Who is to blame for the 76ers’ current mess? It’s not Elton Brand, and it’s not Brett Brown.
Every NBA organization has its own drama. When you compare other teams’ issues to the Philadelphia 76ers though, it’s like holding a twig next to a tree trunk. Thinking about the string of events that has gotten the Sixers to this point, “The Process” was supposed to make Philadelphia a championship contender. Yet, another offseason is here and disappointment has Philly in a familiar funk. I would argue that the Process should never have happened. Let’s examine the original thinking and explore alternatives.
In 2012, just one season after the Sixers took the Boston Celtics to a game seven in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, management put all their eggs in a basket — the Andrew Bynum basket. After Bynum thought bowling was more important than basketball, all went south for the Sixers.
Then, they panicked. When ownership’s fork in the road forced a decision between conventional management or unprecedented self-infliction, they chose the latter. Instead of hiring a conventional GM to build a championship contending team through free agency and trades, Sam Hinkie was picked, and history was made. Bad history. Really. Bad. History.
“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.
The Alternative
What could the Sixers have done if they did not hire Hinkie? Instead of a demolition mission, like any company searching for the highest quality employee, the Sixers should’ve hired an experienced and well-respected GM and rolled out the red carpet for any and every star free agent. Their pitch in 2013 should have gone like this:
“We pushed Boston to a game seven in the semifinals the season before. We have great young pieces, like Jrue Holiday and Thaddeus Young. A new, state-of-the art practice facility is on the way in a few years. We have a grand tradition in the NBA that can be mentioned in the same breath as the Celtics and Lakers. You are the missing piece to help us elevate to the next level. You could help bring a championship back to Philadelphia.”
It could have been just that simple. As opposed to going 47-199 in three years of tanking and being the laughing stock of ALL professional sports, the Sixers could have obtained a piece here and there, through trades and free agency and continued to build toward a championship-caliber roster while putting a quality product on the floor for the tens and thousands of fans in the Philly region.
Think of it like this — If you were a kid starting high school in Philadelphia who loved basketball and the Sixers, your entire high school career is filled with nothing but losing memories because of a management that deliberately developed a roster of players whose only shot at playing competitive basketball at a high-level was in the G-League or overseas.
Let it sink in — a young generation was deprived of positive basketball memories because Josh Harris gambled with Sam Hinkie, and Sam Hinkie gambled with the Process. Back then, the 76ers turned Hinkie into a wrecking ball, and the organization is still picking up debris.
Living in the past is not good. Reflecting on it though could mean the difference between improvement and insanity. For 76er fans, it’s reflection time…again. According to some, the Process is dead. If true, I would be the first to put flowers on the casket. Moving forward, there’s two questions to ponder — was Hinkie’s tanking and subsequent drama worth all of the disappointment? And — are the Sixers that much better off today than they were in 2013 when Sam Hinkie took over?
I will let you be the judge of that. Whatever your response, I am sure there is one thing we can all agree with — tanking to stock draft picks should never happen again.