Trust the Process

“Trust the Process! Trust the Process!”. If you’ve watched a Philadelphia 76ers game in the last few years, you’ve definitely heard this chant. This week, it became clear that everyone was right to ‘trust the process’, when the Sixers got a spot in the playoffs for the first time since 2012. On top of that, Markelle Fultz, the first pick in the draft of 2017, made his first appearance since October. And though Fultz only played fourteen minutes, he got 10 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds. Does this mean Philly is finally back on the map?

Though Joel Embiid, one of the new pillars of the Sixers, has embraced the nickname ‘the Process’, it was first used by Sam Hinkie, the General Manager of the 76ers in 2013. He chose to start the process of rebuilding the franchise. He made clear the short-term wins weren’t important and that he was rebuilding the team for the long term. That Summer, the Sixers also hired Brett Brown as their head coach. The first few season proved to be difficult, as they continued to have one of the worst records in the league.

In the beginning, no one, not even the Philadelphia fans trusted the process. The choices made by the GM weren’t always making sense to the public. They traded for Nerlens Noel, who was recovering from a serious injury and wouldn’t be able to make an immediate impact for the team in 2014. And, on top of that, they also got rid of most of the veterans on their team, meaning that there were only a couple of players with multiple years of NBA experience left on the team. In 2014, Philadelphia drafted Joel Embiid and Dario Saric, but, again, these two players couldn’t be of value right away, as Embiid had to recover from a stress fracture in his foot, and Saric would continue to play in Turkey. It would take another two years before either of those players would play a single game for the Sixers. But, one way or another, more fans started to ‘Trust the Process’ and started to show up to the game with signs and T-shirts with the slogan.

The real turn around for the Sixers was probably in 2016, when they drafted Ben Simmons with the first pick.  It was a real setback when Simmons was injured in the Summer League, and needed the entire 2016/2017 season to recover, but Embiid and Saric however, started their NBA career, and already showed a lot of promise for the years to come.

Now that the Philadelphia 76ers have secured their spot in the playoffs, with the help of the recovered Ben Simmons, the only thing we can do is wait and see how far ‘trusting the process’ will bring the Sixers.