The Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets both underwent a rebuild, but the two organizations did it differently.

The Sixers “tanked” to get high draft picks and it worked in their favor. They drafted Joel Embiid in 2014 and Ben Simmons in 2016. Both players have developed into All-Stars.

The Nets, meanwhile, weren't able to bank on the ping pong balls like the Sixers because they didn't have any high first round picks because of the infamous Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce trade with the Boston Celtics. So, Brooklyn had to develop the players they had on the roster and make some moves in free agency and the trade market.

The Nets traded for D'Angelo Russell, signed Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris, and drafted Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert.

Sixers head coach Brett Brown and Nets coach Kenny Atkinson spoke about the differences in their rebuilds.

“Isn’t that the greatest thing about the NBA?” Atkinson said of the differing rebuilding methods, via Michael Scotto of The Athletic. “They did it one way, and we kind of did it the other. They’ve had great success and great players. We just did it a different way. That’s the beauty of the NBA. There’s a lot of different ways to skin a cat. We took our particular situation and took another approach, and here we are playing against each other. It’s great.”

Added Brown:

“I think Sean Marks has done a great job and Kenny has done a great job with the players Sean has provided,” said Brown. “Their rebuild is different, and they’re both incredibly difficult because our rebuild we had to get some ping pong balls right and maybe you did, and maybe you didn’t. Some we did and some we didn’t. His version you had to go pay some people and hopefully they came through and take a chance on D’Angelo Russell and that came out good. That seems to be a hell of a smart decision. I think Kenny with the style of play that they play has been effective.”

The Sixers and Nets figure to be mainstays in the Eastern Conference for the next few seasons.