The Philadelphia 76ers, rather Joel Embiid, told us to trust the process. That’s led them to where it all began all those years ago, back in the NBA Draft lottery and looking for a new face of the franchise. According to ESPN, there’s a 10.5 percent chance it ends up being Cooper Flagg. But what about if they end up outside the top pick or even the top four picks?
ESPN predicts they’ll end up with the No. 5 pick which could land them Oklahoma’s Jeremiah Fears, a point guard to pair with Tyrese Maxey in the backcourt. Fears could end up being a steal of the draft for the 76ers as they’re in familiar territory and exactly where they don’t want to be.
The process Embiid entrusted us with ultimately failed and it didn’t even yield an Eastern Conference Finals appearance. It resulted in Ben Simmons and Markel Fultz being traded. Then Embiid became one of the most injured players in the NBA.
The process is in reboot mode now. The 76ers are far from contenders and now they’ll potentially turn to Fears to get the process back on track, whatever that looks like at this point.
Philadelphia 76ers NBA Draft steal is the beginning of a new process in the city of Brotherly Love
The 76ers will have a massive decision to make this offseason in the NBA Draft. Ideally, they get the No. 1 pick and have their decision of whoever they want. That’s not likely though. The one thing they can’t do is drop out of the top six, if they do, they’ll lose their first round pick to Oklahoma City as part of a previous trade, per ESPN.
So where does that leave them if they do get to pick? Well Tre Johnson and Fears are the two players they’d probably take. Clearly, national pundits feel they need to beef up their backcourt. I can agree with that, but this team’s problems stem from more than relying on Maxey.
Paul George was giving a ridiculous amount of money to barely look like a fraction of his old, productive self. He’s untradeable at this point so the 76ers have to accept that mistake. Embiid could potentially be forced to medically retire.
The problem with the 76ers is their roster construction is set up for them to fail right now. They need more than a trusted process to fix this. They’ll need more than Fears or Johnson too. But the only thing they can do is ride it out and hope for the best.
This draft will be the beginning of a new era in Philadelphia basketball. They’ll get a future franchise cornerstone to build around and begin a long rebuilding road for yet another “process”. Hopefully it works out for them this time around.