Hinkie understands what a lot of people here don't: Superstars win titles.
The vast majority of superstars DON'T win titles.
And what Hinkie understood is that he could follow a strategy that screwed over his own fan base and sponged off the rest of the least for several years and, as long as there were plenty of folks like you around to defend him, he could get away with it.
Mike
Embiid or no Embiid, I still take their two top assets over any two of ours combined... possibly even 3.
A defensive phenom like Nerlens Noel and whatever they get at #3... That's foundation-building cornerstones.
After Marcus Smart, what's our best asset here? Brooklyn's unprotected 2016? That pick might end up 12-17. I'd surely trade both of those "assets" for either Noel or the #3 pick.
As always, there are several levels to this debate.
1. Literally anyone could do what Hinkie has done. I could do it. A ten year old could do it. It doesn't take brains or wisdom or basketball knowledge. It's the front office equivalent of flopping, trying to twist the rules to your advantage in a way that would damage the sport if everyone did it.
2. Philly has now tanked for two straight years, both in-season and off-season, and it sure looks like a third is in the offing. If all you've got for that is Noel and the #3 this year, a pick which some mock drafts have as Porzingis, that's horrible.
3. I don't know what you mean by "foundational" when you use it to describe Noel. Right now, the reasonable best case scenario for Noel is a more athletic Marcus Camby with better defense and less offense. That would actually be a heck of a good player, but someone upon whom you build the "foundation" of a team?
Mike
Judging by Danny's actions over the past two seasons, tanking for phenom prospects is a lot harder than it seems. Hinkie deserves credit for pulling it off. Now we have to see how these kids perform long-term. Should be a fun team to watch heading forward.
And Ainge got his team back into the playoffs in the second year of a rebuild where he got rid of the four best veterans on his roster. But somehow that's LESS impressive than what Hinkie has done?
Mike
Yeah, Ainge tried to tank and the team fell azz-backwards into a sub 500 playoff sweep. Take both of these rosters as-is, sprinkle water on them and wait a couple years, I believe the 76ers are closer to contending.
Free agency might impact both teams. But philly is closer to having a Superstar simply by having better prospects arguably with Superstar potential.
If Ainge was trying to tank, he wouldn't have added Zeller and Turner to the roster. He wouldn't have waited so long to trade Green. He wouldn't have signed Bradley to that extension. He wouldn't have held on to Crowder. He certainly wouldn't have traded for IT and if he was tanking, he sure as hell would have gotten rid of Bass for a 2nd rounder.
Ainge did not trade KG and Pierce in order to tank. He traded them because he got a phenomenal offer from the Nets he would have been an idiot to turn down. Even in the best case scenario for NJ where they win a title, they would still have been giving us at least one or two unprotected 1st rounders after KG and Pierce had retired.
Ainge didn't trade Rondo in order to tank. He traded Rondo because the team sucked with him and Ainge was disappointed in his play and leadership and decided he didn't want to give him a big contract.
Getting rid of Green is the only tanking move Ainge has made.
If Ainge was tanking he wouldn't have made most of the moves he made. If he was hyper-tanking like Hinkie, he would have traded KO and Sully.
Rebuilding is not the same thing as tanking, though both usually involve your team losing a lot of games.
Ainge has built a MUCH better team than Hinkie and Boston has MANY more ways to improve than Philly. You don't have one intelligible argument to dispute that. All you can do is repeat the same whine that it's possible things might turn out better for Philly at some undetermined point in some unspecified future. That's the same logic people use to justify buying $50 in lottery tickets every week.
Mike
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