Man, looking back at the 2015-16 season feels like a fever dream for anyone who actually sat through those games. If you weren't there, you probably just see a win-loss column that looks like a typo. But for those of us tracking the philadelphia 76ers 2015 roster, it wasn't just about losing; it was about the absolute audacity of Sam Hinkie’s "The Process" reaching its logical, painful, and fascinating conclusion.
They started 0-18. Think about that for a second. Nearly two months of professional basketball without a single "W" on the board.
The roster that dared to be different
The philadelphia 76ers 2015 roster was a rotating door of "who's that?" guys and high-upside gambles. It wasn't built to win games in November; it was built to collect assets and see who might stick when the team actually tried to compete three years down the line. Jahlil Okafor was the crown jewel of that specific summer, the third overall pick out of Duke with footwork that made old-school scouts drool and modern analytics guys reach for the Tylenol.
You had Ish Smith coming in late to save the day (sorta), Nerlens Noel trying to figure out how to play next to another center, and a bunch of guys like Isaiah Canaan, Robert Covington, and Jerami Grant who were basically fighting for their NBA lives every single night.
It was messy.
Honestly, the sheer lack of veteran leadership on that squad was staggering. When your "grizzled vets" are Carl Landry and Elton Brand (who was basically there to be a babysitter in a jersey), you know you're in for a long winter. Brett Brown, the coach who deserves a statue just for keeping his sanity during this era, had to find ways to motivate a locker room that was losing by thirty points on Tuesday and expected to do it again on Thursday.
The Jahlil Okafor Conundrum
Okafor is the guy everyone remembers from the 2015 group. He averaged 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, which on paper looks like a Rookie of the Year campaign. But the NBA was changing right under his feet. While Jahlil was hitting beautiful spin moves in the post, the rest of the league was moving to the perimeter.
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He didn't fit the defensive scheme. He didn't space the floor.
The frontcourt was a traffic jam. You had Okafor and Noel trying to occupy the same six feet of space, and it just didn't work. Noel was a defensive phenom who couldn't score outside of three feet, and Okafor was a scoring machine who couldn't protect the rim. It was the ultimate "Process" problem: collecting talent without worrying about fit.
Who else was actually on this team?
If you look at the philadelphia 76ers 2015 roster depth chart, it’s a trip down memory lane.
Robert Covington was the big success story. "RoCo" became the blueprint for the 3-and-D wing that every team wants now. He struggled with his shot at times that year—shooting just 38% from the field—but his defensive deflections were off the charts. Then you had Jerami Grant, who was mostly just a pogo stick with a wingspan back then. It’s wild to see him now as a primary scoring option in the league when back in 2015 he was just a guy who would occasionally fly out of nowhere for a monster block.
The point guard situation was... dire.
TJ McConnell was an undrafted rookie who worked his way into the hearts of Philly fans just by sheer hustle. He was the "floor general" of a team that didn't have a floor. Until Ish Smith arrived in a trade with New Orleans in late December, the Sixers were basically playing without a traditional playmaker. Once Ish got there, they actually looked like a real basketball team for stretches. They went from "historically bad" to just "regular bad," which felt like a championship parade at the time.
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Nik Stauskas, aka "Sauce Castillo," was supposed to be the shooter they desperately needed. It never quite clicked. He struggled with confidence, and the heavy burden of being a primary spacer on a team with no spacing was a lot to ask of a second-year player.
The numbers that tell the story
- Final Record: 10-72.
- Offensive Rating: 98.8 (Dead last in the league).
- Turnovers per game: 16.4 (Most in the league).
You see those ten wins and you wonder how they even got those. One of them came against a Phoenix Suns team that was also falling apart, and another against a Lakers team during Kobe Bryant's farewell tour. It was a grind. Every single basket felt like it required an Act of Congress.
Why this specific 2015 roster still matters
People talk about "The Process" like it was just one big blur of losing, but the philadelphia 76ers 2015 roster was the breaking point. This was the season that forced the NBA’s hand. The league eventually pressured the Sixers to bring in Jerry Colangelo, which signaled the beginning of the end for Hinkie’s tenure.
It was the peak of the tanking era.
But here’s the thing: it worked, eventually. That 10-72 season led directly to the number one overall pick, which became Ben Simmons. Joel Embiid was already on the roster but sitting out with his foot injury. The 2015 season was the dark before the dawn. Without the absolute basement-dwelling of that year, the Sixers never get the draft capital that turned them into a perennial playoff team.
It’s easy to mock the names on that list—JaKarr Sampson, Hollis Thompson, Richaun Holmes—but those guys played hard. They were young, hungry, and mostly just happy to be in the league. There’s a certain purity to that, even if the basketball was objectively terrible to watch.
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The Robert Covington Effect
Covington is the one we should talk about more. He’s the guy who proved Hinkie’s "churn the bottom of the roster" strategy actually had merit. He was a G-League find who turned into a high-level NBA starter. When you look at the philadelphia 76ers 2015 roster, he’s the lighthouse in the storm. He gave them 12.8 points a game and provided the only real perimeter defense they had.
If you're looking for lessons from this roster, it's that talent can be found in the margins if you're willing to give guys 30 minutes a night to fail until they succeed.
The weird legacy of the 10-72 season
Most fanbases would be ashamed of a 10-win season. Philly fans? They wear it like a badge of honor. There are people who can still name the entire starting lineup from the night they beat the Kings in December. It created a weird, cult-like bond between the team and the city.
You had to be a die-hard to watch Kendall Marshall and Phil Pressey split minutes at the point.
The 2015 roster was basically a laboratory. Some experiments exploded (the Okafor/Noel pairing), and some yielded life-saving results (finding McConnell and Covington). It was the year the NBA decided that enough was enough regarding intentional losing, leading to the lottery odds being flattened years later.
Moving forward from the 2015 era
If you're researching this specific era for a project or just a trip down a rabbit hole, the best thing you can do is look at the "Minutes Played" leaders. It tells you everything. Nerlens Noel led the team in minutes. When your defensive specialist center is your most-used player on a 10-win team, you know the offense was a struggle.
Actionable Insights for Basketball Historians
- Study the Ish Smith Trade: Look at the "Before and After" of the Sixers' offensive efficiency once they acquired a veteran point guard. It proves that even a "tanking" team needs professional playmaking to function.
- Analyze the Frontcourt Logjam: Review the net rating of Noel and Okafor when they shared the floor versus when they played solo. It’s a masterclass in why modern spacing is non-negotiable.
- Track the Career Arcs: Follow where guys like Jerami Grant and Richaun Holmes went after 2015. It shows that the "Process" Sixers actually had an eye for talent; they just weren't interested in keeping it at the time.
- Examine the Draft Context: Compare the 2015 roster to the 2016 and 2017 versions to see how the arrival of Joel Embiid (finally healthy) changed the entire gravitational pull of the franchise.
The 2015 Sixers weren't a basketball team in the traditional sense. They were a statement. A loud, clunky, 10-win statement that changed how NBA front offices operate forever. Whether you love it or hate it, you can't talk about modern basketball history without acknowledging the group of guys who wore the jerseys during that long, cold winter in Philadelphia.
The roster was a sacrificial lamb at the altar of high draft picks. It was painful. It was ugly. But for a certain segment of the basketball world, it was beautiful in its own chaotic way.