There is a Little Bit of Hope Playing for the Philadelphia 76ers

The clouds are starting to break apart over the 76ers

I have pretty much been one of the biggest haters of what the Philadelphia 76ers have become. They have, for the past 4 years, put players on an NBA floor that don't even belong on a D-League court. They have been so open with their tanking, it has become a joke. They trade away decent, young players for, as they put it, "assets". We all know it as more picks. They even draft guys that aren't ready, injured or play overseas and do not have to get out of their contracts for a few years. They also have traded some young players for younger players that have already flamed out in their very short NBA careers.

For example, they traded to get Nik Stauskas last year. He never really got a chance in Sacramento, but as much as I want him to succeed, he is a middling bench player at the absolute best. He is the poor man's JJ Redick, without the mediocre defense, or the shot, and everyone knows how I feel about JJ Redick. Then, we have guys like Nerlens Noel, a good defender, but has zero offensive game and had a torn ACL when they drafted him, Jahlil Okafor, zero defensive game, they already have multiple players that play the same position as him and he is a bit of a head case and Dario Saric, who was drafted, it seems, like 10 years ago, and is now, finally, in the NBA and looks like he still has a long, long way to go before he is a decent player. Their number pick, and first overall in the most recent draft, Ben Simmons, has yet to play in the NBA due to a foot injury as well. 

This all leads me to Joel Embiid. This is another guy that they drafted, with the third overall pick 3 years ago, that had a known foot injury and that he wouldn't be able to play right away. It seemed as if the 76ers were at it again. Taking a player that wouldn't be able to contribute anything at all for at least one year, so they could tank again, and have another shot at the number one pick in the following draft. I get it, teams want young players that they can develop, but at some point, you have to get some veterans on your roster to help out the young guys. The 76ers kept putting it off though, until they finally, and mercifully, parted ways with Sam Hinkie, AKA, Mr. "Trust the Process".

Well, all his moves seemed terrible, that is, until this most recent season started. Don't get me wrong, Hinkie was an absolute train wreck as a GM and owner, but Embiid looks like he might be the real deal. It looks like he may have gotten at least one thing right in his four years tearing down a historic franchise. But, man oh man does Embiid look like a legitimate perennial all star. I tuned in on opening night to see him play, because like everyone else, I was interested in what we would get, and he did not disappoint. This was the first time he had played a real game of basketball in about 3 years, and he looked great. Sure, he took some unnecessary shots, got some dumb fouls and only played 20 minutes, but he also did some wonderful things on the floor that night. He had an incredible spin move on Steven Adams, one of the better big men defenders in the NBA, and hit a pull up jumper on him. Embiid is 7'1 and he looked like a 6'2 shooting guard on that play. He also tracked down rebounds, loose balls, played very good, to great defense at times and looked like he had some very good footwork. He has also added some appropriate weight, and it showed when he muscled up some of the Thunder's big men that night.

So, I thought, he looked okay on opening night, but could he keep it up? Well, he has only seemed to get better. He is becoming a very good scorer in the low post. His chase down block on LeBron, whether it was goal tending or not, was an amazing feat, given his size, and the fact that it was against the best player in the game. He seems to have the desire and passion and even swagger to be one of the league's next big things. When he was still on his 20-minute limit restriction, he was so angry that he couldn't play in a double overtime game, he kicked a chair. I like to see that from young players. The 76ers have upped his minutes to 28 a game, pretty typical for a starter in the NBA, and I think it will only help him get that much better. 

Look, the 76ers still stink, I think they have 4 or 5 wins, but there is, at the very least, some hope for optimism. Joel Embiid has taken on the responsibility of being the player to build this team around. He wants to be "the guy". He has even started calling himself, "The Process". I usually do not like when people give themselves nicknames, but this one is just way too perfect to dislike. I actually find myself excited when I stumble on a 76ers game on TV, and Embiid is in there. That is about the only time I will watch them play. I just really like what I have seen from Embiid so far, and if he continues on this path, gets better and figures out the game even more, I think he will be a legitimate superstar, and the one guy that can turn the 76ers back into a relevant team. He is that good.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man. On this day in SeedSing history, the greatest thing on the internets was born. Wish Ty a happy birthday by following him on instagram and twitter.

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The 76ers are the Best at Being the Worst Basketball Franchise

Let me know when the 76ers are good and then I will fly away.

This week will be all basketball talk from me, specifically NBA talk. I love basketball and this is the time of year where things are beginning to happen, or at least, people are talking about things that may happen. This time of year is basically basketball fans favorite time of year. Coaching changes, players being moved either via free agency or trades, talk of players being traded and the ramp up to the finals, which start tonight.

What I want to focus my time on today is the talk of players being moved. More specifically, I want to address the talk that the 76ers, the moribound, useless, once proud, but are now a joke 76ers, have made it known publicly that they would be willing to part ways with either Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor. I mean, WTF Philadelphia. How do they ever expect to put a team that is competitive out there if they continue to trade away all this young talent that they tanked so hard to get. A few years back they had the rookie of the year winner in Michael Carter-Williams. Sure, that rookie class wasn't that great and Carter-Williams did most of his damage on a terrible team and when he played against real defenders he got locked down, but he still did enough to win the rookie of the year. One year later, they traded him to the Bucks for some more draft picks.

This was all Sam Hinkie's doing. He told all the 76ers fans to "trust the process", he assured them that what he was doing was the right thing and they would soon be highly competitive again. With the pick he got from Milwaukee, he took Joel Embiid. Who can guess how many professional basketball games Embiid has played in his first two seasons? Anyone? He has played 0, and I'm including preseason and summer league games. He may even miss the beginning of this season and the front office has already stated that he will not play summer league as they are "taking every precaution imaginary". So, you trade away the reigning rookie of the year, in hopes of landing the next great big man, but you take a player that had known foot issues during his one season at Kansas, and he still hasn't played one single second in the NBA. What a joke. Also, the year before they drafted Embiid, they took Noel, who is now apparently on the trading block, and he tore his ACL during his one year at Kentucky. Two years in a row and the 76ers drafted injured players that had to sit out at least one full season before even stepping foot on a court. Yeesh, that is brutal.

Last year they took Okafor. Okafor "fell" to them at number 3. This pick perplexed me because they already had Noel and Embiid who play the same position and, I don't know if the front office watches modern basketball, but big men aren't the commodity they once were. But, I was willing to look past it because, you take the best available player, that's what teams do in the draft. And, to give Okafor a little credit, he played in about 60 games his rookie season and he was not terrible. Well, he was terrible defensively, but offensively, he was okay. He scored in double figures and was an average offensive rebounder and has some decent low post moves. But, he is also a 19 year old hot head that may not be ready for the responsibility of being a professional. Just look at the incidents he got involved in, at bars, during his rookie year. He may be a loose cannon. I guess not to worry 76ers fans because he may be gone as well.

This is what bugs me. Yes, I know that they won the draft lottery and that they plan to take either Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram, but why are they making two of their young, half way decent players available for trades? Nerlens Noel has shown flashes of being an elite defender and, if he works on his low post game, he could be an all star. And yeah, Okafor plays no defense, but if he becomes, at the very least, a capable defender, he could also be an all star. He has the offense, he just needs to put it together on defense. Who knows with Embiid, but they seem to be putting all their eggs into his basket and they expect him to be immediately better than Noel or Okafor. I don't think that I would take that bet. I want to see Embiid play 30 or 40 games before I would even consider getting rid of any big men I have on my roster. Other people will tell me that Simmons and Okafor's game don't mesh or that Noel would clog the lane for a guy like Ingram. I say, who cares. At least Nerlens Noel has proven to be a decent enough defender and Okafor has shown that he can score double figures night after night.

The 76ers sound like they want to blow it up again, and that is not fair to the fans. They will not be able to attract any star players there because, whenever someone does something good on a basketball floor, the 76ers want to trade them for draft picks. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, DeMar DeRozan or Kyle Lowry aren't going to want to go play for this franchise. Why would they want to waste the prime of their careers playing for this terribly run team. I naturally assumed that when Sam Hinkie stepped down that the 76ers would start to resemble a real basketball franchise, but the new people in charge are just doing the exact same thing. They want the fans to, once again, "trust the process". That's bull shit. That's unfair. Does the GM and the other higher ups making decisions realize how brutal it must be to be a 76ers fan right now? This team is an absolute joke. They are barely better than some of the D League teams. Hell, they may not even win the D League if they were relegated to play there because they are such an embarrassment to the NBA.

Which brings me to my final point and why I think this nonsense of making Noel and Okafor available is so stupid. First off, they want to take another 19 year old to be the face of the franchise. Well, its been reported that Ben Simmons would much rather be a Laker, and me personally, I don't think this kid will live up to the hype. He is an over privileged, spoiled brat that has never been pushed or told no by any coach and he carries himself with an arrogance he hasn't even come close to earning. He already acts like a Laker. Then there's Brandon Ingram. I think he will be a good pro, he could be a poor mans Kevin Durant, but it is going to take a few seasons, maybe even 4 before he is an all star caliber player. He has to put on weight, put in tons of time in the gym and become a much better defender before he is any kind of threat to the real stars in the NBA. I think Ingram will be a much better pro than Simmons, but I also think it will take much longer before he gets to that elite level. Just look at Durant's first few years in the league. It wasn't until James Harden and Russell Westbrook were drafted that Durant elevated his game and became the dominant player he is today.

If I were running the 76ers, I would either trade the top pick, not Noel or Okafor, for some established, semi decent pros, or I would take Buddy Hield. Hield would fit kind of perfectly with guys like Noel, Okafor and Embiid. He could come in and score points right away and his defensive game is underrated. But, since the 76ers only value assets, they will trade one of both of the guys I mentioned, draft either Ingram or Simmons, and be terrible for the next decade or so. The 76ers are the worst run team in any professional sport that I have ever seen. They are an embarrassment to the NBA and their fans.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He desperately wants to focus on good basketball and not bad management. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.