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Why a loss in OKC makes sense for the Sixers

For any NBA team that won't make the playoffs, and even for some teams that will, an 82-game regular season can be a slog, and the 76ers' regular season - by design, remember - has been sloggier than most.

For any NBA team that won't make the playoffs, and even for some teams that will, an 82-game regular season can be a slog, and the 76ers' regular season - by design, remember - has been sloggier than most.

Whether one sees the logic in the deliberate, long-term process that general manager Sam Hinkie has followed in trying to rebuild the Sixers, no one can deny that it's responsible for some pretty rough displays of basketball these days. The Sixers are 13-47, and for all the optimism that Nerlens Noel's recent strong play has inspired and for all the praise that coach Brett Brown and his players deserve for their unflagging effort, it's still rare to find a game on the team's schedule when you say to yourself, Hey, that one could be a win right there.

Wednesday night, when the Sixers visit the Oklahoma City Thunder, would seem to present one of those rare games. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are likely to sit out - Durant with a foot injury, Westbrook with a broken facial bone, although the Thunder say he'll try to play. The pair's likely absences will mitigate the talent advantage that the Thunder owns over the Sixers, and maybe Brown's young, earnest team will steal a victory.

There's just one potential problem with that scenario. Wednesday's game presents the possibility of another rare occurrence: a moment when the gradual, odds-playing nature of Hinkie's rebuilding plan could collide with circumstance. Here's how:

The Sixers' descent to the bottom of the league's standings was always at the core of Hinkie's approach, of course, in which losses would be a by-product of his belief in "optionality." He has taken a good bit of scorn for coining that word, but it's just a fancy way of saying he's seeking enough roster flexibility to keep as many routes to improvement open as possible.

With enough draft picks and salary-cap room, the Sixers can retain players, package them with draft picks in a trade to acquire a superstar, even sign a pricey free agent or two when the time is right.

Just before the NBA trade deadline last month, Hinkie carried out a flurry of moves with those aims in mind. He began by agreeing to take on Denver Nuggets center JaVale McGee and his $11.25 million salary in exchange for a first-round draft pick that the Nuggets had previously acquired from the Thunder.

The Sixers waived McGee on Monday, but no matter: They'd gotten what they needed from him - a boost to get themselves above the NBA's $56.8 million salary floor for this season. The real reason Hinkie made the trade was to get Oklahoma City's first-round pick. In essence, Hinkie bought it for $11.25 million - money that the Sixers would have had to spend anyway.

It was a smart move, consistent with his plan, but it did come with one caveat. The pick is protected for Oklahoma City through the first 18 selection spots in this year's draft and through the first 15 spots in next year's draft. At the time of the trade, the Thunder were 28-25 and in the No. 14 draft spot, and Hinkie estimated that there was a 30 percent chance that Oklahoma City would win enough games over the remainder of the regular season to lower its draft position and have the Sixers assume control of the pick.

Yet, despite missing arguably two of the five best players in the entire league, the Thunder have gone 5-2 since the trade deadline, upping their record to 33-27. Oklahoma City now holds both the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference and the No. 18 draft position - just a game behind the Washington Wizards (34-26), who are at No. 19 and have lost 11 of their last 14 games. If the Thunder keep winning, then, the odds that the Sixers will acquire that first-round pick for this year's draft will presumably keep increasing. Sure, the Thunder might stay at No. 18 or lose often enough to get, and keep, a higher pick this year, and the Sixers' rights to the pick would roll over to next year. But next year, Durant and Westbrook presumably will be healthy again, and the Thunder presumably will be better, and the Sixers presumably would end up with a less-valuable pick.

So Wednesday's game offers a peculiar dilemma for the franchise Sam Hinkie is charged with rebuilding. What if the Sixers win, and that victory turns out to be the difference between the Thunder's retaining that first-round pick this year and the Sixers' acquiring it? Wouldn't this loss in particular offer them a tangible benefit in the long run? The questions might seem pedantic, but it's on those kinds of questions that franchises and master plans, even on just another night of slogging, can turn.

@MikeSielski