acquire a star is through the draft. Even after the change in lottery odds, the best chance to get a high draft pick comes through having a bottom 5 record.
It’s not a foolproof path to a championship by any means but it gives non-destination market teams the best odds at landing Wemby, or Chet or any other All-NBA level talents.
You’re right that the Sixers though! It didn’t quite work out like they imagined, but they did get Embiid and have had an almost 10 year run now of being in the top 4 in the East. So it wasn’t like it was a complete failure.