I'm Unhappy to See "The Process" End for the Sixers

It's Been Fun...

The NBA rewards two things- greatness and absolute failure. Being a fifth or sixth seed in the playoffs means you stay a fifth or sixth seed. To become an elite, contending for a title type of team, you have to pick high in the draft, and/or have lots of cap room to sign multiple major free agents. If you already have that kind of talent, you are contending. If you are terrible, you probably have high picks and money. If you're just good or mediocre? You aren't going anywhere.

Sam Hinkie got lots of things wrong, but he at least got that part right. He took over the Sixers in a complete mess, coming off of the Bynum disaster, and he attempted to build a durable contender. He got lots of things wrong in his personnel choices, but he was right to assume the team needed a gutting out to ever get back to contention. They were a borderline playoff team as long as they kept borderline players around, and he recognized you can't win that way. Sam Hinkie was right about that.

Did he get other things wrong? He certainly didn't need a roster as bad as the one he put together this year to contend for the top pick. It's arguable on all of his draft choices as to whether or not they were the right pick. Did he get enough for Michael Carter-Williams? There are lots of "what if's" to talk about. Clearly, nothing Hinkie has done so far has proven out perfect. It's easy to question his evaluation of talent, but you do have to remember that much of the "talent" the Sixers have is still very young.

I'm fearful of the Colangelo era that is coming ahead. I believe Jerry Colangelo was sent to Philadelphia by the NBA to make the team "good" again. The NBA wants the Sixers to try and be a playoff team, even if that means getting there before they have a star that gives them a chance to excel there. I'm fearful that the goal will become getting in the playoffs, even if that means mid-round picks and a lack of cap space for stars. I do not want to see this team stuck in "sixth seed hell" after going through these couple of awful years.

Sam Hinkie put some of the worst basketball teams we've all ever seen on the court. He could have signed a couple of adequate basketball players and put together a 20-25 win team some of these years, but he didn't. No one enjoyed his tenure as GM of the Sixers. On the other side of that coin, Hinkie leaves the Sixers with about $50 million in cap space and up to four draft picks in the first round this year. He does not leave the Sixers in the purgatory they were in when he got here. They're just bad right now. I do worry that his successors will not be patient enough to see the process through, or effective enough to go get a star now. We shall see.