Has Sixers Sam Hinkie Hustled The NBA?

Genesis Of A Dynasty

By 2016, David T Martin will have a year under his belt with the Sixers.  The Sixers will open a state-of-the-art training facility in Camden New Jersey in 2016.  The Sixers will have hired a basketball analyst.  The team will hopefully have a fully healthy Joel Embiid coming back to the team, just in time to greet Dario Saric coming back from Europe.  Two first round stars.

And the Sixers have the 2016 NBA draft.  Remember those 2015 additional picks that couldda, shouldda, wouldda happened but never did (courtesy of nba.derekbodner.com)

2016

• 1st round pick – 76ers or Kings (Sixers get better of their own pick or Kings pick, assuming Kings pick falls in top-10).
• 1st round pick – Lakers (unless it falls in the top 3)
• 1st round pick – Heat (unless it falls in the top 10. Can swap with GSW if GSW pick is better)
• 1st round pick – Thunder (unless it falls in top 15. Can swap with GSW if GSW pick is better)
• 2nd round pick – Nuggets (EDITORS NOTE: This pick was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans for point guard Ish Smith)

The 76ers also have their own 2nd round pick to add to the mix (EDITORS NOTE: This pick was involved in three way trade with Miami Heat, who have subsequently traded it to the Boston Celtics).

To date, the 76ers have been a vacuum in the NBA free agent process.  They pick up the contracts of players that other NBA teams shred and scattered to the floor.  In 2016, that will stop.  In fact, after signing their own players to long term deals, they will likely be looking to add a top name talent.

And who wouldn’t want to come?  New Facility.  Top of the line training and medical resources.  A team bursting with NBA talent. And a city eager to embrace success.  By 2016, the NBA will realize what just happened.   The Sixers will be good.  Not just in 2016, but for many years to come.   Perhaps it will be a dynasty in the making.

But that’s the way all great hustles go.  Watch the movies and see how confident everyone is that they have the hustler by the throat, and are just about to deliver the coup de grace.  Now look at NBA teams, circling the Sixers, eager to make a deal or a trade for those second round draft picks or the options to swap first round picks that have virtually no value to anyone except the Sixers.

In one moment, the details of Hinkie’s plan will spring into action simultaneously.  First round picks, returning from Europe and from rehab to walk into a new facility, train with cutting edge research both in health and science as well as the best shots to take.

Meanwhile, the NBA will wonder what hit them.  It’s simple, NBA.  You just got hustled by Sam Hinkie.