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It wasn’t long ago that the Philadelphia 76ers set the competitive bar so low with tanking that the NBA initiated a coup d’etat against Sam Hinkie, replacing him with Bryan Colangelo.
How rough was it? Between 2013 and 2017, the Sixers managed just 75 total wins, an average of 18.75 per year. This year alone, the Sixers won nearly three times as many games, finishing with a 54-28 record (coincidentally, the Sixers finished with 28 wins in the final season of the rebuild, 2016-17).
The Sixers’ masterful, multi-season tank job that netted the team Joel Embiid has since become the blueprint for several other teams’ rebuilds. The Thunder and Rockets, for instance, tore their teams down to the studs, amassing serious draft capital in the process. Though the Thunder will have a shot at the playoffs this year, the Rockets appear headed for the top of the lottery for the third year in a row.
But is competitive losing a good thing for the league? Doc Rivers isn’t so sure.
“The other stuff, that’s hard,” Rivers told reporters after the Sixers’ regular season finale against the Hornets. “I don’t know if there’s a fix. There can’t be an incentive to it, that’s where those trades though when you make and you have the incumbent picks, maybe there’s a fix there, but other than that, no, I don’t think there is.”
The Sixers will not feature prominently in this year’s draft, having sent compensation to the Brooklyn Nets for the James Harden trade last year. The Nets are also Philly’s first-round playoff opponent this year.
Doc Rivers Sounds Off on Play-In Tournament
Flattening the lottery odds was just one way the NBA sought to combat competitive losing. Two years ago, the league also instituted a play-in tournament, in which the Nos. 7-10 seeds in each conference play for the chance at a postseason series.
The Sixers have always been safely out of the play-in zone and as such have little experience with its draws. But Rivers thinks the play-in has been a solid addition to the game.
“I do think it’s actually working overall the way they intended to,” said Rivers. “Really, I think the play-in has really worked. In the West, I walked in the locker room and said ‘Someone make me understand how can—like what’s going on in the West at the bottom 5 on?’ It’s perfect. Every team actually has to win because if they take the risk of losing, they end up dropping, and it’s a mess. In a good way.”
Rivers is referring to the various computations in the Western Conference’s playoff seeding that came down to, quite literally, the 11th hour. The Clippers, Warriors, Lakers, Pelicans, Thunder, and Timberwolves all had playoff seeding at stake on Sunday, the last day of the season.
Doc Rivers Addresses Mavericks Meltdown
One team who had nothing to play for on Sunday? The Dallas Mavericks. The team essentially threw in the towel days before by resting most of its starters and limiting Luka Doncic to one quarter of action.
The rationale was simple. By ducking the playoffs, the Mavs can better guarantee that they land a top draft pick. Had the Mavericks made the playoffs, there’s a real shot this year’s first-round pick, a top-ten protected one to the Knicks, would have been sent to the Big Apple.
The decision by Dallas to duck the playoffs shocked Rivers.
“The Dallas thing, just throw that over there by itself,” said Rivers. “That came out of nowhere and no one–you get it because of draft stuff, but it is a tough one. Even us the other night, we didn’t play anybody and nor should we had, but Atlanta needed to win that game, and let’s say if Atlanta had won that game, the teams that are vying for—are looking at us like ‘What are you doing?’ it’s a tough one.”
The Sixers and Nets will take the court this Saturday.
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