The Sixers haven’t been able to find many wins these days, but they have been able to find their way into the headlines multiple times, and not just for that 0-7 record. Nerlens Noel is in the conversation for Rookie of the Year. KJ McDaniels is winning everyone’s hearts, not to mention the Internet, and is widely viewed as the steal of the draft at this point. Yet maybe no Sixer has been playing as well as Tony Wroten, and he finally go some due props as Grantland wrote a nice piece on the evolution of his game. Defintiely worth a read, theres some good quotes from Tony and Brett Brown in that piece, some interesting info on shot tracking at the Sixers practice facility, and then two items I’d like to ruminate on for a second.
1. The Sixers aren’t simply looking for diamonds in the rough, they damn well set up an industrial diamond mining complex in South Philly. And Tony Wroten may be one of the best examples of how successful that approach has been and can continue to be. As Ben Detrick noted:
Sure, we can dismiss Wroten’s breakout start as a frivolous byproduct of the winless Sixers’ lack of alternative scorers. (Michael Carter-Williams, the team’s regular starting point guard, is scheduled to return from shoulder surgery this week.) But he’s also evidence that unheralded young talent can thrive in a laissez-faire environment where growing pains are accepted — a benefit of Philadelphia’s rebuild often drowned out by the noisy clatter about the team’s alleged tanking.
It really is easy to be distracted by all the whining about the Sixers disgracing the game (already covered how stupid that is). It's also easy to be lulled into the mindset of "what the Sixers are doing will pay dividends down the road, but not now." Well blink and you might miss it, because the youth incubator is aying dividends already in the form of growth like that which Tony Wroten has undergone.
2. This video from a Seattle pro-am game last year, holy Moses Malone.
I don’t even know where to begin with this. I know street ball doesn’t exactly translate well over into the NBA (see Rafer Alston, et al.), but that doesn’t make it any less awesome. Some amazing dunks and passes in that highlight reel. Yet if you are only going to watch one clip there, do me a favor and forward right to the 1:18 mark and watch Tony Wroten completely annihilate former teammate and Sixer Spencer Hawes at the rim. Both Spence and Tony are from the Pacific Northwest, but I’m going to guess neither will be back at that pro-am any time soon. For Spence, why embarrass yourself like that again? And for Tony – what else is there left to say?
I'm over the moon that McDubs is back in the lineup tomorrow night … but I also hope we still get plenty of TWro on a nightly basis.
