Hinkie supporters have always pinned their hopes to Embiid and his potential. And, surely, we all saw that potential. But the kid never even finished a season of college basketball and will now be out for two straight seasons (more if you count the missed time at Kansas). To say that this guy is a foundational piece is to build your foundation on a really shaky foot.
I hate to say that I can't be optimistic about this. As much as Hinkie preaches "patience" and "process" what he did in the 2014 Draft is inexcusable. He nearly broke the professional sporting world's losing-streak record to grab the 3rd pick in that draft and decided to double down on injured centers. Every fantasy owner knows that you don't want to bet on too many injured guys...they tend to get REINJURED. They also tend to stay out longer than you hoped and produce less than you hoped. Noel was a nice get. Saric may be too. But how do you destroy your team and then use your two first rounders on guys that won't play for AT LEAST TWO YEARS??? Then, you go and trade your starting PG in the hopes of showcasing a guy you scouted, Isaiah Canaan, who by all accounts is not better than fringe NBA journeyman Ish Smith.
It seems that Hinkie's words post-Draft were very telling. The guy whose followers praise for his "best player available" strategy said: "I hope we would have" when asked if he would've still taken Okafor if Embiid weren't injured. Okafor was probably the best player available, but Hinkie knew this was major. He put out a freakin' press release about it.
He is actually showing signs of desperation. Papering over the Embiid debacle with talk of seeing every doctor in the world (whatever). As if doctors visits will somehow translate to championship rings. Going to see if Dario Saric can somehow wriggle out of his Euro contract (he couldn't). Giving interviews! And talking about his process and plan. Releasing the Embiid news over a lazy weekend and trying to package the news with the Stauskas trade.
The OKC rebuild everyone wants was predicated on the Blazers taking Oden and the Thunder taking Durant. Doug Collins' downfall came when he took Evan Turner over Derrick Favors and Demarcus Cousins--and then traded Iguodala and Vucevic for Andrew Bynum to try to cover that mistake. In 2014, Wiggins went to Minnesota (via Cleveland) and Embiid (that year's Bowie/Okafor) went to Philly. In 2015, Hinkie finally went for a more sure thing taking Okafor.
But it's one step forward two steps back with this rebuild. In year THREE, the teams starting point guard will either be a wild Tony Wroten, the unsigned Ish Smith, or a tiny guy (Canaan or Pierre Jackson). The starting two will probably be Stauskas (or Hollis Thompson). Robert Covington will be the three. The team is rejoicing over the picks it got from Sacto but Sacramento, a perennial bottom dweller, had no need for Carl Landry, Jason Thompson or Stauskas and who knows what will come of all the pick swaps?
The Sixers put out a This Starts Now marketing campaign just before the trade deadline this year with a pic of Embiid, Noel and MCW. Guess what? Only one of those guys actually plays for this team. Embiid is the anti-Iverson: he only practices, never plays games. MCW is gone. Noel and Okafor provide some hope but how is the team's roster so threadbare going into year three of the Hinkie remodel.
Yes, LUCK plays a part but luck is what Hinkie has based this rebuild on. The luck of the draw. The luck of the lottery. The luck of drafting the right 19 year old player.
Let's not pretend that Embiid is an established Hakeem Olajuwon sitting on the bench. By the time he plays he'll be rusty and behind the developmental curve. Perhaps his star will emerge eventually but while we wait, Rudy Gobert solidifies the Jazz bench, Giannis Antetokounmpo looks like a stud, Elfrid Payton throws lobs to Aaron Gordon. The Sixers passed on all of these players. Let's think about that next time Hinkie is lionized as a hero just for gathering potential.
2016 will surely be a big year now with Saric, maybe-Embiid, and four firsts probably joining the roster. So in Year Four potentially this team will be a couple years behind Boston and Orlando, and a couple more years behind Utah and Minnesota. Playoffs in Year Six? Who the hell knows?
In other news:
- The Embiid debacle is a bitter pill to swallow any way you cut it, but the trade with the Kings was great. Carl Landry is not very useful to a team that has Furkhan Aldemir, Jerami Grant and Arsalan Kazemi. But Jason Thompson is a decent player who unlike Jason Richardson can ball some in addition to mentoring. The Sixers wanted Nic Stauskas and now they got him. That's a nice reset of the 2014 Draft and hopefully the kid can add some much, much, much needed shooting (just watched them play LA Lakers in summer league and Sixers have no shooters!). The 2018 pick (unprotected in 2019 and on) will be nice whenever it arrives and the pick swaps may or may not have value, they're like added fuel to the lottery. On the pick swaps: Sixers don't get them if Kings are out of the top 10 since Kings owe Bulls their pick in that case. I think the Sixers will be worse than the Kings this year, so perhaps next year the swaps go into effect. A great trade overall. Ultimate value will be predicated on the play of Stauskas and Thompson and whatever the swaps and picks become. On the downside: I know everyone is pillorying the Kings over this but, from their perspective, they could say that they gave a pick and some guys they don't want/need for A LOT of cap room that they used on some decent guys (Belinelli, Rondo, and Koufos). If Stauskas and the pick swaps don't amount to much, then perhaps the Kings weren't so nuts after all. Either way, a great get for the Sixers though I'll reserve judgment until I see how good Sauce Castillo can be on the court (he only averaged 4.4ppg on a bad Kings team).
- The NBA moratorium on free agent signing where everyone comes to verbal agreements has got to go! The DeAndre Jordan saga, funny as it was, is just one highlight. More important I think were the Kings and Suns salary dump trades that were done to free up cap space even though neither team knew who they would or could sign or even how much cap room they would have. The cap amount ended up being higher than expected and the Suns didn't get Lamarcus Aldridge, so why did they still trade Marcus Morris to the Pistons? Just weird. At least announce the cap figure first if you want to have a hokey verbal-agreements period.
No comments:
Post a Comment