LOL people here are so hilarious, the same guys who hate on Les Alexander for always running the mediocrity treadmill and kicking cans down the road are now poking fun at Hinkie and Morey and talking about analytics. Some genius even said Morey and Hinkie operated the same, which as another said is ridiculous considering the way Houston and Philly have approached rebuilding are on totally opposite ends of the spectrum: one doesn't want to tank, the other tanked so much. Of course the end goal is to get a star, but that's only because getting stars are the only way to win in the league - it's like saying JVG and MDA have the same coaching style on offense because both want to score a basket on their possession. What Hinkie did was an experiment, using analytics to rebuild a franchise. Its not bad, but the problem was Hinkie got too greedy, he didn't want to settle for you typical lottery prospect he wanted a generational star like Lebron to build around so instead of taking his picks seriously he instead chose players that will make him bad next year so he can pick highly again. The problem with that is your fan base will disintegrate if they keep seeing you wasting high lottery picks and no progress year after year, I think the moment Hinkie sealed his fate was when he had acquired essentially 4 high picks thanks to NOP then wasted it on a guy with serious injuries in Drummond and then Saric who didn't want to come to the NBA and play for a loser, and then he traded away MCW who could've been a vital cog for the team for table scraps. And then he followed that up by messing up his draft pick, picking Okafor who clearly didn't want to be Philly instead of the real BPA in Kristaps. I guess Hinkie was happy to get 30 cents on the dollar for his picks because that meant he can suck even more, but Philly ownership looked at the dwindling fan base and the roster full of useless trash and basically told him you're not really doing your job I'm gonna hire someone else. IMHO now that they've gone this far it is kind of stupid for them to drop Hinkie though, the correct move now is to build around Simmons by tanking a couple more years. The problem is the Colangelos don't seem like the rebuilding type, there's a high chance they will trade Philly prospects for middling players like the Teague trade. This is like taking chemotherapy then stopping when it is 99% complete, wtf if you wanted to stop you should have done it a couple of years ago, not now when the tank job is almost done.
It's almost sad to think about and say, but one could legitimately be as excited about the 76ers this offseason as they would be about the Rockets. In my view, Ben Simmons IS that generational star. I was not sold on him at first, even after his season at LSU ended. But the more I watched, and studied, and looked at the intangibles, and measurables. He's a legit 25/8/8 potential guy, who should be able to defend 1-5 at his peak. the downside is that the rest of their assets haven't quite added up the way they hoped. And its taken longer than anticipated. But it's been so so close. Just a little bit more "luck" and you have a couple of guys that are really quite valuable as trade bait... or as building pieces. Instead you have: Noel - will be an above average center, and if he can really get super solid defensively and understand his role, will be a valuable piece. But limited offensively. Embiid - ??? I understand the KAT like potential is there, but that injury... yikes! Saric - ??? lots of potential Okafor - great offensive skill-set. But seems to have some maturity problems, and in today's NBA, when he is relatively weak at rebounding and defense, as a big, that's a problem Plus, of course, they're all bigs. So, a 4-5 year plan is going to take 6-9 years, but at the end of it, it could be a very solid team, just with Hinkie gone. Conversely, everyone's favorite new team, the TWolves. Well, for one, it's been just as long as a plan, if you consider it started when KG was traded a decade ago. For two, of late they've had the "luck" bounce their way. Acquired #1 pick by way of trade. Landed next #1 pick very next year. In both cases, those #1 picks were worthy of that status, if not generational type players - to be determined, but possible certainly for KAT.
I got a chance to interview Morey once, and the way he talked about Hinkie/rebuilding, it seems he was definitely a believe in the tanking method. The way he put it, the easiest and quickest way to get good was to "be very bad." He said that the Rocket's rebuild - while trying to stay competitive - was uncharted terrain or something like that. Bascially what I gathered from it is that if Morey had it his way, when we lost Yao, we would have tanked. Les is the one that wanted to stay competitive. Making Morey's job infinitely more difficult - and infinitely more impressive in my eyes.
It seems that analytics have come such a far way in the sports world, yet if you read insider stories like these, its clear traditionalist still dominate the general sports world thinking. Analytical, or stat-nerds, are still used, but seem to be held at arms length and are still commonly ostracized.
It's just common sense, if you look at contenders their best players always end up being high lottery picks, and teams who had amazing runs of competitiveness like OKC and GSW were created by by being crappy for 5+ years and collecting draft picks. This is why I am a fan of Morey, because his owner wants to be on the mediocrity treadmill but somehow he was able to get some significant pieces without tanking. His FO is not perfect, but you can do a heck of a whole lot worse and I don't want him fired just to be replaced with an even worse GM.
That's what happens when your owner is in his late 60's and is 20 years removed from titles. They lose patience and the fans ultimately suffer.
[rquoter]Sam Hinkie joins Twitter, will teach at Stanford 1 | Writing this from a Starbucks in Palo Alto, CA. It’s 5 blocks from our house. My wife and I brought our boys here for this next chapter. 2 | The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that a sort of gap year here was right. If we were younger, maybe we’d have… 3 | …backpacked around the world—I surely would have snowboarded more. 4 | But we’re parents, so we’re here planting seeds for tomorrow. Especially their tomorrow. 5 | I’ve always been focused on learning as fast as I can & figuring out how I can do things better. So a period like this felt super rare. 6 | And there may be no better place on the planet to learn right now than right here. 7 | My hope is to learn even more about how what’s happening here will impact the basketball world—it’s impacting most everything else. 8 | While I wait to see what’s next for us, I’ll teach a little (at Stanford), keep talking to the long list of people I can learn from, 9 | …watch tons of basketball, and soak up all that I can. Oh, and snowboard. For sure snowboard. 10| In the meantime, if you read anything good, send it my way. https://twitter.com/samhinkie[/rquoter]
If the Sixers win a championship in the next 5-8 years, They should put SH in the Rafters for Sam Hinkie
People in high-level positions are, almost by definition, weird. Most try to at least appear normal. He lets it all hang out.
Here's to hoping that Hinkie's idol, the mediocre triple chinned Mauri will be teaching at MIT soon on a permanent basis.
