If what you're saying is true, then Sacremento shouldn't suck with all the first round picks they've had.
Arguably, they've made a lot of bad picks. Draft picks are only as valuable as you make them.
The Kings have also done a poor job developing the players they do pick, and they keep swapping out coaches CONSTANTLY instead of sticking with one guy and letting him put a system in place and develop a group of players he knows and likes.
I'm not equating talent with first round picks. Those picks have to pan out, and as an organization you have to not let the talent get totally wasted.
It's possible that the out-and-out losing, and the general attitude that the Sixers have no interest in trying to be good, will make it a lot harder for the Sixers to actually get something out of the talented players they do get in the draft.
Still, I think the Sixers have a decent coach, and they've got at least one, probably two high level big man prospects on the roster already. They're not THAT far away from being a decent team if Noel and Okafor have a really nice season, they get another top 10 pick that turns into a nice player (who isn't redundant with Noel and Okafor), and they sign some complementary role players.
Again, I want to be clear, I'm not saying that WILL happen. But I think that having young players perceived as rising stars and winning some games can change the narrative around your franchise really quickly. Suddenly nobody will be talking about the culture of losing. I really think this is one area of sports where the way we talk about things is often the reverse of how it actually works.
The biggest difference between a team like the Sixers and a team like the Wolves, Kings, or Hornets, is that the Sixers, as an organization, have been totally in sync as far as what their goals are. They've got a plan -- that has been talked about ad nauseum at this point by outside observers -- and they've stuck to it. They're in lock step on that.
What characterizes those other teams is that they seem to be changing their organizational plans from one year to the next. They're constantly trying to find the solution that's going to turn things around RIGHT NOW. The Sixers are patient.
The Sixers have also seemed to completely disregard the importance of the "human factor" in this. It'll be really interesting to see if that prevents them from getting past their current phase without a bunch of people getting fired, or if they can actually transition from a naked, dispassionate "asset acquisition" phase to a "let's actually build up a team now" phase.