NBA Season Preview: Philadelphia 76ers and the power of restraint

Heading into the offseason, new Philadelphia 76ers team president Bryan Colangelo had one mission: Don’t screw up the cache of assets that former general manager Sam Hinkie left for him to inherit.

Thus far, Colangelo has passed that test with flying colors, although his colleagues may have saved him from himself at times. Regardless, his patience during the second step of Philadelphia’s rebuild — particularly his refusal to be pressured into breaking up the franchise’s frontcourt logjam at less than full value — bodes well for the future.

The weeks leading up to the draft provided Colangelo with his first major obstacle, especially once the Sixers won the No. 1 overall pick at the draft lottery. Once Philadelphia settled upon 6-10 point forward Ben Simmons as its selection, Colangelo had to determine what to do with his increasingly crowded rotation of big men. Former top-six picks Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor struggled to coexist in 2015-16, while Joel Embiid appeared on track to make his long-awaited debut in the fall. With Dario Saric repeatedly hinting at his plans to join the squad over the summer as well, Colangelo suddenly had to worry about five young lottery choices vying for frontcourt minutes.

In late May, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reported the Sixers were “determined to gauge the trade market for both Okafor and Noel” and were “increasingly likely to move at least one of them in conjunction with the draft.” Trade chatter intensified over the ensuing weeks, with The Vertical’s Shams Charania reporting the Sixers discussed a possible deal with the Atlanta Hawks centered around Noel and point guard Jeff Teague (who Atlanta later dealt to the Indiana Pacers). A source told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer that Colangelo was shopping Noel and Okafor to “at least 15 teams” heading into the draft.

On draft night itself, Stein dropped a bombshell in the early going, reporting the Sixers offered Nerlens Noel, their two late first-round draft picks (Nos. 24 and 26) and Robert Covington to the Boston Celtics in exchange for the No. 3 pick. Pompey, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein and Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher had all previously reported that Philadelphia was enamored with Providence point guard Kris Dunn, which helps explain its supposed interest in the third overall pick. Boston, however, rebuffed Colangelo’s reported offer and selected Cal forward Jaylen Brown at No. 3 instead, perhaps sparing the Sixers’ new president of a questionable overpay.

Free agency figured to give Colangelo another chance to flip one of his young bigs, as teams that missed out on their top frontcourt targets could be enticed to make a panic move out of desperation. After Timofey Mozgov, Bismack Biyombo and Ian Mahinmi each commanded long-term deals with annual salaries north of $15 million, Noel and Okafor became exponentially more valuable, as both big men have at least one year remaining on their rookie contracts. Rather than ship one of them out at less than full price, however, Colangelo opted to stand pat and keep his full complement of frontcourt players heading into the season.

“The notion that we were out shopping any of them and aggressively pushing to make a deal is not the case,” Colangelo told The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski in mid-September. “But we certainly listened, because a lot of people thought we were in a corner. We’ve never felt like we’re in that corner. We feel like we’ve got three talented players that we’re gonna let work itself out.”

Elaborating on that position, Colangelo told Wojnarowski, “This is a year of experimentation and a year of feeling out exactly what we have before we make any harsh or rash decisions.” He noted that Noel, Embiid and Okafor will each hit restricted free agency at a different time (in that order), reducing the pressure on the Sixers to make an immediate move. Given the uncertainty about Embiid’s ability to hold up physically under the rigor of an 82-game NBA season, keeping both Noel and Okafor around as short-term insurance policies is defensible, even if it puts head coach Brett Brown in a bind to find playing time for all three.

In all likelihood, Colangelo is banking on injuries to force an opposing franchise’s hand during the season. If a contender’s starting center goes down with a long-term ailment, Philadelphia should be on any general manager’s short list of teams to call with trade offers. A failure to live up to lofty preseason expectations could spur action, too. After all, the Cleveland Cavaliers shipped two protected first-round picks to the Denver Nuggets for Timofey Mozgov in January 2015 when their LeBron James-led superteam didn’t get off to a running start. A similar stumble may work in Philadelphia’s favor this year.

That doesn’t mean Noel and Okafor should each be planning their long-term futures in Philadelphia, however. When the Sixers re-signed Elton Brand in early September, Wojnarowski reported, “The Sixers have had periodic trade talks this summer involving Noel and Okafor and plan eventually to move one of them,” adding that the team “doesn’t believe the two players’ talents are complementary.”

Over the long run, it makes little sense for the Sixers to commit a huge proportion of their salary cap to all three centers. Not only do they eventually need to carve out space for a Simmons extension, but their backcourt also remains somewhat in a state of flux. By the time Okafor becomes a restricted free agent in three years’ time, however, the Sixers likely will have broken up their frontcourt glut, rendering this discussion obsolete. It’s not as though Colangelo plans on keeping the Embiid-Noel-Okafor triumvirate around forever; he’s just not willing to sell one (or more) of them for 50 cents on the dollar at the moment.

Given the messaging that emerged from Philadelphia’s ownership group and management this past spring — particularly the #process2progress hashtag that team CEO Scott O’Neil debuted leading up to the draft lottery — Sixers fans understandably feared Colangelo making rash decisions to accelerate the team’s rebuilding timeline. During his introductory press conference in April, however, Colangelo attempted to quell such concerns.

“We won’t rush into anything,” he said. “I really want to make sure that everyone understands that this is a transition from this measured rebuilding process to sustainable winning. That’s what’s important to establish here.”

Colangelo proved those comments weren’t just lip service with his approach to free agency. Armed with an abundance of salary-cap space, the Sixers could have thrown around money like drunken sailors once the clock struck midnight on July 1. Instead, Colangelo took a measured approach with his acquisition strategy, too, rounding out the team’s backcourt with veterans on reasonable, short-term deals. From Jerryd Bayless’ three-year, $27 million contract to Gerald Henderson’s two-year, $18 million pact, the Sixers somehow avoided any egregious overpays in the most player-friendly free-agent market in NBA history.

Whether Colangelo and Philadelphia’s ownership group can remain patient when losses begin piling up anew remains an open question. Two significant hurdles only further complicated that equation during the first week of training camp.

First, on the eve of media day, Noel expressed his frustration about the center logjam to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, saying, “I think at the end of the day, again, you have three starting-caliber centers. And it’s just not going to work to anybody’s advantage having that on the same team. That’s how I’m looking at it. I’m not opposed to anything, but things need to be situated.” He proceeded to double down on that sentiment during media day, telling reporters, “I don’t see a way of it working. I think obviously things need to be moved around. Someone needs to be moved around. It’s just a tough situation.”

Colangelo brushed off Noel’s criticism during media day, saying, “We have a lot of time for things to work out. Some of it will happen in the preseason, some of it will happen in the regular season, but I don’t feel like we’re up against any kind of deadline of any sort.” Noel going public with his aggravation isn’t going to help the Sixers’ trade leverage, so Colangelo attempted to dissuade any would-be lowball offers by again expressing the lack of a self-imposed deadline to move one (or more) of Philadelphia’s bigs.

Only days after Noel made waves with his comments, Simmons suffered a fracture in the fifth metatarsal of his right foot after rolling his ankle toward the end of a practice. A source told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman that the injury will likely sideline the No. 1 overall pick for three months, “which would peg his return in December or possibly even January.” Though it’s not a career-threatening injury by any means, it’s nevertheless a devastating blow for a franchise that finally had reason for hope after three dark, dreary seasons of rebuilding.

It does, however, make Colangelo look prescient for keeping his crowded frontcourt rotation intact despite Noel’s obvious frustration. With Embiid easing his way back into playing competitive basketball for the first time in two-and-a-half years and Saric ready to make his NBA debut, finding adequate playing time for both Noel and Okafor is suddenly far less of a short-term headache for Brown.

If the Sixers’ owners begin pressuring Colangelo to further accelerate the team’s rebuilding timeline, especially in the wake of Noel’s grumbling and Simmons’ foot injury, he could be forced to trade one of his bigs at a clearance rate, receiving far less in exchange than he would have preferred. Until then, though, Sixers fans should be rightfully encouraged about the tempered start to Colangelo’s tenure. He may be far more of a deserving successor to Hinkie than his rapid ascent to the role would otherwise indicate.