August 18, 2024
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
Villanova wing and Sixers fan Mikal Bridges was on his hometown team... until he wasn't.
The 2017-18 NBA season ended in heartbreak for the Sixers when they fell to the rival Boston Celtics in the second round of the playoffs, but after a 52-win season, it was clear that Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and co. were ready to become a long-term force in the Eastern Conference.
• PREVIOUS REWINDS
• Sixers offseason rewind: Summer of 2016 changes everything as new era begins
• Sixers offseason rewind: Bryan Colangelo swings trade for Markelle Fultz in 2017 as team ramps up pursuit of contention
However, right before a crucial offseason began, there was a changing of the guard within the team's front office. General Manager Bryan Colangelo was forced to resign after a stunning scandal involving a network of "burner accounts" posting sensitive information about the team on social media. Without enough time to search for, hire and install a new traditional head of basketball operations, the Sixers put head coach Brett Brown in charge of personnel on an interim basis.
The team had little time to worry about the embarrassing nature of what had taken place: there were bigger fish to fry, as the team had a chance to surround Embiid and Simmons with the requisite pieces to become a sustainable championship contender.
The Sixers' enormous collection of draft assets paid dividends in 2018, when the team entered the night owning 10 percent of the entire pool of picks. The team had two first-round picks (No. 10 overall and No. 26 overall) along with four second-rounders.
For months, it seemed like a no-brainer that if they could, the Sixers would use the No. 10 pick on Villanova wing Mikal Bridges. The ideal 3&D wing in today's NBA, Bridges seemed like a perfect fit in every conceivable way: he grew up a Sixers fan and played many college basketball games in the Wells Fargo Center, not to mention that he owned a skillset tailor-made for someone playing alongside Embiid and Simmons. Bridges' mother even worked for the team.
It was a match made in heaven. When the Sixers were on the clock with the local product still on the board, they helped Bridges realize his dream by selecting him. Bridges donned a Sixers cap, shook NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's hand and began his first press conference as a Sixer. He had no idea that while he was speaking, the team was reaching an agreement to trade his draft rights to the Phoenix Suns.
In a stunning move, the Sixers traded Bridges' rights to Phoenix for the No. 16 pick and an unprotected 2021 first-round pick belonging to the directionless Miami Heat. At No. 16, they selected a wing prospect out of Texas Tech by the name of Zhaire Smith. Smith's potential was clearly off-the-charts -- he was arguably the best athlete in the draft class as well as one of its youngest players -- but he was considered to be far away from contributing to a good team. The Sixers had picked up what many believed to be one of the single most valuable future draft assets in the NBA, but in the process went from adding a surefire rotation contributor to a long-term developmental project.
You know what happened next: Bridges established himself as one of the league's most promising young players -- unlocking his potential as a perfect role player on the wing while also becoming a considerably better scorer than anybody had anticipated him being. Smith logged 13 NBA appearances in two years before being unceremoniously traded to the Detroit Pistons, who promptly waived him. His rookie season was derailed by a traumatic allergic reaction, giving him even less time to develop in an organization desperate for production from young players.
The Sixers were able to receive some immediate production from their rookie class, however, because at No. 26 they selected Wichita State sharpshooter Landry Shamet, who almost instantly became a trusted piece of Brown's rotation. Shamet was putting together an extremely impressive rookie season before the Sixers swung a deal for Los Angeles Clippers forward Tobias Harris. The two assets that enabled the Sixers to acquire Harris in a contract year: Shamet and the 2021 Miami pick acquired in the Bridges-for-Smith deal. But Shamet failed to build off his excellent rookie season, and has fallen out of favor in the NBA. Shamet remains a free agent more than six weeks into the 2024 offseason.
Rather than selling extraneous second-round picks again, the Sixers traded the No. 38 and No. 39 overall picks for a collection of three future second-rounders with actual value. They then packaged the No. 56 and No. 60 overall selections to move up and grab the No. 54 pick. There, they selected a long combo guard out of Southern Methodist University whose draft stock had fallen after a shaky NBA Draft Combine showing: Shake Milton. Milton spent his rookie season on a two-way contract, but spent the following four years on a standard NBA deal for the Sixers. He gave the team plenty of significant contributions, including a lengthy stint as its starting point guard. Milton's run as a viable NBA contributor may have come to an end in 2023-24, but he has already massively outperformed his draft slot.
Entering free agency, the Sixers had one goal in mind: sign LeBron James. The man who would go on to become the league's all-time leading scorer appeared dead-set on leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers, and while the Los Angeles Lakers were considered the clear favorites to land James' services, whispers about the Sixers' viability in those conversations persisted leading up to the start of the negotiating period.
The Sixers did reportedly earn a meeting to pitch James on coming to Philadelphia, and spent their first 24 hours of free agency singularly focused on nailing their presentation. We later found out that James himself was not present at the meeting; the Sixers merely spoke with his representation. James inked a long-term deal with the Lakers, and suddenly the Sixers' top target -- along with many of their other preferred options -- was off the board.
One could argue that the Sixers should not have wasted their time trying to convince James to come to Philadelphia, but they just about maximized their ability to build a strong roster after missing out on James and plenty of other notable targets in the first day of free agency: the team brought JJ Redick back on another one-year deal -- this time worth $12.25 million -- and Amir Johnson on a veteran's minimum deal. They absorbed veteran wing Wilson Chandler into their remaining cap space, receiving two second-round picks from the Denver Nuggets in the process as Denver looked to duck the luxury tax threshold.
Later on, the team packaged disappointing first-round pick Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot with Justin Anderson in a three-team deal that netted them a stretch big from the Atlanta Hawks: Mike Muscala. The Sixers also sent young center Richaun Holmes to Phoenix in exchange for cash considerations, clearing the way for the team to sign Jonah Bolden, a draft-and-stash big they selected in the second round the year prior.
The only other losses the team suffered were the departures of Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova, two veterans who dramatically improve the team's floor spacing in the second half of 2017-18 after coming to Philadelphia via the buyout market.
The roster the Sixers ended the 2018-19 season with did not look at all like the one they had crafted during the offseason leading up to it. In November, they dealt Robert Covington, Dario Šarić and Jerryd Bayless to the Minnesota Timberwolves for disgruntled star Jimmy Butler. In February, they swung the deal for Harris that also included Chandler and Muscala heading to the Clippers while bringing the Sixers a quality stretch four off the bench in Mike Scott and an interesting backup center in Boban Marjanović.
The Sixers lost their first playoff game, a disastrous home contest against the upstart Brooklyn Nets, before dismantling the far inferior team for four straight games. They went on to face Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors in an epic seven-game series that ended with Leonard's iconic quadruple-bounce, buzzer-beating game-winner. The Raptors went onto win the NBA Finals, and the Sixers were by far their toughest test during their run to glory.
Suddenly, a team believed to be set up for sustainable success was at a crossroads: were they willing to re-sign two free agents in Butler and Harris in order to keep an excellent team together, even if it jeopardized the team's long-term outlook? Their eventual answer would drastically alter the course of the franchise.
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