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Sixers need to begin learning playoff lessons soon

THE FANS had just littered the ice with wristbands. The Flyers were simply going through the motions for the final minutes of what would become a multilevel-embarrassing, 6-1 loss to the Washington Capitals in Game 3 of their first-round series. That's when the doubt started creeping into my mind.

THE FANS had just littered the ice with wristbands. The Flyers were simply going through the motions for the final minutes of what would become a multilevel-embarrassing, 6-1 loss to the Washington Capitals in Game 3 of their first-round series. That's when the doubt started creeping into my mind.

I am a huge believer that getting to the playoffs, no matter the circumstance, is the biggest and best lesson a young player can learn as far as advancing his career. An eighth seed or just a little better for the next two or three seasons for the Sixers? Absolutely.

As that Game 3 mercifully ended for the Flyers, there appeared no way rookie phenom Shane Gostisbehere would get anything out of the first-round shellacking. Nor did it figure that any of the other young players making their first playoff appearances would benefit in any way in what certainly seemed to be an eventual sweep.

But with wins in Games 4 and 5, all those playoff virgins got themselves 180 more minutes of experience. They got three more games in which the intensity reached levels they never had experienced before. They found themselves challenged to try shutting down one of the best all-around players in the world in Alex Ovechkin. They reached a steady height of awareness and an energy level that they probably have never felt. So now, they know what it's like. There is nothing like the experience of it all. And it's why you need to hope that the 76ers reach the postseason as early as 2017.

If you're a player, hearing about and watching the playoffs when you haven't experienced them is about as helpful as playing video golf and thinking you can translate that to getting on a real course. It is why Sixers coach Brett Brown took Joel Embiid with him to a playoff game in Chicago last year and it is why he will probably take some more of his players to some postseason games this year. (Perhaps in San Antonio if the Spurs and Warriors meet up in the Western Conference Finals?) That's as close as he can get them right now. They'll be able to feel the intensity, understand the pressures. Somewhat. All those intangibles can only be absorbed if you're on the floor.

So, if for the next few years or so - with a healthy Embiid, a contributing Dario Saric, a top draft pick next month who can fill a need, and other additions - making a playoff push or getting in as a bottom seed is imperative.

To think that will happen next season is about as plausible as it was to imagine the Flyers would come back from that 3-0 playoff deficit. The Detroit Pistons gained the eighth seed this year with a 44-38 record, so to think the Sixers could improve their win total by 30-plus games is no doubt a reach. But playing through learning processes and development has to move along quickly. Another season of a 7-to-1 losses-to-wins ratio can't be tolerated. It will do no one any good.

Brown knows it and knows the city won't tolerate it.

"This is the city of Philadelphia. It is a blue-collar, hardcore, sports-minded city," he said. "And they have experienced three years of losing basketball games. Yet, 19,000 people come to games. They cheer at the end, a genuine cheer for young guys who are busting their tails. What I'd say, with all my heart, is you feel an enormous responsibility to deliver, to get this right, so they can enjoy winning basketball."

Getting it right means what, though? Perhaps it means being rewarded with the top pick in the draft when the pingpong balls are sorted out on May 17. If they get that, it could mean Ben Simmons will be manning the point-guard position when the season opens, as some in the organization have hinted. It has to mean Embiid has a year of promising play, along with no setbacks to his twice surgically repaired right foot. It must mean that Saric isn't a mediocre NBA player, but one who can be a difference-maker. And so on and so forth.

We all know the many holes that need to be filled. We hear the hopes from the managing owner of "challenging for championships for many years." It's not going to go from 10 wins to Eastern Conference finals any time soon. There will have to be lessons learned from unsuccessful playoff pushes and successful ones that lead to a first-round exit. You can't go anywhere until that playoff education is comprehended. Then, and only then, can the move forward really begin to take place.

@BobCooney76

Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog