Philadelphia 76ers: tanking or something else?
Enrique Bajo
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nbamaniacs
The disaster of the 76ers against Dallas Mavericks by 53 points difference invites you to think.

The policy of tanking that it arouses so much controversy seems to be overcoming all the barriers of indignation on the part of the majority of fans, in addition to attacking the essence of sport in its purest sense. Or is it not like that? Is it possible to speculate on the tanking intentionality in a team after receiving such a beating for a current baggage of 0–9?.

Because it is one thing to lose games, and quite another to also lose, along the way, dignity, pride, ambition, even the billing of the desired Curriculum.

Although the current regulations reward lower winning records with greater chances in the draft lottery, this rule does not take into account variables such as how or when those games are lost. It would therefore be illogical to classify the Sixers players as "accomplices" of such a corrective in search of the best pick university, if an entire franchise must be disgraced along the way.

Tanking from the offices

The strategy and transparency in the actions of the board chaired by Sam Hinkie leave no room for doubt, and even less so after failing to move forward in the anti-tanking plan.

Since the remarkable campaign that the team had in the 2011-12 season, reaching the second round of the Playoffs, everything has been nonsense. The following season was marked by Andrew Bynum fiasco and the departures of Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand, Lou Williams and Nikola Vucevic (34-48). After that, the Sixers' compass set a course without deviations: the total reconstruction. The transfer of his best player, Jrue Holiday, in exchange for Nerlens Noel who would be in dry dock the entire season, already warned sailors of what would be a long period adrift. The next to abandon ship; Nick Young, Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes—the icing on the cake this year with Thaddeus Young—to put an end to the little revenue that was left for a franchise and a fan condemned to wait.

The current template

The players have little say and even less power to decide in which group they will spend their first years in the NBA. And as they say, now there are those who are, and they are those who are.

The harsh reality reveals the following:

The future of the team rests on the shoulders of two—or three—players. One of them has just officially started his rookie season, and his well-known ability to block, Nerlens Noel He still has a whole pantry of skills and movements to add to his repertoire. Joel Embiid He will emulate the previous one in his first year, if injuries allow it, enduring the downpour while sheltering between dances and tweets. The other great hope, Michael Carter-Williams, has just returned to the fields, and if those at the top cease their efforts to transfer him (if we follow the rumors), it would be the third piece of a gear destined to rotate at high revolutions in 'x' years.

But now, apart from the aforementioned Noel and Carter-Williams, the most drinkable thing that the Pennsylvania franchise has is configured in the names of Tony Wroten, Chris Johnson, Luc Mbah a Moute, Alexey Shved and Henry Sims, in addition to the unusual, for unique and unexpected, positive surprise of the team represented in the rookie KJ McDaniels.

Less than $32 million in salaries, which already say how little or nothing these guys can compete today. For this reason, how much responsibility should be placed on players who comply with the designs of a few in suits?

In the past, teams with better squads have found themselves in a parallel situation. The 2009-10 New Jersey Nets They included in their ranks some players forced to demand much more than the beardless Sixers. That roster in particular included Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Brook Lopez, Yi Jianlian and Kris Humphries among others, and yet they started the league with 0–18 to end up in a very poor state 12–70. Crude tanking attempt? It's hard to believe it.

Go out to lose?

The question really lies there. There are no hidden microphones in the locker room, nor is Josh Harris (the team's largest shareholder) proclaiming his roadmap. And even if that were the case, it is hard to believe that kids in their twenties and eager to take on the world, go out, resigned and obeying some instructions, to deliberately lose. I opt for an axiomatic truth: The 76ers are, today, the worst team in the league. Going all out may not be enough for a very young squad that has a long way to go. To grow before you have to fall and get up, and this team still has a lot to stumble over.

My theory does not benefit much from an affordable schedule to date with Pacers, Bucks and Magic in the rearview. But remember that last season's Sixers—already led by Brett Brown—“also came out to tank”…and started the league with a favorable 5–4.

Wanting and being able are often two concepts separated by a very thin thread. That these Sixers, drunk with youth, legs, desire, but also lethal inexperience, go out to lose, is something to which my sense of sportsmanship and hunger for victory refuses to bow down.