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Sixers still miles away from contending

    by Dick Jerardi
    Published 
The Sixers coach liked his rookie of the year point guard. The general manager traded him. The coach liked his point guard at the end of last season. The general manager neglected to re-sign him.
The coach knew his team had no chance when this season began because he did not have an NBA starting quality point guard on the roster. The team got blown out a lot. The team blew many big leads. The team was 1-30, an embarrassment on the court, an embarrassment to the league when those Jahlil Okafor videos appeared on TMZ.
Sam Hinkie, the general manager, should have been fired long ago for basketball malpractice, selling a dream based on ping pong balls and the future drafting of the next LeBron James. Beyond that nonsense that became clear in the moments after Hinkie drafted an injured Joel Embiid and what eventually became the rights to Dario Saric, there is also this matter of point guard.
Coach Brett Brown has been entrusted with guiding and developing perhaps the youngest group of players in NBA history. And the GM refused to give him a point guard until Jerry Colangelo was miraculously hired and, voila, Ish Smith magically reappeared for two of Hinkie’s precious second-round draft picks.
The Sixers are 5-9 with Smith’s speed opening up the floor. On a team that all season had zero two-way players, Smith has unlocked the mystery that was Nerlens Noel, one of the few NBA-level athletes on the roster.
Still, this team is far from contending for anything but ping pongballs. Forget the four first-round draft choices. That is just marketing. I watch college basketball. I like Ben Simmons too, but I don’t see any other potential franchise changers. In fact, consider this: Anthony Davis is the most talented college player I have watched this century. He is one of the world’s best players. The New Orleans Pelicans are 16-27.
Saric remains a mystery who may never show up. At the least, we know he is not Kristaps Porzingis, a franchise changer in New York.
I love hearing that Embiid is making threes in practice, but, if he ever plays and is shooting threes in games, this is an even bigger mess than I think it is.
Do yourselves a favor. Stay up and watch San Antonio at Golden State Monday night (if you have NBA TV) and then be honest: how close are the Sixers likely to be to either of these teams in this decade regardless of lottery luck, trades or free-agent signings. In fact, given the pace of the rebuilds in New York and Boston, how close are the Sixers likely to be to their two old Eastern rivals.
    DJ
    Dick Jerardi
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