Sam Hinkie will not allow the Philadelphia 76ers to reach for impact player before next week’s trade deadline.
It’s that time of the year for Philadelphia 76ers fans, and NBA fans alike. The trade deadline is February 18th at 3pm, and it is quickly approaching. As usual for the Sam Hinkie era many rumors have been swirling about the Sixers wheeling and dealing for players of a significant stature. Recent players with trade rumors linked to the Sixers thus far are Blake Griffin, Jeff Teague, and Dennis Schroder.
All of those mentioned names have created a lot of buzz within the cult that is the group of loyal Sixers fans left following the start of the rebuild. Many people are throwing around wild ideas of mock trades like they are managing a 2K16 team. Sixers Nation, I’m here to tell you that it is not going to happen.
Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, two first round picks, and the rights to Sam Hinkie’s kidneys for Blake Griffin is not going to happen. Frankly I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would want any of the recent trade rumors to happen. Blake Griffin is a phenomenal player, but if he can’t win a title with Chris Paul, Deandre Jordan, Paul Pierce, and a slew of talented role players on his team what benefit is he a Philadelphia? Blake Griffin is a SportsCenter “Top 10 plays” star. Not the top player on a championship team.
Jeff Teague is a very solid NBA point guard. Unfortunately Teague is going to be 28 years old at the end of this season, and doesn’t appear to be recreating the magic that he had in the 2014-2015 season. Teague has not and will not be a point guard for a championship team unless he falls into the perfect situation at the perfect time. Dennis Schroder is an interesting talent, but not someone I’m interested in trading Noel or Okafor for to lead the team into the future.
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The only way anyone of significance comes to the Sixers before the trade deadline is if it’s another Oceans Eleven Sam Hinkie trade theft. Recent thefts commited by Hinkie were rights to Cenk Akyol for Javale MaGee and a first round pick at last year’s trade deadline. Or more recently the rights to Arturas Gudaitis and Luka Mitrovic for Nik Stauskas, Carl Landry, Jason Thompson, a future first round pick, and exchange rights for this year’s first round pick. Those are the kind of trades Sam Hinkie makes, not giving up arguably some of the most promising young big men in the game for a guy who made his career off of jumping over a Kia.
It’s hard to understand why there is a large crowd that stands behind the want to trade Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel. Everyone keeps saying “The Sixers have too many big men.” I only count two big men in this equation. We don’t really know if Joel Embid will ever play for the Sixers, and if he does if he is the player we all hope he is supposed to be. And Dario Saric? Are we really hanging our hat on Dario Saric being a future cornerstone of the Sixers front court? Let’s all remember that for the past 15 years the Sixers have been without a legitimate big man, and have been desperately trying to aquire one with no success (Chris Webber, Elton Brand and Andrew Bynum were all failed attempts). Now that the Sixers have what we presume is a surplus of talented big men, why are we are getting itchy trigger fingers and want to trade them all away?
To everyone who says Jahlil Okafor isn’t that good: stop it. Jahlil Okafor has not even scratched the surface of his potential and statistically is having one of the best big man rookie campaigns ever. No one has had a chance to see how good Okafor can be with a real team around him, with competent shooters to spread the floor for him. To everyone who says that big men are no longer relevant in the NBA: stop it. Since 2005 every NBA championship team has had a standout big man with the exception of the Golden State Warriors this past season. And in case you needed anymore big man validation see where having a top notch big man has gotten the Spurs throughout the past two decades.
Next: Okafor is more effective as a 4 than Noel
Let’s not be so quick to try and dump one of Sixers promising big men. Instead why don’t we sit back, let Hinkie work the magic he has been working, and see how “The Process” develops. Guys we are close. I promise you. This offseason is the make or break. To this point Hinkie has made all of the right moves, he has planted all of the right seeds, and now it is almost time to enduldge in the fruits of his labors. Let’s not be so quick to ask for the crops to be destroyed.