Still young but man, what a bust.
Such a waste of (offensive) talent.
Philly went though a bunch of lottery picks to finally settle on Embiid , Fultz and Simmons . Thats a boat load of screwing fans and not playing basketball for years.
In only 5 seasons, their team was torn down and rebuilt into a top team in the league (5th best record, 4th best point differential). Their lottery picks from the Hinkie era until now (5 drafts) were Noel, MCW, Embiid, Saric, Okafor, Simmons and Fultz. So two stars, a solid starter and a work in progress all under 25 plus MCW was recycled into this year's Lakers pick. To top it off, they can make cap space to get a Max free agent this offseason. As for their fans, they are packing their arena (3rd best attendance) not sulking about a few down years.
That sounds nice when you put it that way, but I do think 5 years is a long time in the modern NBA when contracts usually only run 4 years. They had enough cap space to have potentially signed some great players if their team wasn't such a wreck. No top players were signing on to that mess.
The Process was basically about not only not competing on the floor, but admitting franchise incompetence in rebuilding in any other way, e.g. FA and trades, or finding and developing someone not named Covington (whose talent and role remind me of #34: Kevin Gamble). Now maybe they finally have enough to pieces to work with, but they didn't do much with their lesser assets I don't think, so I'm not sure they can do the difficult good-to-great transformative work. And even after all that, they need to keep and pay those guys. The Clippers drafted quite a few good players over the years, and their franchise made money too. They sucked.
Grant is a rotation player for the Thunder. Smith found his groove in Philly and is playing well on the Pistons. Tim Frazier seems to be playing well. Dedmon went through Philly. McConnell and Holmes were undrafted and a 2nd rounder, both in their 3rd year and playing well. Not stars but quality role players all given a chance to prove it in Philly and they did just that.
All that being said, they completely WHIFFED on MCW (#11 pick), Noel (#6 pick), and Okafor (#3 pick)!!!!!
Smitty77
How do you whiff on someone who became rookie of the year in Carter-Williams? That makes no sense. Then they managed to capitalize on it and gets a LAL first rounder out of selling on him?
It was definitely a good deal for philly given what mcw has become. However trading the 11th pick for the 10th pick 5 years later overall is pretty a lateral move if you think about it. For example if the lottery did not exist and you knew the slots ahead of time I doubt Cleveland would trade the 8th pick for the 7th pick 5 years from now. Mcw was also a pretty bad pick at that slot given adams and ga were taken immediately after
Absolutely. But it sure as hell wasn't a "whiff". You can't say that when the kid is rookie of the year in his rookie year. It's asinine.
Philly actually got unlucky when you consider what ultimately happened with the the pick but they still got a lottery pick out of it. They sold high on MCW.
I CAN say that and I DID say that and I stand by it!! MCW = the WEAKEST ROY in NBA history!! A total JOKE!!! Just like he is a total JOKE of a player currently. He only has a job due to his unusual length for a PG which makes him a decent defender, but not due to his effort.
Smitty77
It doesn't matter how strong or weak the rookie class is that year. The fact of the matter is
A) MCW won the rookie of the year which means, even in a weak draft year, Phily used good judgement with the pick
and
B) Then they turned around and actually got something of legitimate value for MCW. Getting value is not a whiff nor a bust.
It's really that simple. You seem to have a tough time removing your emotion from the equation here.
