The Sixers won their first playoff series since 2012, beating the Heat in five games and Dwyane Wade, who might have just played his last games in the league, called Philadelphia the future of the NBA.
The future may be now with the rest of the Eastern Conference contenders looking particularly vulnerable.
Boston, a team that’s one win away from meeting Philly in the second-round, is without Kyrie Irving. Toronto is locked in a duel with the Wizards in round-one and Cleveland looks as beatable as any LeBron James team in recent memory.
GM Bryan Colangelo deserves credit for making putting the right ancillary parts around the team’s major building blocks. He signed J.J. Redick last summer and brought in Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli late in the season to add lethal shooting and veteran presence to a young nucleus.
However, credit for the young nucleus belongs to Sam Hinkie. The architect of The Process put the franchise in position to have a championship-level ceiling by deciding mediocrity wasn’t enough. He also didn’t want a team that capped out at 50 wins. He wanted one that could compete yearly for a championship and the organization appears to be closing in on that goal.
With Ben Simmons in the fold, something that happened in part because of Hinkie’s final tanking campaign, the team has a perennial All-Star on board. If Joel Embiid can stay healthy, the team should have two of those. Add in great finds like Robert Covington and patient drafting, like the selection of Dario Saric, and you have a team with a nucleus that appears ready for a decade of dominance. Not to mention that the Sixers will likely add another top-10 pick over the next couple seasons as a result of Hinkie dealing away Michael Carter-Williams back in 2015 and fleecing the Kings later that year.
With the city of Philadelphia celebrating yet again after a first-round series win, tonight’s community shootaround is all about the Sixers.
How far do you see the Sixers going this postseason? Can this team win the Eastern Conference? Does Sam Hinkie deserve more credit than he’s currently getting? Should the organization invite him to ring the pre-game bell like they did with rapper Meek Mill in Game 5 of their first-round series? Will anyone notice that No.1 overall pick Markelle Fultz has only played nine minutes over the last four games?
Let us know your thoughts on everything Sixers-related in the comment section below. We look forward to what you have to say!
Seeing the Sixers in the finals this year wouldn’t be the most shocking thing in the world; they’re pretty good and have some luck with Boston’s stars not playing.. however, this is their year to do it because when Boston’s stars come back they’ll be hard to beat next season.
Dude there’s no way Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward is better then Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Both Ben and Joel are freaks of nature and just physically imposing for defenses, with those 2 in place I don’t see Boston being better.
Tallest midgets
Gamed the system. David Stern was the worst. Finally Silver put a modest draft improvement in for next year.
Speaking of Stern, would people please stop saying Belly-nelly! It’s a short “i” in the middle.
Spurs gamed the system too. His name was Tim Duncan. Heard of him?
Everyone pronounces Duncan’s name right!
People hate on The Process because they realize it’s the fastest way to turn a franchise around but have to much pride to admit that’s what they need to do.
You don’t always need to tank to win. It’s a great way to build but not the only way.
Timberwolves did the same thing. Worked in other sports too – Astros and Rays tanked for years to acquire the top pick in the draft. Both went to the WS, one won it.
I wouldn’t call the Timberwolves a success. The Wiggins situation is looking bad, he might be gone this summer. Tanking is not a good look though for fans who pay to go to those games, the Jazz lost Hayward and retooled themselves instead of rebuilding.
Timberwolves are in the playoffs. In the West, so that is a success in and of it self.
eh baseball tanking is not the same at all. In baseball you are either saving your young players to bring them up at the right time for contract reasons OR playing a bunch of young players that aren’t going to get you wins right away. The top picks hardly play soon after being drafted and honestly they’re not all locks to be good. Also many of the good prospects are internationally aquired players (see acuna, ohtani, many others).
Ironically baseball is more of an actual process because you have to groom players to play. NBA you throw darts at a draft board and hope it plays out. Think about the Sixers, I’m in philly, been a sixers fan as long as I can remember. Winless for Wiggins was a huge thing in this city, if the sixers actually got him, where would they be now? Embiid breaks his foot, takes 2 years off, ends up being an all star center and one of the most dominant players in the league while people in Minnesota won’t really be sad to see wiggins go.
The reason this “process” actually worked was because Hinkie gave them enough darts to throw so that some of them would actually hit. Obviously Okafor and Noel did not hit, but Saric, Embiid, Simmons all were bulls-eyes and maybe Fultz will end up one too. Hinke gets a lot of credit and rightfully so but I always have thought it was for the wrong reasons. MANY people mess up top 5 draft picks, Hinke knew that and gave them less of a chance to fail by building a pipeline of assets and high picks. The more picks, the less chance for total failure.
In baseball, you may have to do it longer, especially if you’re a low budget team like the Ray’s or Oakland. Like you said, way more Miss than Hit for baseball. But it’s the same concept regardless. Sometimes you strike Gold right away – Nationals two straight #1 overall picks in Strasburg & Harper. Then Rendon the following year 6th overall.
The real genius around The Process was getting the fans to buy in. Without them and their patience, this would never have worked. Hinkie was very much a part of that. If he got to ring the bell, I think the stadium would explode. The majority of the process haters come from outside the organization. The sixers success is a nightmare for the league Office because it shows that within 2 years you can go from 10 wins to most feared team in the eastern conference playoffs. Accumulating lottery draft picks doesn’t always work out, Noel and okafor are trash, but they hit the jackpot on Simmons and got lucky that embiid got injured during the predraft process and fell to #3
Everyone wanted Wiggins – “next LeBron”. I wonder if the Wolves make the Love trade if it wasn’t #1. The fans bought in, b/c tickets were basically given away during those years. Now that they are good they’ve jacked up prices significantly. Hinkie knew you weren’t going to hit on every draft pick, but the more you have the more likely you are to hit on one or two. They got lucky they took Okafor, b/c he and Noel were trash, they ended up with Simmons. Imagine if they got Russell or KAT? Probably would have won too many games.
I can’t believe they fired Hinkie. I’m a Celtics fan, and I still appreciate what he did. I get that they were losing, but they had appeased the fans, and they had set themselves up to do this. Granted at the time, MCW, Okafor, and Noel hadn’t really planned out, and Embiid has yet to step on the court I believe. But even still, you had to let the man see his work through since he told you in advance it was a commitment.
MCW trade was genius. Also I believe Hinkie would have been able to get more value for Okafor and Noel.
The only way you get more value for okafor is if you trade him after year 1. His second season he was exposed and his value went in the toilet. Noel, maybe you get a late 1st from a playoff team if you sell him a year earlier, but 2 Mavericks 2nds isn’t terrible. Realistically they are within 10 picks of what they could have gotten but they have 2 of them. They are both incredibly flawed players who have not put in the effort to work on their shortcomings.
I think they were looking too near-term. One of the smartest things Hinkie was doing, getting picks down the road when players like Boogie would be gone from the team. I think you’re right they waited too long, idk what Coleangelo was doing, the best move he made was trading for and trading away Ersan. I think they could have gotten a contender’s 2020 or 2021 pick if they had traded Noel and Jah sooner. Like when the Clippers traded away Baron Davis to the Cavs and it wound up being Kyrie Irving. Like they had all this cap space, and weren’t as well when Coleangelo came on. So many bad deals out there, they could have capitalized.
Shows that tanking is the absolute best and normally quickest way to turn around a franchise
Best players want to team up. They go to a team that already has a superstar type player. They don’t just pick a random team and join it together – Lakers?. Usually one guy is in place already. If you can’t get a superstar to sign in FA, you have to draft one. Lot of luck when you get a superstar player 15th. You see potential, if everyone saw “superstar” they’d go #1 overall. Legitimate only way to move your franchise ahead is to pick 1 2 or 3.
The change to the lottery should be equal playing field for all teams to get the #1, #2, #3, #4 pick in the draft. Only allow a team to get each slot 1 time in like 10 or 15 years though. #5-#30 go by record. So if a team still wants to tank, they can only get #5. You’d have to give teams at least 2 years to plan for this change really though. If GSW gets the #1 pick, oh well.
Meeeeek!