I rather see GMs construct a team to suck for ONE year for a pick, then actively and aggressively trying to improve the roster by making trades and signing FA
I'd rather see GMs never construct a team to suck specifically for a pick. I can accept teams constructing a team that sucks as a secondary effect of clearing out bad contracts or letting young players develop, but if you're going to tank for picks, I want the odds to make it so that you will have to be miserable for several years and wreck your fan base if you want to plan to suck for as long as you need to get a #1 pick.
You can adjust the rules so that tanking is a bad idea. You can't adjust the rules so that GMs don't pursue bad ideas.
And yet Philadelphia is probably better positioned to win a title in the next 5 years than Boston is. Philadelphia has the reigning rookie of the year, a top contender for rookie of the year this year in Noel, a top contender for rookie of the year next year in Embiid, a top contender for rookie of the year two years from now in Saric, some solid other young players like Wroten and Moultrie, and 30 million in cap space with the only "bad" contract being the easily movable Thad Young. Philly will have another very high pick next year as well to add another potential rookie of the year candidate.
Philly is much better positioned to win and win big than Boston is and it isn't close.
MWC was rookie of the year in one of the weakest rookie classes in NBA history. Noel hasn't played a single minute and was seen as a project BEFORE he blew out his knee. Embiid couldn't even make it through a college season without a serious injury and then suffered another injury between college and the draft, leading his agent to refuse to let teams see his medical records. And in Embiid's one season, he played just over 23 minutes a game and put up 11 pts, 8 boards and 2.6 blocks. In addition, all the cap space in the world means nothing if your team and franchise suck so bad that no one wants to play for you.
Even in an optimistic scenario, Philly is going to be horrible for at least 2 more years, bad to mediocre for 1 to 2 more after that and then they're going to have to start worrying about how they're going to afford to keep all these high draft picks.
I suspect the kind of "fan" who doesn't care about how bad his team sucks will eventually cease to be a fan in any real sense of the world.
Mike