And yet, being abjectly terrible for multiple years in a row helps! The point isn’t that anybody thinks Sam Hinkie is some genius, is that’s he’s the person who actually came in and DID it. If everything was so obvious, the Kings would’ve bottomed out to get somebody good to pair with Boogie.

I’m not sure the latter of those counts as “luck” - did anybody really think the league was going to let the Lakers lose their pick? There’s like a 0.1% chance we’re getting it this year, too.

In order to get there, you start with a great player. That’s Embiid. If Simmons isn’t a great player, that’s a huge setback, but there aren’t any indications he won’t be. There’s two, so that’s ahead of every team you listed save the Clippers, who are probably cursed.

I can make an argument the Warriors are terrible because all their key players are past their physical primes, too. But why bother?

Okafor is a sunk cost (and getting KP would’ve probably cost us Simmons). Embiid looks like he could be the best big man to enter the league since Duncan. Simmons could flop, I suppose,…

Gloating? All I’m doing is that weird thing where I try to, y’know, enjoy a team that’s doing reasonably well compared to preseason assumptions and has a fun new superstar (with another on the way!). That seems like the better way to be a sports fan.

Well, that and dumping on the shitpile teams we had five years ago.…

Easy to say now, but let’s see how Simmons turns out... with KP last year I suspect they would not have had the worst record in the league (he’d actually be a pretty good fit next to Okafor, if you had a good defensive coach).

My choice is the Colangelos option, being as how we can’t have/keep nice things.

Deal!

That too, lol. I dunno about “above average”. For a guy who was all about trying to hit home runs, MCW over someone like Giannis and Okafor over Porzingis (or Mudiay, really) are off-philosophy picks that didn’t work out.

Yeah, he’ll play unless the doctors see a setback in the foot. He’s already participating in 5-on-0 drills (or as we call them in Philly, “the Flyers penalty kill”).

Since it’s what we’re seeing NOW, I’m a lot more interested in the lineup since Noel came back, which is quite a bit better than 13-26 (of course they can fuck it up by trading him). As for Embiid, he COULD play 40 minutes a game, but to what end? If they somehow make the world’s most unlikeliest playoff run maybe…

When said “solid contributor” is your overpaid best player, you’re not going anywhere.

Basically it’s “the Process worked, but would’ve worked better if Sam Hinkie didn’t suck at drafting.”

It’s really a shame the Sixers didn’t keep Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes and Andre Iguodala and keep making runs at the 7 seed, though.

Well shit, I didn’t know my wife was on Kinja.

That’s the best description of it I’ve seen. I know why people react viscerally to the term (and why right-wingers might use it pejoratively) but at its heart, the “oppression olympics” are the opposite of intersectionality.

I’m not sure that being in the pocket of Big Pharma and Wall Street counts as radical even these days, but if you want a Democrat to attack teacher’s unions, Cory Booker is definitely your guy.

It’s easier to blame Bernie/bitch about Bernie than to look in the mirror and see that the Third Way just makes the Democratic establishment into Lite Republicans.

I like the idea of the foundations, but I agree that their founders should be taxed and the government run in such a way that they’re not supplanting the government’s responsibility to the safety net, but rather enhancing it with a different approach.

While they’re becoming Patriots Midwest they may as well steal “They hate us cause they ain’t us”