Sixers draft: The 3 worst draft picks Sam Hinkie made

Sixers draft: Worst Sam Hinkie picks — Michael Carter-Williams

Michael Carter-Williams was for some time one of the most polarizing players in “The Process” when the Sixers traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks at the trade deadline of his sophomore season.

MCW had just won the Rookie of the Year award in 2014. He was averaging 15.0 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game, why move on from his talents so quickly?

Hinkie was right about trading Carter-Williams based on what we’ve seen from his career post-Philadelphia, but the pick itself was a miss. Philly gained a late first-round pick from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Carter-Williams, who they originally selected with a lottery pick.

Carter-Williams showed some signs of decline in his sophomore season. Some might have felt like his career was salvageable at that point, but Hinkie saw the trend and decided to sell while he still could.

Since then, Carter-Williams has fallen below 10 points per game in four different seasons. He’s been a positive bench player in the right situation with the Orlando Magic, but his career has been that of a journeyman thus far.

Philly needed a point guard that would be able to better initiate the offense and dominate games. Ben Simmons would be coming to Philadelphia years later, and not committing too much to players like MCW too early was one of the things Hinkie did well.

That said, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert, and Steven Adams were still all on the board when Hinkie selected MCW.