Is It Time to Fire Sam Hinkie?

It looked like the writing was on the wall for Sam Hinkie when Joshua Harris brought in Jerry Colangelo as a special adviser to general manager and chairman of basketball operations. Hinkie had gone on record saying he’s made mistakes, but a lot of people increasingly think Hinkie’s days are numbered because instead of turning around the Sixers in three years, he’s made them progressively worse year after year.

Now, nobody really wants to hear how the team might be set up well for the future. To a lot of fans, and media people, three years is enough time to rebuild a team into a contender. Honestly – this isn’t exactly true in the NBA. I have no problem with what Hinkie has done, but many are losing patience with the people in charge of this team. The Daily News‘ Dick Jerardi is one of them, and today he called for Sam Hinkie to be fired.

Sam Hinkie, the general manager should have been fired long ago for basketball malpractice, selling a dream based on ping pong balls and the future drafting of the next LeBron James. Beyond that nonsense that became clear in the moments after Hinkie drafted an injured Joel Embiid and what eventually became the rights to Dario Saric, there is also this matter of point guard.
 
Coach Brett Brown has been entrusted with guiding and developing perhaps the youngest group of players inNBA history. And the GM refused to give him a point guard until Jerry Colangelo was miraculously hired and, voila, Ish Smith magically reappeared for two of Hinkie’s precious second-round draft picks.
 
The Sixers are 5-9 with Smith’s speed opening up the floor. On a team that all season had zero two-way players, Smith has unlocked the mystery that was Nerlens Noel, one of the few NBA-level athletes on the roster.

Jerardi isn’t wrong. This Sixers team looks different and plays different with Ish Smith on the court. The problem remains that it looks like Noel and Okafor don’t mesh well when they’re on the court together, and that could pose either a big problem or a big opportunity for Hinkie to really change his reputation and trade one of them for a star instead of draft picks. Teams want players like Okafor and Noel. They’ll give up good players to get them. Will those players want to come to Philly? Who knows. But it’s worth exploring.
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Jerardi wasn’t finished.

Still, this team is far from contending for anything but ping pong balls. Forget the four first-round draft choices. That is just marketing. I watch college basketball. I like Ben Simmons too, but I don’t see any other potential franchise changers. In fact, consider this. Anthony Davis is the most talented college player I have watched this century. He is one of the world’s best players. The New Orleans Pelicans are 16-27.
 
Saric remains a mystery who may never show up. At the least, we know he is not Kristaps Porzingis, a franchise changer in New York.
 
I love hearing that Embiid is making threes in practice, but, if he never plays and is shooting threes in games, this is an even a biggest mess than I think it is.

It’s clear the Sixers are light years away from any of the contending teams in the NBA, but it’s not like they’re in bad shape. They’ll have money to spend and they are basically adding free agents in Joel Embiid (if he can stay healthy, obviously) and Dario Saric next season. There’s absolutely a chance this team can turn it around quicker than people anticipate. But Jerardi isn’t alone in thinking they won’t. Time is running out.