You’d think Philly by now is catching on that, no matter the sport, “the process” is another way of saying “we’re not sure what we are doing but want you to think we had a plan”. Continually making bad decisions may indeed be a process but sooner or later somebody checks the standings and you are what your record says you are despite having a nickname for it
No no no. The sixers process is working. They weren't supposed to be that good this season. They will have another top draft pick and at least one big name addition. Their process jumped ahead a bit, and they aren't ready for this series
Yeah, I agree... I was a pretty heavy process nay-sayer, but I buy it now. The Union aren’t even remotely comparable to the Sixers... agree or disagree with how the Sixers went about building what they have now, but there was at least some coherent thought around it based on the league structure and how player movement functions in the NBA. MLS is much more complicated and has way more variables. The Union decided that they WANTED to be cheap and locked in on the cheapest player acquisition method as their primary method. There is also nothing about what they are doing that can’t be replicated by teams that do have resources to invest in multiple acquisition methods. The NBA equivalent would be if Golden State also had a way to stockpile draft picks.
The "process" just doesn't work with MLS. Being shitty may get you a great draft pick next year, but the MLS SuperDraft doesn't produce game changers.
"The Process" is not a process at all. The Sixers were god awful for the last 10 years. What the Sixers have done is highly unlikely to be repeated. They had to trade away as many top picks as they have made. Plus the NBA draft is huge crap shoot. Ben Simmons is and will be a star. He's quite possibly going to be on the level of Steph Curry and Lebron James one day. The jury is still out on whether Embiid can stay healthy. Who knows what they have in Fultz, Dr. J has remarked that the Sixers should have taken Tatum instead. The Sixers are going to be in a dog fight with the Celtics for Eastern Conference Supremacy for the next few years, which will be great to watch. Bringing it back to MLS. I agree teams cannot be built through the draft. The main thing is for teams to decide on what their identity is going to be and then build based on that. The Union are caught in between. They trying to build through their Academy, and still compete now with some veterans. The Union roster is still the land of misfit toys. The young players on the backline show promise. The midfield needs a ton of work as it is old. I love Medunjanin's game, but he either needs to be paired with Jones or sit as he doesn't have the quickness needed to track the young SA MF's in MLS. Bedoya for all of his industry, just isn't a difference maker. Dockal has shown some promise, but he's a stop gap. The wide players don't play much D, and haven't produced on offense. The Union still need a ruthless finisher up top. On paper the roster looks decent, unfortunately games aren't played on paper. The Union just needs to go all in like Red Bull has on the youth movement. They do that, and come out and say they are doing that and fans will embrace it. If Earnie leaves to take the US GM role I hope they hire Ali Curtis to replace him. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to finally start to dip into the SA player market either...........
The Red Bull’s may be in on youth but they are still willing to spend when necessary to fill in the holes. That’s something the Union can’t/won’t do.
Going back a few years, the Celtics and Sixers finished next to last and last. The Celtics have tried to win and the Sixers embraced the process. The Celtics were in the conference finals last year. Given the picks, shouldn’t they be further along? Fultz can’t play, Noel is gone and Simmons is afraid to shoot. Who consistently drafts guys who are hurt? It only seems like success because they aren’t last again. They still haven’t demonstrated they can build a team capable of winning against the blue bloods and their performance in clutch time indicates they have a ways to go. “We used to suck and now we suck less” isn’t a sign your strategy is working. Especially when half the teams are trying to lose. My point wasn’t about the Sixers results per se, I was referring to the underlying skill and decision making of the front office and coach. If you gave the Union several equivalent picks and acquisitions, adjusted for roster size, would we be happy if they made the playoffs but didn’t have the make up of a real contender? It has to equate to something greater than the parts...accumulating parts isn’t a process...it is just the outcome of the draft.
I didn't explain my point properly. The Sixers got lucky/fortunate enough to draft Embid and Simmons. Players like Simmons come around once a generation. If "The Process" is so successful why aren't we getting a Sabres vs Oilers Stanley Cup Finals? Why haven't the Browns won multiple Super Bowls this century? The teams making selections at the top of the draft orders are pretty much the same year in and year out for each of the leagues. Getting back to the Union: FFS embrace the youth movement. Completely embrace it. Absolutely no one is of the belief that this Union team is a playoff team. Before the season most every fan knew that if the team started fast, it would likely still fall short of the playoffs. Seriously, they really need to embrace this and trot out the U19 Backline. Put D Jones in MF next to either Fontana or Harris. Put Bedoya and Fafa/Accam at the outside mid spots and Ilsinho/Dockal in the middle. Or heaven forbid change the F&cking formation!!! Roll with a 3-5-2/3-4-2-1. Put Trusty in the middle with McKenzie and Elliot as the back three. Play Real and Rosenberry as wingbacks. Put Derrick Jones and Fontana in the middle. The front 3? Who cares. Pick two of the crap we have and have Sapong play up top. Will that get different results? Who the F knows. It'd likely be a hell of lot more entertaining though.
It would appear that the FO thinks this is the case. Anyone remember the "playoffs or bust" signs in the locker room?
Because basketball only requires 1-2 great players while hockey and football need a full team to be able to compete with the top tier? Do you really not understand this basic of a point?
This has literally been pointed out about the difference between tanking in the NBA and tanking in any other sport since, like, 2011, and people still don’t get it.
Oh I get that point. It still doesn't make the fact that the majority of draft picks aren't franchise transforming players any less relevant. How many top picks have the Sixers traded away in the past 8 years? No, I get it. I'm huge basketball fan. This notion that the Sixers had a process, and that process worked is just not true. Sucking balls every season and praying that you hit the lottery on drafting one or two superstars is NOT a process. If it were then the Knicks, T-Wolves, Nets, Kings, etc would be NBA Title contenders by now.
Just dropping by to say our youth aren’t talented and no one is winning in this or any other league without stars. K, thx, bye.
I think you just proved yourself wrong, there's a reason the Sixers are battling for the Eastern Conference Finals and many of these teams have sucked even longer than the Sixers (and still do). The Nets is the opposite of the Process, they traded all their future picks away for aging veterans and have sucked as a result. The Sixers collected hordes of draft picks from bad teams at a time no one else was. Yes, the draft is a crapshoot, which is why the Process worked, they had so many picks that even with low odds, they were guaranteed a couple hits and started building the rest of the team as the hits were coming. Hinkie said he wanted to zig when the rest of the league was zagging. Which he did. And now all the shit teams are trying to tank AT THE SAME TIME, and as a result they are zigging when everyone else is zigging. Essentially the Sixers sucked for so long, because that was their best chance at being GREAT eventually. Any of those years they were bad, they could have loaded up on veteran talent and fought for an 8 spot continuously. Any team in the league could do that, and a lot choose to fight that way. But that's also a reason there's only a couple teams battling for the championship every year. Basketball has historically been like that. And now the Sixers found a new way to enter the competition.
I think everybody understands there are fewer players on a basketball team...my point is regardless of number of players, do you trust Dan Snyder to pick a team? Any team? Do you trust Belichick, Popovich, the Rooney’s, Pep guardiola? Let’s leave the Sixers as having not proved anything yet...how much faith do you put in the brain trust of any team and where do the Union fit in that scale? One player or 100 players, I’ll take Nick Saban over Mike Leach. I agree with the posters who say the Union should pick something and pursue it. The idea that the only way to win is to purposefully lose and hope to acquire so much talent you will just naturally win is not proven. I’d say the opposite is more demonstrable across all sports. But, straddling philosophies and not committing to one approach has not proven successful in any sport, regardless of roster size.
Right, we had so many draft picks we were able to whiff on Turner, Noel, and Okafor and STILL have Embiid, Simmons, Fultz, and Saric.
I'd trust Danny Ainge (I just threw up in my mouth..........) over all of those. They're going to the Eastern Conference Finals without their two best players. They also have a top draft pick in this years draft to boot. It's a shame Sam Hinkie lost his job. It's also surprising that he hasn't landed another GM gig yet.
The NBA wouldn't need to worry about Teams Tanking, or "The Process" if they'd move towards development academies. Philly, Brooklyn, NY, Chicago, LA, Memphis, Indiana wouldn't have any problems competing if they could develop and sign the talent in their backyards....
Honestly, the Union is a good case for arguing that MLS should have pro/rel. If Sugarman weren't guaranteed a return on the team despite letting it languish the way he has he might be more inclined to either invest properly or get out of the game.