Ainge receives praise from Hinkie

[LooseCannon]

Do people believe that Hinkie was too rigid in his tanking philosophy that he could never have made the trade that Ainge did for Isaiah Thomas without having a young player that he believed was an almost certain star already on his roster?  If so, I think that is a clear flaw in Hinkie's approach.

[greece66]

The difference between Ainge and Hinkie or Buford and Hinkie is that those guys had plans that were always going to work, just maybe not work well enough to win a title.  Ainge was accumulating assets he was always going to cash in for a star player.  Buford was creating cap space while still keeping the Spurs a title contender and he was always going to get someone to sign there.  Maybe Ainge doesn't get Ray and KG and maybe Buford doesn't get Aldridge, but they would still have had an option B, C and D to fall back on.

And they wouldn't have turned their franchises into steaming piles of garbage to do so.

Hinkie, on the other hand, had a plan that consisted of two parts.

1.  Suck.
2.  Get lucky.

And he had no fallback position when #2 didn't work.

Mike

This is a wild oversimplification, but it's illustrative of why casual fans love to hate on Hinkie.

Is it really?

I mean, at the end of the day that was the plan. 

Over the past three seasons the 76ers have gone 19-63, 18-64 and so far this year 10-69.  That's a combined record of 47-196 (19.3%)  over a three year period.

I'm not sure if that is an official NBA record for the worst regular season record ever recorded over a three year period, but if it isn't it must be darn close to it.

Intentionally making making your team bad isn't a new strategy, teams have done it before.  But blatantly taking three full seasons is disgusting on a whole other level.  I don't see anything respectable or ethical about what Hinkie did, and I think Karma has well and truly come back around to bite him on the back-side.

Either way I think that summary is pretty accurate though.  He intentionally made the team as bad as they possible could be purely on the hope that he would strike it gold and get a handful of cost-controlled future superstars out of it.  What he got was a stash guy, an annual DNP, a nice defensive role player, and an out of conditioned head case.

I actually love how this turned out because it sends a very clear messages to all the other teams out there - if you are thinking of throwing games in the hope of an easy rise to stardom, then think very carefully about how it COULD turn out.

On a side note, this is the Dallas Mavericks

1991-2: 22-60
1992-3: 11-71
1993-4: 13-69

[greece66]

Do people believe that Hinkie was too rigid in his tanking philosophy that he could never have made the trade that Ainge did for Isaiah Thomas without having a young player that he believed was an almost certain star already on his roster?  If so, I think that is a clear flaw in Hinkie's approach.

As far as I can tell, Hinkie was looking for a couple of transcendent talents: players so good that when they reached their peak they would unquestionably be in the top-20 if not the top-10. He did not give **** for anyone else, the assumption being that once you have the stars, getting the supporting cast is much easier.

With Noel, Embiid and Okafor (+a good chance of landing either Simmons or Ingram) he arguably already had enough talent, and the word was he was going to be aggressive during the summer FA hoping to turn Philly into a competent team. We'll never find out.

[IDreamCeltics]

Many of us remember exactly where we were when tragedy strikes and we think of what could have been. For me—and this is sad for my own mental well being—that list includes the January day in 2014 when Miami traded Joel Anthony and two second round picks to our formidable competitors the Celtics. I can still picture the child’s play table I paced around at Lankenau Medical Center on my cell phone while negotiating with Miami’s front office. This was in between feedings for our newborn twins, when my wife and I were still sleeping in the hospital. Danny Ainge finalized that deal (and several other better ones) and received one first-place vote for Executive of the Year that season: mine.

The fact that this is what he vividly remembers about the day after his wife gave birth to twins tells you everything you need to know about Hinkie's ability to understand and manage people.

[Moranis]

Many of us remember exactly where we were when tragedy strikes and we think of what could have been. For me—and this is sad for my own mental well being—that list includes the January day in 2014 when Miami traded Joel Anthony and two second round picks to our formidable competitors the Celtics. I can still picture the child’s play table I paced around at Lankenau Medical Center on my cell phone while negotiating with Miami’s front office. This was in between feedings for our newborn twins, when my wife and I were still sleeping in the hospital. Danny Ainge finalized that deal (and several other better ones) and received one first-place vote for Executive of the Year that season: mine.

The fact that this is what he vividly remembers about the day after his wife gave birth to twins tells you everything you need to know about Hinkie's ability to understand and manage people.

Or maybe he remembers that day because it was the day after his wife gave birth.

[aingeforthree]

The fact is, Ainge is darn good.  I think Hinkie's comments echo most of the GM's in the league.  Every single one of them respect him, and know he's done a fine job.

Is there a GM in the league that Ainge doesn't have a good relationship with ?  I mean he's buddy buddy with everyone.

Also, for me, he's got an even better relationship with the Colangelo's than he does with Hinkie.  Keep that in mind.  If he truly does want Okafor, I think a deal between Ainge and Colangelo will be there for the taking.

[greece66]

Many of us remember exactly where we were when tragedy strikes and we think of what could have been. For me—and this is sad for my own mental well being—that list includes the January day in 2014 when Miami traded Joel Anthony and two second round picks to our formidable competitors the Celtics. I can still picture the child’s play table I paced around at Lankenau Medical Center on my cell phone while negotiating with Miami’s front office. This was in between feedings for our newborn twins, when my wife and I were still sleeping in the hospital. Danny Ainge finalized that deal (and several other better ones) and received one first-place vote for Executive of the Year that season: mine.

The fact that this is what he vividly remembers about the day after his wife gave birth to twins tells you everything you need to know about Hinkie's ability to understand and manage people.

Or maybe he remembers that day because it was the day after his wife gave birth.

It's actually the other way around as IDreamCeltics. Hinkie makes it clear in the letter.

[PhoSita]

Hinkie comes across as a weird, excessively focused guy in that letter, no doubt about it.

And hearing him talk on Lowe's podcast, he reminded me of nobody so much as Bill Belichick.

I think that's the sort of person you want giving you input on decisions in the front office, actually.  But he probably shouldn't be the only guy who's putting a name and a face to the franchise's overall strategy.

[IDreamCeltics]

Hinkie comes across as a weird, excessively focused guy in that letter, no doubt about it.

And hearing him talk on Lowe's podcast, he reminded me of nobody so much as Bill Belichick.

I think that's the sort of person you want giving you input on decisions in the front office, actually.  But he probably shouldn't be the only guy who's putting a name and a face to the franchise's overall strategy.

Maybe his evaluation process is similar to Belichick's but that's where the similarities end.

If you think Bill Belichick would ever endorse any plan that involved embracing a losing culture, required a complete lack of veteran leadership, and/or placed zero emphasis on developing young players you don't know anything about Bill Belichick. That guy's favorite word is accountability.