The Sixer Sense
Fansided

Philadelphia 76ers 2016 Offseason Free Agency Pitch

By Josh Wilson

Nov 9, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; The Philadelphia 76ers logo on the warm up shirt of center Jahlil Okafor (not pictured) prior to action against the Chicago Bulls at Wells Fargo Center. The Bulls won 111-88. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 9, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; The Philadelphia 76ers logo on the warm up shirt of center Jahlil Okafor (not pictured) prior to action against the Chicago Bulls at Wells Fargo Center. The Bulls won 111-88. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
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Dec 7, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Jerry Colangelo (R) is introduced as special advisor to the Philadelphia 76ers during a press conference with owner Joshua Harris (M) and general manager Sam Hinkie (L) before a game against the San Antonio Spurs at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 7, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Jerry Colangelo (R) is introduced as special advisor to the Philadelphia 76ers during a press conference with owner Joshua Harris (M) and general manager Sam Hinkie (L) before a game against the San Antonio Spurs at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

The Sixers Care

In the past, especially since this rebuilding process has started, there has been a concern among players and players’ agents about players getting treated poorly by the Sixers. They are often offered team-friendly contracts and deals, and then some of them are even traded away without a blink of the eye, as if they never served any purpose to the team.

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The general consensus is that Sam Hinkie doesn’t care about players. Although I’m in no position to judge the character of Hinkie, I can go ahead and say that he may not care about players as much as he should. That all comes down to the fact that throughout his entire career as an executive he has implemented statistic-driven ways of building rosters. This often takes away from looking at players as players. Instead, they really become numbers.

Hinkie implemented an analytics-driven mindset to building the Houston Rockets when he was with them, and that still stands today.

There’s two things to note here. First of all, Hinkie has offered a ton of team-friendly contracts to players because there haven’t been very many players worth offering player-friendly contracts to. Moving forward, Hinkie is going to have more opportunities to sign players who are worth money, and I think we’ll see him spend a lot more money moving forward.

Also, the Sixers are going to be much more attractive because of Jerry Colangelo, who was brought in as the team’s Vice President of Basketball Operations earlier this season. Colangelo has a lot of good connections around the league, and those connections involve player agents.

Colangelo, at 76 years old, has been involved in the NBA for a very long time, and knows a lot of people because of that. Additionally, he has a classic approach to the rebuild that may offset some reservations players or player agents might have about the all-analytics approach Hinkie has.

We can expect that Colangelo will help the Sixers and his connections will allow them to sell the fact that they care about players.

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