Managing owner swears Sixers are making progress

The microscope you can buy with a billion-dollar budget must give a lot better view of things than basic cable. That's the only way to explain what 76ers managing owner Josh Harris witnessed over the course of the first 81 games this season.

Before coach Brett Brown was forced to send one more talent-deprived lineup out on the Wells Fargo Center court for the final game of the season against the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, Harris sat down in front of a bank of microphones and a pool of reporters to give his state-of-the-team address.

Your cable system may have been showing a team that failed to reach 20 victories for the second straight season - a dubious first for a franchise that started in Syracuse in 1949 - but Harris saw "progress against our long-term goals."

The owner did not duplicate the executive mistake he made a year ago when he declared a season in which the Sixers posted their third-worst record in franchise history "a success." His latest review, however, was still glowing despite the fact that this year's team finished one win worse than last year's team.

"I continue to be super positive about the management team that we have in place," Harris said. "Sam Hinkie, Brett, they both exceeded expectations. We continue to add capability that will provide long-run edge over the other 29 teams. Whether it be analytics, sports science, sleep, we're starting to build processes around all the little things that are going to make our team very good."

He was also happy with the team's defensive improvement but failed to mention that the offense took a giant leap in the wrong direction, finishing last in the league in scoring.

The most critical analysis made by general manager Hinkie in his second season was that the 76ers did not get their point guard of the future when they selected Michael Carter Williams with the 11th overall pick in the 2013 draft. Sure, he was the rookie of the year last season, but he did not win the confidence of Brown or Hinkie and now he plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. In fairness, nobody taken after MCW in the 2013 draft was going to have any more impact than he did.

Another first-round pick that the Bucks had acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers will take Carter-Williams' place for the Sixers, so it's impossible to evaluate that move right now. However, it's perfectly fair to say the Sixers appear comfortable with pushing back their wait-until-next-year plan another year.

Harris, at least, seems willing to be patient as long as the Sixers achieve the long-term goal of becoming a team that consistently goes deep into the playoffs and eventually wins an NBA title.

"The bottom is behind us and we're on the way up, and we expect to get better consistently from here," Harris said.

The forward movement was blurry on basic cable, but maybe Comcast, the former Sixers owner, was to blame. It came through crystal clear under Harris' microscope.

"On the court, obviously Nerlens [Noel] could be discussed as rookie of the year," Harris said. "Made a lot of progress there."

All Noel had to do to show progress was play, and he did so in 75 of the team's 82 games, sitting out the final three with a sprained right ankle. He showed signs of being a solid NBA player, but only Harris' magical microscope can see him becoming a superstar.

"The way you win in the NBA is to have at least two, but hopefully four top-20 NBA players, and they are hard to get," Harris said.

The Sixers are at least four short of that number right now unless you're convinced that Joel Embiid is going to break in at that level next season. It is equally unrealistic to think that Dario Saric is going to come over from Turkey and become the NBA's next great European star.

As the curtain thankfully closes on this Sixers season, it's more realistic that another year of bad basketball lies ahead next season. You wonder how much longer Brown can endure a roster of journeymen. Harris would not give a time line for when the Sixers should be judged on wins more than anything else.

Brown said the record will matter a lot more next year.

"Without a doubt," he said. "We need to see that we're moving forward. I don't want to place a number, but winning is going to be important next year."

The Sixers had 25 players take the court this season, two more than the season before. That's not the number Brown wants to see increase because it's impossible to coach so many moving parts.

"It's during-the-year changes that have hurt us," Brown said. "At the end of the day to coach gypsies, to have to coach a revolving door, that's not what I'm looking for. The program understands, Sam understands, Josh understands that we need a level of consistency to move it forward.

"That doesn't mean we have to be pregnant with average players. We're looking for players that move the program forward in a big way. If there is volatility that comes our way because of that last comment, then so be it. Consistency and carryover can't trump the fact that we're looking for talent."

The shortage of that talent was as clear as could be on basic cable and it was also evident in the final record.

@brookob