76ers: The Process

I was at that game Friday, what a finish. Embiid going down was scary as shit.

I'm excited to see how Simmons plays. If he even turns out to be half as good as people hyped, then the Sixers have a solid young core with Embiid, Simmons, and Saric. Noel is a solid trade piece and even Okafor has some trade value.

I think 10 years from now people will recognize Hinkie's work as critical for the Sixers, assuming that they become playoff contenders down the line as their young talent develops. Before Hinkie came in, the Sixers were stuck in NBA purgatory, where they were too good for top talent lottery picks (top 1-5 picks), but not good enough to even make a dent in the NBA playoffs. Hinkie understood the only way to compete in the modern NBA is to either amass superstar talent through free agency (like the Heat and Cavs somewhat) or build through the draft with the caveat being able to identify talent and have good player development staff. The Spurs, Warriors, and Thunder have done this well. Since no superstar free agent wanted to play for the sixers, Hinkey's only other option was to adopt the draft model.

Of course, tanking was not a good look for the sixers and harmed them financially as well through declining ticket sales and fan interest, but realistically it's the best way to maximize the success of the draft model by having access to the top picks and thus the top talent. Are 5-10 extra wins in a meaningless season worth dropping a spot or two in the draft? From a pragmatic standpoint, no, and especially not when a draft is expected to be extremely top heavy, like 2014. The difference between picking 3rd and 4th in the 2014 NBA draft is the difference between Embiid and Aaron Gordon. There are some savvy GMs who realized Hinkey's tanking methods were practical and followed his lead, like Mitch Kuptchack with the Lakers who retained Byron "Tank Commander" Scott as his head coach for 3 seasons. Furthermore, tanking for multiple seasons facilitates player development by affording young players plenty of playing time.

It's honestly a good feeling to see the Sixers' rebuilding process paying off, no matter which team you support. I think it's definitely plausible that they are a consistent playoff team in the near future. However, unless another superstar (or two) comes out of Simmons/Okafor/Noel, it is still then very difficult to compete with the Cavs/Warriors of the league. One counterargument I can see is with Harden and the Rockets and Kawhi with the Spurs. Both seem capable of contending for a Championship with one "superstar." However, both teams are coached extremely well; Pop arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time and D'Antoni is a smart coach who put Harden in PG to spark an offensive breakthrough. So unless Embiid can become the Harden- or Kawhi-level player in the near future, they'll definitely another young player to step up to accompany him.

There's still a logjam in the frontcourt with Embiid, Okafor, Saric, and Noel. I think one of either Noel or Okafor need to be traded.

I really liked what I saw from Simmons in the preseason, though. He's a really good passer and looks like he can play the point forward position like LeBron does.

The hype is starting to formulate with this team and I couldn't be any more excited for where this team is heading. Although unfortunately Jahlil Okafor is going to be traded, Embiid, Noel and Simmons are going to be such a solid core as well as whomever we draft in this upcoming stacked draft (Fultz, Ball, Monk). This pick with our three guys listed above are the pieces to move on with and I think they'll accelerate through the eastern conference within the next three to five years. Additionally, what big time free agent wouldn't want a premier big man and a point guard / power forward that loves to pass? Aside from that, the 76ers have gobs of money to spend to someone is going to love the max here. As a fan and long time Philadelphia sports fan, I can say I've never been more excited about a Philadelphia sports team.

People have already touched on the main points of this awesome story - IMO, none of this is possible without Hinkie. With that said, there is definitely still a lot that the 6ers can screw up. They desperately need to move Okafor, even more so than Noel. Okafor offers absolutely nothing on the defensive end and is a fairly high usage player on offense who is restricted to the low post. He can't play alongside the other bigs, and the 6ers should be looking to get any value they can from him.

They also do have plenty of picks coming up the near future. By committing to keeping Embiid on the minutes restriction that they set for him at the beginning of the season, they are wisely reducing the wear and tear on their future star while also capping their wins - keeping them in the draft lottery with both of their first round picks in a very deep draft class. Hit one of those two picks, couple them with Embiid, the upside of Simmons, one of this year's top rookies in Saric, and whatever value they can get for Okafor/Noel, and they are an immediate player in a weak Eastern Conference. Hoping this happens!

As a Sixers fan (reads r/sixers & libertyballers daily) I really think Noel is part of the long term future. If he's happy and we have him and Embiid, that's 48 minutes of lockdown elite rim protection. When you have that to rely on, everything else can become easier.

And no, I don't think Colangelo is going to be able to take credit for a lot of this. Pretty much this draft is where he can start making his mark and getting credit for any resulting success.

I am an avowed Hinkieite, but Colangelo's draft history is very impressive, with a few missteps:

1995: Michael Finley, 21st pick 1996: Steve Nash, 15th pick 1997: Stephen Jackson, 42nd pick 1998: no first rounder 1999: Shawn Marion, 9th pick 2000: Jake Tsakalidis (??), 25th pick 2001: no first rounder 2002: Amare Stoudemire, 9th pick 2003: Zarko Cabarkapa, 17th pick 2004: Luol Deng, 7th pick 2005: Nate Robinson, 21st pick 2006: Andrea Bargnani, 1st pick LOL 2007: no first rounder 2008: Roy Hibbert, 17th pick 2009: DeMar DeRozan, 9th pick 2010: Ed Davis 13th pick 2011: Jonas Valanciunas, 5th pick 2012: Terrence Ross, 8th pick

Fun team to watch, hope they can keep their shit together in the future because I can see them going far in the playoffs in 1-2 years. People will probably disagree, but they do somewhat remind me of the Clippers from the early 2000s when Darius Miles, Corey Maggette, Lamar Odom etc weren't just fresh in the league. Fun to watch but then crumbled because people left etc.

TRUST THE FUCKING PROCESS people. Sam Hinkie died for our sins. Fuck Josh Harris. That is all

T. J. McConnell.

I think tanking makes a lot of sense if you are stuck in no mans land, especially in the NBA where 1-2 players can have a dramatic impact on overall wins. Look at Isaiah Thomas on the CS this year...he has won basically 5-7 games this year by himself with 4th quarter heroics we haven't seen in a long time.

Lucky for the Cs, they completely robbed the Nets with the Pierce+Garnett trade for 3 first rounders! HAHAHAHHAA

This year the Nets are headed for the worst record in the NBA, so that means the Cs have a very good shot at the #1 pick (Fultz!)

anyway, back to "The Process"...I think Hinkie will eventually go down as a genius. The 76ers and Celtics both have a bright future once GS and Cavs lose a bit of their edge in a few years...

Now we have the Number 1 pick in the draft. A core of Embiid, Simmons, and Fultz in my opinion is the best young core in the entire NBA.