Overshadowed in the pandemonium Dario Saric caused by coming to America to sign with the 76ers as well as Simmons-palooza out in the Las Vegas, was the two-year $18million deal Philly native Gerald Henderson inked with the franchise.  The 7-year NBA veteran (28-years old) who attended Episcopal Academy (back when the Main Line prep school was located on City Ave.), spent last season with the Portland Trail Blazers where he averaged 8.7 ppg. while shooting 44% from the field and 35% from deep.

The exciting news on Saric and Simmons’ eye-popping play out in the desert are certainly causes for celebration, but for me the addition of Henderson was a fantastic move that did not receive the attention it deserves.  I believe Henderson will have an immediate positive impact on this team and thus help the franchise take a step forward in 2016-17.  After the jump we present an analysis of Henderson’s game that includes insights from Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach David Vanterpool.

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There was a huge free agency announcement made Sunday afternoon.  It nearly broke the internet.  Reports of it first came in the midst of an insignificant Western Conference signing that you may have read about on The Players Tribune.com. Oh yeah, I’m talking about the 76ers coming to terms with Euroleague star and former NBA draft pick, Sergio Rodriguez. The 6-foot-3, 180 pound point guard will reportedly join the club on a one year deal worth $8 million.

A first round pick by the Suns in 2006 (27th overall), Rodriguez played three seasons with Portland before splitting 2009-10 between Sacramento and New York.  While never receiving consistent minutes, he showed flashes of the ball handling brilliance that brought the Tenerife, Spain native to the States and earned him the nickname “Spanish Chocolate” (after passing and dribbling wizard Jason “White Chocolate” Williams).

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The Sixers have been very active in this young free agency period and have been connected to a dozen or so free agent rumors.  The Colangelos have yet to land that “big-name” free agent and it is highly likely that trend will continue as players of that elite caliber are unsure about Philadelphia as a destination.  However, the amount of money and playing time the 76ers are in position to offer will be enough to lure younger and cheaper players into “the process”.

Look for Colangelo and Co. to continue to add players on the level of Jerryd Bayless, the 27-year old veteran the club has reportedly reached an agreeement with to the tune of $27 million over the course of three years. With combo-guard Bayless allegedly in the fold, a direction for the 2016-17 backcourt is now partially set.  So let’s take a look at some of the routes the front office could take to complete the reshaping of Brett Brown’s backcourt.

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Despite their best efforts to be “active” and create a lot of noise at Draft16, the Colangelos ended up sticking to the script (No.1; No. 24 & No.26).  In the end, they selected three prospects that are receiving very positive reviews from the experts online and the NBA folks I have communicated with over the last twelve hours.

As you know, the 76ers tipped off the the 2016 NBA Draft by grabbing Ben Simmons out of LSU, which according to my NBA contacts was the choice 95% of the League would have made at No. 1.  The Sixers made numerous efforts to get back into the Lottery portion of Draft16 but were unable to find a trade partner. So if you fell asleep under a cloud of disappointment, you missed the Sixers drafting two Euros in the late 1st Round —  Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (at No. 24) and Furkan Korkmaz (at No.26) — who will help this franchise.

More analysis after the jump…

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The topic of which top prospect (Simmons or Ingram) Bryan Colangelo will select at No. 1. will continue to dominate 76ers talk until Draft Night 2016 (June 23rd) and we will discuss it a length on this site over the next four weeks.  But today I want to take a few minutes to look back 20 years in Sixers history to the spring of 1996 — the last time the 76ers held the No.1 slot in the NBA Draft.

If you recall, in 1996 Pat Croce was running the 76ers and Brad Greenberg was the franchise’s General Manager. The list of top college prospects in ’96 included the likes of Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, Marcus Camby, Ray Allen and a local high schooler named Kobe Bryant.  Much like the Draft16, the 1996 Draft was a critical event for the future of the 76ers franchise.

I reached out to Brad Greenberg, who is currently coaching in Turkey, and via email he discussed with me some of the inner workings of the Sixers leading up to the 1996 NBA Draft.

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The NBA announced today that the board of governors has approved a three-year pilot program which will allow individual NBA teams to sell and place a corporate logo on their jerseys.

That’s right, Scott O’Neil and his crack sales team can now offer a 2.5-by-2.5-inch space on the 76ers’ jersey to corporate sponsors.  While the NBA now becomes the first major U.S. sports league to sell “ad-space” on game-day jerseys, the practice is common place with professional soccer teams both here in the States as well as in Europe. Additionally, WNBA teams already have gone down this sales path.

In March of 2012 there were solid rumors (via the Sports Business Journal) that the NBA was close to green-lighting this somewhat controversial sponsorship concept.  So back in 2012 with some help from Photoshop we here at Philadunkia assembled several ideas for the 7-6’s sales team to consider.

Obviously four years have past since the 2012 jersey sponsorship rumors and our original post on this topic.  Of course “The Process” was also in effect for three of those years.  Thus almost none of the players from the March 2012 post remain on the Sixers roster (Tip of the cap to EB).  Still, we think our “humorous” advertising ideas from 2012 will get a laugh and make you forget for a minute that the Colangelos are running this franchise now.

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On the heels of the 76ers getting drubbed (122-98) by the Toronto Raptors last night — a team Bryan Colangelo had a hand in building — we present a close -up look at the new Sixer GM…

After a highly successful but controversial coup by his father Jerry, newly installed General Manager Bryan Colangelo hit the local airwaves on Monday and Tuesday to deliver his message to Philadunkia nation.  In his orchestrated media blitz, Colangelo basically continued his my regime is “not about a departure from a strategy” mantra and added that the next phase of the Sixers rebuild will be focused on “sustainable winning”.  Tuesday morning on SiriusXMNBA Colangelo continued his media marathon and threw out this zinger, “The time has come to accelerate the process”.

Over the last two days, Colangelo, in general has said all the right things during his numerous appearance on the sports airwaves.  A little part of me was actually impressed with his words.  However, I still don’t believe he is the right man for finishing “The Process” and leading this franchise back to relevancy.  So today in an effort to get a less biased opinion of Colangelo, we turn to our colleague Sam Holako of raptorsrepublic.com to help us examine Colangelo’s time in Toronto.

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Yesterday — four days after Sam Hinkie shockingly resigned — Josh Harris and Bryan Colangelo held a press conference that was scripted like a Presidential address. They hit on the key points — Hinkie is obviously out; Jerry Colangelo will have a lesser role; and to no one’s surprise, announced Bryan as the new General Manager of the Sixers. Then they played defense against an unending wave of questions.

In the end, we got no real answers.  As I sat and watched Harris awkwardly squirm through another major press conference, I thought to myself, ‘this is third time I have listened to Josh Harris announce a change in the course of this franchise.  Why I am to believe that this ownership group has finally gotten it right this time?’

After the jump, a look at the three course changes Harris and Co. have executed in four short years.

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“After a comprehensive series of tests and additional evaluation by our medical team, it was revealed that he has a small tear of the meniscus,” a statement from 76ers General Manager Sam Hinkie read.

“Jahlil will undergo a minor arthroscopic procedure to address the injury. Timing and details of the procedure will be finalized in the coming days.  Our medical team will continually monitor and evaluate Jahlil’s progress, and we anticipate he will resume full basketball activities in approximately six weeks,” the release continued.

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As the 76ers get set to play the Miami Heat — who are 6-2 since Chris Bosh was lost– down at the Center tonight, the water cooler talk here at Philadunkia continues to revolve around the home team’s losing streak.  The streak now stands at 10 games (their 2nd double digit streak of the season) and with a match-up tonight vs. a Miami team that is installed as a 9-point favorite and features one of the stingiest defenses in the Association (96.8 points per game), the 76ers’ streak will likely extend to eleven games.

So as we prepare to deal with the mental anguish of another Sixers loss tonight, we thought we would review for you the reader ten items that we have taken note of during the latest stretch of growing pains in year three of “The Process”.

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