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Destination: Sixers? Well, sort of. | Marcus Hayes

Despite consecutive 50-win seasons and consecutive first-round playoff series wins, the Sixers still have to sell themselves.

Joel Embiid backs down Al Horford last Christmas Day. Horford saw the Sixers' potential, and they're teammates now.
Joel Embiid backs down Al Horford last Christmas Day. Horford saw the Sixers' potential, and they're teammates now.Read moreAP

“We’re a destination team. We’re a destination city. Players want to be here.” -- Sixers general manager Elton Brand.

“This is a destination. It wasn’t when I came here. It wasn’t even close.” -- Sixers coach Brett Brown.

Brand and Brown said those things on May 14, two days after their four-bounce, Game 7 loss to the Raptors. They said those things within 30 minutes of each other. Clearly, it was their offseason message: Our core players, our fans, our ownership’s commitment to spend, and our state-of-the-art infrastructure have transformed us from NBA punchline to a title contender that any player should want to join.

Was it true?

Sort of.

The Sixers are a Destination Franchise the way Austin is a tourism magnet; they have their redeeming qualities, but they’re not everyone’s cup of Lone Star.

It really depends on how you look at who came.

Philadelphia became a long-term home for Tobias Harris, who stayed for $180 million, and for Al Horford, who deliciously defected from Boston for less than $100 million guaranteed. It will be the return address for Ben Simmons, who on Monday agreed to a $170 million maximum extension that puts him under contract through 2024-25.

They all are second-tier stars, all at different stages of their careers, and they all had real choices, either now or later. And they all chose here. So did lesser entities Mike Scott, James Ennis, and Kyle O’Quinn, role players who recognized a moderate chance to be relevant deep into May.

But a Destination Franchise? No. Right now the Sixers are more Nashville than New York.

It wasn’t a true destination for Kawhi Leonard, who went home to Los Angeles. It wasn’t true for Anthony Davis, neither when he demanded a trade from New Orleans last winter nor when he finally got his wish and was traded to LeBron’s Lakers last month.

It wasn’t true for Paul George, who declined to consider the Sixers last season as a free agent and stayed in Oklahoma City (and who this year was rescued by Leonard, who forced the Clippers to trade for George). It certainly wasn’t true last year for LeBron, who didn’t even bother to attend the Sixers’ star-hunting free-agency meeting last summer before he officially joined the Magic show (which has since changed its brand).

Most critically, perhaps, it wasn’t true for Jimmy Butler. The Sixers traded two starters for Butler, but, after less than a season in this alleged Destination City, Jimmy took his Buckets to South Beach after the Sixers declined to fill them with enough cash for enough years. Ditto 35-year-old gunner JJ Redick, who preferred $26.5 million in the next two seasons with New Orleans over coming back for a third run with the Sixers.

Those are the misses; or, to be honest, the mis-fits. It’s foolhardy to assert that LeBron, Kawhi, George or Davis possess the generosity or patience to sign on, long-term, with two ball-dominant project players like Simmons, who might one day be a point guard, and center Joel Embiid, who is 1,000 calories a day from being a Hall of Fame center. Had the price been right, Butler probably would have committed, but the Sixers made sure the price was never right.

For better or worse -- probably for better -- the Sixers proved to be a desirable destination for a group of players who will not impede the development of Embiid or Simmons. There is, after all, only one ball, and they need to touch it. Philly will be the destination of the stars when Embiid and Simmons are more complete stars themselves.

“We have a culture that they want to be here,” Brown claimed back in May. "They want to play here. To recruit free agents. To hold on to people."

To some degree, that’s true already. Just not to the degree he would wish.