Los Angeles Lakers: Should NBA intervene with organization?

The NBA “helped the 76ers get out of the “Trust the Process” era

Everyone these days hear the words, “Trust the Process” and think it’s just a cool saying by Joel Embiid. A few years back, that was the business plan for Sam Hinkie, who would start tanking at the first game of the season to collect high draft picks.

Now look, some of the picks panned out, with the Sixers drafting Embiid and Ben Simmons. But some of those draft picks turned out to be Nerlens Noel and Michael Carter-Williams. In between all of those picks, some players sat out the year (Noel, Embiid and Simmons) and the losses piled up big time for the Sixers.

Well, some owners started complaining to Adam Silver, and all of a sudden changes were made. Sam Hinkie was fired and Jerry Colangelo appeared as a major player in the front office.

Take a look at all the changes that happened with the NBA lottery this year, you can look no further than the shameless tanking at the time that was driving the owners up a wall, according to Brian Windhorst.

"The 76ers’ struggles on the floor have been readily apparent — they’ve gone 38-148 over the past two-plus seasons and 1-21 to start this season — while they undergo a long-term rebuilding process under general manager Sam Hinkie. But it was not the bad basketball as much as the hit to the business side that weighed on the rest of the league. Owners routinely complained about the economic drag the 76ers were inflicting on the league as the revenues of one of the largest-market teams — a franchise expected to contribute more robustly to league revenue-sharing — sagged. For many teams, games featuring the starless and woeful 76ers as the visiting team have been the lowest-attended of the season, sources said."

Soon after, Bryan Colangelo was hired as the General Manager of Philadelphia and things turned around quickly for the franchise. Things were going quite well until that “burner account” situation burned the younger Colangelo and he was fired.

Soon after, the elder Colangelo left the organization. Now Elton Brand has taken over and is considered one of the candidates for NBA’s Executive of the Year.

Since Hinkie was shown the door, the 76ers have made the Eastern Conference semifinals in back to back seasons.

This year, Philly pushed the Toronto Raptors to seven games and only a miraculous shot by Kawhi Leonard kept them from possibly making the conference finals.

Plus, the team has plenty of options in the offseason to make moves. All of this from a little “help” from Adam Silver, allegedly.