Mike,
You are hired to run the Sixers in 2013. You just finished 34-38 and have Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner, Thad Young, Spencer Hawes, Lavoy Allen, Nick Young (impending free agent), and not much else on the roster. You are missing 1 future 1st round pick and don't have all your 2nd round picks either. You have the 11th pick in the upcoming draft, but your best "young" player is Moultrie.
How do you make that team a contender?
Well, I could list a bunch of moves but then we'd just get into a stupid argument over whether they were realistic or not.
Speaking generally, you listed six guys who are still in the league today so they're all legitimate NBA players. I might keep some. I might trade some. I might let some walk. I might try to trade for other players. I might try to trade for picks. I might try to sign some free agents.
There are 1,001 things I might do. Some might work. Some might not. Maybe I'd turn the Sixers into a contender. Maybe I wouldn't.
What I would never do is embark on a multi-year campaign to make the team as bad as possible and hope I get lucky in the draft, which is fundamentally all Hinkie did. That's like using your mortgage payment to buy lottery tickets. You can get away with it for a while and it might work out in the end but the odds are very much against you.
Everybody needs a little luck to succeed but if your plan for success relies on luck, you are always going to fail.
Let's take a look at who the Sixers have now, compared to your list.
Covington? Maybe he's better than Lavoy Allen but that's it.
Okafor? It sure seems like the rest of the NBA would rather have 2013 Spencer Hawes than 2017 Okafor.
Saric? Is there any guarantee he's going to be better than Nick Young?
Embiid? Looks like a stud but hasn't even played half a season of games total in three years and just got hurt AGAIN even though he was averaging fewer minutes than 87-year-old Dirk Nowitski.
Simmons? Looks very promising but could wind up closer to Lamar Odom than LeBron James.
Is that truly a significantly better collection of talent than Holiday, Turner, Young, Hawes, Allen and Young? Higher upside, maybe, but dramatically better when everything is considered? All that losing and how much better off is Philadelphia?
Mike