Happy trails to Hinkie's Power.

[saltlover]

Bad news for the C's.  With the Colangelos in power, the lottery balls are sure to come up roses for them.  With Hinkie, the 76ers pick 4th.  Lakers will get top 2 pick as well, for obvious reasons.  We probably get leap-frogged by someone else and pick 5th.

[MBunge]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Well said, but misguided.  The jury is still out on embiid and saric.  Philly has a strong chance to end up with either Simmons or Ingram.  There's a 45% they will also have pick 4 or 5.   There's also a pretty reasonable chance they will move Okafor for an equal talent at a different position.

On a scale of 1-10, how shocked would you be if the Brooklyn pick ended up 5th and ainge traded all of our 2016 picks for Okafor ?  Knowing what he offered for Winslow and the reality that we don't actually have roster spots for all those picks would you honestly be all that surprised ?  Something like 5, 16, 26 and 31 for Okafor.  Philly replaces their undrafted d-leaguers with some tangible prospects.

And this is why I've consistently said that the team would let the tank ride until the offseason and re evaluate in the summer. Do they have a Durant and Westbrook yet?  No probably not, but they might have a full lineup of big name prospects within a few short months.  This is what the majority of this forum (and apparently some Philly fans) fail to understand. 

The majority of the folks on this board understand what Philly has done perfectly fine.  You are the one in denial.

Three years into the most aggressive and longest tanking effort in league history, Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

Under the standards of the Hinkie-defenders, what NBA GM can ever be criticized?  Even Billy King did what he did to try and win a title and most people thought there was a good chance it would work.

Mike

[guava_wrench]

I don't think I'll ever fully understand why people got so riled up about the Hinkie Sixers.

It was an all-in strategy, one apparently approved by ownership.

Hinkie didn't execute it perfectly.  Most notably he was a bit tone deaf with PR and dealing with agents.  But he never made any moves that defied basic logic.

Purveying the notion that its ok to get curb-stomped 9 games out of 10 to young talented basketball players didn't defy logic to you?

No, because most of the fervent arguments against "tanking" ultimately rely on appeals to intangible things player motivation, team culture, and so on.  None of that's really based on logic.

Im not quite sure what you're implying. If its that being forced to be a perpetual loser at your job doesn't seriously affect your confidence, then you're incorrect. It doesnt matter if you cant measure it statistically to back up an argument. Its real.

The teams were always going to lose 60 games plus. Hinkie knew it, everyone knew it, the players knew it. That's not healthy for developing a team that you eventually want to WIN games. Sit back in the GM armchair and argue for the method until you're blue in the face.

Ehhh that didn't happen till this year. I think you're wayyy overselling it.

Very true, but this year, it seemed like they were losing their highly valued players. The culture became so toxic that Hinkie's part needed to end.

I believe that Hinkie will have been a positive contributor to the  sixers' future, but that he also needed to go for the team to get value out of the assets he acquired.

[Casperian]

Can't believe this forum has annointed LarBrd their saviour. The inmates truly run the asylum now. I'm on this board for nearly 10 years, I don't think that guy was ever right on anything.

You know it's bad when you wish for another BballTim post in a Rondo thread.

[TheSundanceKid]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Well said, but misguided.  The jury is still out on embiid and saric.  Philly has a strong chance to end up with either Simmons or Ingram.  There's a 45% they will also have pick 4 or 5.   There's also a pretty reasonable chance they will move Okafor for an equal talent at a different position.

On a scale of 1-10, how shocked would you be if the Brooklyn pick ended up 5th and ainge traded all of our 2016 picks for Okafor ?  Knowing what he offered for Winslow and the reality that we don't actually have roster spots for all those picks would you honestly be all that surprised ?  Something like 5, 16, 26 and 31 for Okafor.  Philly replaces their undrafted d-leaguers with some tangible prospects.

And this is why I've consistently said that the team would let the tank ride until the offseason and re evaluate in the summer. Do they have a Durant and Westbrook yet?  No probably not, but they might have a full lineup of big name prospects within a few short months.  This is what the majority of this forum (and apparently some Philly fans) fail to understand. 

The majority of the folks on this board understand what Philly has done perfectly fine.  You are the one in denial.

Three years into the most aggressive and longest tanking effort in league history, Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

Under the standards of the Hinkie-defenders, what NBA GM can ever be criticized?  Even Billy King did what he did to try and win a title and most people thought there was a good chance it would work.

Mike

But what did they have before? they had nothing. Yes it can be argued that the tanking went on for too long or that Hinkie handled the public side of it badly but was there a way that they could have rebuilt and collected a star without doing what he did? They weren't going to be players in FA, they had no few trade assets to play with and guys on their team who had reached their ceilings as it stood. Evan Turner is really the only guy from the team he inherited that has ended up making a difference somewhere.

[BDeCosta26]

Hinkie has long suffered from "smartest guy in the room" syndrome, and it's part of the reason he's at his demise.

You can't pick three centers in a row with three straight top 5 picks, none of whom can play together, and expect to make progress.

[LarBrd33]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Well said, but misguided.  The jury is still out on embiid and saric.  Philly has a strong chance to end up with either Simmons or Ingram.  There's a 45% they will also have pick 4 or 5.   There's also a pretty reasonable chance they will move Okafor for an equal talent at a different position.

On a scale of 1-10, how shocked would you be if the Brooklyn pick ended up 5th and ainge traded all of our 2016 picks for Okafor ?  Knowing what he offered for Winslow and the reality that we don't actually have roster spots for all those picks would you honestly be all that surprised ?  Something like 5, 16, 26 and 31 for Okafor.  Philly replaces their undrafted d-leaguers with some tangible prospects.

And this is why I've consistently said that the team would let the tank ride until the offseason and re evaluate in the summer. Do they have a Durant and Westbrook yet?  No probably not, but they might have a full lineup of big name prospects within a few short months.  This is what the majority of this forum (and apparently some Philly fans) fail to understand. 

The majority of the folks on this board understand what Philly has done perfectly fine.  You are the one in denial.

Three years into the most aggressive and longest tanking effort in league history, Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

Under the standards of the Hinkie-defenders, what NBA GM can ever be criticized?  Even Billy King did what he did to try and win a title and most people thought there was a good chance it would work.

Mike

Mike, you don't get it.  Philly is right where they intend to be.  This summer will be a big one for them. And hinkie has set them up where they will continue to have a heavy influx of draft picks even after they inevitably trend upwards.  Perhaps you should read hinkies letter.

[Dino Pitino]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Well said, but misguided.  The jury is still out on embiid and saric.  Philly has a strong chance to end up with either Simmons or Ingram.  There's a 45% they will also have pick 4 or 5.   There's also a pretty reasonable chance they will move Okafor for an equal talent at a different position.

On a scale of 1-10, how shocked would you be if the Brooklyn pick ended up 5th and ainge traded all of our 2016 picks for Okafor ?  Knowing what he offered for Winslow and the reality that we don't actually have roster spots for all those picks would you honestly be all that surprised ?  Something like 5, 16, 26 and 31 for Okafor.  Philly replaces their undrafted d-leaguers with some tangible prospects.

And this is why I've consistently said that the team would let the tank ride until the offseason and re evaluate in the summer. Do they have a Durant and Westbrook yet?  No probably not, but they might have a full lineup of big name prospects within a few short months.  This is what the majority of this forum (and apparently some Philly fans) fail to understand. 

The majority of the folks on this board understand what Philly has done perfectly fine.  You are the one in denial.

Three years into the most aggressive and longest tanking effort in league history, Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

Under the standards of the Hinkie-defenders, what NBA GM can ever be criticized?  Even Billy King did what he did to try and win a title and most people thought there was a good chance it would work.

Mike

It took Ainge about 4-5 years. Think back to 2007. Ainge had been GM since 2003. By the spring of 2007, how many Celtics fans had turned on Ainge, how many considered him a thorough failure? A lot. What kind of future did it look like we had? Promising, if the ping pong balls went our way. When they didn't, what kind of future did it look like we had? The day after the lottery, was Ainge's stock as a GM higher, lower, or the same as Hinkie's stock was as of yesterday?

[LarBrd33]

http://espn.go.com/pdf/2016/0406/nba_hinkie_redact.pdf

Amazing letter.

I want Ainge to hire Hinkie immediately as a future replacement, and to keep him away from all our competitors. He'd fit right in, because I bet Ainge and the rest of the Celtics front office will smile and nod vigorously throughout the whole letter as they read it, because I bet it almost totally describes their approach, too. Because it's the smartest approach, period.

LarBrd33 is right about Philly.

Yeah he took the right approach but it was idiotic to take it to the extreme levels he did. That is why people are frustrated. Is anyone complaining about the Lakers or suns this year? That's what lbrrd doesn't get.

I strongly disagree it was "idiotic" to take it to that level. It was bold and has an excellent shot of working.  I finally skimmed hinkies letter. It's most of what I already knew, but I encourage folks still confused by this situation to give it a read.  The team was in a bad cycle of losing. They needed a shake up.  He mentions they had to be willing to go prolonged periods of time being misunderstood.  It's spot on.  Even now people misunderstand that situation.  They need some luck and they need to make the right moves, but if philly is one of the hottest young teams in the league next season, nobody will be calling the past few seasons "idiotic". 

[Donoghus]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Well said, but misguided.  The jury is still out on embiid and saric.  Philly has a strong chance to end up with either Simmons or Ingram.  There's a 45% they will also have pick 4 or 5.   There's also a pretty reasonable chance they will move Okafor for an equal talent at a different position.

On a scale of 1-10, how shocked would you be if the Brooklyn pick ended up 5th and ainge traded all of our 2016 picks for Okafor ?  Knowing what he offered for Winslow and the reality that we don't actually have roster spots for all those picks would you honestly be all that surprised ?  Something like 5, 16, 26 and 31 for Okafor.  Philly replaces their undrafted d-leaguers with some tangible prospects.

And this is why I've consistently said that the team would let the tank ride until the offseason and re evaluate in the summer. Do they have a Durant and Westbrook yet?  No probably not, but they might have a full lineup of big name prospects within a few short months.  This is what the majority of this forum (and apparently some Philly fans) fail to understand. 

The majority of the folks on this board understand what Philly has done perfectly fine.  You are the one in denial.

Three years into the most aggressive and longest tanking effort in league history, Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

Under the standards of the Hinkie-defenders, what NBA GM can ever be criticized?  Even Billy King did what he did to try and win a title and most people thought there was a good chance it would work.

Mike

It took Ainge about 4-5 years. Think back to 2007. Ainge had been GM since 2003. By the spring of 2007, how many Celtics fans had turned on Ainge, how many considered him a thorough failure? A lot. What kind of future did it look like we had? Promising, if the ping pong balls went our way. When they didn't, what kind of future did it look like we had? The day after the lottery, was Ainge's stock as a GM higher, lower, or the same as Hinkie's stock was as of yesterday?

I'd say it was higher.  Maybe not by much but it was higher.   Despite the woes of '06-07, Ainge's track record was already better that what Hinkie has/had.

Obviously, there was a HUGE letdown in those days right after the '07 lottery failure and I remember people around here being in scramble mode about what to do next.  Shawn Marion?  Rashard Lewis?  Maybe trade Pierce.

However, they still had some young assets that they were developing (Jefferson, Allen, West,  G. Green (some thought)) that people felt good about & they still had Pierce, which is a big trump card on anything that Philly currently has on their roster.  Plus, they still had the #5 pick. 

[LarBrd33]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Well said, but misguided.  The jury is still out on embiid and saric.  Philly has a strong chance to end up with either Simmons or Ingram.  There's a 45% they will also have pick 4 or 5.   There's also a pretty reasonable chance they will move Okafor for an equal talent at a different position.

On a scale of 1-10, how shocked would you be if the Brooklyn pick ended up 5th and ainge traded all of our 2016 picks for Okafor ?  Knowing what he offered for Winslow and the reality that we don't actually have roster spots for all those picks would you honestly be all that surprised ?  Something like 5, 16, 26 and 31 for Okafor.  Philly replaces their undrafted d-leaguers with some tangible prospects.

And this is why I've consistently said that the team would let the tank ride until the offseason and re evaluate in the summer. Do they have a Durant and Westbrook yet?  No probably not, but they might have a full lineup of big name prospects within a few short months.  This is what the majority of this forum (and apparently some Philly fans) fail to understand. 

The majority of the folks on this board understand what Philly has done perfectly fine.  You are the one in denial.

Three years into the most aggressive and longest tanking effort in league history, Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

Under the standards of the Hinkie-defenders, what NBA GM can ever be criticized?  Even Billy King did what he did to try and win a title and most people thought there was a good chance it would work.

Mike

It took Ainge about 4-5 years. Think back to 2007. Ainge had been GM since 2003. By the spring of 2007, how many Celtics fans had turned on Ainge, how many considered him a thorough failure? A lot. What kind of future did it look like we had? Promising, if the ping pong balls went our way. When they didn't, what kind of future did it look like we had? The day after the lottery, was Ainge's stock as a GM higher, lower, or the same as Hinkie's stock was as of yesterday?

hinkie mentions that in his letter.  Sure, all 30 teams in the league want to trade for KG in his prime, but ainge was one of the only people planning for it years in advance.  He mentions how curry, draymond and klay were acquired 4+ years ago.   Philly has set themselves up about as well as a young team can heading forward.  A lot still depends on ping pong balls, the success of saric, the trade value of Okafor, and the health of guys like embiid ... But they have potential there that they otherwise wouldnt have had they not been willing to ignore the present in favor of the future.

[LarBrd33]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Well said, but misguided.  The jury is still out on embiid and saric.  Philly has a strong chance to end up with either Simmons or Ingram.  There's a 45% they will also have pick 4 or 5.   There's also a pretty reasonable chance they will move Okafor for an equal talent at a different position.

On a scale of 1-10, how shocked would you be if the Brooklyn pick ended up 5th and ainge traded all of our 2016 picks for Okafor ?  Knowing what he offered for Winslow and the reality that we don't actually have roster spots for all those picks would you honestly be all that surprised ?  Something like 5, 16, 26 and 31 for Okafor.  Philly replaces their undrafted d-leaguers with some tangible prospects.

And this is why I've consistently said that the team would let the tank ride until the offseason and re evaluate in the summer. Do they have a Durant and Westbrook yet?  No probably not, but they might have a full lineup of big name prospects within a few short months.  This is what the majority of this forum (and apparently some Philly fans) fail to understand. 

The majority of the folks on this board understand what Philly has done perfectly fine.  You are the one in denial.

Three years into the most aggressive and longest tanking effort in league history, Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

Under the standards of the Hinkie-defenders, what NBA GM can ever be criticized?  Even Billy King did what he did to try and win a title and most people thought there was a good chance it would work.

Mike

It took Ainge about 4-5 years. Think back to 2007. Ainge had been GM since 2003. By the spring of 2007, how many Celtics fans had turned on Ainge, how many considered him a thorough failure? A lot. What kind of future did it look like we had? Promising, if the ping pong balls went our way. When they didn't, what kind of future did it look like we had? The day after the lottery, was Ainge's stock as a GM higher, lower, or the same as Hinkie's stock was as of yesterday?

I'd say it was higher.  Maybe not by much but it was higher.   Despite the woes of '06-07, Ainge's track record was already better that what Hinkie has/had.

Obviously, there was a HUGE letdown in those days right after the '07 lottery failure and I remember people around here being in scramble mode about what to do next.  Shawn Marion?  Rashard Lewis?  Maybe trade Pierce.

However, they still had some young assets that they were developing (Jefferson, Allen, West,  G. Green (some thought)) that people felt good about & they still had Pierce, which is a big trump card on anything that Philly currently has on their roster.  Plus, they still had the #5 pick.

Ainge took over a team with two all-stars.   Philly was in rough shape when Hinkie started this process.

It could still fail, but I'm still very interested to see how the process turns out in a few years.  Phase 1 is clearly over.  Now they need to start building a team with all those golden eggs.

[PhoSita]

 Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

And in this respect the Sixers are like virtually every other team in the league.  Rebuilding is dependent on a million variables outside of the control of the GM no matter what form it takes.

[Atzar]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Yes that's it. The  “process” was just tanking, and he wasn’t even good at it because he sucked at the draft.

I wouldn't even say he sucked at drafting.  You could make a very strong case that Noel, Embiid and Okafor were each the best player available at the time the 76ers selected them.  The problem is that the draft is a huge crapshoot. 

First of all, the seasons in which you tank have to coincide with blue chip talent becoming available through the draft.  You either need a can't-miss guy like LeBron or Durant (which don't happen every year) or you need to strike gold on a second-or-third-tier guy like Curry who then wildly exceeds even the most irrational of expectations.  But in 2013, an argument can be made that the best player to come out of that draft is Rudy freaking Gobert (this is according to career win shares, measured by Basketball Reference).  And that's not a shot at Gobert; he's a good player.  But you can't draft stars when there are no stars to draft. 

Then, you need the ping-pong balls to bounce your way to actually get these guys.  KAT looks like he may be a gamechanger for many years.  Too bad the 76ers got leapfrogged by the Wolves.  Nothing you can even do about that.

And last, once you have a player you believe is a future star, you need him to actually pan out.  Careers get derailed all the time by circumstances that have nothing to do with ability to win basketball games.  Look at Portland... They had Brandon Roy, Nic Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden.  They looked like the next dynasty out west.  Then Roy and Oden both exploded.  Bye bye dynasty. 

So I think the 76ers have been snakebitten more than inept.  And that's unfortunate (for them), but that's one of the potential outcomes when you try to build by using a system that is so fundamentally uncertain. 

[Donoghus]

People love to bring up OKC as a comparison.  Well, the Thunder had a three-year rebuild where they only outright tanked for one year.  After year three, however, they had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka and Jeff Green.  After tanking as hard as they could for three years, Philly doesn't have anyone as good as Durant.  They don't have anyone as good as Westbrook.  They don't have anyone as good as Harden.  They don't have a wing player as good as Green.  They have a couple of bugs who might be better than Ibaka but who can't play together.  And then they have a bunch of question marks.

Well said.

Well said, but misguided.  The jury is still out on embiid and saric.  Philly has a strong chance to end up with either Simmons or Ingram.  There's a 45% they will also have pick 4 or 5.   There's also a pretty reasonable chance they will move Okafor for an equal talent at a different position.

On a scale of 1-10, how shocked would you be if the Brooklyn pick ended up 5th and ainge traded all of our 2016 picks for Okafor ?  Knowing what he offered for Winslow and the reality that we don't actually have roster spots for all those picks would you honestly be all that surprised ?  Something like 5, 16, 26 and 31 for Okafor.  Philly replaces their undrafted d-leaguers with some tangible prospects.

And this is why I've consistently said that the team would let the tank ride until the offseason and re evaluate in the summer. Do they have a Durant and Westbrook yet?  No probably not, but they might have a full lineup of big name prospects within a few short months.  This is what the majority of this forum (and apparently some Philly fans) fail to understand. 

The majority of the folks on this board understand what Philly has done perfectly fine.  You are the one in denial.

Three years into the most aggressive and longest tanking effort in league history, Hinkie had led the franchise to a point where its future is STILL entirely dependent on a large number of things that might, could, possibly, potentially, maybe happen at some undefined point in the future...as long as nothing else bad happens.

Under the standards of the Hinkie-defenders, what NBA GM can ever be criticized?  Even Billy King did what he did to try and win a title and most people thought there was a good chance it would work.

Mike

It took Ainge about 4-5 years. Think back to 2007. Ainge had been GM since 2003. By the spring of 2007, how many Celtics fans had turned on Ainge, how many considered him a thorough failure? A lot. What kind of future did it look like we had? Promising, if the ping pong balls went our way. When they didn't, what kind of future did it look like we had? The day after the lottery, was Ainge's stock as a GM higher, lower, or the same as Hinkie's stock was as of yesterday?

I'd say it was higher.  Maybe not by much but it was higher.   Despite the woes of '06-07, Ainge's track record was already better that what Hinkie has/had.

Obviously, there was a HUGE letdown in those days right after the '07 lottery failure and I remember people around here being in scramble mode about what to do next.  Shawn Marion?  Rashard Lewis?  Maybe trade Pierce.

However, they still had some young assets that they were developing (Jefferson, Allen, West,  G. Green (some thought)) that people felt good about & they still had Pierce, which is a big trump card on anything that Philly currently has on their roster.  Plus, they still had the #5 pick.

Ainge took over a team with two all-stars.   Philly was in rough shape when Hinkie started this process.

It could still fail, but I'm still very interested to see how the process turns out in a few years.  Phase 1 is clearly over.  Now they need to start building a team with all those golden eggs.

I'm not sure Phase 1 is really over.  They could very well have two top 5 picks this year which would be a result of Phase 1.

I'm also not so sure I'll consider anything there to be golden eggs yet.