The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t arrived just yet and that is evident in their 13-13 record in the early going of the 2017-2018 NBA season. With that said, there has been plenty of discussion surrounding whether “The Process” has worked in Philadelphia and, well, the mere presence of both Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid is a pretty good argument for what Sam Hinkie birthed within the organization.
With that as the backdrop, Embiid has been the most visible proponent of “The Process” in the post-Hinkie era and, in speaking to David Aldridge of NBA.com this week, the always-entertaining big man shed a bit of interesting light into the never-ending nature of the term.
“Well, The Process is never going to end. It’s an ongoing thing. I don’t think it’s ever going to stop. As I have explained before, it’s a process for making it to the playoffs, it’s another one to make the conference finals, another one to actually go to The Finals and win the championship.”
Embiid makes a good point in that the description falls in line with something that would work all the way until a championship is eventually achieved. In fact, he went on to say that not even bringing a ring back to Philadelphia would bring it to a close.
“And when you actually win it, you’ve got to come back the following year and do it all over again. So I don’t think The Process is ever going to end. But at this point of The Process, it’s rewarding. We’ve been winning lately. We’ve been playing well. We still have a long way to go, but I’m excited about the future.”
Given his carefree persona and generally amusing nature, Embiid isn’t often lauded for his deeper thinking but, in short, this makes a lot of sense. For better or worse, there will always be some in the NBA world that use “The Process” as something of a derogatory term to poke fun at the tanking executed by Hinkie in a way that the league has never seen before or since. Still, that doesn’t mean that it has to live and breathe as simply that and Embiid putting a different spin on things could ultimately benefit the way the organizational strategy is perceived in the long term.
