Hinkie's failure to have the team remain respectable among the media and players in the league is a problem for building a winning team going forward with all their assets.
Yeh but it's coo now, because Colangelo is there.
Lol
To be clear, I'm not a fan of the 76ers. I hope they fail. I also don't give a crap about Hinkie. I didn't even know Hinkie's name until people here started posting threads about him. I've read articles within the past few months that have made it clear that this "plan" came from the ownership group. Hinkie was just hired to execute it.
My stance on Philly has remained pretty consistent. I've been intrigued by what they were doing. They essentially looked at the system, realized that you need a superstar to be competitive, and decided "the heck with short-term success... we're in superstar or bust mode". This started
BEFORE HINKIE when they gambled on Andrew Bynum. That franchise has been committed to the idea of landing start talent and understood that the only way they were going to get star talent was to either bottom out and draft one, or trade for one by acquiring assets (a method Danny Ainge, the best GM in basketball, had already proven successful).
Really, the Celtics are in "superstar or bust mode" too whether people here want to admit it. Ainge is willing to go all-in at the first opportunity... but Boston has determined that their best chance is via trade or via free agency. Philly decided their best chance was via the draft. Fwiw, Ainge has a healthy respect for tanking as well. He's successfully tanked this team for draft assets before... and I'm pretty sure he wasn't expecting a playoff run when he traded away our two best players last season (rondo and jeff green). He wanted a top pick.
So anyways, Philly gamed the system. Bottomed out entirely. Collected cheap young guys that they could flip for picks. Went for "best player available" in every draft. It's how you'd run a team in NBA 2k franchise mode or something. I personally followed this method when I joined the CelticsBlog Fantasy Points League... took over a bottom team 8 years into their league, traded everyone for draft picks and young assets... and then after 2 years of blatant tanking, I turned all those assets into a juggernaut that is now dominating the league. The thing is, you have the privilege of doing something like this in fantasy basketball or a video game where chemistry, media, player personalities and fans don't matter... To do that in the real world was kind of unheard of (though we'd seen teams effectively tank for stars countless times before). It has been fascinating to watch.
At some point, they'd clearly have to flip the switch from "asset collecting mode" to "put together a team mode". They likely would have done it prior to this season, but Embiid needed another year and Saric stayed over seas. So they tanked one more year. Everything suggested they would flip the switch this summer. Bringing in Colangelo is a sign they are ready to flip that switch.
I think some fans look at their roster and incorrectly believe they have nothing to show for their tanking.
That's factually inaccurate. That's the point of confusion that leads to "debates" like these. There are assets on that roster. They have tons of options. They are getting daily calls for Okafor and Noel alone and those guys might not even be in their Top 2 most valuable assets.
I'm a Celtic fan, obviously... but I'm also a huge fan of the NBA in general. The 76ers are a fascinating experiment in the same way Karl Towns is a fascinating prospect and the Warriors are a fascinating team. Respected basketball minds like Zach Lowe and Charles Barkely have backed up my stance on that team within the past month... they are in pretty good shape heading forward and could have a competitive team sooner than people think. Whether or not Hinkie is fired is kind of irrelevant. He set them up beautifully. I'm pretty interested to see where they go from here... also because it could impact our own team. It's painfully clear that the 76ers will need to trade at least one of those highly touted big man prospects and I know for a fact Ainge has had interest in grabbing one. He isn't getting one of those bigs for free, though. As a fan of the Celtics and the league in general, I'm excited to see what Philly does. Here's hoping they bust in the draft, trade one of their star prospects to Boston for pennies on the dollar, and fall flat on their faces.