It is a masterclass in throwing away resources in order to lean into the herd. They need to find a new slant.
To me, I think that the biggest mistake will always be Fultz. In the top five of that draft, there was a 60% chance of getting either an excellent (Tatum, Fox) or mostly solid player (Ball) and they completely missed while trading up to make the pick.
Boston was always going to take Tatum, I have no doubt. And LA was either going to take Ball or Fox (I really think media hype and pressure from ownership caused Magic to take Ball because he was reportedly very enamored with Fox). So, Philly traded up to take the guy that they likely could have gotten at #3 (their worry was that Boston would trade the pick to someone that wanted Fultz, but Boston was limited because they wanted Tatum).
I understand what they were trying to do but they just really missed on him. Meanwhile, Boston trades down, still gets the guy that they want and accumulates more draft capital. An accurate illustration of the overall present aptitude and quality of both organizations.
I get the Butler trade. It made sense to me in terms of taking a shot. It just did not work on a chemistry level and they did not want to punt on "their guys," so Butler was gone. So, you have no Butler and you lose the team guys in Saric and Covington that handle the dirty work/small items.
I like Tobias Harris a lot in a third best player role. But, they gave up too much capital for him and they are too dependent upon him as a scorer relative to his talent level because though Simmons is very unique, he does not score that much.
Their best move was drafting and then being patient with Embiid. But, he seems to lack some maturity and it just feels like his body is a ticking time bomb though he has stayed healthy enough over the past few years.
I think that The Process worked in terms of putting together a solid team, but that was not really the goal. The goal was championships. And, it just appears that they will fall short once the book is completely written.
