August 13, 2024
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
The trajectory of the Sixers permanently changed when they drafted Ben Simmons No. 1 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft.
When the 2016 NBA offseason began, new Sixers General Manager Bryan Colangelo had nowhere to go but up. He inherited a team that finished the season with a 10-72 record, embroiled in controversy after controversy, and with his maligned predecessor Sam Hinkie having stepped down, Colangelo received an organizational mandate to ensure an upward trajectory was clear: no more comical losing, no more embarrassment.
Both in the moment and in retrospect, though, Colangelo was dealt a hand much better than the one many acted as if he was given. He inherited the No. 1 overall pick after the Sixers won the NBA Draft Lottery -- along with two other first-round picks -- and because Hinkie kept the team's books clean, Colangelo entered the offseason with a massive amount of financial flexibility.
In the first installment of a new Sixers offseason rewind series, let's take a look back at a 2016 offseason that changed everything for the Sixers -- and could have been even more eventful.
There was no mystery at No. 1: the Sixers were going to select LSU's Ben Simmons at the top slot, give him the ball and build around one of the most dynamic, exciting talents to enter the league in recent memory. Similarly, the Los Angeles Lakers were locked in on Duke wing Brandon Ingram at No. 2 overall.
The intrigue in this draft began with the Boston Celtics at No. 3 overall, where a wide range of prospects and trade opportunities were under strong consideration. Looking to make a second splash on his first significant night in charge of the Sixers, Colangelo made a strong push for the No. 3 pick to acquire Providence point guard Kris Dunn. According to Marc Stein -- then an ESPN insider -- their offer was gargantuan:
ESPN sources say Philadelphia is offering Nerlens Noel, No. 24 and No. 26 in tonight's draft and Robert Covington for Boston's No. 3 pick
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 23, 2016
At the time, Noel was coming off his second year of NBA action and was still viewed as one of the more promising young centers in the league thanks to his outstanding athleticism and defensive ability. Covington, meanwhile, had not become one of the most valuable wing role players in the league yet, but had established himself as a quality rotation player, was young and had two years left on his contract at a hair above the veteran's minimum salary.
The Celtics ultimately declined the offer and selected a young, athletic wing named Jaylen Brown -- and it is safe to say both teams are happy that Boston made that decision. If the Sixers pulled off this trade and Dunn became the star they thought he could be, nobody would have lost sleep over what the team gave up -- even if it was an overpay in a vacuum. If they had made the same trade offer but did it for Brown or Jamal Murray, it would have been hard to take issue with it. But Boston selected a future NBA Finals MVP in Brown, while Dunn went two picks later to the Minnesota Timberwolves as he began what has since become a decent but underwhelming career.
Finding someone who is even briefly a rotation player near the end of the first round is a lot harder than it sounds. With their two picks in that region of the draft, the Sixers took chances on two international wings with intriguing skillsets: Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot and Furkan Korkmaz.
Luwawu-Cabarrot spent two years with the team, and on a handful of occasions he was able to display flashes of promise. But he never put it all together, particularly because his three-point shot never quite came around. He last appeared in an NBA game in 2021-22, with 328 career games under his belt.
Korkmaz waited a year to come to the NBA, and it took him a long time to acclimate to the environment -- long enough that many wrote him off as someone who could eventually become a real contributor. But suddenly, things clicked, and for a few years he was a quality spark plug off the bench. Korkmaz was particularly effective during the 2019-20 season, in which he was one of the most effective bench scorers in the league. Korkmaz was finally traded last February after appearing in 328 total games for the team.
If you want to wonder about what could have been, the Toronto Raptors selected Pascal Siakam two picks after the Sixers drafted Korkmaz, and the San Antonio Spurs nabbed Dejounte Murray two spots later.
Aside from officially signing Dario Šarić, a lottery pick made by Hinkie in 2014 who spent two years overseas, Colangelo used his significant cap space to ink three veterans to deals in hopes of bolstering the competitiveness of a young team that set records in its futility the year prior:
• The team signed veteran shooting guard Gerald Henderson to a two-year, $18 million deal with only the first season fully guaranteed. Henderson, entering his age-29 season, was much more of a scorer than a shooter, but provided some semblance of competence when he was healthy. Henderson was replaced in the starting lineup by Nik Stauskas midway through the season.
• In a creative move, the team found a starting point guard for the beginning of the season with an international star: Sergio Rodríguez, who was ultimately replaced by T.J. McConnell in the starting five but provided some ball-handling and passing chops that made life easier for Embiid and Šarić.
• The only one of the three deals that was objectionable was the team signing veteran combo guard Jerryd Bayless to a three-year, $27 million deal that was fully guaranteed. The idea of a player who could handle the ball or play alongside Simmons was fine, but giving Bayless a three-year contract proved to be unwise. Injuries completely derailed Bayless' time in Philadelphia; he only appeared in three games in 2016-17. He was eventually salary filler in the trade that sent Covington and Šarić to Minnesota for Jimmy Butler (who they acquired by trading Dunn -- it really is a small world).
None of these deals were massively damaging, Bayless' deal is the only one that was truly a negative asset. But, for what it's worth, none of the these three veterans ever signed another NBA contract again.
The team's pristine financial positioning allowed Colangelo to give players massive short-term pay bumps without inhibiting the team's future flexibility. With that in mind and a desire to add grizzled veterans to a young group, Colangelo attempted to make a run at quite a few established NBA players:
• Before free agency began, reports surfaced that the Sixers were planning to pursue Golden State Warriors free agent wing Harrison Barnes. Barnes had become an afterthought in Golden State as the team made a run at Kevin Durant, but it was going to take a max deal or something close to get him. Ultimately, Barnes agreed to a four-year, $94 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks.
• Spurs legend Manu Ginóbili was being offered a relatively minuscule amount of money to return to San Antonio that summer, and Colangelo saw it as an opportunity, reportedly offering the future Hall of Fame inductee a two-year deal worth $30 million. The offer forced the Spurs to cough up a significant amount more than they hoped to retain Ginóbili, who returned to San Antonio for the remainder of his career.
• The exact terms of their offer were never disclosed, but several reporters indicated that the Sixers made a "significant" offer to Los Angeles Clippers free agent scorer Jamal Crawford. Crawford would have given them someone who could eat up shot attempts -- and he is, by all accounts, a wonderful locker room presence. Again, the Sixers turned out to just be driving up the player's price, as Crawford ultimately returned to the Clippers on a three-year, $42 million deal.
The Sixers finished 2016-17 with a 28-54 record. Aside from the team's poor evaluation of Dunn that ultimately did not come back to bite them, its only major miss during this offseason was not trading one of Noel or Okafor. Colangelo seemed desperate to "win" the trade, which became impossible: the Sixers had three centers and everyone knew at least one of them had to be traded in the near future, so the team had zero negotiating leverage. Noel was eventually traded to Dallas for Justin Anderson and a pair of future second-round picks, while Okafor somehow made it through the season without being dealt.
Despite the logjam at center causing issues that continued to escalate, this turned out to be an extremely encouraging season for the Sixers: in 31 games, Embiid proved he was a future superstar, while Šarić and Covington made significant strides and the team's war chest of draft picks and available money to throw at free agents both grew. Colangelo certainly did not knock it out of the park, but he maintained the team's ability to position itself well for the future.
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