Thursday, May 3, 2018

Should the Sixers be even better?


In all the Euphoria over the Sixers current playoff run, all the accolades tossed, and deservedly so, In Brett Brown’s direction, no one seems to be taking to task the man who has all but dismantled the process, Bryan Colangelo. He has squandered so many of the assets the process’ architect, Sam Hinkie, carefully acquired, it is not to be believed. I will be generous in my scoring: He traded Nerlens Noel, the sixth pick in the draft, the first piece in the process, for Justin Anderson, an energy player, one deep on the bench, but at least a contributor. Noel has played his way out of Dallas, overvaluing his skill, so let’s call this a win for Colangelo. He drafted Ben Simmons with the first pick in the draft. A big win, but one that anyone, and I mean anyone, who has the first pick in the draft would have gotten.  He traded Jerami Grant for Jump shooting power forward Ersan Ilyasova, filling a need for the Sixers, then inexplicably traded him away in the same season, for Tiago Splitter, who never contributed at all. He then, rather than taking whatever offer he had in place for the number three pick Jahlil Okafor last season, held on to him until this season, then traded for 30 year old bench player Trevor Booker, who Colangelo then released to pick up…Ersan Ilyasova.  Essentially giving away the number three pick in the draft for a player he already had given away for free.  (He does deserve credit for picking up Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli after buyouts, but those two practically begged to come here to join Brown (certainly not Colangelo)
Finally, and most damning, he traded an extra first-round pick to move up two spots to the number one pick in the draft and grab Markelle Fultz, who, it appears, is a wasted pick. If he had stayed at three, he could have drafted Jayson Tatum, last seen dropping 28 points on the Sixers in game one of their playoff series, to fill a position of need, or, as the Celtics insist, their target was Tatum all along, they could have remained at three, still drafted Fultz, and retained the first-round pick. As hated as Hinkie was around the rest of the league, and as difficult as future trades may have become I can’t imagine that he would have squandered the Sixers assets so wantonly.