The pro- tanking crowd speaks in great admiration of what Philly is doing pointing to embiid, Noel, MCW, Saric and the possibility of another top lottery pick after this coming season.
Here are a few things to consider - There are two big issues with drafting rookies that are out for the entire season.
1) You lose a year a of their services on a cheap contract and possibly part of a second as they regain their form. At most the 76ers would get 2.5 healthy years out of Noel before they A) Have to make a decision on extension after having very limited development time B) Risk losing him as a restricted free agent or paying him a max salary because of the exploding Salary cap. To a lesser extent these are concerns with Embiid
2) Will they be the same after injury? Big guys with injuries have a scarier history with injuries than guards. We don't need to go back very far to see this with Oden (the last franchise center drafted). Heck we could even argue, while not a star, Perkins Knee injury robbed him of his very limited lateral quickness changing him from a serviceable starting center to one of the worst bigs in the league by age 30.
In addition to these issues, it seems like Saric's will not play for them for two more years. We have seen guys in European contracts repeatedly postpone their appearance in the NBA (Rubio and Mirotic, who is making his debut in what would be his 4th season). Maybe Noel and Embiid are either busts or on their way out by then.
How impressed are people with MCW. It has been rumored the 76ers are already trying to trade him, and all of his statistics indicate empty stats on a poor team. Even if he is highly skilled, surrounding him with D-league talent and giving him the green light on a horrible team can start habits that can ruin his career (walker, antoine: see ml carr and Pitino)
Bottom line obviously all this stuff could work out for them, but rebuilding is very difficult in the NBA. For every team like OKC that successfully bottoms out there is a team like Sacramento or the Bulls pre-rose that stunk year after year despite seemingly unlimited high draft picks. You add into the equation removing any NBA veteran players and drafting injured players with more risks associated and it is an extremely large gamble. I personally don't see it working out and am Glad the celtics have not done this.