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Brett Brown might have to play tanking game again

If Wednesday's game against the Heat was a farewell not just to the 2014-15 regular season for the 76ers, but also a goodbye to the stage of rebuilding in which winning is losing and losing is winning, then the game itself was a fitting masterpiece of the genre.

If Wednesday's game against the Heat was a farewell not just to the 2014-15 regular season for the 76ers, but also a goodbye to the stage of rebuilding in which winning is losing and losing is winning, then the game itself was a fitting masterpiece of the genre.

You can go a long time and not see a box score with as many dirty fingerprints on it. Miami was even worse than the Sixers, although both teams began the night having a lot to gain if the other team won.

For their part, the Sixers sat out six players, some of whom probably were injured. The Heat started a JV lineup and kept it all night. Four of the starters went 48 minutes and the other starter, Zoran Dragic, who had never played five minutes in an NBA game, was on the court for more than 40.

Sometime in the fourth quarter, the news arrived that Brooklyn had won its game against Orlando, which removed the possibility that Miami and the Nets would finish in a tie this season. Had they tied, Miami's first-round pick would almost certainly land with the Sixers. Otherwise, the Heat would have a 91 percent chance of keeping it.

"It's the worst, but you have to keep your competitive integrity," Miami coach Eric Spoelstra said after the game, which might have been the funniest thing he's ever said in his life. It's fortunate for him that the Nets won. Otherwise, his competitive integrity might have been running out on the court to tackle one of his own players in the final minutes.

The Heat beat the Sixers, through no fault of their own, and in the end, all the tanking on both sides, both overt and covert, added up to nothing. Sixers coach Brett Brown let some of his players draw up plays during timeouts. On Thursday, he said that he meant no disrespect to the game by doing so, and that he borrowed the exercise from Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

"It's not a gimmick. It's not to cheapen the game or belittle the environment we were in last night," Brown said. "I saw it as an opportunity to have players talk to players. I thought it was a good, healthy experience."

With any luck, the Sixers will never be in quite the same environment again. It didn't represent the NBA very well. It was, however, part of the route the team has taken under general manager Sam Hinkie. Unfortunately for Brown, there's no guarantee the team is about to pop through to the right side of the looking glass again.

The final standings make it very unlikely the Sixers will have more than one first-round pick in the June 25 draft. So, looking ahead to next season, with Joel Embiid in his rookie season, along with the new draft pick (assuming he isn't beginning a yearlong injury rehabilitation), is it possible Hinkie will think it more profitable to win 30-35 games or to maximize the team's draft position for 2016? Will the growing core be surrounded by another collection of mediocre talents with that in mind? Brown hopes not.

"At the end of the day, to coach gypsies, to have to coach a revolving door, that's not what I'm looking for," Brown said Wednesday. "I think that the program understands - that Sam understands, that Josh [owner Josh Harris] understands - that we need a level of consistency to move it forward."

That translates not just into having the same group in the locker room, but to having an overall group that has some talent. The Sixers took a hit in both respects at the trade deadline when Michael Carter-Williams and K.J. McDaniels were dealt away. Brown had to start over with a new group and the team was 6-22 after the trades.

"To move forward, we need needle-movers. We need talent," Brown said Thursday. "We'll move forward as the players help us, the talent level."

Brown is part of every bit of this process, from the basics of coaching the players, to the evaluation of talent that might be available through the draft, by trade or in the free-agent market. He is flying to Turkey to spend a week with Dario Saric, the forward drafted a year ago who is committed to playing overseas for at least one more season. Then Brown comes back to assist in draft preparation and to begin the team's offseason workout regimen. He gets to drive the car, but he doesn't get to build it and he doesn't get to say how fast it goes.

"Nothing is built easy," Brown said. "How do you do anything well? Nothing much happens quickly."

Two years are already gone from his four-year contract, however, and his third season could be as frustrating as his first two. Being the good soldier for the journey has given him a career 37-127 record as an NBA head coach. Fair or not, he wears that.

"I will back myself," Brown said. "I feel that I will be fine."

He will be even better if another game like Wednesday's never arrives, but no one can see that far ahead. That's why Brown tries to keep his head down and think only about the next tomorrow.

@bobfordsports