Hinkie did what Philly's ownership asked him to do... acquire assets and swing for the fences via the draft. It might have worked. Jury is still out. BUt fact is, if Simmons and Embiid are as great as expected, they are able to sign some free agents, and are able to get some value out of one of the redundant bigs - "the process" will have been a success. Really, all they need for it to be a success is for one player to become a superstar. They have a couple candidates.
What if one player, say Simmons, becomes a league MVP, is as good as Derrick Rose was. But maybe like Rose, he gets hurt. If it is only one player, then your franchise is very fragile. Red Auerbach said no-one will every win the number of championships in a row that Russell and the Celtics did: because of the modern game and injuries. No one will be healthy for years in a row. Sometimes it is a hurt star, sometimes even a hurt role player (Kenderick Perkins) can tip the balance to another team.
So Hinke played it like a game, but real life has injuries, addictions, and the cultural effects of losing. Basketball winning comes from real life, not just the numbers game.
So your concern is that they might get their superstar and he might get injured? Ok...
First of all, rose is one of the most overrated players in history. He was never an MVP level player despite his undeserved award. Despite that, they were a contender that year - and that's the entire point. You need a superstar to be a contender in this league. Lebron James is the difference between an automatic trip to the finals and a trip to the lottery. The difference between a 20-30 win team and a 60+ win team.
Philly understood that. Philly also understood that something like 75% of the top 10 players in the league are taken at the top of the draft. So since that's the most statistically likely path towards landing a superstar, you might as well bottom out until you get one.
They tanked for a few years and whattayaknow - some believe they have two superstar prospects on their team. It may indeed all prove to be worth it. A sound strategy was rewarded.
It could still fail. As a Celtic fan, I hope to see it fail. But you gotta respect that they saw a system that encouraged losing and took advantage of it. Part of me thinks it will be a good thing if philly becomes a contender due to this because perhaps the NBA will do something about their system that has long encouraged tanking for middle of the road teams. The alternative for philly would have been to build around jrue holiday and stay in the middle-of-the-road no-mans land. Hinkie was prepared to take that path. That isn't what Philly wanted. Philly wanted this. Seems they made the wise decision. Very few teams have as bright a future as the 76ers. They can throw whoever they want under the bus as a PR move as they head into free agency, but folks following what's happening there know they must be pleased as punch with the results of their process so far.