John Smallwood:

HINDSIGHT IS 20/20 and if ESPN.com were to release its annual rankings of NBA players today instead of before the 2016-17 season began, at least one Sixer likely would get a lot more respect.

Sixers rookie center Joel Embiid may not have played for the previous two seasons, but he is 58th in the top 200 players.

Embiid doesn’t qualify for the statistical leaders because he’s only played 15 games, but his 18.2 points per game would rank fifth among centers.

His 2.5 blocks per game would rank second to Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, and he is actually tied for 13th with 38 blocks in his limited games.

Gobert is ranked 37th by ESPN.com, while Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns (11th), Detroit’s Andre Drummond (20th), Indiana’s Myles Turner (50th) and Toronto’s Jonas Valanciunas (53) are all young centers ranked ahead of Embiid.

Based on that, Embiid likely would be 25th to 35th if the rankings were done today.

This year, ESPN.com gave more props to the Sixers’ roster with nine players ranked in the top 200, which is up from two last season.

OK, deep breath. What we have here, it would seem, is a column based on the arbitrary ESPN player rankings to judge the Sixers – who have maybe the two most promising prospects in the NBA – on their drafting ability, which is the sort of basis for a column that a 20-year-old would-be contributor would send us in email. I used the ESPN player rankings to draw sweeping conclusions about the progress of a complex and prolonged process. Let me know what you think while I go fuck myself! I’ll play along.

The Sixers should have drafted Kristaps Porzingis over Jahlil Okafor. That’s pretty much understood at this point. Even though people thought the Knicks may have reached on KP – they obviously didn’t – he fit the Sixers, was a prototypical Hinkie pick, and the rumors were that Hinkie wanted him but was forbidden from taking him.

Second, draft hindsight is … how should I say this? Bullshit. You can go full revisionist history on every pick ever made and make any and every GM in basketball look like a total idiot. Remember when the Atlanta Hawks picked Josh Childress in 2004 with Luol Deng and Andre Iguodala in the next three picks? Remember when the Sixers picked Andre Iguodala and just six picks later Al Jefferson left the board? Or when in 2007 every team in the NBA missed on Marc Gasol except the Lakers, who then traded him anyway? When the Knicks, in 1999, drafted Frédéric Weis one pick in front of Ron Artest? See how stupid this is? John Smallwood doesn’t:

In 2010, the Sixers took Evan Turner (currently 152nd) at No. 2 overall. The 2010 class included Indiana’s Paul George (ranked 9th), Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins (13th), Utah’s Derrick Favors (39th), Phoenix’s Eric Bledsoe (43rd), and Boston’s Avery Bradley (54th).

In addition to trading for Noel, the Sixers drafted Michael Carter-Williams (unranked) 11th overall. Left on the draft board where Gobert, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (19th) and Oklahoma City’s Steven Adams (36th).

Here are the fatal flaws in this argument: Evan Turner was a bad pick, yes, but he was the consensus, no-brainer #2 in that draft. Also, not only were the Sixers under a different GM back then, they had different ownership. The Sixers that drafted Turner and the Sixers that drafted Embiid and Okafor are the same in name only, and even that might eventually change once Joshua Harris sells the naming rights and 76ers become the Camden Twinkies Brought To You By StubHub. Finally, Paul George was taken 10th overall. So not only did the Sixers miss on him, so did the Jazz, Clippers, Pistons, Warriors, Timberwolves, and Nets (removing Cousins and John Wall from the equation). That says more about Paul George than it does about the teams that skipped him. He’s outplayed his expectations.


In more recent years, Smallwood takes issue with … everything:

Taking a chance on the injured Embiid was the right move in 2013, but the Sixers also had the 10th overall pick. They drafted point guard Elfrid Payton (108th) but immediately traded him to Orlando for Saric and a future first-round pick. Currently, Saric is second to Embiid among rookies and his story is just starting, but with the 10th pick the Sixers could have had Utah’s Rodney Hood (ranked 66th) or Minnesota’s Zach LaVine (87th).

Considering that five players ranked in the top 54 were drafted after Turner, no recent draft mistake was bigger, but the most surprising potential draft mistake could come from last year.

Okafor was a consensus top 3 pick in 2015 and with the uncertain status of Embiid, it made sense to draft him. But with hindsight, now that Embiid seems healthy, the Sixers are jammed with three young centers on a completely unbalanced team. To take Okafor, they passed on New York stretch forward Kristaps Porzingis (ranked 33rd), Phoenix shooting guard Devin Booker (46th) and Indiana center Myles Turner (50th).

Right now, that’s three top 50 players for what looks like an unneeded insurance policy in Okafor…

That’s not the best way to rebuild.

First, Smallwood is arguing that Saric + a first round pick is worse than Rodney Hood and Zach LaVine. While LaVine is having a good year, that whole “this is not how you rebuild” argument isn’t flying with the 7-18 Timberwolves right now, is it? Also, Rodney Hood was taken 23rd. He’s “pretty good for the 23rd pick” Rodney Hood. If he was taken at number 10, the narrative changes. The same goes for Myles Turner in 2015. Not only is Turner very similar in play style to an Embiid/Noel mashup, but he was the 12th pick. The Pacers are thrilled about getting that at the 12th pick. If you take that talent at number three, the difference in expectations vs. reality slips to nearly non-existent. And people would still be talking about how they should’ve taken Porzingis.

Never mind that Smallwood mentions Giannis. Half the GMs in the league should be fired for missing on him then.

But the biggest issues here, as always, is Smallwood’s contradictions and ability to talk himself into circles. If you’ve ever interacted with him on Twitter (Note: don’t) you know it’s like the song that doesn’t fucking end with Smallwood saying dumb shit after dumb shit, like a broken record of stupidity wrapped in a can of WTF:

Oh, OK, so GMs and front offices don’t get credit, they just get the blame.

There’s more.

As pointed out by Jeff McMenamin (@SixersBlog), John Smallwood wrote back in February that Okafor was “as close to a transcendent player as the Sixers have…who can average 20 to 25 points with 10-plus rebounds…it’s a no-brainer to establish him as the foundation piece.” Minus the laugh fest that is Okafor, one of the league’s worst rebounders, averaging 10+, Smallwood wrote this yesterday, re-pasted from above:

“To take Okafor, they passed on New York stretch forward Kristaps Porzingis, Phoenix shooting guard Devin Booker, and Indiana center Myles Turner…right now, that’s three top 50 players for what looks like an unneeded insurance policy in Okafor.”

From “foundation piece” to “unneeded insurance policy” in 24 games played between columns, all because ESPN changed their player rankings. This is the level we’re working at with columnists in this city.

Finally, Smallwood (and Hayes too) has a tendency to judge all moves in a vacuum instead of looking at the bigger picture. That’s dumb, but I’ll let Kyle – these are his words, not mine – take that one:

“The core problem is that Smallwood judges everything in the now like a [redacted] automaton simple [redacted] who doesn’t realize that there is a munch larger story, even if you disagree with the tactic, no reasonable person would judge the Sixers in a vacuum the way that [redacted] continues to do on a daily basis [redacted] [redacted] [redacted].”

Smallwood sucks.