Again, what is he good at?
Drafting? (probably not)
Trading? (seems decent)
Establishing relationships? (definitely not)
Recognizing that super-tanking could be a lucrative strategy for a team with no assets is not hard. The only thing that distinguishes Hinkie from other GMs (other than his savant-ish ticks) is that he had the guts to actually try. He was fired for his troubles.
Who caresabout establishing relationships? Everybody like Billy King... How'd that go?
Hinkie literally has never lost a trade. He's pretty much either won outright, or it has been mutually beneficial. He's a phenomenal trader, and probably an average drafter.
What trades has Hinkie won outright?
The only thing I notice is the MCW trade.
The only other major trade I see is the Jrue Holiday/Nerlens Noel trade, as of now I'd say it's a wash considering the number of games both Noel and Holiday have played (though what happens to Noel in the future could tip the scales one way or the other). The other part of that trade was getting Elfrid Payton (who they traded for Saric). The jury's really still out here (and will be for a couple of more years as Noel, Payton, Saric establish themselves). To me that's hard to call it anything but a wash, at the most it's a slight win.
Everything seems barely significant to me. Unless you value acquiring 2nd round picks, he pretty much just traded scraps for scraps, or expiring contracts for scraps.
Though he did acquire a couple of late firsts and a pick swap (which is unlikely to materialize) in salary dumps, not bad. Those are definitely good moves for a GM without much else to work with.
But still, it looks to me like he won one trade outright.
To be fair, I don't think he was around long enough or had enough assets to really establish himself one way or the other. Had he had maybe another year or two to let him try to fill the roster around Embiid/Simmons and flip the other pieces, it would have been interesting to see what he could have done.
I find it really hard to call Hinkie a phenomenal trader though with what he actually did.
He got an unprotected pick and two pick swaps from Sacramento for nothing. And Nik Stauskas, who isn't very good but as the 8th pick was worth a free look at.
He got two top 10 picks (6 in 2013, 10 in 2014) for Jrue Holiday.
He got a Sixers 1st round pick back from ORL and the 12th pick in 2014 for the Elfrid Payton pick.
He owns every NY Knicks 2nd rounder until like 2020 for a 3rd string draft and stash center.
He got a 1st round pick to waive JaVale McGee and eat the cap hit...
He got a probable top 10 pick for Michael Carter Williams.
And in terms of signings he's got a starting caliber wing in Covington on a minimum contract, and a young backup quality PG on a minimum contract that both went for 4 years. 2 years left on Covington's deal, 3 on McConnell's.
He made bad moves (OKAFOR!!!!) along the way, but the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.
I don't think any team would have taken Porzingis over Okafor. Knicks would have gladly taken Okafor over Porzingis. The alternative to taking Okafor would have been Mudiay... who hasn't really done much either. Kid is shooting 37% from the field and 30% from three. They could have taken Hezonja - who has done jack squat so far. Next pick was Willie Cauley-Stein - taking him would have made no sense at all. Should they have reached for Stanley Johnson at #3? He's doing absolutely nothing this year. Next pick was Kaminski... c'mon.
You can judge Hinkie for not having a crystal ball and taking Porzingis despite the fact everyone would have taken Okafor over him and that wouldn't exactly solve their center logjam problem... but it's like the people who cry about us taking Olynyk over Giannis. It happens.
I think the only reasonable alternative to taking Okafor would have been them taking Mudiay at that pick.
The logic in taking Okafor was sound. He was one of the two biggest names of the draft and you KNEW he was going to produce right out of the gate. That made him asset. It's uncertain what kind of asset he is at this point, but he was definitely an asset.
I will say that if the rumors are true, they turned down a package built around the 2016 Brooklyn 1st for Okafor during the trade deadline. You can maybe get on their case for not accepting that. That was a bold decision considering at the time that pick could have theoretically ended up being Ben Simmons, but it fell to #3 so it's a moot point. Okafor is still probably a better prospect than Jaylen Brown or any of the other mediocre prospects that were available in the 3-8 range. So whatever.
Don't agree. Sophisticated judges of talent understood Porzingis was likely to become a really special player. Remember that stretch bigs were already becoming hot and low post guys less attractive. Danny was keen on Porzingis the year before, until he dropped out of the draft. Hinkie, like some guys on this blog, are really good at numbers, stats. But they just don't have a good eye for talent. We all have our limitations. I give him credit for a common sense system to hoard high draft picks. Too bad he didn't have enough sense to maximize the great opportunity they provided him.
that just isn't true. No one had Porzingis ahead of Okafor. In fact, many had Okafor ahead of Russell and the Lakers took a bit of flak initially for taking Russell over Okafor.
My recollection is that the Sixers were actually trying hard to trade up to get Russell, because they weren't as keen on Okafor. By the time of the draft, there was a near consensus that Towns was projected to be a much better pro than Okafor, in part because of his outside shot, and his rebounding ability.
As far as Porzingis, the consensus among foreign scouts for NBA teams was that he was going to be special, it was a much different evaluation than was given Bender last year.
Before that draft, none of us (including you or me) have any clue what percentage of GM's would have taken Okafor over Porzingis. Your claim that none of them would have done so I find incredulous. As I noted previously, the handwriting was already on the wall as to the future prototype of NBA bigs much more in the mold of Towns and Porzingis and the Okafors of the world becoming dinosaurs.
Topic: All Things Philadelphia 76ers (merged Sixers threads) (Read 375592 times)