Sixers vs. Timberwolves Preview and Thread: What Could've Been

The Bizzaro Sixers

Thoughts of Andrew Wiggins riding in a float down Broad Street floated in 76ers' fans during the 2013-14 season. Some lottery misfortune and injury issues with Joel Embiid, prevented the Sixers from landing Wiggins last summer, ultimately selecting and still waiting on Embiid and his recovery process. One Kevin Love trade later, Wiggins, and the dreams he harbored for Philly, were shipped off to Minnesota.

Flash-forward to the 2014-15 campaign. The debate raged over the superiority of Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor as the 2015 NBA Draft's premier big man. D'Angelo Russell emerged as the college season wore on, a fan-favorite for his smooth, left-handed passes and positional fit for a Sixers team already stacked with talented big men. The lottery gods forsake the Sixers once again, positioning them third in this past June's NBA draft. The Timberwolves, who these gods must favor, landed the top pick and KAT in the process, falling ass-backwards into two potential two-way superstars in consecutive drafts.

The Sixers, meanwhile, are stuck with Embiid, a prospect once overflowing with potential, but who may never play an NBA game, and Okafor, who, while brilliant offensively, poses so many fit issues with Nerlens Noel and is such a defensively liability at this stage of his career that their pairing is borderline unplayable.

The T-Wolves have the two players the Sixers and their fans longed for. The Sixers have never looked worse under Brett Brown, as the first murmurs of discomfort with The Process are rising from even the staunchest Sam Hinkie supporters. This isn't an indictment of what the way the Sixers have carried out their rebuilding process, but just another reminder of the random variance that goes into making a franchise a true contender.

The upstart Timberpups are 5-8 in a tough Western Conference, while the Sixers are still winless. If you would've asked me two years ago, I would've sworn the situations and players would be been flipped.

Trigger Fingers Turn to Twitter Fingers

↔️ ⏰: 8pm : @TCNPhilly : @MaxRappaport & @sandrogasparro pic.twitter.com/KzhY3ZDtKd

— Liberty Ballers (@Liberty_Ballers) November 23, 2015

This is the equivalent of OutKast reuniting at Coachella 2014. The official @Sixers Twitter account has fallen off harder than Will Ferrell post-Step Brothers since our pals Max Rappaport and Sandro Gasparro quit being company men and started keeping it real on Twitter over the summer. Follow along with them and expect some fire photoshops and memes. It might even get "lit" on the timeline. Please follow along.

Use this as the game thread as well since I'm a fool who forgot to post in a timely fashion.