10-72 Sixers have a steep climb to get back into contention

MERCIFULLY, this sad-sack season for the Sixers has ended.

Like most of their games, the Sixers went out with a whimper, and not a bang, as they coughed up a 24-point lead in a 115-105 fall-from-ahead loss at the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.

It's been that kind of a season.

"You feel like the season is appropriately coming to an end," said Sixers coach Brett Brown, who probably felt as if it could not have gotten any worse than his first two seasons. "And it's time to move on."

Move on to what? That is the big question.

When recently resigned president of basketball operations/general manager Sam Hinke took over in 2013, he said he wanted to build something special, a franchise that competes to win titles.

How far do the Sixers have to go to get there?

Well, how long was that road when Hinkie got here? Now, take two steps back.

The numbers don't tell the entire story, but tell enough to conclude that the Sixers are a hot mess as they enter another offseason of transition.

Some of these calculations are mind-boggling.

Obviously, finishing with a 10-72 record speaks for itself. It is the second most losses in a season, eclipsed only by the 1972-73 Sixers, who went 9-73. Several double-digit losing streaks add emphasis.

The reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors finished with a record 73 victories. That is slightly more than seven times the win total of the Sixers - yes, more than seven times!!!

The only other time in NBA history that a team won more than seven times as many games as another team in an 82-game schedule was, you guessed it, 1972-73, when the Boston Celtics won 68 games.

In the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, the Charlotte Bobcats won seven games, while the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs went 50-16.

If the Eagles went 2-14, another team would have to go 15-1 to win more than seven times as many games.

This is how bad the Sixers were, compared with the rest of the league this season.

The Spurs won more than six times as many games, while Cleveland, Toronto, Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers won more than five times as many.

More than half the league, 19 teams, won at least four times as many games as the Sixers. Only the Lakers (17-65) did not win at least twice as many.

The Sixers (.122) are one of only 28 teams in NBA history to finish with a winning percentage lower than .200 through an 82-game season. They are one of only 10 teams to not win at least 15 games in an 82-game schedule.

Just a note to those who complained about the Sixers' being doomed to the seventh or eighth seed before the teardown: A team must make the playoffs before it can contend for a title.

For the first times since the 2009-10 season, none of the 16 playoff teams has a losing records.

The Detroit Pistons, the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, won 34 more games than the Sixers.

Ten teams in the East won at least 30 more games than the Sixers, and the Brooklyn Nets (21-61) are the only team in the conference that did win at least 20 more games.

That's a lot of games to make up against a lot of teams.

Hinkie's overall rosters were so bad, they produced a 47-199 record over the last three seasons.

The Warriors, Spurs, Cavaliers, Raptors, Thunder, Clippers, Heat, Hawks, Celtics and Hornets all won at least 48 games in 2015-16.

People can rightfully argue that Hinkie made moves that have set up new president Bryan Colangelo with numerous assets to restock the bare cupboard, including multiple first-round picks and salary-cap space.

Colangelo, however, will not operate in isolation. The other 29 teams will look to improve, too, and most are already in far better shape than the Sixers.

The Sixers might have been the least experienced team in the NBA, but they were not the youngest.

Midway through January, both the Utah Jazz (40-42) and Milwaukee Bucks (33-49) averaged 24.1 years of age, while the Sixers averaged 24.3, which was due to the presence of long-toothed veterans Carl Landry and Elton Brand.

The Orlando Magic (35-47) is only 0.4 years older than the Sixers.

This matters, because the Sixers' emphasis under Hinkie was the longer view.

Five playoff teams - Toronto (56-26), Boston (48-34), Charlotte (48-34), Indiana (47-35) and Portland (44-38) - average about the same age as the Sixers.

Toronto and Boston are in the Atlantic Division with the Sixers.

Things could change after the NBA draft lottery, but, for now, the Sixers have three guaranteed first-round picks in the 2016 draft, with one in the top four.

Boston has three first-round picks, including one in the top six. Toronto has two picks, including one in the lottery.

The Sixers put up bad numbers during the season, but those numbers concerning the Raptors and Celtics and the draft lottery might be worse in terms of the Sixers moving forward.

@SmallTerp