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Philadelphia 76ers
Overall: 102
Title track: 85
Ownership: 101
Coaching: 71
Players: 93
Fan relations: 114
Affordability: 44
Stadium experience: 97
Bang for the buck: 116
Change from last year: -4
But ... they trusted the process?! Third time wasn't the charm for Sam Hinkie, Philadelphia's ill-fated general manager, who, after three seasons spent hoarding draft assets (and losses), resigned from his post in a blaze of 13-page-memo glory in April. As it turns out, 15 wins a season does not a happy front office -- or fan base -- make. Oh, sure, 76ers fans sent their beleaguered GM off on a wave of "Thank you, Hinkie!" chants after the team landed the No. 1 overall draft pick. But even the glow of Ben Simmons wasn't enough to rescue the Sixers from the Ultimate Standings gutter, where they ranked sub-90 one, two, three, four, five, SIX times. Team of the year!
What's good
The Sixers stink, but you can see them for the bargain price of $68.54, the NBA's 12th-best rate in average cost per game! (Look, when a team has been as poor for as long as the 76ers have, any ranking in the top half of the league is ... not a bad thing.) Fans have mostly stayed home since The Tank -- Philly's overall attendance has ranked second-worst, worst and third-worst, respectively, since 2013-14 -- but those die-hards who still make their way to the Wells Fargo Center can at least do so without breaking their banks. The Sixers' lone ranking that cracked the top 50 this year? Affordability.
What's bad
Almost everything else. The 76ers dropped in all categories but ownership, affordability and stadium experience this year and proved egregiously unpopular when it came to fan relations and bang for the buck (third-worst in the NBA for both). Even a fiscally reasonable night out in South Philly, it seems, can't atone for the team's woeful showing on the scoreboard: Fans ranked the Sixers' ability to "consistently win more games than they lose" as -- surprise -- worst in the NBA. The only two teams across all four sports to out-lose them? The San Diego Padres and Cleveland Browns.
What's New
The city is running out of brotherly love for its promising, if still very young, crop of talent. It has been just three short months since the Sixers landed Simmons, their first No. 1 pick in 20 years, but the team's steepest shift in our rankings was its 20-slot tumble to No. 93 in players. That was before the news broke that yet another Sixer, this time Simmons, would miss significant time in his rookie season. The (potentially) good news? Check back in one year's time. After two seasons sidelined by injury, Joel Embiid is finally set to take the court in Philadelphia, and Dario Saric will join him after making his way over from Turkey. Eventually, Simmons will bring his dazzling array of Summer League highlights -- Behind-the-back bounce passes! No-look lobs! -- to inject new life into the Wells Fargo Center.
Next: Los Angeles Lakers | Full rankings