"What else could Hinkie have done!?!?!?"
He could have showed at least ONE indication that he can actually build a team or find talent. He was good at winning deals. That's it. As an overall GM he had tunnel-vision. If the Hinkie damage control squad can't admit that by now they're probably never going to.
Year 3 of the rebuild is over. They've filled one spot of their starting lineup - center. That's it. That is disgraceful. The aspect of the Hinkie regime that I think has been swept under the rug is his complete failure to actually find diamonds in the rough. He had a greater capacity to do so than any other GM in the league, because he could kick tires on all the 2nd rounders, D-Leaguers, and low-valued veterans he could get his hands on. The best players he found were Bobby Covington and Jerami Grant. A rebounding SF that takes a lot of 3s and makes them sometimes, and a one-way wing. Both career bench players. Meanwhile, GMs/organizations that Hinkie defenders made a point of ridiculing found Khris Middletons, Hassan Whitesides, Evan Fourniers, Nikola Jokics, Draymond Greens, Josh Richardsons, Will Bartons, Allen Crabbes, Matthew Dellavedovas, Jae Crowders, Isaiah Thomases all in the past 2-3 years. Players that are either difference makers on one side of the ball or can play both sides of it. Hinkie didn't decide not to add a player like these guys because they were too old or didn't fit his vision. It was because he just couldn't find them. He doesn't know basketball, he knows asset value.
He chose MCW with the 11th pick in the 2013 draft. The next player drafted is better. The player drafted after that is probably better. The player drafted that is arguably better (sort of a wash). The player after that is the type of player you tank for. The player picked two players after that is easily better. He didn't pick MCW because he was planning on converting it into an LAL 1st, he pickrd MCW because he thought he was the BPA. Good on him for making that trade, but it doesn't affect my point.
"BUT WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 10 WINS AND 30 WINS?!"
The difference is that the talent on team A amounts to 10 wins and the talent on team B amounts to 30 wins. The reward for winning 10 gams is better than the reward for winning 30 games sure. But you can't just throw out WHY team A is at 10 wins. If Hinkie could actually find talent they would have more. It's a symptom of his complete ineptitude to assemble a team. The fact that this ineptitude can result in a better pick in the draft doesn't change that or erase that as much as some Sixers fans want to think. Waiting until a franchise player falls into your lap doesn't mean you get to **** around for 3 years and fail to make the little decisions that result in adding real long-term pieces or building chemistry.
Obviously not every GM should be faulted for not findng every single diamond-in-the-rough player. But a lot of the efficacy in Hinkie's plan was tied to him being able to do that to some meaningful extent, because he wasn't going to trade or pay for experienced players.
This is all without getting into the fact that he sunk the perception of the Sixers while burning bridges with agents. Ultimately it doesn't matter if the more enlightened posters recognize what he was trying to do. I get it. Most people get it. Don't insult their intelligence. What matters is that Sixers is now synonymous with tanking and abject failure on the court. If he was that talented of a GM he would have been able to balance those things with executing his vision.
Unfortunately for the Sixers, Frank Underwood and Frank Underwood Jr. are probably not the answer either based on their track record. But Hinkie wasn't the guy to take the Sixers to the next level. No, he didn't have a mandate to win x number of games. But there was some expectation that the team would improve a little bit year by year just by the virtue of their young players getting better and learning to play together. He failed at that. And again, he basically has one slot in Philadelphia's starting 5 filled out (and we can't even agree on WHO is occupying that spot).
The direction needed to be altered. Otherwise, Sixers are left not just hoping but NEEDING Saric to come over and be a stud. They NEED Dunn or Ingram or Hield to be a stud. They NEED Embiid to be heathy. If they're not, the team sucks again next year and we're still saying "b-b-but look at the flexibility and assets and our pick was the BPA at the time we couldnt take anyone else its not Hinkie's fault!"
