“The Process was a disaster.” — Mike Greenberg, ESPN
After Doug Collins resigned in 2013, instead of Sixers management dismantling the team and trading a young all-star, Jrue Holiday, the 76ers should’ve kept it simple — be patient, and work the phones. Blowing up a team with hopes of capturing lightning in a bottle, the way the Oklahoma City Thunder did in a short span of three years, was unrealistic. I felt this way back then, and wish the Sixers would have steered clear of the Hinkie experiment.
When compared to the conventional model of making trades, drafting high prospect players, and persuading free agents to play for the team, Hinkie’s way was the worst of all. If you look at the success rate of a team that becomes a championship contender through lottery draft picks alone, the way the Thunder tried with Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook, it’s not very high. In the conventional way of building a winning franchise, it has been done over decades for many championship teams. Shall we take a look?
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Let’s start with the Lakers. In the mid-nineties, after Jerry West was able to persuade Shaquille O’Neal to come to LA and team up with a young Kobe Bryant, the Lakeshow was revived. In 2007, after Danny Ainge made trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to team up with Paul Pierce, Boston was back. When the Miami Heat drew the attention of LeBron James and Chris Bosh, who went to Miami to help Dwyane Wade win two more rings, South Beach was poppin’ again. Lastly, when the 2003 Detroit Pistons took four players to the All-Star game that year and won a championship, how many of those all-stars were lottery draft picks of the Pistons? Zero.
How many championships did the Oklahoma City Thunder win with Harden, Westbrook, and Durant? Exactly. How many other teams have multiple championship banners in their arenas because of an accumulation of lottery picks due to purposefully losing? Precisely.
In retrospect, what Joshua Harris should have done was not get enamored with the analytics of Sam Hinkie. Hinkie’s “Process” of intentional tanking and his aloof behavior led to five years of dreadful losing for a proud Philadelphia franchise that has the retired jersey numbers of Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain, Charles Barkley, Hal Greer, and Allen Iverson hanging in the rafters.
Did the Sixers land Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons? Yes. But they also blundered multiple draft picks, and let go of quality players like Lou Williams, Jrue Holiday, Andre Iguadala, J.J. Redick, and Jimmy Butler.