Sam Hinkie Understood Joel Embiid Held Team Future
By Bret Stuter
Not Odd For An Odds-Maker
Ergo, the drafting of Jahlil Okafor to “hedge” the delay of Embiid’s arrival, and to fill the vacuum if he did not rehab enough to play again.
What many fail to understand is the logic behind Sam Hinkie’s transactions. He respected odds, random forces of the NBA, and so he “stacked” the deck time and again to thwart those odds. He did so in each NBA draft in which he participated. He used his selection in the draft to deal with latter selecting teams, in the process getting the player he coveted as well as additional draft picks.
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But it was not a random selection. He was focused to the future moreso than any other general manager. And so, he had the distinct advantage of blazing the trail. But to where?
The destination is an NBA championship. In drafting Embiid, Hinkie believed he had discovered one of the three stars needed to deliver an NBA championship. That belief that would be tested over two years.
Hinkie believed in basketball analytics, much like a road map to new and unfamiliar territory serves to help find your way. So he embraced the analytics theory in three star players needed to generate a championship team. But NBA stars are both rare and elusive. When Sam Hinkie found Joel Embiid at three in the 2014 NBA Draft, he pounced.
Hinkie believed Joel Embiid was one of the three, perhaps the pinnacle of an NBA franchise. But Embiid needed help, lots of help, to realize his potential.