While watching the Markelle Fultz-less Summer Sixers salvage a win in the Utah Summer League on Thursday night, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of Larry Drew II starting at point guard. This, of course, is the same Larry Drew that played heavy minutes for a couple of 10-day contracts during the 2014-15 Sixers season. He was closing games! There was even some “Why aren’t they keeping Larry Drew around?” buzz after those 10-days ran out!
Take a look at Drew’s ESPN game log. This was a textbook example of one of Brett Brown’s favorite phrases: “Shake a guy’s hand, put him in the game.” I tweeted about how weird those Process years were and Bleeding Green Nation’s Dave Mangels helped me come up with an idea for some good summer Friday #content.
Basically, what do Sixers fans consider the most Process moment of the past four seasons? I received a bunch of answers on Twitter and decided to share some of my favorites here. As we do with our Eagles observations, I’ll separate these into the good, bad, and ugly categories.
The Good
From a team-building standpoint, the 2015 deadline is the correct answer. The Sixers had the rookie of the year, didn’t think he was that good, and flipped him for a future draft pick that is still yet to convey. They were right.
That whole game really was something, with two teams who weren’t trying to win in the least bit (of course the Sixers lost). Brown pulled out an old Spurs trick with Embiid, Nerlens Noel, and other players.
Even though the Sixers had lost 26 straight basketball games, you had a feeling early that night they were going to get one.
Yep, and I’ll admit to not liking that trade at the time. On a positive note for McDaniels, he had an amazing "Dinner's Served" dunk in traffic against a team that would go on to win an NBA title:
Miami’s aggressive defense had a boom-or-bust quality, and the Sixers carved them up that night. MCW had an incredible debut. Magic knew!
Well, not everything.
To this day, Joel Embiid's avatar on Twitter is still McConnell jumping in the air next to Michael Jordan doing the same. Got to get a hand up, Melo.
A sign of things to come from the king of social media.
Great pass from Dario Saric on this play. RoCo, in the middle of a looonnngg shooting slump, had been booed the entire game up to this point.
Anderson didn't put up 36 in garbage time, either, as he hit an absurd shot to send the game to overtime. Some of the wins at the beginning of that season were beyond ridiculous.
The funny thing about this training camp practice was that from what I got to watch, Noel outplayed Embiid. After this poster, JoJo must have decided to call it a day.
Well, the first two things were good.
In true Process fashion, also a major goaltend.
The crowd went crazy, and so did the Sixers bench.. I wrote about Saric that night. Let’s just say Jared Sullinger didn’t have a ton of lift on that dunk attempt.
Unreal crowd for an early Saturday evening game, when 10-72 came this close to beating 73-9.
The Bad
Let’s be honest here. If something was bad during The Process, it was probably pretty ugly. Let’s change this category up to…
The Weird
By the way, I say “weird” with love. Well, in most cases anyway.
This was super weird because I believe the Nik Stauskas trade had yet to happen. Process Trusters knew deep down that Vlade would have an impact on the Sixers.
I had no idea that JaKarr was such a big lax guy.
I’m putting this one in the weird category, simply for the hordes of fans being absolutely enthralled by Kobe Bryant tossing up brick after brick after brick. Kobe singlehandedly got the Sixers a win that night.
I completely forgot about this. And then a few years later, Hinkie acquired Anthony before that deal was eventually voided.
A sign of things to come, as Dario can cut one hell of a promo for the Sixers.
Milwaukee, and yes, very weird.
Hilarious at the time, even funnier in retrospect considering this Embiid’s personality has completely captivated the city.
The Ugly
The context is important here: The Sixers were sitting on nine wins and had generally been getting their doors blown off. They were able to pick up a W a couple of weeks later against New Orleans to avoid setting the record, but that seemed far from guaranteed at this point.
What a garbage shot. Maybe not quite as bad as Devin Harris in 2009, but it’s close. I feel like this answer is way up there.
As it turned out, MCW couldn't right the ship. 123-70, what a beatdown. The funny thing is they lost to Houston (a team that would make the conference finals that year) by one the next night in a game they definitely could’ve won.
This starts now, this ends now… same diff.
Some games I would watch Tony Wroten and think, “He’s not playing half-bad.” And then I would almost always glance at the box score and quickly think, “Nevermind.”
There was a huge controversy after this about Embiid going back to wearing a walking boot. JoJo would of course need another surgery on his foot that summer.
When Grant connected on a dunk, it was awesome. But almost every shot inside the three-point line was an attempted dunk, even if he had to go through three people.
The most Lorenzo Brown thing was hopping on I-95 to get back and forth from the D-League. Hinkie better have given him EZ-Pass.
ARE THE SIXERS TOO GOOD? No, it turns out they were not.
Great name.
That’s pretty rough.
Once this misstep is brought back into the public eye, it will surely hurt the Sixers' standing in Complex’s next NBA team social media account rankings. According to Wikipedia, Byron/B.J. Mullens in playing in the United Arab Emirates.
Furkan A! That was, well, it was something.
I remember that, in Boston. I believe Brett Brown called that “the most naked he ever felt as a coach,” or something in that ballpark.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
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