Quantifying Mediocrity In The NBA: The Sixers Are Dying A Slow, Mediocre Death

Gloom and doom is rampant among Sixers fans these days. They're 11-19 in their last 30 games, but they'll make the Playoffs – where a massacre at the hands of the Bulls or Heat awaits.

It's not just the poor play that has fans in a dark place, though. This team has no semblance of a superstar player and a roster essentially void of talent.

Because the Sixers will be selecting in the middle of the first round in the NBA Draft and won't make it out of the first round of the Playoffs, they find themselves in an all too familiar place – treading water.

Since making the Finals in 2001 with Allen Iverson, the Sixers franchise has completely fallen off the map.They're pretty irrelevant in NBA circles and sadly, just as irrelevant in their own city.

(I was in Boston with family on Easter Sunday, before Sixers/Celitcs. Not a single person in a room of about 25 people – pretty well-versed on sports – could name a single Sixers player.)

Attendance has jumped this season because of significantly lower ticket prices and a 20-9 start, but the Wells Fargo Center still ranks in the bottom half of the league in attendance.

Accompanying all the gloom and doom, has been many a rant – all of which reach the same conclusion. The Sixers need to find a star to build around – simple plan, difficult to execute. Historically, the best way to acquire said star is through the draft. And the likelihood that a star falls to the middle of the first round is unlikely. Ergo, the Sixers need to find their way to the top of the first round.

The only answer, in my mind, is a commitment to rebuilding – not half-assing it with veterans like Andre Miller and Joe Smith. Whether you agree or disagree with the idea that fielding a cheap, young team – whose focus is player development, rather than maximizing wins – is the best way to go, one thing is abundantly clear. The blueprint the Sixers have followed since their Finals appearance has failed, and failed miserably.

In the NBA, there's nothing worse than being mediocre, especially when mediocrity is perennial. And there are few franchises who've mired themselves in mediocrity as much as the Philadelphia 76ers over the past decade.

Mediocrity is hard to quantify. Technically, there are only a handful of teams who aren't mediocre. Those are: the teams who can realistically win a title in a given year, the teams with a superstar who are one sidekick away from being title contenders, or the teams who have a chance to acquire a superstar in the draft. Anthony Davis!

The Sixers fall into none of those categories – far from it, actually. The last time they were close to either was when Iverson was around. But just how mediocre have the Sixers been since their NBA Finals appearance?

Although not perfect, I came up with an extremely simplified look at NBA mediocrity. Either you're advancing in the Playoffs, or selecting in the top 10 of the draft. If you're not doing either of those things, that's my definition of mediocre. And while certain circumstances make mediocrity acceptable (team has star in place already i.e. early Durant, mid-2000s Kobe), it's not a place you want your franchise to be too often.

To that point, in eight of the last 11 seasons, the Philadelphia 76ers have neither: picked in the top 10 or won a Playoff series. That's the epitome of mediocre.

A look at the numbers after the jump.

Teams With Less Top 10 Picks Than Sixers Since 2001-02 (11 of 30):

• Celtics
• Mavericks
• Nuggets
• Rockets
• Pacers
• Lakers
• Nets
• Hornets
• Magic
• Suns
• Spurs

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