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Revisiting how ‘The Process’ started, 76ers made the first major addition 12 years ago

Originally posted on NBA Analysis Network
By Jonah Kubicek | Last updated Aug 15, 2025 2:30 PM ET

The Philadelphia 76ers committed to a strategy of tanking and drafting talent, and they made the first acquisition of ‘The Process’ 12 years ago, today.

In the 2012-13 NBA season, the Philadelphia 76ers missed the playoffs despite boasting solid NBA players like Jrue Holiday , Nick Young, Jason Richardson, and Thaddeus Young. After that season, the team hired general manager Sam Hinkie and traded Holiday for Nerlens Noel and a future first-round pick.

With that, ‘The Process,’ a strategy of losing games and building a long-term winner through the draft was implemented, and Philadelphia would go on to select Michael Carter-Williams, Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz with their prized draft picks.

One of Hinkie’s first acts under The Process was to hire a developmental-minded coach to foster their young talents, and on August 14, 2013, Brett Brown took his first head coaching post.

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Philadelphia 76ers gave Brett Brown the keys to the franchise

After nine seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, it looked like Brown was an excellent hire by the Sixers. After all, he helped turn Kawhi Leonard, Bruce Bowen, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili into high-level stars, and Hinkie believed that he could get the most out of the Sixers’ young core as they built it.

In his first four seasons in Philadelphia, Brown never won more than 30 games, including the third-worst season in NBA history, going 10-72 in the 2015-16 season.

Hinkie managed the Sixers for only three seasons, and Brown outlasted him, finally going 52-30 in the 2017-18 season.

However, Brown was fired in 2020 after three straight playoff appearances, never getting past the second round. Since then, the Sixers have employed Doc Rivers and Nick Nurse, although the team is yet to even reach the Conference Finals.

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Brett Brown’s tenure with the 76ers was doomed from the start

Under Brown, the Sixers drafted and developed more than their fair share of players. Embiid and Simmons would turn into stars, and Okafor, Fultz, and Noel would never live up to the hype.

While Embiid’s success can largely be attributed to Brown, the team’s shortcomings, especially in the playoffs, can’t.

Under Gregg Popovich, Brown won 50 or more games in every one of his nine seasons in San Antonio and has two rings. Embiid’s lack of durability and Simmons’ mental errors in the postseason were not a result of The Process, Hinkie’s vision, or Brown’s coaching. Rather, luck simply caught up to them.

As long as the 76ers continue to feature Embiid as the central part of the franchise, it’s impossible to declare The Process dead, although no lineup or coach has managed to get the team further than Brown took them. His hiring helped kickstart an ongoing era that is yet to deliver on the promises it made 12 years ago.

This article first appeared on NBA Analysis Network and was syndicated with permission.

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