76ers GM Sam Hickie Steps Down

[LV Koopa]

Ok one of their main goals was to stockpile draftpicks right?

"one of". Lets go back to Philly's ownership group 4 years ago.

They made it a mandate that the new team would have to keep costs down and develop young talent. Enter Hinkie. People miscontrued what he proposed as tanking on purpose when that's not the actual goal. It was load up on rookie contracts and cheap talent, develop them while keeping costs down and finding a coach that would stick around. Notice Philly went for the likes of Brett Brown (cheap contract) and didn't go for any big names.

When Philly started losing people thought it was because it was on purpose - no, it was because they had a ton of young players. They even swindled NO (badly) and got Noel for Jrue Holiday on draft day. They got rid of MCW who was terrible his rookie year no matter what idiots think, and were looking at years of salary floors. They just didn't hit their picks, traded away a few players they should have kept at first (Ish Smith), and lost some of their few productive players to injury (Covington, Noel, and Wroten to name a few).

Then remember Embiid never played a game. Is that all on Hinkie? Saric never shows up. Oops. Okafor....welp we see how that panned out.

Philly was only on this rebuilding plan for less than 3 seasons and they achieved most of their goals despite all the losing. They didn't intentionally lose as much as injuries and draft picks didn't work out. Now they have one of the worst GMs of all time (lmao at Colangelo building Toronto, Masai saved that org). Philly lost because they let Hinkie take all the heat while the ownership group laid back. At first they stood behind him but then they stopped supporting him and even brought in "assistants".

The reason some orgs stay bad is because their Front Offices cant develop shyt or see a plan through. Philly is one of them.

 

[No Homo]

They've got a shyt load of assets...they aren't in a bad spot at all.

 

[duckbutta]

Embiid isn't the #1 guy they're counting on, that would be either Okafor or maybe Noel. Saric definitely isn't the number 2 guy they're counting on. They're counting on $50-60 mil in cap space, a combination of all those players listed, if even 2 of them come anywhere near their potential and they add 2-3 solid free agents, along with their picks this year, they'll be in position to POSSIBLY build a contender in 4-5 years like I said. I never said anything about it being a given or happening soon.


Best part about your post is you pretty much confirmed my post that you were responding to.

If Noel is one of your two best players then your team is not very good and it is not going to be very good for a long time...

 

[kash10003]

That's more pages in that letter than we got wins

 

[Lifer11]

If Noel is one of your two best players then your team is not very good and it is not going to be very good for a long time...

He's a defensive anchor in his 2nd full season. He's not the 2nd best player, but he could end up being possibly the most important player on the team eventually. Like Ben Wallace was to the Pistons, now I'm not saying Noel is going to be on his level, just that he could play a similar role.

 

[LV Koopa]

If Noel is one of your two best players then your team is not very good and it is not going to be very good for a long time...

Noel is actually really good.

 

[Lifer11]

They've got a shyt load of assets...they aren't in a bad spot at all.

If Noel is one of your two best players then your team is not very good and it is not going to be very good for a long time...

This is exactly my point. With all the assets they have in place already, a nice amount of picks this year, quite possibly two top 4 or 5 picks, and the most cap space possibly in the history of the league, all on a legendary franchise with a very proud history, something that a star, or two may eventually want to be a part of, at which point all of our young talent will become incredible role players around the real stars of the team. With a lot of luck this team could become a contender overnight, emphasis on A LOTTT of luck, but still possible.

 

[tremonthustler1]

That's my only concern as well. Now's the perfect time to turn things around in Philly- the question is- would Hinkie continue to tank even more years if he remains the GM? Like he has the tanking vision down pat but does he have the non-tanking GM skills to move forward and actually improve and build a competitive team? Hinkie might be getting a raw deal but the Sixers would probably have to bring in a new guy to change the synergy and makeup of the team something like to fight a 'Newton's Law' type scenario.. 'something that's in motion tends to stay in motion'.

He couldn't afford to. At some point, results must be shown. A core must be in place. Next year woulda been the year. If he's searching for #1 picks as if that's the answer, that's a problem. He's made some good picks. For whatever reason, it was never a feeling of "we got Noel, Okafor, Embiid, let's roll" it was always "well if we get #1 and trade for more assets and blah blah blah."

 

[Consumed]

Philadelphia 76ers • /r/sixers

 

[desjardins]

Analytics heads took a L on this one. Hinkie was Morey's former protege in Houston. Analytics, taking the best available player in the draft regardless of need, and stacking picks are all mainstays of the Morey philosophy for building a team. Hinkie basically personified that approach with his decision making the last couple of years.

He traded MCW, which ended up being a good move. He gave away KJ Mcdaniels who gets no tick on the rockets but showed signs on the sixers. and he tried to trade Okafor already when we don't even know what's up with Embiid or the white bol in europe .
His whole strategy was essentially a ponzi scheme composed of continuously rotating assets and keeping salaries low to maintain flexibility, buying time for himself since he always had a new player/situation that wasn't going to pan out for a couple years so we had to wait and see ,
and lowered expectations created by the media buying into "the process"

 

[Reid2Achieve]

85% of it was some corporate CEO/Chairman type banter. Dude spent a few days on that one and probably was waiting to pull the trigger for a few more days after.

 

[iamduval]

This is a fukkin mess

 

[Redguard]

Hinkie got a phone call from

Spoiler

 

[AAKing23]

Just read his letter Dude basically knew he wasn't gonna make it to see this thru


Dude is gonna be seen as a martyr when this shyt finally turns around

 

[tremonthustler1]

Analytics heads took a L on this one. Hinkie was Morey's former protege in Houston. Analytics, taking the best available player in the draft regardless of need, and stacking picks are all mainstays of the Morey philosophy for building a team. Hinkie basically personified that approach with his decision making the last couple of years.

He traded MCW, which ended up being a good move. He gave away KJ Mcdaniels who gets no tick on the rockets but showed signs on the sixers. and he tried to trade Okafor already when we don't even know what's up with Embiid or the white bol in europe .
His whole strategy was essentially a ponzi scheme composed of continuously rotating assets and keeping salaries low to maintain flexibility, buying time for himself since he always had a new player/situation that wasn't going to pan out for a couple years so we had to wait and see ,
and lowered expectations created by the media buying into "the process"

Don't blame analytics for this. Some of the most simple minded people on Earth woulda told them, just go BPA, sort it out later. Morey was and is a star chaser. While he did that, he'd stack up assets and build a representative roster in the hopes of luring one. Morey woulda never been down to do what Hinkie did.