Bob Ford: Lottery luck will take 76ers only so far

The postapocalyptic wasteland in which the 76ers have wandered since advancing to the NBA Finals nearly a decade ago has been characterized by several recurring themes, but good luck has not been among them.

Poor personnel decisions, front-office upheaval, bad coaching, and mismatched rosters have been on the menu while the team has endured an abrupt ending to the Larry Brown era and then, more painfully, a protracted conclusion with Allen Iverson as the superstar's lightning got lower in the sky until it finally burned down the stage.

The most recent recovery process has been entrusted to general manager Ed Stefanski, with mixed results, to be polite. A popular choice when he replaced Billy King in December 2007, Stefanski is a local guy, a Philly gym rat who knows the game and can be spotted down the Jersey Shore in the summer just like anybody else.

After two full seasons, however, the patience with Boardwalk Ed is not at high tide. The team, coached by handpicked Eddie Jordan, won 14 fewer games this season than in the previous season, and the players looked as if they would have more fun picking up trash on the roadside.

The Sixers were bipolar in games, caught between the giddy desire to sail down the court in transition and the depressing reality of dragging along the anchors of power forward Elton Brand and center Samuel Dalembert while trying to do so. Their best player, or allegedly best player, Andre Iguodala, continued to shrink from the game, having the worst shooting season of a bad-shooting career and having his points production drop for the second straight year.

Amid this gloomy mix, however, the Sixers finally got a bit of good luck for a change. When the draft lottery was held Tuesday night, they jumped from the predicted No. 6 position to the No. 2 pick. This isn't expected to be a deep draft, but there are very good players at the top, and that is the place to be. It might be too early to say fortune is smiling on the Sixers, but at least it isn't spitting on them this time.

"We're ecstatic, and this is the break we've been looking for," Peter Luukko, Stefanski's immediate Comcast-Spectacor boss, said after the lottery. "You have guarded optimism going into these things, and to get this break, it's the beginning of a new start."

Well, maybe. So was the free-agent signing of Brand, and the hiring of Jordan, and the development of frontcourt tandem Thaddeus Young and Marreese Speights.

Maybe is all you get with a draft pick, even a high one. The front office still has to select the right player, or use the pick as a bargaining chip for something else that advances the plot. Draft picks provide opportunity, but not guarantees.

As an example, the Sixers had a top-10 selection for seven straight seasons from 1992-98, including a No. 1, two No. 2s, and a No. 3. Did the team use all those great picks to build a dynasty? Not really. The only player who lasted here was Iverson, taken with the top choice in 1996.

The last time the Sixers were in the position they are in now, holding the No. 2 pick, was 1997. They drafted Keith Van Horn and packaged him in a trade to New Jersey for Tim Thomas, drafted No. 7, and three other guys. The move - engineered by that genius Larry Brown - was simply awful in retrospect, particularly if you think Chauncey Billups, taken at No. 3 in that draft, has had a decent career.

So the Sixers have a right to be happy, and a right to feel that luck might start to come their way. But they have also been teased before.

If you believe the mock drafts, Ohio State swingman Evan Turner is going to fall to the Sixers after the Wizards take Kentucky's John Wall. That's fine, except the Sixers already have Evan Turner, and his name is Andre Iguodala.

If Stefanski can trade Iguodala and the four years and $56 million he has coming to him, then Turner is fine. If not, the Sixers would be better off dropping down to get Georgia Tech's 6-foot-10 Derrick Favors and bump Brand out of the low post.

This isn't a team that will be fixed by one player, anyway. It took years to get into this mess, and it will take years to get out. A lingering question is whether Stefanski will remain as the wilderness guide. He has been conducting interviews for the new coach, with 78-year-old Gene Shue tagging along for some unknown reason. If Shue was assigned to that overseer role by Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, as has been widely suggested, that's not a good omen for Stefanski.

Regardless, you take your omens where you find them, especially if the recent past has been littered with nothing but voodoo curses. The Sixers' entire organization, including Boardwalk Ed, is having a good week for a change, and it seems churlish to remind them how many more they still need to string together.