Reaction to the criticism of Sam Hinkie

Sam Hinkie’s plan to bring a championship to Philadelphia is bold, but is he going to far?

Back in the 2013 NBA Draft a man named Sam Hinkie made a move that shocked many Sixers fans and made them wonder what just happened, including myself. The move was trading away Jrue Holiday, the young point guard of the Sixers who was coming off his best season as a pro, which included his first All-Star appearance.

I was shocked!

I didn’t understand why the Sixers traded away a player who had obvious talent, and potential All-Star talent. But then something clicked in my mind. The reasoning of the Sixers trading away Jrue Holiday finally made sense. Since the 2001 magical run led by Allen Iverson to take the Sixers to the NBA Finals before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, the Sixers were the definition of mediocrity in the NBA.

From the 2001-02 season through the 2012-13 season (Holiday’s final season) the Sixers averaged 38.1 wins per year in that span. They never won more then 48 games (2002-03) and never lost more then 55 games (2009-10). They made the playoffs seven times but made it out of the first round just twice, and were eliminated in the second round both times. The most recent of those two was in the 2011-12 season, which also happened to be the year of the lockout, when the Sixers lost to the Boston Celtics in game seven of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

While that was a very fun run, the Sixers would not have been in the second round if it wasn’t for injuries to Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. The summer following that run was headlined by the famous Andrew Bynum trade that had many believing the Sixers were close to being contenders.

That trade is now talked about as one of the worst in Philadelphia sports history as Andrew Bynum played more games of bowling then he did for the Sixers.

After missing the playoffs the following year, the Sixers were once again in a state of flux. The plan originated to revolve around Andrew Bynum and compliment him with players like Jrue Holiday was a complete failure.

The Sixers then hired Sam Hinkie on May 10, 2013, and as they say: The rest is history.

Hinkie immediately consumed full control of basketball operations. He made his first strike as General Manager trading away Jrue Holiday for Nerlens Noel and a future first-round pick. He then selected a point guard out of Syracuse with the 11th overall pick named Michael Carter-Williams. From that point on the plan became clear.

Sam Hinkie was going to blow up the team and rebuild from the bottom using his analytic strategy. The famous, and still used today, slogan of “Together We Build” came out shortly after that.

The two players who were seen as cornerstones for the rebuild of the franchise had completely different first years in the NBA. Nerlens Noel never played a game for the Sixers as he was recovering from a torn ACL suffered during his only season at the University of Kentucky. Carter-Williams on the other hand, took the Sixers by storm from the start and went on to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award, something no Sixer had done since Allen Iverson.

The Sixers were then criticized by many around the NBA for “tanking” that season after they traded away three legitimate NBA players at the trading deadline: Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes, and Lavoy Allen. While none of those players are more then a role player on a contender, the Sixers didn’t receive anything more back then bench players and a flurry of second round picks leaving the roster with little talent.

The recognized goal of the team was to be bad enough to get as high of a chance as possible to land a top pick in the upcoming draft which featured Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, and Joel Embiid, the three players considered to be the next stars in the NBA.

As we now know the Sixers drafted Joel Embiid and Dario Saric in the first round, along with K.J. McDaniels and Jerami Grant in the second round. Saric is overseas for at least another year,  Embiid may not play this season due to injury, and McDaniels and Grant played well.

At the trade deadline last Thursday nobody expected the Sixers to make any big moves since the team was starting to gel.

That couldn’t be more wrong.

Sam Hinkie traded Michael Carter-Williams away in a mega deal for a first-round pick in the upcoming draft from the Los Angeles Lakers. The pick is top-five protected this year, top-3 protected next year, and unprotected the year after that. A bold, but risky move that caused immediate reaction from Sixers fans. Hinkie also shipped away K.J. McDaniels for point guard Isaiah Canaan and a second round pick.

Many fans were upset with the moves, specifically the Carter-Williams trade. They were furious that Hinkie traded away the reigning Rookie of the Year for an unknown draft pick, and rightfully so.

But then there were fans who applauded the move. They looked at it as they never saw Carter-Williams as an All-Star caliber point guard in this league, and feel that the Sixers received good value back.

I am also one of those people who applaud the trade.

Back when Sam Hinkie started this rebuilding process, not once did him or anyone in the organization give a timeline for success. After drafting Carter-Williams not once did anyone say he is the point guard of the future.

When building a powerhouse you do it with the best players possible, and in my opinion Carter-Williams isn’t one of those players.

His struggles turning the ball over and shooting were hard to watch. And as a young player I know those are normal struggles to overcome, especially as the top dog on a team that was structured the way the Sixers were.

However, anyone who watches the Sixers and knows basketball can see that Carter-Williams, while a starter in the NBA, has a long way to go to be considered a star player in the league, and quite frankly may never be one.

Sam Hinkie realized that and took a chance to cash in on Carter-Williams to possibly put himself in a position to draft a star player in the upcoming drafts that MCW may have never become. The Sixers now own possibly four first round picks in this years draft, and if they don’t receive all four this year, they are likely to get the remaining next year.

This year the NBA draft has a player who can be a transcendent talent, the same kind of talent that Hinkie believes Joel Embiid has, and that player is Jahlil Okafor.

Okafor, currently a freshman at Duke, is recognized as a “cant-miss” player by analysts around the NBA. He will likely be the first pick of the upcoming draft, and the Sixers are in a solid position to have a good chance to obtain that first overall pick in the draft lottery.

After Okafor, there are players such as D’Angelo Russell, Karl Towns, and Emmanuel Mudiay who are expected to fill out the top of the draft board. All three of those players have the potential to be stars in the NBA as well.

So I ask the question, why would Sam Hinkie not put the Sixers in the best position possible to acquire one or possibly even two of those players? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for him not to.

The amount of draft picks Hinkie has acquired is beyond imaginable, but in my opinion it is a very good strategy. The truth of the matter is not all of the players the Sixers draft with these top picks will pan out to be great or even good NBA players. However, it only takes one or two correct draft picks to put the Sixers from the bottom to the top real fast.

Once the Sixers get these type of players on the roster, and players around the league see the type of team that is being built, Philadelphia will be a very attractive option for free agents. The next big free agency class is coming up next summer. The class may feature the likes of Kevin Durant and many other big names, but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

In closing, I would like to point out once again the reason I am behind Sam Hinkie and against the criticism he has received.

As fans of the Sixers and after seeing the level of mediocrity the team has been at since 2001-02, why would you want anything more than a General Manager who is doing everything in his power to bring a championship and possibly even championships to the team?

Carter-Williams obviously did not fit into that plan and Hinkie capitalized on a deal that he thinks puts the team in a better position to reach that goal.

I am thrilled that Hinkie is not settling to build a team based off of the players he initially picked or acquired when he took the position, no matter what awards and/or success they have had in the past. That is how you build a team of mediocrity, not a team with championship potential.

This is about bringing championships to Philadelphia, a city that is rich in basketball history, and I admire Sam Hinkie and his efforts to make that happen. While this plan is still in the beginning stages, the plan has already showed me that Hinkie will not be like General Managers in the past who give out ridiculous contracts to players like Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala that set the team in basketball purgatory for years.

Whether this plan is a success or goes up in flames is yet to be seen, but I have full faith that Sam Hinkie will bring the Philadelphia 76ers a lot closer to winning a championship then anyone has in a very long time.

Follow Sam Shipley on Twitter: @samshipley5

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