It has been roughly ten years since Sam Hinkie was hired to be the General Manager of the Philadelphia 76ers. Since then, the Sixers have been the center of various controversies every single year. The future is looking very bleak for what was once one of the most promising young teams in the league, and it is time to decide which Sixers’ mistakes were the most damaging.
For this exercise, there will be some parameters. For starters, it would be unfair to include decisions like passing up on Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, or anyone else who came out of left field. By using the same logic, they would have ended up drafting Bruno Caboclo. Instead, the decisions that were made that had a realistic alternative will be scrutinized. Additionally, some disasters were not completely the fault of the franchise. Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons had completely unprecedented declines that the team cannot fully be blamed for.
There is also the “sliding doors” idea to consider. There are no guarantees that the “right moves” would work out had the Sixers made them, they also could have prevented future success from happening. The best example of this is Markelle Fultz. He was the obvious player to select in 2017 based on the makeup of the team, his ability at the time compared to the rest of the draft class, and the assets the Sixers had. Of course, he did not work in Philadelphia, but even with his value tanking, the Sixers managed to acquire the pick that became Tyrese Maxey for him. Though Fultz was a disaster, one could argue getting Maxey years later made it worthwhile.
With those disclaimers in mind, here is the list of the ten biggest mistakes the Sixers have made in the last ten years in descending order.
10. Trading up for Anejs Pasecniks
In 2017, the Sixers appeared to have an incredibly bright future, so bright in fact, that it was rumored pre-draft that the team would look for a player they could stash overseas because of the depth of the team. As a result, Bryan Colangelo decided that it would be a brilliant idea to trade a 2020 first-round pick along with a 2020 second-round pick to the Orlando Magic for the 25th pick in the 2017 NBA draft. With that pick, the Sixers selected Anejs Pasecniks, a center from Latvia who was not ready for the NBA.
Meanwhile, these three players were selected in the following five picks: Kyle Kuzma, Derrick White, and Josh Hart. Those players would have been incredibly valuable to the team to this day, while Pasecniks never suited up for the Sixers and quickly flamed out of the league after a short tenure with the Wizards.
Not only could that trio have changed the trajectory of the franchise, but the 2020 first-round pick the Sixers gave up became Tyrese Maxey. Of course, they were able to re-acquire the pick through the Markelle Fultz trade, but it was still a careless decision by the front office.
They also could have traded up to select O.G. Anunoby.
They were so concerned about consolidating assets and the current roster being too deep that they intentionally selected an inferior player to stash. If they were so concerned with roster spots, why not hold onto the future pick?
The idea that the team was too deep ended up being laughable by the time the season rolled around too with players like Jerryd Bayless, Amir Johnson, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Jahlil Okafor, Justin Anderson, and Nik Stauskas being some of those players Colangelo deemed to be too good to discard of.
The Colangelo era was riddled with unforced errors, and this may have been the most unnecessary. While not the most detrimental in the end, it is the myriad of mistakes like this that led the Sixers into being in the position they are currently in. Kuzma, White, or Hart would be the third-best player on the team now.
9. Selecting Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Furkan Korkmaz
In the 2016 NBA draft, the Sixers had three first-round picks, including the first overall selection. Though Joel Embiid had yet to suit up, things were finally looking promising for Philadelphia with the arrival of Ben Simmons and the Embiid debut looming.
While one could easily list the selection of Simmons as a mistake, he was undeniably a rising star in the league at one point who was at the very least, the second-best player on the first-seeded team in the Eastern Conference before his collapse. The mistake was not moving off of Simmons earlier, but that will be addressed later.
The real mistakes happened with their other two first-round draft choices, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Furkan Korkmaz. In Bryan Colangelo’s defense, these two were fine prospects and fit the mold of the type of players you should surround Simmons and Embiid with (though as was discovered through Burnergate, he likely was not thinking about how to maximize Embiid).
Neither Luwawu-Cabarrot nor Korkmaz panned out.
Both players were viewed as extremely athletic wings that could shoot proficiently, with Luwawu-Cabarrot projecting to be a plus defender. However, as they made their way to the NBA, the difference in athleticism compared to Europe became stark, and their shooting did not quite translate. Despite two trade requests, Korkmaz is of course still on the roster, while Luwawu-Cabarrot was traded to the Thunder in 2018 and has not played in the league since 2022.
While remaining in the NBA rotations for a few years after being drafted is no small feat, the Sixers missed out on a future All-NBA player, a future All-star, and the rookie of the year by taking these two. Pascal Siakam, Dejounte Murray, and Malcolm Brogdon were taken shortly after and would have been a seamless fit with the Sixers.
Embiid and Siakam appear to have a close bond as the two faces of Cameroonian basketball and could have been a formidable duo in the frontcourt. Murray would have been a near-perfect point guard to play alongside Simmons and Embiid, but there were questions over his jump shot, though the Sixers were so confident in Ben Simmons being able to handle point guard duties that they did not seem to consider that a need. Brogdon would have also been a nice piece to have over the years with his shooting and creation abilities, but the Sixers chose a different direction.
To be fair, Siakam came out of nowhere and the Raptors have a knack for developing these young talents that the Sixers do not seem to have (or they have been investing in the wrong players). Siakam could have easily flamed out here and while Brogdon would have been an upgrade, it is not incredibly significant.
The biggest blunder is passing on Dejounte Murray twice.
Murray was a highly touted prospect who struggled with efficiency during his lone year at Washington. Despite the inefficiency, he had the size, athleticism, defensive prowess, and creation ability that was already far ahead of Korkmaz, and Luwawu-Cabarrot. It was unclear why Murray fell so much on draft night, and he quickly made teams regret it. Drafting Murray could have prevented the Sixers from investing in another Washington point guard, Markelle Fultz, the following year.
The Sixers made a huge mistake that would have altered the course of the franchise and missed out on a potentially all-time great defensive team with a trio of Embiid, Simmons, and Murray.
8. Hiring Doc Rivers
While Doc Rivers was considered by many to be the best coach available when the Sixers moved on from Brett Brown, it was a massive error to hire him.
Rivers has always been overrated following his championship run with the Celtics: he coaches games like it is 2008, he refuses to adapt, has a tendency to blow leads, falters in the biggest moments, and does not play younger, better players overwashed vets.
Granted, lots of coaches have tactical, on-court issues, but are great at handling the locker room and have leadership skills that compensate, but does Doc Rivers have that?
No, he does not. Rivers alienated player after player during his tenure with the Sixers. The two biggest examples of course are Ben Simmons and James Harden.
Rivers placated Simmons the entire year as he ridiculed anyone who questioned Simmons’ downward trajectory and deterioration of his offensive game. He allowed Simmons to do whatever he wanted to the detriment of the team, but after it was painfully obvious there was a concern with him following the playoff collapse, Rivers immediately threw Simmons under the bus by blaming him for their failures.
Simmons was the biggest reason for the playoff collapse, but Rivers let it get to that point and then refused to take accountability which led to Simmons holding out and destroying the future of the franchise.
It is unclear how another coach would have handled Simmons, but Rivers did a worse job than Brett Brown did. A better tactician would not have let Simmons play how he was playing, and a better leader would not have alienated him. Doc Rivers could not have handled everything worse, and it led to the James Harden trade.
Did Doc Rivers learn from his mistakes?
No, as mentioned before, he does not adapt, even off the court. He once again let Harden play how he wanted to play to the detriment of the team, especially in the playoffs. Harden, despite clearly being washed was allowed to dribble the air out of the basketball possession after possession as if he was the player he was in 2017. Rivers defended Harden the entire year as they attempted to make something that has failed for the past ten years work, and to nobody’s surprise, it failed.
Harden did not appear to get along with Rivers either which makes one question how things could have been different if the stars had a different coach.
While he may not be directly involved with personnel, Rivers’ refusal to play younger players over veterans led to their stunted development.
Isaiah Joe, Charles Bassey, and Matisse Thybulle are the latest casualties of Doc Rivers. Thybulle came in as a rookie under Brett Brown and made an immediate impact. Brown had confidence in Thybulle and let him play through his mistakes which led to Thybulle playing the best he ever played for the Sixers while also shooting an above-average three-point percentage his rookie year. When Rivers took over, Thybulle’s numbers took a dip as he was frequently yanked out of games and out of the rotation whenever Rivers was frustrated by any flaw in his game.
As a result, Thybulle was never the same and the Sixers lost a valuable role-player when they decided to trade him. Joe and Bassey meanwhile, came in under Rivers and he never gave them a chance, despite the limited roster. The team was plagued by backup center and shooting issues, yet Rivers never let these two players be the very obvious solution. To nobody’s surprise, Bassey and Joe are now thriving in San Antonio and Oklahoma City, while the Sixers are struggling to fill out a roster.
Rivers burnt-out stars and older players and is arguably the biggest reason for why the Sixers are in the unfortunate position they are in now.
7. Signing Al Horford
Following the 2019 season where the Sixers took the NBA champions to seven games in the playoffs, the Sixers decided to blow everything up and spend money on Al Horford.
Surprisingly, Horford (a center) did not pair well with Joel Embiid (a center), Ben Simmons (a complete non-shooting forward), and Tobias Harris (a power forward). This was not all Al Horford’s fault as the team had many issues, but he certainly did not help.
Scapegoating Al Horford was also a mistake. His trade value was at its lowest despite him being a significantly better player than Tobias Harris who was also making less money for fewer years. Signing Horford was a mistake and he likely had to go at some point, but the mistake of signing him was compounded when they attached the rights to Vasilije Micic, the 34th pick in the draft, and a 2025 first-round pick to Horford for one year of Danny Green.
Instead, the Sixers should have prioritized moving off of the Harris albatross which would have improved the fit with Horford, thus making him look much better and easier to trade for an asset.
Horford has proven himself a valuable player back in Boston.
His contract was not an issue at all as the team made its way to the NBA finals. Considering the amount of assets, the Sixers had to attach to move off of Horford, the trade was a failure. The entire Al Horford experience, both signing and trading him, is a disaster especially when the team they had a year prior is taken into consideration.]
6. Trading up for Markelle Fultz
Despite the earlier disclaimer, trading up for Markelle Fultz is debilitating. One could argue this is the biggest mistake; however, Fultz was a perfect prospect to pair with Simmons and Embiid, he was undoubtedly the best bet in that class at the time, and his meltdown was completely unexpected, and the franchise cannot be blamed for that completely.
For those who do not remember, Fultz stuffed the stat sheet at Washington after being a highly touted high school player. He was a high-volume, high-efficiency shooter with a tight handle and smooth athleticism. Had Fultz panned out, he would have been the ideal player to complement Ben Simmons. Fultz could mask a lot of warts Simmons had that made him a fake point guard.
The “What If” of a healthy Embiid, Simmons, and Fultz was never realized.
Though Jayson Tatum was drafted third, it seems unlikely the Celtics would have traded down to three if there was any chance the Sixers would take Tatum. For those reasons, it is hard to say that this is a true mistake, but it is certainly one of the most detrimental moves the franchise made simply due to bad luck.
Maybe the Sixers should not have ignored Fultz’s below-average free throw shooting in college, poor workouts, and other red flags that indicated an absolute breakdown like he had was possible, but he was almost the unanimous top-ranked prospect. They also could have attempted to put on a poker face for the Celtics and then steal Tatum from them, but it is an incredibly skillful task that should not be expected of the Colangelo regime (just look at Burnergate).
Jayson Tatum would have made the Sixers a dynasty, but at least the Sixers eventually acquired the pick that became Tyrese Maxey from the Magic when they decided to move on from Fultz in 2019 (though that required extreme luck and a miraculous shot from Sixers legend, Mike Muscala).
Luckily for Markelle Fultz, he has been able to resurrect his career with Orlando, but he is still not quite the player everyone expected him to be, nor the franchise player for Philadelphia that he should have been.
5. Drafting Jahlil Okafor
In 2015, Sam Hinkie made his only unforgivable move. After selecting Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid in consecutive years, Hinkie drafted yet another center in Jahlil Okafor.
At the very least, Noel was a modern center and one that was seen as the best player in the class if it were not for an ACL injury and Embiid was a generational talent with injury concerns. Meanwhile, Okafor was a dinosaur that just happened to be declaring for the draft right before the NBA realized these types of players were useless.
Okafor was a highly-ranked prospect, but he was an undersized, lethargic center who could not shoot, pass, defend anyone, or do anything on offense besides post-up. Hinkie was pretty advanced in his team-building philosophy, but this was the type of player that could only succeed before the early 2000s.
Okafor was almost immediately linked to trade rumors.
This suggests that Hinkie had some inkling and was going to sell him for valuable assets before the rest of the league caught on to the scam that was Jahlil Okafor, but he was unable to see it through as the Sixers brought in Jerry Colangelo shortly after this.
This was also a very weak class, with the only other significant contributor selected in the next few picks being Kristaps Porzingis, another big man, who also refused to work out for the Sixers and has not had a stellar career either. Devin Booker was taken ten picks later, but he was not quite the obvious selection he seems like now.
Despite these excuses, this was a massive error in judgment that led to the Sixers having to attach a second-round pick (that ended up being Nicholas Claxton) to Okafor just to get rid of him. Given the type of prospect he was, it is realistic to think the Sixers should have considered trading down even then, which would have put them in the Devin Booker range.
4. Maxing Tobias Harris
Similar to Al Horford, there are a myriad of mistakes when it comes to Tobias Harris. The Sixers should have never traded for him, they should have never re-signed him, though once they signed him, they should have traded him sooner.
Unfortunately, Tobias Harris and his massive salary are still crippling the franchise. He is not a bad player, but he is not a good fit with Embiid (nor was he with Simmons). He never made sense and appears to be the result of the team panicking over Jimmy Butler potentially leaving that summer.
The Sixers were desperate for stars and Tobias Harris was having a career year with the Clippers. Despite that, he was not a star, and more so a result of being the best player on a mediocre team. Even if he were a star, the trio of Simmons, Butler, and Embiid had enough star power, and they needed a role player who could space the floor and defend. Instead, they overpaid in the trade and forced Tobias Harris into that role, which he still is not comfortable with.
In the aforementioned trade, the Sixers acquired an expiring Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, and Mike Scott for Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, Landry Shamet, two first-round picks, and two second-round picks. On the surface, it may not seem like much, but those picks turned into Saddiq Bey, Tre Mann, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and James Nnaji.
Bey is the most valuable player in the trade, and with better drafting, that pick could have been Tyrese Maxey, Desmond Bane, or Jaden McDaniels. Mann is a very promising young player as well, and even if the Sixers never made those picks, they could have traded them for an actual star, not Tobias Harris.
Trading so much for an expiring deal is organizational malpractice.
This left the Sixers with the privilege to sign Tobias Harris to the worst contract in the NBA or let him walk for nothing. They should have let him leave in free agency, which speaks to how disastrous that contract is and how much they overpaid in the trade. A trade market for Tobias Harris has yet to materialize, and it led to the Sixers being unable to fill a proper roster around Joel Embiid, thus wasting his prime.
Even with the lack of a market, the team should have attached assets to dump the Harris contract as soon as the ink was dried. They did not and now Harris is on an expiring contract yet again. Hopefully, they can capitalize on the cap space that will be freed up from him if he leaves or signs on to a much lesser deal, but they must not make the same mistake twice.
3. Trading Mikal Bridges
Sixers fans had to know this one was coming. Of all the mistakes made, this one is the most painful, even if it is not the most destructive.
Shortly after Burnergate, the Sixers were left without any leadership in the front office. The infamous collaboration of Brett Brown, Elton Brand, ownership, and other executives were in charge of the draft this year. With the instability at the top, the results went as expected: disastrous.
The Sixers did not just trade the pick that ended up being Villanova’s own Mikal Bridges, they actually had him. Shortly after taking him, he was traded to the Suns for Zhaire Smith and the Miami Heat’s 2021 unprotected first-round pick.
Mikal Bridges was not just a hometown selection.
He had one of the highest floors in that draft and was so clearly a stellar role-player at the next level. Bridges has developed into an all-defensive team player with remarkable durability and has even developed creation skills as he has transitioned into a new role with the Nets. He fits one of the most valuable archetypes in the league with his combination of size, skill, and athleticism. The Sixers had him and gave him away.
Zhaire Smith was an interesting prospect coming out of Texas Tech. Like most young Sixers, Smith struggled with his shooting ability. Despite a good three-point percentage in college, he was very hesitant to shoot with his clunky mechanics. He was essentially used as a six-foot-three center, but there was hope that he would transition into a wing at the next level with his explosive athleticism and defensive prowess.
Smith got off to a rocky start, to say the least. Before the season started, Smith needed surgery for a foot fracture. Shortly after the surgery, Smith suffered from a very serious sesame allergy that derailed his entire season. He was already an extremely raw prospect, and it became clear that Smith’s career would never be the same. He quickly disappeared from the league following the Sixers trading him for Tony Bradley.
What about that first-round pick?
Well, that was included in the Tobias Harris trade that should have never happened.
In the Sixers’ defense, they were star-hunting at this time. The best way to get stars is to trade unprotected picks. The Sixers viewed Smith as a comparable prospect to Bridges so it was hard for them to pass up on the additional pick. Miami was also trending downward at the time. Ironically, it was the Sixers trading them Jimmy Butler in the sign-and-trade that led to their ascension.
That is the defense of the trade, but it was still an unnecessary, gutsy call at the time that infuriated Sixers fans. The front office overthought it and it cost them for years to come.
2. Choosing Ben Simmons over Jimmy Butler
Speaking of the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade, it is one of the biggest turning points of the franchise. Sixers fans fondly remember the 2019 team that took the NBA champions to seven games before losing on the traumatic Kawhi Leonard shot, but that team did not last long.
There are many theories as to why the team fizzled out, but it does seem like the Ben Simmons and Jimmy Butler duo was never going to carry into the next season.
Butler has gotten much more ball-dominant as he has aged, and for good reason. In that playoff run alone, Butler became the de facto point guard of the team and had more signature moments than Simmons has had in his entire career.
It appeared as if Brett Brown unlocked something with that version of the team with an offense running through Butler and Embiid. As short-lived as it was, it was the best star pairing Embiid has had to this day.
If Butler stayed, there’s no limit on what he and Embiid could have accomplished.
Since then, both players have gotten significantly better. Unfortunately, the Sixers still viewed Simmons as the future of the team, who still insisted on being the point guard of the team. Butler also appeared to have clashed with the front office and ownership at this time, which led to the decision to keep Simmons and building around him instead.
Ben Simmons was extremely valuable at this time. He was coming off of his first all-star selection and had just begun to develop into an elite defensive weapon. The Sixers could have gotten a ludicrous haul for Simmons had they chosen that route, while holding onto Jimmy Butler. It also would have of course helped the Sixers avoid the entire Ben Simmons debacle that paved the way for their downward spiral.
It would have been a bold move to trade Simmons given his age, unique talents, and upward trajectory, but Simmons had his red flags and the organization failed to recognize them. Jimmy was not perfect either, but he was undeniably a better fit with Embiid than Simmons, and it was always fanciful to think this was not Embiid’s team.
Year after year the organization has been unable to bring in the requisite talent to surround Embiid and while it was logical to try the Simmons pairing for a time, they had a way out with Jimmy Butler that could have been wildly successful.
1. Replacing Sam Hinkie with the Colangelos
There is a common theme on this list: Sam Hinkie is rarely featured, while the Colangelos’ incompetence is frequently on display. The only big mistake Hinkie made was with Okafor and even that could have been salvaged if ownership gave Hinkie more time to execute a trade.
The Colangelos took over during a pivotal point of building the team, and they did absolutely nothing. Instead of capitalizing on Embiid and Simmons being on rookie contracts, they stayed the course and let the cap space waste away. You can’t force a star to come here, but even the stars that were traded like Jimmy Butler (from Chicago) and Paul George could have been acquired, but the Sixers did not seem to be involved in any of those discussions.
The big free agent signings during this time were JJ Redick, Amir Johnson, Gerald Henderson, and Jarryd Bayless.
While Redick was a very valuable piece, his tenure was short, and he was being paid an extraordinary amount of money. Johnson had no business being anything more than a minimum player and blocked the development of much more promising players like Richaun Holmes. Henderson was around for one year and disappointed, which led to him being out of the league immediately after. The most significant role Jarryd Bayless played was being included as a salary filler for the Jimmy Butler trade. This is all on top of the previously mentioned draft mistakes.
Adam Silver facilitated a meeting between ownership and Jerry Colangelo intending to speed up the Sixers’ rebuild under Hinkie, but he ended up ruining a potential dynasty.
It is unknown if Hinkie could have done better, but it would be hard to do worse.
Embiid has had four different front-office groups since being drafted in 2014. That amount of instability is unheard of and it is no wonder this organization cannot get beyond the second round. It is not just the fact that there is a constant turnaround, each group after Hinkie has had at least one glaring flaw.
The Colangelos sat around and did nothing except bring nepotism and burner accounts to Philadelphia, Elton Brand gave away all the assets for Tobias Harris, and Daryl Morey let his unwavering love for James Harden and nostalgia get in the way of actually building a basketball team that can win in 2023.
Hinkie made some brilliant moves that have been forgotten over the years. When Spencer Hawes was putting up empty stats for the Sixers, he was able to get two second-round picks for him. Those picks turned into Jerami Grant and Vasilije Micic. Considering Hawes was a one-year rental and how Hinkie drafted, this was an absolute heist.
Trading Michael Carter-Williams was a bold move at the time, as he was the face of the franchise, but Hinkie recognized that he was being overvalued and managed to get the pick that became Mikal Bridges for him. Though it was unpopular with fans, Hinkie knew which risks to take and what was best for the franchise.
His best trade however is obviously the Kings trade. The Kings were desperately trying to clear cap space to sign Rajon Rondo; that desperation led them to Hinkie robbing them blind. The Sixers acquired Nik Stauskas, Carl Landry, Jason Thompson, a 2019 first-round pick, and a pick swap in 2017 that famously conveyed into the third overall pick for the rights to Artūras Gudaitis and Luka Mitrović.
It was shrewd moves like this that separated Hinkie from the other regimes that followed him. Unfortunately, Hinkie was never able to bear the fruits of his labor as the following front office groups wasted away the gifts Hinkie gave them. He is the best basketball mind they had and forcing him out for the Colangelos will forever haunt the Philadelphia 76ers.