The Sixer Sense
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NBA remains ripe for Sam Hinkie return

By Bret Stuter

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 17: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and J. Cole attend the 2018 JBL Three-Point Contest at Staples Center on February 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 17: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and J. Cole attend the 2018 JBL Three-Point Contest at Staples Center on February 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /
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Despite the NBA rule changes and the ousting of Sam Hinkie from the Philadelphia 76ers organization, the NBA remains very ripe for Sam Hinkie’s return

The Philadelphia 76ers got a bum rap in the NBA. As the team tried to turn the corner from bad to good, the strategy was not a quick fix. To become a “winner” in the NBA, the team knew three things had to happen. The team needed to restore the pipeline to new talent via the NBA Draft. In addition to that, the team needed to free up cap space. And finally, the team needed to find three elite talents in the NBA.

And thus began the era of Sam Hinkie and Trusting the Process. The team traded away expensive veterans.  Simultaneously, they made numerous trades to improve the number of draft picks. Finally, the team signed promising undrafted players to NBA contracts. The goal was to audition as many players as rapidly as possible to find championship caliber players. Two such undrafted players: Robert Covington and T.J. McConnell, continue to produce quality NBA minutes even to this day. But that odd strategy was lumped in with a tanking strategy with all teams on the rebuild.

True NBA tanking doesn’t work

For all intents and purposes, there is no room in the NBA for a team to tank.  In fact, the very concept of non-competitive basketball is an abomination. On one hand, the belief that an NBA owner would solicit his team to aim at losing… or as the common expression is tanking, drives fans away. After all, tanking implies losing is the goal, the end all. A deliberate effort to put out the less-than-best effort to improve a team’s draft position. On the other hand, “tanking” does exist in the NBA, and is limited to a short-term strategy.

A team on the lower end of the NBA rankings with aging players turns the focus to improving the upcoming draft position.  And it’s understood, if not spoken. But the words used by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently on social media complicates the understanding of the differences between strategies.