NBA Philadelphia 76ers

Philadelphia 76ers’ New Year’s Resolution Is To Establish Team Identity

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By @Greg_Sacidor

Bill Streicher - USA TODAY Sports

Bill Streicher – USA TODAY Sports

A new year usually brings about new year’s resolutions. For the Philadelphia 76ers, 2015 should be all about finally establishing their identity.

This past year has been nothing short of long and painful for the Sixers. After Sam Hinkie was hired as the franchise’s general manager, Philadelphia started 2014 looking to rebuild from the ground up. In February the deconstruction began.

As the NBA’s trading deadline approached its final hours, Philadelphia shipped out a group of veterans who were instrumental to the team’s previous success – however little it may have been. With time ticking away, Philadelphia traded Lavoy Allen, Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner. Allen and Hawes may not have been viewed as a huge loss by 76ers fans, but Turner was a different story.

Although the always-critical Philadelphia fans had been clamoring for him to be dealt for some time, Turner being traded signified the end to the previously failed attempt at resurrecting this once proud franchise. As the No. 2 overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, the selection of Turner (the then defending College National Player of the Year) was supposed to be the beginning of Philadelphia’s rise back to the top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

Instead, Turner along with Jrue Holiday, Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young managed to only get the 76ers as far as the Eastern Conference Semifinals — all the way back in 2012. Hinkie put the final touches on the 76ers’ deconstruction this past offseason, when he traded the final two remaining pieces of the previous regime in Arnett Moultrie and Young.

While Hinkie and the rest of the Philadelphia organization were busy imploding the team, the new faces of the franchise still had to go out and play games. With everything collapsing in around them during the first half of 2014, head coach Brett Brown and point guard Michael Carter-Williams had to do the best they could with the pieces they had. Unfortunately, the best that they could do was not very much.

With almost all of the pieces to the puzzle still being unknown, the 76ers are about to end 2014 the same way they started it – having no set identity. Philadelphia may have the pieces to the puzzle stockpiled, but one whole year into their rebuilding process the picture that these pieces are set to create still remains unclear.

Are these pieces going to create a picture that features a half court team that uses big men to grind games out? Are these pieces going to create a picture that features a team heavily-relying on guards to get out in transition? Are these pieces going to create a picture that features something else? Nobody seems to know the complete answer to this question, not even Hinkie and rest of the Philadelphia organization. While stockpiling pieces such as young players and future draft picks may be all well and good, the picture that those pieces are eventually going to create still needs to be identified.

Obviously the picture won’t be completed any time soon, but with 2014 about to end and 2015 set to begin, the 76ers’ New Year’s resolution needs to be to finally establish the identity of the franchise. If they don’t, they will find themselves stuck at the bottom of the NBA for much longer than they may want.

Greg Sacidor is a Philadelphia 76ers and NBA writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Greg_Sacidor or add him to your network on Google.

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