Regardless of how he and the rest of the sixers prospects pan out, they have to wonder if it was worth it. Yet another headache to deal with on a to draft pick.
Literally every one of them they have had some issue with. Noel, Okafor, Embiid, Simmons, Fultz. You have 0 all-star appearances thus far, 4 full seasons missed to injury, a guy who can’t crack the rotation, and now yet another mystery. Simmons and Embiid are both talented, no doubt, but one can’t shoot and the other is seemingly somewhere between Bynum and Oden on the brittle-meter.
Ah well. Thanks for Tatum and the pick!
So if Embiid and Simmons become superstars that lead the Sixers to 8 finals in the next 10 seasons winning 3 of them, it wouldn't have been worth it? Guess what. It is going to take a lot less than that to make it worth it. Since they won the championship in 82/83, they've only made the finals once. So far the notion that the multiyear tank cost them a generation of fans has already been disproven. They sold out of their season tickets this season and are 2nd in home attendance. Embiid has shown he'll be a franchise player if he remains healthy. Simmons performance so far suggests he may be too.
Young players rarely make the allstar game but Embiid almost did last season while playing limited minutes in his 1st season. This is Simmons and Fultz first year playing so how were they supposed to make it? Guess what. Towns and Wiggins haven't made the allstar game either. Giannis made it for the 1st time last season in his 4th year. I'm not 100% certain but I think he is the 1st allstar from the 2013 draft and beyond.
Thats a stretch right now. Yeah they are 5th in east, but good teams are playing like crap and bad teams are playing really well right now. I mean Wash is 4 and 4. The Cavs,Mil, and Miami should all get better as the season goes on, and sixers should bottom out. Only reason they're 5th is they've won there last 4 games and only the win against Huston was impressive. Beating Atl and Dal should happen.
I mean the Knicks are 4 and 4 right now. Who would have seen that with one of the wins over the CAVS.
Also gotta remember we are the 3rd youngest team. We have Brown,Tatum,Rozier,Smart to match the Sixers young guys, and a possible top 5 player next season or the season after. Plus Irving is still young and Hayward is slightly older, but game should age well into his 30's. The Sixers will have to go threw us over the next 10 years if they can keep everyone.
Try reading what I wrote again. I didn't make any predictions or comment on whether the Sixers would make the playoffs this year. I highlighted and commented to a nonsensical statement that no matter how their prospects turned out that you'd have to wonder if it was worth it. I went over the top to do so.
If you want to talk about this season, I think they'll make the playoffs if Embiid plays 60+ games and their other key players remain relatively healthy. They have a much tougher 1st half of the season. They've already played Houston (twice), Washington, Boston, Toronto, Pistons, Pacers, Hawks and Mavs. The Houston 1st game loss was on a buzzer beater and the Washington game went down to the end to. The only bad beat was Toronto but that was without Embiid. So 5-4 is a really nice start for them.
The Pistons, Magic, Hornets and Pacers are ahead of the teams you mentioned as well. So why are the Sixers going to "bottom out" and those other teams won't? There will probably be 4 teams, including the Sixers, competing for the last two playoff spots at the end of the season.
If Embiid and Simmons reach their potential, they will be significantly better than our young players. Tatum has Pierce potential, Brown is less than that, Rozier is a role player and Smart is a role player with a good chance of not being on our team after this season. Yes we should be getting a top 5 pick with the Lakers/Kings pick but the Sixers may well also and they, not us, are the only ones with the chance at the getting the #1 picks in 2018 and 2019. If the Sixers don't make the playoffs this season, that is another solid pick they'll get.
It is humorous when people on here raise the "if they can keep everyone". They are dealing with rookies which means smaller max contracts possibly to deal with in the future. If they do end up with several young players deserving Max contracts, they can choose who to keep and who to trade off for good role players and picks. That's a good problem to have.
We're the ones with immediate cap/tax concerns. Unless his offers really suck, there is a good chance we lose Smart after this season. Considering Brown's development so far, I don't think that is a bad thing. There is also no guarantee that Irving re-signs with us in two years. He'll attract a lot of interest and there should be more teams with Max cap space available.