Would still take the rebuild Ainge did to that of Hinkie. Right now have better team. Have stars with playoff experience. Have 2 stud young guys who are great 2 way players. Have won back to back 50+ game seasons. Have been in playoffs 4 straight years. Have gone to ECF. When healthy next year will be favorite to go to Finals from east. Have better coach. Have about 8-10 year contending window
Which is completely irrelevant because the Sixers and Celtics were in very different situations 5 years ago. The Sixers were a mediocre team at best that just had the Bynum trade blow up in their faces. They had limited assets and didn't even have all their 1st round picks. We on the other hand were on the downside of a championship caliber team with good trade assets. If the Brooklyn trade hadn't occurred, where would our rebuild be?
On the other hand, teams like the Kings and Magic are still bad teams with little to show for the last 5 years. The Bucks have Giannis but not much more and they don't have cap space. Unless they get lucky, they're going to be locked into mediocrity. The TWolves finally made the playoffs as an 8th seed this season but that was to a large degree because of Butler. They don't have cap space. I think their upside is limited unless they move Wiggins for a good return.
So which teams would you rank as being better positioned than the Sixers? I'd say GSW, Celtics and possibly the Rockets (think their age limited). If I knew Embiid was going to be healthy, I'd just say GSW.
But it did happen. That's like saying if the Sixers decided to build around Jrue Holiday, where would their rebuild be today?
What the Sixers did was such an embarrassment they had to reform the entire lottery because of them. Also, the other owners basically forced Silver to step in regards to the blatant tanking that was taking place - not only because of the losing, but because of lost revenue to home teams facing a woeful Philly squad.
Everybody gets it, losing increases one's odds of getting a higher pick; however, that doesn't mean that what they did was respectable or that they shouldn't have been punished for it. As I said before, I was much more impressed with Philly's MCW/Lakers pick deal and the Stauskas, Landry, Thompson, Sac pick for cap space deal than the total disregard they had for the integrity of the league and game. It isn't original and it's just not morally correct.