Now the Sixers season is halfway over, I can now assess or
reassess the many things that I have said about them over the last few years. I
have not been shy about my opinions. As a lifelong fan and emotional
stakeholder of this team, I felt it was important to express my views about
their “process” or what I believed their lack thereof. More specifically, I had very unfavorable feelings
about the pick of Joel Embiid in 2014 and even stronger feelings about Sam
Hinkie as the GM. So I wish to address both of these issues.
Regarding Joel Embiid. My unfavorable view of him stemmed
from some actual and factual things that occurred in his basketball life. For
starters, he did not pick up a basketball until he was 16-years-old. By the
time he turned 21-years-old, he had three major surgeries one on his vascular
bone and two others on his right foot. To compound these facts, the much-hyped Kansas
Freshman played 20 games of competitive basketball, where he was just “ok.” I
simply don’t know what other data I was supposed to see to make me feel like he
was worth the third pick in the NBA draft. If we want to be honest with ourselves,
he was not Hinkie’s ideal choice either but that’s a story for another time.
But here we are on January, 20th and the only
thing more miraculous then Embiids early season success is that on the same day
I write this blog a moron with no political experience that once had a mediocre
realty TV show is now our US President. Being a man of my word, I owe it to
myself to Eibiid master scouts: Joshua Stein, Jarad Benn, Alan Cohen and the
die-hards who somehow could see what I couldn’t. I was wrong about Joel Embiid.
He has surprised me more than any other athlete of my generation. Besides his
shear power and dominance, the man can also shoot clutch free throws and hit a
three. I admit that I still hold some trepidation
with the fact he only plays in 2/3 of the games and is limited to 28-30 minutes
on the bum foot. He is as fragile beast. However, if he never played another
game for the rest of his career, he has still already surpassed my expectations
20-fold. I could be the contrarian and find a way to say ‘hey Its only been 20
some games for the young guy” but even a fool can see that Joel Embiid is a
stud and has bought some basketball respectability back to this town.
I would also like to add that I am humored by his tweets,
his funny post-game interviews, his love for Shirley Temples and even his
self-proclaimed nickname “The Process.” The team really needs his talent but
having a fun guy that keeps the mood light is a bonus.
Let me say this one more time. Joel Embiid has proven me wrong. He is good. e is very good. He is almost as good as Andrew Wiggins. Who by the way plays shooting guard and would have us further along in the process right now. He would have been available for us to pick at number at #1 but our team won too many games because our GM was terrible.
My feelings for Sam Hinkie remain unchanged. He
was a subpar GM and continues to be jobless in the NBA. Unlike Embiid, there is
nothing more to be seen that can lead me to believe that Hinkie “died for our
sins.” There are few players and quality trades, which he can hang his hat on to
but generally speaking, he was a terrible GM that was always pushing the “process”
to the next year. We can say the process worked because no one can define what
the process was anyway. Was it a 1-2 year program that most NBA teams take or
was an endless program that Hinkie was hoping for?
He was run out of town by NBA executives embarrassed by his
prolonged “process” and I do sincerely believe that what he did in almost three
years +of GM work could have been accomplished more successfully and more quickly
by a more qualified basketball executive. I am so grateful that Brian Coangelo
has come to town to attempt to land this proverbial plane. I will not go as far as to say that Coangelo
is the messiah who will bring this team a championship but he is few notches
about Sam Hinkie. Actually, many are.
I guess my biggest disappointment in the performance of Sam
Hinkie is that “The Process” never had a conclusion. I truly believe that if he
were still our GM today, the procurement of bad contracts for 2nd
round future picks would continually be happening, while the “Sons of Sam” salivate
over the endless trail of draft picks that lead to nothing more then more
traded draft picks. Sam Hinkie was hired in May, 2013. It has been almost 4
years and here is what we got to show for three losing seasons:
1.
One borderline all-star who plays in 66% of our
games
2.
One POTENTIAL all-star in Simmons. For the
record we shouldn’t consider him great until he actually plays but I do feel more
comfortable in his ability since there is a track record of him.
Am I excited about the Sixers? Hell yeah.
They just won 8 of their last 10 games. But I ask this question again? What was
this all about anyway? Because right now we have a team that’s borderline playoffs
and if we are being honest, we are at least 2 more years of being a championship
caliber team. I can’t deny there is buzz and excitement about the team but
where was this buzz in 2014 and 2015. My point is this took way too long and we
are only partially there. There were too many missteps along the way and Hinkie-Christ
had no concept of drafting a balanced team (See big man logjam).
To say “Die for our sins” is simply stupid. I
just wanted to thank the NBA for pushing the Sixers to get rid of Sam Hinkie so
that this “PROCESS” can finally begin.
