Congratulations to Assistant GM Sam Hinkie. The new GM of the 76ers. [WOJ]

Gersson Rosas.

 

Good bye Sam, you'll be missed. Best of luck in Philadelphia.

Definitely tough for the Rockets to lose such an integral part of the management team, but not unexpected. Just like the staff on the Spurs and OKC are in the cross hairs, so too are the Rockets.

For those who don't know anything about Sam Hinkie, here's a blast from the past to give you some insight...

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Higher_Learning-287072-34.html

On the bright side, the 76er fan base gets to go through the same love/hate debate over how could Hinkie cut their favorite 5 players for at least the next few years. That and the ubiquitous "They picked up Who? Who the F#$& is that?" threads...

Schadenfreude? :grin:

 

And yet Dwight's agent doesn't think our front office is good enough.

 

Trade us Jrue Holiday and all will be forgiven.

 

Yea, I think Lin + Rob for Jrue would be a fantastic trade for both teams. Of course, it's not happening, but it'd be great for all involved. Lin would become the face and focus of their franchise, Robinson would get ample time to develop with no scrutiny, Jrue would be a better fit, on a better team, here in Houston next to Harden, and we would free up the 4m or so we need to be under the cap enough to offer near 20m. Again, not happening, but I could see Houston-Philly trades opening up, they need to rebuild, and we need to contend. Back on the subject at hand, grats to Sam, well deserving.

 

Press Conference starting now if you're interested.

NBATV and maybe NBA.com

 

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

 

stream

http://www.nba.com/live1/

 

This would be the Harden trade 2.0 if Morey was able to do this. Philly trades their best player, a really young top 10 all-star point guard for Lin and Robinson?

 

listening to Hinkie, dude is smart

hope he wasn't the man behind the curtain for Houston

 

This guy is Daryl Morey 2.0

 

Is Bynum a free agent?

 

 
Yes

 

Free? No way. Shame he won't be paid on his Philly unfulfilled season, then he would actually be 'free'.

 

That is awesome.

 

Best to start with a few critical thank yous to Les Alexander and Daryl Morey.

I had the best #2 job in the league.

I couldn't image leaving the Rockets, a team on the cusp of doing something special, without being sure of my partners. I'm sure.

...

What kind of characteristics are you looking for in coach? Does he need to be analytically based?

I like working with people who are hard working, diligent, and want to get better at their craft. Player development is important. Coaches need to invest in that. A real shared philosophy in Xs and Os. How they handle PnR, end of game situations, pacing the team through the year. All those things are important. It's overstated too often how analytically minded a head coach needs to be. I think every head coach in the NBA is analytically minded. They all want to win. They try to use all the information they can.

You mentioned the challenges facing the organization. What challenges do you see as of now?

The situation the franchise is in. A big trade that didn't end in a way people are comfortable with. Look at the reality at what is here and what can be. There are no silver bullets that make you do thing and makes it easy over night.

...

How did you see the entire Bynum situation?

From afar, we were involved in those discussions as well. When a young, difference-making player is on the market, it's every GM duty to be involved. ... When I look at it after the fact, one thing I liked and what made this attractive to me even more was Josh saying that is a decision I would do again. We talk about process, not outcome. The fact he would say he would do again, despite a failure, means a lot to someone like me.

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Optimal timeline getting a coach in place?

The coaching search process, it's getting the right coach for this franchise. Everything should be focused on that. ... I don't think there is anything else to be said about the trade. Andrew, I think of Andrew like the thousands of other young men walking around the world who are UFA that have potential to play NBA basketball. I am duty bound to consider and look at them. All of them. ... I think the Sixers should have an enormous information advantage.

When you look at the roster and money available, positives and negatives there?

There is cap room to use and use in a variety of ways. Cap room - trade into it, take several players into it, or hold and use during the season?

...

You were in Houston with Yao and Tracy, is that a concern here?

For sure. Injuries are a big challenge. Superstar players are important and when injured, it's hard to recover from. We clawed our way out in Houston with our 2 best players and 40 million of 70 million sitting out. That's a big hole to dig out of.

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I like smart risks. ... One name that comes to mind, Omer Asik. We were super confident in him at the time in ways that people didn't perceive and we were confident to push our chips in there.

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Decisions in Houston with your finger prints? Talk about Lin and White.

If things go well, all should be organizational decisions. Everyone should be consulted. ou shouldn't be able to pull apart credit. Everyone is in it together. Very much the culture Daryl created. Not a particular player there. On the other players, I think those decisions were indicative about how Houston thought about their team at the time, which risk isn't always a bad thing.

Would you take Royce again knowing what you know now?

Literally, I would not comment on that particular question.

...

 

Why did he call the Rockets job crappy?

 

Because he was the #2 guy for the #2 job, duh!



Now he's the #1 guy for the #? job.

 

Just remember that Billy Beane's understudies haven't had great success when they went on to become GM's in their own right. Both Paul dePodesta and JP Ricciardi got fired after short stints as GM's, and now both are assistants in the Mets organization. The young wave of GM's who are usually lumped into the "Moneyball" GM tree--Theo Epstein, Josh Byrnes, Jed Hoyer, Josh Daniels, Andrew Friedman--all got their starts in other organizations.

It's kinda like the Coach K coaching tree, or the Belicheck coaching tree, or any situation in which success leads to mining of talent from one organization's administration staff. Most of the time you're not going to reproduce the results that the original leader gave you. I wish the best to Hinkie, but nothing is guaranteed in the GM business. It's pretty cutthroat actually. Any armchair fan can make a draft pick: in the end all that matters is wins and losses.