Ainge receives praise from Hinkie

[Moranis]

The biggest different is the Ainge has the right type of "patience"


Hinkie has "patience" for the team to get good, but not so much with holding onto players until he can get the best deal.   



Ainge has "patience" in waiting to make moves for when the value is there.  He doesn't seem to have "patience" in just waiting to getting better. 




Ainge has a plan that allows the Celtics to compete now and improve drastically in the future.



Hinkie only had a plan for the far future.

What players did Hinkie sell off too quickly?

[CelticGuardian]

I'm in the minority school of larry bird, when I say that history will treat Hinkie very well. I think he had a very rationale game plan. If Embiid gets healthy, the Sixers will soon take off and be competitive.

Too bad the business side of the NBA stifled his ambitions... ownership wasn't too happy with 3 years of empty seats...

[LarBrd33]

The biggest different is the Ainge has the right type of "patience"


Hinkie has "patience" for the team to get good, but not so much with holding onto players until he can get the best deal.   



Ainge has "patience" in waiting to make moves for when the value is there.  He doesn't seem to have "patience" in just waiting to getting better. 




Ainge has a plan that allows the Celtics to compete now and improve drastically in the future.



Hinkie only had a plan for the far future.

What players did Hinkie sell off too quickly?

It's the exact opposite.  A gm without patience would have dealt with the embiid/Noel/Okafor situation sooner.  Hinkie understood that the value of a guy like Okafor isn't going to be dramatically lower this summer. Smart basketball minds like ainge can see the potential regardless of current fit.  Offers will be there. Best to wait and see how this lotto turns out and what needs the team has heading forward.  What if they had traded Okafor for CJ McCollum and then ended up with a better point guard in the draft ?  They'd have a similar problem.

[timpiker]

One thing's for sure - DA's job just got tougher

[Who]

Hinkie is too famous now to not get credit, Colangelo could do an amazing job developing these guys and everyone will still think Hinkie

i think it depends.  There's unlimited options with those assets. Maybe colangelo trades a bunch of them for jimmy butler and Kevin love, the team takes off, and they credit him as a mastermind.

An J.Okafor for J.Butler trade makes a lot of sense for both teams.

Philly gets a youngish star in his prime to help guide the rebuild.

Chicago gets a young up and coming star. A center. To start rebuilding their franchise after this group of players failed dismally. Move on from old bigs like Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah. Get rid of D-Rose when his contract expires. Move in another direction with Okafor as their main building block to build a new team around.

[wdleehi]

The biggest different is the Ainge has the right type of "patience"


Hinkie has "patience" for the team to get good, but not so much with holding onto players until he can get the best deal.   



Ainge has "patience" in waiting to make moves for when the value is there.  He doesn't seem to have "patience" in just waiting to getting better. 




Ainge has a plan that allows the Celtics to compete now and improve drastically in the future.



Hinkie only had a plan for the far future.

What players did Hinkie sell off too quickly?

Young for eventual Cap space and the Cav's first round pick.

Turner for a 2nd rounder and eventual cap space.

[PhoSita]

The biggest different is the Ainge has the right type of "patience"


Hinkie has "patience" for the team to get good, but not so much with holding onto players until he can get the best deal.   



Ainge has "patience" in waiting to make moves for when the value is there.  He doesn't seem to have "patience" in just waiting to getting better. 




Ainge has a plan that allows the Celtics to compete now and improve drastically in the future.



Hinkie only had a plan for the far future.

What players did Hinkie sell off too quickly?

Young for eventual Cap space and the Cav's first round pick.

Turner for a 2nd rounder and eventual cap space.

I don't think those guys would have ever yielded more value than that given where the Sixers were at.

Turner was putting up great numbers and the Sixers were still losing a bunch, so nobody wanted to give up value for him.

Getting a 1st rounder for Young in the same context was pretty good.

[wdleehi]

The biggest different is the Ainge has the right type of "patience"


Hinkie has "patience" for the team to get good, but not so much with holding onto players until he can get the best deal.   



Ainge has "patience" in waiting to make moves for when the value is there.  He doesn't seem to have "patience" in just waiting to getting better. 




Ainge has a plan that allows the Celtics to compete now and improve drastically in the future.



Hinkie only had a plan for the far future.

What players did Hinkie sell off too quickly?

It's the exact opposite.  A gm without patience would have dealt with the embiid/Noel/Okafor situation sooner.  Hinkie understood that the value of a guy like Okafor isn't going to be dramatically lower this summer. Smart basketball minds like ainge can see the potential regardless of current fit.  Offers will be there. Best to wait and see how this lotto turns out and what needs the team has heading forward.  What if they had traded Okafor for CJ McCollum and then ended up with a better point guard in the draft ?  They'd have a similar problem.

No, the bigger issue is that he drafted players that can not play with each other and are on a team that is devoid of any other talent.  Good luck ever getting the max out of those players when it is time to trade. 


And are they not waiting for two other players to come in that also play similar positions? 




All while teaching the young players how to lose in the NBA.   No veteran leadership to help them.




One last thing, how happy are those "young potential stars" in Philly?   How likely they stay when they become FA?

[PhoSita]

After three years, the only other legitimate NBA player on the Sixers roster besides Noel and Okafor is Covington and he's probably the 9th or 10th guy in a good team's rotation.  And don't say cap space because almost every team in the league is going to have cap space.

Every rebuild requires the "Get lucky" step you mentioned, and is prone to stalling out if that one fails.

It's true the Sixers don't have many "legitimate NBA players" on the roster right now, but that's not a rubric for judging their rebuild, three years into it, that I find particularly persuasive or useful.

Hinkie approached his rebuild of the Sixers with a strategy that needed at least 5 years to play out before it could be properly judged.  What we can say after 3 years is he did a very good job assembling a pile of assets, despite the fact that he didn't enjoy any major strokes of good fortune along the way.

The next step to the rebuild is actually putting those assets to use to build a team.  This summer would have been the opportune time to do that.  But now Hinkie will never get the chance to make something out of the raw resources he accumulated.

[PhoSita]

All while teaching the young players how to lose in the NBA.   No veteran leadership to help them.



One last thing, how happy are those "young potential stars" in Philly?   How likely they stay when they become FA?

I think the "winning / losing culture" thing gets over-emphasized among outside observers. 

Still, I do think that the most valid criticism of Hinkie is that from the players on the roster to the agents negotiating their contracts to the media to the fans in the seats, he failed to properly account for the fact that there were humans involved in his machinations, not just numbers on a spreadsheet.

Being a successful GM requires some of the qualities of a politician -- unless you've got a head coach or an owner heavily involved in the process who serves as the public face for decision-making, e.g. Popovich or Mark Cuban -- and it seems that Hinkie's strengths are not in that area.

[The One]

I, The One, also praise Ainge.


Now go win that lottery!!   

[Lucky17]

After three years, the only other legitimate NBA player on the Sixers roster besides Noel and Okafor is Covington and he's probably the 9th or 10th guy in a good team's rotation.  And don't say cap space because almost every team in the league is going to have cap space.

Every rebuild requires the "Get lucky" step you mentioned, and is prone to stalling out if that one fails.

It's true the Sixers don't have many "legitimate NBA players" on the roster right now, but that's not a rubric for judging their rebuild, three years into it, that I find particularly persuasive or useful.

Hinkie approached his rebuild of the Sixers with a strategy that needed at least 5 years to play out before it could be properly judged.  What we can say after 3 years is he did a very good job assembling a pile of assets, despite the fact that he didn't enjoy any major strokes of good fortune along the way.

The next step to the rebuild is actually putting those assets to use to build a team.  This summer would have been the opportune time to do that.  But now Hinkie will never get the chance to make something out of the raw resources he accumulated.

Hinkie cited pace and 3-point shooting as traits of recently successful teams in the NBA, but did very little towards finding role players who could contribute to those team traits. He let Ish Smith go; when the Sixers reacquired him, their offense got much better.

I don't think he's the right guy for the next phase (roster building). Also seems to be a mixed bag on talent assessment.

[PhoSita]

Hinkie cited pace and 3-point shooting as traits of recently successful teams in the NBA, but did very little towards finding role players who could contribute to those team traits. He let Ish Smith go; when the Sixers reacquired him, their offense got much better.

I don't think he's the right guy for the next phase (roster building). Also seems to be a mixed bag on talent assessment.

The thing is that it's hard to find guys who can shoot and play with pace who are also young enough to fit with the timeline of that team (i.e. long long term).  Ish Smith is already 27.

I agree that Hinkie didn't properly value the benefit of keeping a guy like Ish Smith anyway, despite the fact that he's not a long term answer, because it helps the other guys on the floor develop.

I'd say Hollis Thompson, Robert Covington, and Jerami Grant all appear to be decent reserve pieces for a team that wants to play fast and take a lot of outside shots.  Stauskas could have some value in that regard, as well.


By no means was Hinkie perfect.  I just think he did enough to get the benefit of the doubt to see his vision through.  After all, the Sixers hired a guy who had never had a GM position before.  They had to expect that he would need some time to develop, just as players do.

[Lucky17]

Hinkie cited pace and 3-point shooting as traits of recently successful teams in the NBA, but did very little towards finding role players who could contribute to those team traits. He let Ish Smith go; when the Sixers reacquired him, their offense got much better.

I don't think he's the right guy for the next phase (roster building). Also seems to be a mixed bag on talent assessment.

The thing is that it's hard to find guys who can shoot and play with pace who are also young enough to fit with the timeline of that team (i.e. long long term).  Ish Smith is already 27.

I agree that Hinkie didn't properly value the benefit of keeping a guy like Ish Smith anyway, despite the fact that he's not a long term answer, because it helps the other guys on the floor develop.

I'd say Hollis Thompson, Robert Covington, and Jerami Grant all appear to be decent reserve pieces for a team that wants to play fast and take a lot of outside shots.  Stauskas could have some value in that regard, as well.

RoCo was another guy Hinkie had initially passed on. Thompson and Grant might stick around.

Here's a partial list of guys who had stints in PHI and were outright released during Hinkie's tenure:

Glenn Robinson III
Jared Cunningham
Tim Frazier
KJ McDaniels
Jordan McRae
Dewayne Dedmon
Justin Holiday

None of these guys are world-beaters, and hindsight is 20/20, but all of them (I think?) have been picked up by other teams to become rotation/bench players of some success this season. These are the types of players Hinkie should have looked into signing on the cheap in order to develop. Instead, he let them walk.

By no means was Hinkie perfect.  I just think he did enough to get the benefit of the doubt to see his vision through.  After all, the Sixers hired a guy who had never had a GM position before.  They had to expect that he would need some time to develop, just as players do.

I think Hinkie may have overestimated his own job security. I don't know how you can sell such a long-term plan for rebuilding. You've got to be able to continually stoke the fires of optimism and faith. I think you're right: Hinkie needed a skilled PR guy to help in that regard.

[tankcity!]

The biggest different is the Ainge has the right type of "patience"


Hinkie has "patience" for the team to get good, but not so much with holding onto players until he can get the best deal.   



Ainge has "patience" in waiting to make moves for when the value is there.  He doesn't seem to have "patience" in just waiting to getting better. 




Ainge has a plan that allows the Celtics to compete now and improve drastically in the future.



Hinkie only had a plan for the far future.

What players did Hinkie sell off too quickly?

It's the exact opposite.  A gm without patience would have dealt with the embiid/Noel/Okafor situation sooner.  Hinkie understood that the value of a guy like Okafor isn't going to be dramatically lower this summer. Smart basketball minds like ainge can see the potential regardless of current fit.  Offers will be there. Best to wait and see how this lotto turns out and what needs the team has heading forward.  What if they had traded Okafor for CJ McCollum and then ended up with a better point guard in the draft ?  They'd have a similar problem.

You don't know that at all. Stop making stuff up. Embiid doesn't even play so they're not trading him and nobody would give much up for him. Why would another gm trade Noel? He's insurance for Embiid. Also, everyone in the league knows Noel is Tyson Chandler. Stop trying to make him into something he isn't. And this is Okafor's first year, no way he would get traded.

Nice try though.