The Philadelphia 76ers took a long time before they got back to winning ways again. After years of losing, and trying to draft players whom they can build around, ‘The Process’ had begun to pay off when Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid became All-Stars. The new core of the team was seemingly ready.
But that hasn’t been the case. The 76ers haven’t even been able to reach an Eastern Conference Finals with Simmons and Embiid as their star duo. And this duo is likely done playing with each other, as Simmons is adamant about being traded, despite his recent behavior becoming a deterrent for interested teams.
Many fans have looked at ‘The Process’ and considered it a success based on Embiid and Simmons. But a closer look at what their team could have been has show how many poor decisions the 76ers made over the last few years. One could call it a waste of several draft picks.
Instagram page Outside The Arc made a post outlining what the 76ers team could have looked like if they had made the right decisions in the draft. This team would have consisted of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid.
The 76ers passed up on all these players during the draft and went for different options. The 76ers picked Nerlens Noel over Giannis in 2013, Jahlil Okafor over Devin Booker in 2015, Markelle Fultz over Jayson Tatum in 2017, and Mikal Bridges over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 2018.
Obviously, these decisions look worse with the benefit of hindsight. But given how many solid players the 76ers missed out during the course of ‘The Process’, one has to wonder how they got so lucky with Joel Embiid.
If the 76ers were to start again, they would probably make better decisions, given they have one of the best front-office executives in Daryl Morey running things right now. But one can’t help but wonder just how good the 76ers could have been if ‘The Process’ had been better executed.
