Sixers Need to Commit To Rebuilding Process

As the trade deadline approached last week, Sixers’ General Manager Ed Stefanski adamantly stated that the Sixers were not looking to dump salary or make any move that made sense only from a financial standpoint. In other words, the Sixers weren’t rebuilding.

Stefanski showed this by holding on to swingman Andre Iguodala, who is in the third season of a six-year, $80 million contract.

Moving Iguodala would have committed the Sixers to a rebuilding process. Something that seemed to be inevitable after the Sixers elected to pass on proven and developed point guards Ty Lawson and Darren Collison—two players that would have been able to contribute in the immediate future. Instead, the Sixers played for the future and selected Jrue Holiday, a raw, high-ceiling player, who played one year at UCLA as a shooting guard, and who will not contribute for at least two seasons.

By not executing the next logical step in a much needed rebuilding process, Stefanski has prolonged the Sixers’ sentence to a place I call “NBA Purgatory.” A place that holds the teams  good enough to squeak into the playoffs, but by no means a contender to make it past the first few rounds.

The Sixers have been in this position since their trip to the NBA Finals in 2001. In the years after the 2001 season, the Sixers repeatedly attempted to give Allen Iverson the supporting cast that could bring the Sixers back to the Finals.

Now, nearly a decade since that thrilling run, the Sixers are no better than they were in 2002. This is because the Sixers have yet to commit to a complete rebuilding process, electing rather to tinker and tweak year after year, instead of blowing the team up and starting over.

Now, after their attempted to make a splash by signing Elton Brand, the Sixers are in need of a rebuild more than ever. Brand has been a complete disaster, and Iguodala has shown he is only good enough to keep the Sixers from getting a top five draft pick, something that they have had once since 1996, when they drafted Allen Iverson.

It would be in the Sixers’ best interest to “earn” a chance at a pick that high again (if not in the top five, at least in the top ten). Not only would a top draft pick have the chance to contribute the following season, he would also bring excitement back to a fan base that has had little reason to care for some time.

I know people say that no team should ever “tank” a season in an effort to get more ping pong balls in the lottery, but I fail to see how watching the Sixers meander through another season and either just miss the playoffs or get blown out in the first round is any better.

Not only would trading Iguodala have increased the Sixers’ chances at getting a higher pick in the draft, it would have also freed up a lot of salary for the Sixers to use this summer. The majority of the free agents have the ability to bring the Sixers to the next level. Combine a top free agent with a promising top five draft pick and the Sixers will be going in the right direction, especially when you throw players like Thaddeus Young and Marreese Speights into the mix. The Sixers would suddenly become one of the teams rising in the NBA.

Instead, the Sixers are now going to meander to the end of another depressingly mediocre season and hope that they get lucky in the NBA lottery.