PHILADELPHIA – Ever since he joined the 76ers as Chairman of Basketball Operations on December 7th, Jerry Colangelo made it clear. He’d always be just a phone call away from members of the organization looking to tap into his wisdom. What has also become clear over the past three months is that Colangleo prioritizes being physically present in Philadelphia as well. On Friday, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, who is a full-time Phoenix resident thanks to a four and a half decade stint with the Suns, took in the Sixers’ game against the Washington Wizards at The Center, as part of his third trip to the Delaware Valley in the span of eight weeks. Examining the current state of the Sixers, Colangelo said, “We had a nice little run after Ish [Smith] came and won some games, and it was more competitive, and a little bit more exciting. We kind of leveled off a little bit, and so we’re a little out of kilter right now, I would think.”Colangelo was referring to the string of four post All-Star Game appearances the Sixers had made heading into Friday’s tilt. Amidst that stretch, the Sixers permitted an average of 121.3 points per game.”The important thing is, and this is what we’re talking about, what can we get out of the last 25 games?,” said Colangelo, discussing the objectives of the Sixers’ front office for the remainder of the season. “Find out as much as we can about what we have before you talk about what we’re going to be doing, and if there’s any questions we have about our present personnel, let’s learn a few more things. That’s all. That’s been part of the discussion, and it’s all part of preparation going forward.”Given the nature of the Sixers’ youthful roster, they have the fourth-youngest team in the NBA, Colangelo stressed that rushing to judgment on any single player would not serve the franchise well. Instead, he believes patience is pivotal. “It would be inappropriate to come to any conclusions,” Colangelo said. “First of all, you’ve got a bunch of young guys, number one. They all need playing time. The more minutes they get, the more you see. We ought to just observe for these last 25 [games], and be better prepared to make those decisions when we make those decisions.” While additional, comprehensive fact-finding will be the Sixers’ primary short-term focus, Colangelo was direct in outlining his long-term vision. He wants to apply the research the Sixers conduct in the home stretch of the season towards making well-informed decisions that create a consistent, sustained winner.”Free agency, players, they talk among themselves,” Colangelo explained. “We’ve seen what’s happened in free agency where players decide they want to team up and be somewhere, or there’s a destination that has a lot of talent ready to go and they see themselves joining a winner. All players want to win. It’s a little premature for us to think that we are that destination, but our goal is to become that. That’s our goal. We want to be a player, that’s the whole plan.”
In addition to spending time further developing this plan and tending to other basketball matters on his latest stop in town, Colangelo also met with season ticket holders prior to and during halftime of Friday’s contest with the Wizards. Colangelo also visited Philadelphia in the middle of January, and the first week of February.
