The Sixer Sense
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Markelle Fultz is the reason Sam Hinkie acquired assets

Tyler King|
Feb 9, 2017; Boulder, CO, USA; Washington Huskies guard Markelle Fultz (20) on the bench in the second half against the Colorado Buffaloes at the Coors Events Center. The Buffaloes defeated the Huskies 81-66. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 9, 2017; Boulder, CO, USA; Washington Huskies guard Markelle Fultz (20) on the bench in the second half against the Colorado Buffaloes at the Coors Events Center. The Buffaloes defeated the Huskies 81-66. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

With the Philadelphia 76ers making the jump up from No. 3 to No. 1 in the 2017 NBA Draft after a trade with the Boston Celtics, it’s time to realize that the reason former GM Sam Hinkie’s plan all along was to acquire assets in hopes of a player like Markelle Fultz one day coming along.

Sam Hinkie probably hadn’t even heard of Markelle Fultz when he came to Philadelphia.

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He probably still didn’t know who he was when he made the infamous “pick swap” trade with the Sacramento Kings, but this was always the end game for Hinkie’s “process.”

But the end game was always acquiring as many assets as possible, while obtaining young, controllable players through the draft that could develop into stars.

Now, a little over a year after Hinkie resigned as GM of the Sixers, the team now seems set up perfectly for the future. The Sixers appear to have a core of young players to build around, including Fultz, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Dario Saric and Robert Covington that has the potential to become an elite NBA team in the coming years.

And Sixers fans can continue do what they always do when something breaks their way: thank Hinkie. Because the current state of the franchise all trickles back to his moves that didn’t seem significant at the time

All of the Hinkie haters will stick to their narrative that he was never actually going to build a quality team and say that he would’ve tried to keep acquiring picks instead of trading them for the perfect player.

These so-called “experts” who were never able to share Hinkie’s long-term view of sustained success for the Sixers franchise will still say it wasn’t worth forfeiting three seasons.

But the young core of players the Sixers have is what Hinkie was building towards all along, and he knew this is what it took to build a team that was capable of competing for a championship for five to six years.

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The narrative that Hinkie would not have made the brilliant move Bryan Colangelo made last weekend to move up to No. 1 to select Fultz is false.

The whole reason Hinkie made the somewhat unpopular move to trade former Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams for a protected Lakers first round pick was to use it to acquire the perfect player to complete the core.

It’s the same reason he acquired the unprotected future first round pick from the Kings in exchange for taking on bad contracts.

Hinkie knew that one day the perfect player to complete the team’s young core would come along and he wanted to have the assets to acquire that player.

He most likely didn’t know when he resigned as GM that the Sixers would end up with Ben Simmons or that the team would be in a position to move up two spots in the following draft to select a player as gifted offensively as Fultz.

But what Hinkie did know was that he always needed to be prepared in case the perfect player for the Sixers did emerge.

Next: 2017 NBA Mock Draft 3.0, V. II

Many seem to believe that Fultz is the perfect complement to Simmons and a third potential star player. Colangelo deserves a lot of credit for making an excellent trade, but he has Hinkie’s long term plan to thank for having the assets to get the deal done.