Sam Hinkie was hired by the Philadelphia 76ers during the 2012 off-season. He became the General Manager and President of Basketball Operations during the 2013 off-season and the Process had begun. He wasted little time making tons of moves that did little to help the team on the floor and was more geared towards the team of the future. What he essentially was doing was tanking by trading key players for more and more assets. It became an embarrassing situation for the NBA, although it is their silly draft lottery process that leads teams to do this, but no team had ever embraced to this point and lost so many games. However, the pieces were starting to come together and the Sixers were quietly assembling some good young talent that if developed correctly could turn their team around.
One of the players that Sam Hinkie drafted was Joel Embiid. He was the 3rd pick in the 2014 NBA Draft and he has dealt with tons of injuries that did not allow him to play a single game during his first two years in the NBA. Embiid finally debuted last season and that is part of the reason for Sixers optimism. In 31 games, he set the league on fire. He averaged 20 and 8 in only 25 minutes a game. However, he showed flashes of being the big man with the skills that would allow him to dominate in today's NBA. Just like that, Hinkie even though being fired last year seemed to have been forgiven. Sixers fans could suddenly hang their hats on Embiid, Dario Saric, and other good young players like TJ McConnell and the rookie Ben Simmons, who did not play a single game in his rookie season. This was combined with the draft picks that they currently held that landed them Markelle Fultz.
This off-season has been busy for the Sixers, they are now trying to compete and they brought in some veteran talent to help them win. They started by signing J.J. Redick to bring some veteran leadership and three point shooting and continued by signing Amir Johnson, fresh off starting for a Celtics team that made it to the Conference Finals. The Sixers seem to be a deep team if everyone is healthy and head coach Brett Brown will have some interesting decisions to make about playing time. The young core is in place and there are people penciling the Sixers into the playoffs in the East thinking they might win 40 games. This is a long way from a team that won 10 games in a full length NBA season.
My thinking is that the Sixers season, like many other teams, is dependent on health. If they are healthy, it is hard to argue that their talent will not allow them to win games. However, relying on Joel Embiid is problematic in my mind. He played 30 games under a minutes restriction and still missed over 50 games. It is hard to take them seriously when their best player might not be able to play a full season. In addition, you are relying heavily on two rookies, Simmons and Fultz. While I understand the optimism with how good Fultz can be, the Celtics had no problem trading down and giving him up. He seems to be a great player, but he could not win in college. I understand that his team was not good, but we have to lay some of that on him, right? In regards to Simmons, the indications are that he is going to be good, but he also did not win in college and he cannot shoot. People say that he is an amazing playmaker, but in today's NBA you have to be able to space the floor. Paired next to Saric and Embiid, two bigs that can spread the floor maybe he will have room to operate.
My final thought is that the Sixers will be better, but I do not see them higher than a 7 or 8 seed in the East. If Embiid can play 60 games and Fultz and Simmons can show promise, the Sixers could be a force to be reckoned with down the stretch. It would be amazing to see the Sixers and Celtics reignite their rivalry. Whatever the Sixers do, their time is short because these rookie contracts will not last forever and they will have to pay these guys. Even though Embiid has only played in 30 games, there are teams in the NBA that would be willing to give him a max offer because of his potential. This is a huge year for the Sixers and I am excited to see how they do when they are actually trying to win.
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