To say that Bryan Colangelo Would Never is a dramatic understatement. BC demonstrated on numerous occasions -- whether trying to implausibly sell the shitty Nerlens deal as "trading for a first-rounder," or attaching a second-rounder to ship Jahlil Okafor and Nik Stauskas to Brooklyn rather than just waiving both, or turning state's evidence on his wife instead of admitting how he occasionally shit-talked Embiid over a couple glasses of sangria -- that PR was just as important a priority to him as doing what was best for the team. Can you see him drafting the NBA-ready player everyone wanted, then trading him in the midst of a fanbase-wide victory lap -- while the kid was doing his first interview as a Liberty Baller, no less -- for a dude who might not be good for a couple years and a draft asset that might not help us until 2021? Not bloody likely.

And I'll be honest: I went into this draft hoping the Sixers would draft conservatively. I was worried about them giving up future assets to trade up for a light player upgrade, or trading out altogether for veteran help that would ultimately prove inessential -- and trading down seemed unlikely to provide enough of a win around the margins to be worth our while, either. Drafting Mikal Bridges and leaving it at that would've been fine: This wasn't some overly safe move made to pander to the team's risk-averse fans and general #FromHere enthusiasts, this was drafting a really good player who made perfect sense on this team. The Sixers didn't need to go High Process with it.

I'm glad they did, though. Firstly, because the draft -- which had long served as the Championship Parade to the lottery's Super Bowl victory for Process Trusters -- was starting to slip out of our hands. Last night at Barclays, the Philly presence was there, but disconcertingly mid; it was mostly just normal-looking kids wearing jerseys of the city's biggest stars of past and present. When Rick Kamla announced the Sixers as coming up next, he received a polite, medium-sized cheer in response. It felt like the Sixers were just any pretty good team, not the franchise that had essentially run draft night since Dave Silver took over. I wasn't ready for that level of bland respectability; the headline-grabbing chaos of last night felt much more comforting.

And secondly, because if this year's playoffs showed us anything, it's that we're not in a place where we can coast just yet. We're set to be good for a long-ass time, but we're still trailing the Celtics, both in terms of current roster and future assets. If we want to keep pace with them in the years to come, we need to keep pushing, keep improving, keep thinking big-picture. Maybe the unprotected Miami pick helps us land Kawhi Leonard -- and I do sorta believe Gregg Popovich wants to trade him here, if he has to trade him at all -- or maybe it just gives us a talent boost three years from now, when we're capped out and Miami is very likely in a down period. But, regardless, it's a huge future asset to have, and the kind we were finally starting to run out of. Bite our lip and close our eyes, because we're back to taking the longview.