Sam Hinkie Innovated More Than Player Selection

Dormancy before delivery

Sam Hinkie is not a “guts and glory” general manager.  His is the style of a chess player.  If you doubt that claim, follow the transactions made in the 2013 NBA draft in the second round.  He made moves not for the team itself, but in a complex weaving of prospects who would be valued by other teams.  Select a player, trade that player for a draft pick, select that new player, trade, select.  In fact, the second round, typically the round nobody follows, had become an incredibly entertaining chapter when Sam Hinkie began working his magic.

Many saw it as confusion.  Some saw it as panic.  But to the minds in the room that followed the logic, it was a symphony of playing the odds.

The team that Hinkie inherited was flat-lined folks.  After years of chasing wins, the team had fallen to no available salary cap, no draft picks to speak of (remember the Moultrie and Bynum trades) and no young players in the pipeline.  The Bynum and Moultrie trades, by the way, were highly touted by the “basketball guys” who now deride the efforts made by Sam Hinkie.  Neither trade improved anything, but began the painful spiral downward that resulted in Sam Hinkie’s arrival.

At 34 wins, the Philadelphia 76ers were on the same trajectory as the Sacramento Kings.  Sign a free agent looking to restore his name in the NBA,  trade draft picks to a contender for the rights to an All-Star player, realizing the player was a result of a better team and be disappointed.  Trade player for minimal compensation.  Try again by trading for or signing the next ‘hot name” to show up in the stat stars of the NBA.

It was a vicious cycle.

But the methods of Hinkie’s plan requires long range planning.  As such, it was vulnerable to other teams mimicry if it appeared to be too effective too quickly.  So the great hustle began.  Hinkie drafted players to a future date, not present.   He traded for point guard Elfrid Payton to the Orlando Magic for power forward Dario Saric, which also netted the team’s own first round draft pick back from the Magic.  So far Payton has done a fair job for the Magic, but he’s in the “Ish Smith” ish category.  He’s young and improving, but hardly the point guard of a championship team just yet.

He brought on Joel Embiid despite the risks of health.  To counter those, he’s invested heavily in sports science and sports medicine – virtually integrating the NBA with advanced medical technologies.  That is what a “geek” brings to the NBA.   And while these events transpired, the NBA watch and scoffed, victims of their own “win now” mentality, never fully understanding the calm before the storm that Sam Hinkie was brewing.

Dormancy is part of any healing process.   It allows an entity to repair, and then begin to grow in a positive direction undisturbed by forces that act against it.  It is a natural path to progress.  But it gives the perception of hesitancy, confusion, and vulnerability to those who would simply take action.  Win Now mentalities, who act first and ask questions later.   Jerry Colangelo was not impressed by neither the science nor the math of the process.

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