Philadelphia 76ers: The Sam Hinkie Manifesto

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family room, child care at the arena, etc., it turned out that our attendance at this event totaled two. Two mothers. It was a pointed reminder of just how young our team was.

This story underscores what our players, particularly our best players, are in greatest need of—time. The gap between driving wins today and driving wins tomorrow will be heavily influenced by a bunch of factors, but the biggest one is time. For players like Jahlil, Nerlens, and Jerami, getting much nearer the middle of their new NBA cohort will go a long way toward letting their talents shine through, just as it has their whole basketball lives when they were nearer the middle of those cohorts. Get down the experience curve, the faster the better. They are 20, 21, and 22 years old.

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A larger quiver

We need to identify high potential prospects and find ways to add them to our program. Then we
need to work with them on their game in a targeted way to maximize their performance, their impact on the floor, and their value. One way is to draft them and put them on our 15-man roster. We do that.

Another is to draft them and hold their exclusive NBA rights while they play professionally in a
league that doesn’t start with N and end with A. Now we do that.

These players can develop under our guidance while not counting against our roster, giving us not
just 15 opportunities at one time, but several more. When appropriate for our team—but subject to buyout clauses in their professional contracts abroad—we can sign them to our club as one of our 15. This can happen within a season, at season’s end, or whenever their contract is available for buyout.

These sets of players are viable players for the Sixers and viable options to trade in the interim. The goal is simple—a larger quiver. This quiver will give us more options immediately and more options over time. Several players have been affiliated with us during the past several years while playing for teams in Australia, Asia, several clubs in Europe, and our minor-league affiliate the Delaware 87ers. As of now, we hold three players on this list, highlighted by the 21-year-old Dario Šarić. Dario is a 6-10 forward with a guard’s skills and a big’s toughness. Twice voted as FIBA European Young Player of the Year, we were in position to draft him in part because he required something you’ve had in ample supply: one part courage, two parts patience. He will look great in Sixers blue.

This approach, like many that create value, isn’t popular, particularly locally. But it’s also nothing
new, just the same typeface bolded. It requires deep player evaluations around the globe, is helped by a network of international relationships, and most of all, patience. The venerable San Antonio Spurs don’t have three rights-held players playing internationally like we now do, they have thirteen. Most of their names are hard for many fans to pronounce. Ginobili used to be, too.

The NBA began this season with 100 international players from 37 countries on opening night
rosters, comprising over 20% of the league. This is no set of wallflowers either, with four of the last thirteen Finals MVPs in this group. I pine for the days of the Long Beach Summer League at the Pyramid—I now spend as much time in China as Los Angeles.

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