I'm happy for Philly fans that they are excited. It will make it even more fun when the are starting over again, again, in a couple, four, five years.
I'll genuinely be surprised if they aren't a playoff team in the next 3 years. Even if they were at full strength right now that might be a team that could threaten for a playoff slot (with Embiid off the minutes restriction, Noel getting 20+ minutes and Simmons back).
Even with Embiid limited to 25 minutes per night and Simmons yet to make his debut, they are about even with the Timberwolves - which says a lot.
Philly is 10-25. Minny is 11-26.
What promise could you or Philly ownership make to the Philly fans that these players will hit their prime wearing a 76ers jersey? I don't see this as a given.
Please post the lengthy list of max guys who declined a max extension to take a qualifying offer.
Don't waste your time, it doesn't exist. There's your evidence.
What does this have to do with the the question proposed?
Young, promising teams get broken up all the time for a variety of reasons.
OKC traded Harden because they couldn't afford him. If Philly has to dish out more than 2 max contracts, it will get interesting.
Portland fans were probably ecstatic to have a young nucleus of Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldrige, and Greg Oden, but some serious injuries happened along the way.
And there's definitely a long list of players who have demanded trades before their first non-rookie contract was up. Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard.
Other times, that young talent just doesn't develop like you think it would. Probably too many teams to list that had several high lottery picks together but didn't win squat, but the squad that immediately comes to mind for me is LAC. They teamed #1 pick and ROY Elton Brand with #4 pick and next great point forward Lamar Odom, along with the #3 pick and next KG in Darius Miles. Besides those 3 can't miss studs, they also had other young players with potential like Olowakandi, Maggette, Richardson, Dooling. You have to be a pretty special team to make it cool to wear Clippers gear again.
And then not all players get along or are happy to be the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th option. Magic fans were thrilled to have Shaq/Penny, but Shaq and Penny butted heads so Shaq left. Wolves fans were thrilled to have KG/Marbury duo, but Marbury was jealous of KG so he forced a trade, Toronto fans had Carter/McGrady, but McGrady didn't want to play in Carter's shadow so he left. Phoenix had a sweet nucleus of Nash/Stoudemire/Marion/Johnson, and then Joe Johnson said, you know what, I think I'd rather get more shots and more money, so I'm going to leave this stacked 62 win team and join a 13 win team. It happens.
So far, the best example we have of what Philly hopes to do is basically what OKC did 5 years ago, and look how that ended up and where all the players are now. 2 players got traded because the team didn't want to pay them (Harden, Jackson), one player was traded for a role player (Jeff Green for Perk), and even though they kept Westbrook/Durant/Ibaka trio together for 7-8 years, one day Durant just decides to leave for nothing. Not that most fan bases wouldn't love to be OKC from about '10-'16, but there's no guarantee it all works out.