Five biggest losers of the 2020 bubble’s NBA playoffs

5. The future for the Philadelphia 76ers

Above all the emotions one could feel watching the Philadelphia 76ers get swept out of the first round — by Boston no less — sadness overcame anger or frustration.

This was a team with two foundational stars to build around. While one was sidelined with an injury against the Celtics, if it wasn’t fatigue that kept the other from dominating, it was teammates who cluttered his workspace with help defenders.

Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons are not perfect. The former needs to shed weight and the latter needs to, for the love of god, start shooting 3-pointers, even if he clanks them all.

Since their first playoff run, the Sixers organization has gone in the opposite direction when trying to build around them, exacerbating their issues as a duo rather than bringing in a supporting cast that would mask them.

Those moves and the lack of spacing that followed was apparent in the 2020 playoffs, where Philly barely cracked 100 points a night, the fewest among the 16 teams. They shot below 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from three, both postseason-worsts.

Brett Brown was the scapegoat for a job with no route to success. Doc Rivers is a shiny replacement who can’t possibly be expected to overcome a bloated cap sheet responsible for this ill-fitted roster.

The Process put the Sixers down a championship path that was quickly abandoned. Those miscues were apparent all season long but given an emphatic exclamation point in the bubble.