In a given year, the 2014-15 lakers would be your run-of-the-mill, bottom of the barrel, worst team in the NBA. I think they'll finish up with around 16-20 wins. They're terrible.

That being said, the 76ers are just on a different level. They are playing basketball at a level typically reserved for 6th grade CYA teams. There are five to six players on their roster that I'm pretty sure they just picked up off the street.

At the time of posting of this, they're losing 73-29 at halftime to the Mavs. I haven't done an in-depth analysis of their schedule, but just looking at their roster, I think they have what it takes to finish with < 10 wins. Right now, the sixers hold the record with their putrid 72-73 team that finished 9-73. Can they out do themselves? Obviously, injuries are going to play a big part. I'm not sure who should get injured, but ideally, you'd like to see a couple of their starters go down with season enders. The other big factor is going to be momentum. You might think a 20+ game losing streak to start the season would solidify their position, but I think that'll leave them peaking too early. Consistently awful is trick in an 82 game grind.

Either way, this'll be a fun team to watch. Or rather follow. Don't watch them, that's a terrible idea.

They definitely have it on them to set some futility records. Didn't they lose 25ish games in a row late last year?

Just looked it up. 26 game losing streak last season. Lost 32 of their last 36 last season. After tonight, they will have lost 40 of their last 44 regular season games.

So where do I got to try out for the Sixers? I haven't played since high school, does that make me over qualified?

This is why I'd prefer that all non-lottery teams have equal chances at the #1. Still not going to prevent some teams from losing on purpose, but at least there is less motivation to be truly awful.

As an autopsy on last night's murder, here are a few interesting facts:

• Dallas had their largest margin of victory in franchise history.
  
• Dallas scored enough points in the first half to win this game.
  
• If you took Dallas' worst 2 quarters are extrapolated them over an entire game compared to the sixer's best two quarters, they'd have won 100-82.
  
• This sixers did not have one player shoot at 50% or better. Their best player shot 42%. He was one of 2 players to shoot at 40% or better.
• At 29.9%, the sixers were closer to the worst shooting percentage in NBA history for a single game (22.9%) than they were to shooting 40%.

At least they're not in the Western Conference, it could be a lot uglier.

This could be the year that forces the change...
Maybe players coming off their rookie deals don't have any financial incentive, or don't lose money, if they sign with another team, assuming the team continues to slide in record or hasn't improved by some metric.

Maybe they don't get the same revenue sharing amount if you can't win at least 20 games.

Heard it on the radio but they are soccer leagues were the bottom 2 or so teams gets demoted to a lower level league. Imagine if the bottom two teams got demoted to the d league while the top 2 d league teams got their spots.

All European soccer leagues follow the relegation model. Leeds United was winning the top league and then got in financial trouble...pretty sure they are in the 3rd division of English soccer now

It's an awesome system

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Heard it on the radio but they are soccer leagues were the bottom 2 or so teams gets demoted to a lower level league. Imagine if the bottom two teams got demoted to the d league while the top 2 d league teams got their spots.

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Yep, Mexican soccer too. It would be awesome if they did this.

Never going to happen in America because of money.

If any of the top fight leagues across the world started now they would never agree to the relegation model because there's too much money to lose by dropping down.

Hung tight with Boston, managing to only lose by 12. The streak continues.

I wish Cuban would try to trade Richard Jefferson to them. Then We could find out.

how do the lower teams in European soccer make up the lost revenue when their stadiums don't seat big numbers.

for example if round rock express triple a moved up to MLB and then the worst team in MLB went down to triple A, how do they make up for the lost revenue or how do they gain revenue to buy players and compete?

it would be a big risk to add 20K seats just to be knocked down again in 1-3 years and then have an empty stadium.

No clue.

I know their fans are generally very die hard fans and still attend games, even when they are demoted. Remember, their fans aren't fans of a NFL/MLB/NCAAF/NCAAB/NBA team. They are more or less just fans of their soccer team. So even when dropped down, they are still pretty actively involved.

They also don't buy and large have 60,000+ seat stadiums. The Rays or Browns or Warriors of Euro soccer are all going to have smaller venues because they are all teams that are traditionally near the bottom of their leagues. They know that might get relegated so they have a venue that is right sized for their needs.

Actually after typing that I don't have any idea if that is actually true. I made a big spreadsheet a few months ago of the top 4 divisions of the FA as I was interested in how many teams were in each of the metro areas. Maybe I'll go back and add stadiums and stadium sizes to it as well.

Some European team's stadiums were also built to house world cup games, making the financial burden on the teams less. For instance, my parent's live outside Kaiserslautern in Germany, and though the team has bounced back and forth between the top 2 divisions over the past few years, the stadium can hold nearly 50k people because it was a world cup site in 2006.

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Maybe I'll go back and add stadiums and stadium sizes to it as well.

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Wikipedia has all of this info in charts as well.

The Sixers GM freaked out when the NBA almost changed the lottery rules. That's enough evidence to show you that changing the rules are how you motivate teams to stop tanking. Make it so that the last place team gets to pick 5th

26 point blowout loss to PHX tonight.

10 point loss to the Blazers puts them at 0-14. There have been a few close calls -- Rockets, I'm looking at you, but undeterred, the 6 and 76ers roll on.

Maybe they should go back to the earlier lottery rules (1993?), where the team with the worst record had a 1 in 6 chance to win, instead of it now being at 25%. Also give the "best" lottery team have at least a 2% chance in winning.

Again, I think this is the team that forces another lottery change.

www.forbes.com/sites/mitchlawrence/2014/11/25/kentucky-vs-the-sixers-caliparis-kids-might-just-win/

I know "anonymous sources" are the bane of rational discussion, but:

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"Kentucky is better than the Sixers,'' one veteran Eastern Conference scout told me. "They've got more talent.''

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Also:

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On the eve of the opening of NBA training camps in October, Calipari staged the first-ever pro weekend. Over a three-day period, dozens of pro scouts and GM's flocked to Lexington to watch the Wildcats in practices and intrasquad scrimmages. The pros left campus in virtual lock-step: The 'Cats were better than the Sixers, who hadn't even played a game, and have a potential top pick in freshman Karl-Anthony Towns, a 6-11 center out of New Jersey.

"Calipari has a lot of players who are going to make it on the next level,'' another scout said. "They basically have two teams that could compete for the NCAA title. The Sixers have only a couple of guys worth talking about.''

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After Embiid, the developing Noel and Carter-Williams, the roster is barren.

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Age and experience are invaluable, but Philadelphia doesn't have much of those either. I think they really might lose a 7 game series to Kentucky.

Their anonymous source must have just read the texags thread on this topic

They've lost 48 of their last 52 games. That's unbelievably bad.

Also, because I think the UK versus the 76ers hypo is hilarious, this is from the ESPN recap:

"Philadelphia, with a roster of draft picks and young, undrafted players, is sacrificing victories to build for the future. Of the 12 players Brown played versus Dallas, only Luc Mbah a Moute has more than two years of NBA experience."

Bovada has a prop where you can take the 76ers +150 or the Eagles -200 as to who wins more regular season games...that's hilarious and pathetic at the same time.

Might get their first win over a 4 win Timberwolves team tonight

34-32 Minnesota at HALFTIME. Is this a girls' high school game?

76ers up 81-77 with 1:05 to go. Hold onto your butts!

That's the problem with an 82 game schedule. It really is a grind. It is hard to consistently fail to bring it game after game. Despite this considerable setback, the 6-76ers trudge on toward history.

Sixers now are ahead of two other teams, the Timberwolves and Phil and Derek's Knickerbockers
of New York.

This generally isn't the report you want to get on your #3 draft pick that you tanked a season to acquire.

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Embiid has a weight issue. Although the Sixers wouldn't disclose his weight, a source said he's close to 300 pounds after being 250 pounds at Kansas last season.
His work ethic is being questioned by some inside the organization.
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Embiid, however, hasn't always been a willing workout participant, according to sources. He's even blown off conditioning drills, one source added.

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The 'Cats are looking unbeatable. Perhaps that's why a former Kentucky player, Suns guard Eric Bledsoe, told Sirius XM radio that in a matchup between the 'Cats and Sixers, "I would definitely take Kentucky. I think Philly would maybe probably get one game.''

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Guess Bledsoe has no clue too.

nm