Ball So Hard’s latest series “Can we fix it” analyses some of the NBA’s worst teams for signs of hope or helplessness. Is your favourite team flailing at the foot of the league standings? Let’s see if we can fix it!

Star Power

Hollis Thompson, James Nunnally, Lorenzo Brown, Casper Ware and Dewayne Dedmon. No these aren’t made up names, they are real life players who have suited up for the Philadelphia 76ers this season.

Star power isn’t exactly the Sixers strong suit. Before the season, despite having a 20-man squad, head coach Brett Brown declared his team had only “6 NBA players” on the roster – Michael Carter-Williams, James Anderson, Evan Turner, Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes and Lavoy Allen.

Since then, Philly has traded three of those players – Hawes to Cleveland and Turner and Allen to Indiana.

Young has battled valiantly throughout the season, averaging 18.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.2 steals per game. But rumours swirled around the trade deadline that the former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket standout was on the trading block and no longer considered a part of the teams future.

Meanwhile, Carter-Williams is a hot favourite to take out this season’s Rookie of the Year award (leading all rookies in points 16.5, rebound 6.1, assists 6.3 and steals 1.97 per game and has a rookie-best 14 double-doubles for the year), but it is hard to gauge exactly what his professional ceiling is while he is receiving such inflated minutes and responsibility on such a bad team.

On the plus side, the 76ers’ poor record all but ensures they will have a top-3 pick in this years draft where there are several potential stars ready for the picking.

Rating: 1/15 – A superstar could be on the way come June’s draft, but at the moment it is slim and unproven pickings.

Location, Location, Location

The relationship between Philadelphia fans and Allen Iverson is an excellent representation of how much they love basketball in Philly.

The City of Brotherly Love is a blue-collar town that respects players that play with pride for their city.

While this is a fantastic thing for a player to have behind them, it isn’t exactly the glamor and glitz that the biggest markets in the NBA can offer.

Philadelphia also ranks 28th in the league for attendance this season. Admittedly, there has not been much to cheer for at the Wells Fargo Center this season, but regardless, no one wants to play in an empty stadium.

Rating: 2/5 – Philly fans love their team (when they show up to games), but there are brighter lights that attract bigger names around the league.

Future Prospects

The Sixers currently own the second-worst record in the NBA (16-58) and are only two games above the league-worst Milwaukee Bucks (14-60). If there recent NBA-record 26-game losing streak form is anything to go by, it isn’t unthinkable that Philly could fall below the Bucks before the season’s end.

Regardless, the 76ers are all but assured a top-three draft pick in the June NBA draft – one of the most hyped draft classes since LeBron James headlined a star-studded 2003 draft.

As well as owning their own lottery-bound draft pick, Philadelphia will receive a second lottery pick from the New Orleans Pelicans thanks to the deal that saw Jrue Holiday head to N’awlins with Nerlens Noel going the other way.

It has been a season where favourable results have been few and far between for the Sixers, but thankfully for Philly, the Pelicans playoff plans fell short of the mark. With New Orleans missing the playoffs, but not bottoming out completely, the incoming pick for Philadelphia (which is only top-5 protected) should fall nicely in the middle of the lottery and into the Sixers lap. While many have criticised general manager Sam Hinkie for gutting his roster this seasons, trading a one-time All-Star with injury issues for two top-10 picks is a savvy move.

As well as their two valuable first-rounders, Philadelphia have five second-round picks this season thanks to the team-destroying trades they made before this season’s deadline deal. And while second-round picks are less likely to bring an impact player, they give the Sixers plenty of options to deal on draft night.

Philly also have options moving forward as they own both their first and second-round pick next season.

Rating: 10/10 – Philadelphia has made no secret that they are readying themselves for draft position. But who can blame them. They have two high picks incoming this season and an embarrassment of second-round picks. They have a plethora of options going forward and assets to burn. They can trade up the board or acquire ready-made players.

Sideline Stability

His team might not be delivering on the court, but there are very few pointing fingers at rookie head coach Brett Brown.

Nobody expected the Sixers to win many games this season and it is clear they are in the midst of a major rebuild.

Despite being in his first season as a head coach in the NBA, Brown is one of the league’s more experienced coaches. He has championship experience across the globe, having led the North Melbourne Giants to a title in his native Australia and as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs, winning an NBA Championship in 2007.

Brown has also spent time as both an assistant and head coach of the Australian Men’s National Basketball Team, guiding them to several medals at the FIBA Oceania Championships.

Rating: 3/5 – It might not be showing on the court just yet, but Brown is an experienced coach who has mentored players at many levels. It is too early into Brown’s NBA head coaching career to judge his performance. Especially with the current in flux roster the 76ers have.

Salary Cap or Cuffs?

Before the season started, Philadelphia was struggling to sign enough players to meet the minimum salary cap requirements. The current price of their roster stands at roughly $52 million, over $6 million below the 2013-14 salary cap.

Next season, Philly have only $26.9 million in committed salary, and that is assuming that injured veteran Jason Richardson and centre Byron Mullens both pick up their respective player options.

If both players don’t opt in, which is a real possibility, it leaves the Sixers with just a six-man roster, but with nearly $40 million in cap space to play with.

Unfortunately for 76ers fans, despite their freedom to spend in the free agent market, there current situation doesn’t lend them to being an attractive destination for a star player.

However, this is not necessarily a bad thing for the Sixers. Other teams around the league such as the Oklahoma City Thunder have turned their fortunes around through savvy drafting rather than splurging on the free agent market, and Philadelphia plans to employ a similar strategy to develop their team.

“It’s all aligned to we are not going to be pursuing free agents for a while,” coach Brown per Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“We are about development. Once the alignment with development collides with a bunch of other things in the program, then you can start talking about free agents.

Coach Brown also admitted that it is unlikely that many free agents will be targeting his team in the offseason.

“No free agent is going to want to come to Philadelphia at this stage. Why would a good free agent want to come in and be a part of a rebuild?” he said. The hope for Philadelphia is that they can draft several key pieces over the next two seasons and develop a team that free agents will want to sign with in the future. “You say, ‘Oh there’s a program of the future in an unbelievable city,’ ” Brown said. “That’s the evolution of the program aligned with the practice facility, which is two years away (The 76ers are currently building a new training facility which is estimated to be completed within the next two year).”

Rating: 7/15 – Philadelphia have an enormous amount of salary cap this offseason, but they don’t have the ability to attract big-name free agents just yet. However, all hope is not lost. If they draft well, that salary cap will become more valuable season by season.

Summary

Total: 23/50

Currently, things look extremely bleak in Philadelphia.

There is little to no star power on the current roster – a team which is record-breakingly bad – and the potential stars that are under contract are no certainty to stay or unproven at the professional level.

However, the Sixers are loaded with valuable draft picks and have money to burn over the coming seasons.

It is a positive sign for Philly fans that their team plans to rebuild through the draft rather than try and buy themselves into the playoffs – a move that would see them inevitably overpay for talent due to their current low standing in the league.

It means the 76ers front office will need to be on their A-game come the draft, and fans will need to be patient as their young team develops, but there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel in Philly.

Stay patient. Stay strong. It won’t be pretty, but their is always hope.

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