Dave Uram
Dave Uram is a weekly contributor at Philly Influencer. You can follow him on Twitter at (@MrUram).
For the first time since 2001, 76ers basketball is really fun again.
Congratulations if you’ve been a suffering Sixers fan or if you’re a member of the organization who tried to sell an awful product the past three seasons.
You deserve this entertaining brand of basketball that is watchable and fairly competitive. It’s obvious the Sixers are finally hitting their stride and Joel Embiid is the prime reason why.
However, former President and General Manager Sam Hinkie deserves absolutely no credit; this while his successor, Bryan Colangelo, is very disappointing because of his surprising lack of accessibility and his inability to direct the team out of their big man mess.
Hinkie supporters will continue to give him credit for drafting Embiid No. 3 overall in 2014 despite a severe foot injury. In fairness, before I get ripped by @HamSinkie, I did say during Embiid’s long rehab that it would’ve been smarter for Hinkie to trade back because of Embiid’s injury. For the record, I’m a dope.
Yet, Hinkie’s “boldness” is overrated because the 76ers wanted Andrew Wiggins in that draft. Embiid fell to them because he wasn’t healthy. Cleveland would’ve taken “The Process” No. 1 overall.
Very similar to how the Sam Bradford trade luckily fell into Howie Roseman’s lap with the unfortunate ACL injury to Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, Embiid was luckily available for Hinkie to grab because of the misfortune of his foot problem.
Another reason I can never give Hinkie full credit for the growth of the Sixers is the big man log jam. Hinkie traded away All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday for Nerlens Noel and used the No. 3 pick on Jahlil Okafor, passing on Kristaps Porzingis. There are rumors he wanted Porzingis, but was prohibited from taking him. That’s never been confirmed. And once again for the record, I wanted Okafor, too, if D’Angelo Russell was picked, @HamSinkie. I repeat, I’m a dope.
Blocked from Porzingis or not, Hinkie had a flawed strategy with his draft selections. It was always take the best player available instead of forming a team, and now the Sixers have gone back and forth from not playing a No. 6 overall pick, to sitting a No. 3 overall pick. That’s a giant failure in terms of drafting.
All the “Process Pushers” compared the 76ers’ rebuilding method to Oklahoma City. However, the Thunder/Seattle Supersonics picked Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Those three played significant minutes on a great team and are superstars today.
Noel is an energetic athlete who plays great defense, but is extremely limited on offense. Okafor is a talented post player who struggles on the other end of the floor. If lottery picks aren’t significant contributors on a team, the pick is a failure.
In all sincerity, I can’t stand writing a negative column the day after a thrilling 98-97 win over the Knicks that ended on a thrilling buzzer beater by T.J. McConnell. I wish I could only focus on the fun nature that Sixers basketball is once again, and hopefully will continue to be.
Hinkie, however, should be remembered as an impersonal hack who happened to luckily pick the franchise cornerstone, rather than a visionary who was ahead of the curve.
Ever heard of Ben Simmons? Hinkie deserves all the credit. Without him we’d be a middling team starring Jrue Holiday.
I gotta say neglecting some of the GM’s success while attributing the rest to luck is not an entirely convincing argument. If Hinkie were still at the reigns, I believe we would have already turned Noel and/or Jahlil into the Nets’ 1st and/or some other significant assets.
Truly we can’t judge Hinkie as a success or failure because the process was aborted early. Now we can only argue infinitely whether or not our success or failure is his doing.
Man you should be analyzing football. Because you’re seriously Monday morning quarterbacking. First, you wouldn’t be making the same errors you submit 4 Hinkle. Then you were tribute luck two other pics. The bottom line is that the Sixers are in a good position. Nerlens can attract some major tension now that he’s showcasing his skills if you want to go that route. Not all your pics are going to be Hall of Famers. Okafor it’s just not that good. It happens. But you can have Nerlens play powerful right next to a big man. They seemed to work pretty well together and this is still early in the season. Most of us Sixers fans and Philly fans are very positive. But guys like you always make it look like when negative. The Sixers are playing very well in comparison to last year and the year before last we are very happy and excited and Hinkle is the reason why.
In a perfect world scenario you build a complimentary team through the draft. The Sixers were far from this. They took the best player available because they weren’t sure Embiid or Noel would be consistently healthy. That’s why they drafted a presumed franchise level talent in Okafor who doesn’t fit now that Embiid is finally playing and we see his potential.
Sure, is that on Hinkie to draft damaged goods, absolutely. But you cleverly neglected the impressive return he got for MCW, who by all accounts, right now is a below average NBA player and may be out of the league in 3 years.
Or he turned Elfriid Payton(who I’m hearing Orlando wants to trade already) into Saric, who will probably make the all NBA rookie team barring some significant injury.
Or how he had the vision to trade swap with Sacramento(a dumpster fire of a franchise) as we start to get better and develop our players we will still have a high likelihood of getting another lottery pick.
Sure, let’s forget all the 3 points above and focus on how we have a logjam at 4/5 and it’s Hinkie’s fault.
Weekends off buddy.
I saw a couple of astute comments in the article, and interestingly – they were the same comment, just mentioned twice. And I’ll quote: “I’m a dope”. Why, yes you are.
Your article clearly shows your inability to understand The Process. Hinkie is a numbers guy. He always understood (as everyone should) that you are never gonna get all the draft picks correct. You do your best, scout like a mother-fer, and then take the BPA – because you need stars to win in the NBA. Nothing else really matters until you get stars. I do believe that Hinkie wanted KP, but that’s a discussion for another time – it doesn’t matter to the current discussion.
The Process was meant to gather as many assets as possible and make the best picks and trades that could be evaluated. Hinkie did this brilliantly, and he deserves all the credit for the current team’s success. The front office should be ashamed for not allowing Hinkie to finish what he so brilliantly started, and for not allowing him to draft Kristaps!