, not like building thru the draft where you may be given 4 wheels to build a boat.

So what’s my point? Maybe being stuck in the middle isn’t as bad as we think. The Pacers didn’t tank, and yet here they are, possibly heading to the ECF. Sometimes “mediocre” is just another stage on the road to contention. Specially in today’s NBA that is promoting more collective talent less big 3 and musical chairs of teams winning the championship. Yes, Pacers will likely lose the next round. But maybe they can do incremental improvements and land themselves their Jrue Holiday and Porzingis too.

Landing a generational talent like Wemby or LeBron is great. Being able to land KD, Harden and Westbrook is also great. But there are many paths to a title. Boston won it all with a “beta” superstar in Tatum. They might not even need a player as good as Jayson Tatum to win it for them last year. And maybe, just maybe, we could’ve made it past the ECF with Iguodala, if we’d had Morey running our 2010 draft.

If we knew that Morey would move to a patient, building-blocks method of piecing together the team without any time frame or "window" in mind, I might be inclined to agree. But with two "superstars" making max money for the next three seasons, and another younger player on a max deal, I just can't imagine that route being taken.

The Iggy team didn't have the max deals hanging over them, just a bunch of good complimentary players who needed an alpha and maybe 2-3 more winning players to be competitive. This group needs to shed the deadweight before they can proceed to any serious building into contender mode.

Much like the addict that has to hit bottom and admit they need rehab before they can get on with their life, the Sixers need to get off of the "win now" band aid method of keeping the Embiid "window" alive before they will ever be able to seriously move forward. JMO.

[76ciology]

"Our roster going into next season will be better than it was going into last season, where again, we had the 3rd best odds to win the Eastern Conference."

-Daryl Morey

[the_process]

"Our roster going into next season will be better than it was going into last season, where again, we had the 3rd best odds to win the Eastern Conference."

-Daryl Morey

I haven’t listened to the new Ricky yet, but I have a feeling it’s going to make me infuriated.

Daryl does not look at life through the lens of humanity. He looks at it through the lens of numbers. That does not work.

[Mik317]

The Celtics had the Nets to tank for them

The Iggy era ended with them trading him for Bynum who never played for us

[mjkvol]

"Our roster going into next season will be better than it was going into last season, where again, we had the 3rd best odds to win the Eastern Conference."

-Daryl Morey

Well, we best be ready for an extended down period.

[Stanford]

I'm pretty sure that was a response to someone asking what the optimistic view would be.

[zaz102]

I thought Morey made a lot of sense.

If you want to compete, it would be foolish to trade all your young assets without knowing the status of Embiid.

If you want to restart the process, it would be foolish to trade Embiid and George and give up some those picks you would need to rebuild with.

You may as well wait a little to see if Embiid can play.

If he can, I would keep the youth (Maxey, McCain, Grimes) and fill out thr margins based on how good the team looks.

If he can't, I would hope PG rebuilds some value and you get something for him and maybe see if McCain is good enough that you trade Maxey for assets. And try to process it for a few years until you get off Embiid's contract.

[fkd215]

The issue with moving on right now from Embiid (and to a lesser extent George) and building around our young talent is that in order to move them, we’d have to give away some or all of that young talent. No one is going to take on those contracts without getting some serious combination of the 2025 pick if we retain it, McCain, Grimes, the Clippers picks, and any other of our firsts that we can trade. If we can rehabilitate their value, that might change, but for now we’d have to empty the cupboard just to get rid of them. Would that be worth it?

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Just get this **** over with. I've never looked forward to a Monday my entire lifetime until now.

[76ciology]

If Embiid is confirmed that his knee is truly done, this franchise would likely pivot to a Pacers style approach, building around Maxey and Grimes, making gradual improvements, and hoping to eventually stumble into their own version of Jayson Tatum (or Isaiah Thomas), Jrue Holiday, and Kristaps Porzingis. How? With our own control of picks, with the Clippers pick and by staying patient and waiting for the right opportunity.

Ideally, Embiid finds a second wind like Brook Lopez did, and the team remains competitive through 2028. With Embiid and George’s contracts expiring by then, they can use the 2029 Clippers pick swap to position themselves for a top prospect like Mohamed Dabone.

Realistically, if Embiid is limited or done, they’ll have to tread water with combo guards running the offense and solid role players filling gaps, staying afloat until the 2029 offseason, when they’ll likely have both the Clippers swap and cap space for a big splash.

[ivysixer2000]

I've seen alot of projections here. If we lose this pick, next season I doubt our pick will be this high.

We have a couple of days until the lottery balls, but I really doubt we can sit most of our roster next season like we did this season.

If anything, NN should be fired for not using Hield effectively. All the talk of Morey is irritating, he is better than any GM we have had since Hinkie (and he was terrible at drafting good players).

[ProcessDoctor]

Getting so excited yet nervous for Monday.

Flagg to not having a pick at all is such an insane range of outcomes.

[Mik317]

i have decided that if its not Flagg or Harper then who cares

so there

(this is most likely cope)

[Kobblehead]

Fully expecting us the get the #1 pick and then Cooper Flagg refusing to work out with us or some nonsense lol.

[mjkvol]

Fully expecting us the get the #1 pick and then Cooper Flagg refusing to work out with us or some nonsense lol.

Pick him anyway and he either plays or he sits until we get a trade offer we deem to be acceptable, meaning a franchise altering trade.

He appears to be too level headed to ever pull a stunt like that.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I can't remember the last time a drafted even tried to pull a stunt like that. You'd think if any of them were going to do it, it would have been Zion when the Pelicans drafted him. Then again, New Orleans is perfect for a player of his work ethic .

[Negrodamus]

I fully expect to not get the pick. The despair is exactly what we deserve for sinking time and energy into this franchise.