What If “The Process” Was Trusted?

Throughout history, there are countless moments whose effects reverberated through the ages. The invention of the printing press, the Berlin Conference, Plessy v. Ferguson.

Rarer are the moments that those who live through them know how monumental they are. The Boston Tea Party, the opening of the Panama Canal, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The most exceptional of all are the handful of moments where the world seems to stop and everyone can remember exactly where they were.

April 15th, 1912 – The Sinking of the RMS Titanic

November 22nd, 1963 – The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

July 20th, 1969 – The Apollo 11 Moon Landing

For me, there is another. It was a Wednesday morning, I was a college freshman. I had five classes on Tuesdays that semester, so I slept in later than any productive person should. I woke up, grabbed my phone, and made my way to the bathroom while catching up on the day’s news when it hit me like a train.

April 6th, 2016 – The Resignation of Sam Hinkie

My earliest basketball memories were AI dragging the Sixers to the Finals in 2001, but the team had languished for a decade between 33 and 48 wins, never advancing past the second round of the playoffs. The lone exception was a 27 win campaign that earned the team the 2nd pick in the draft, which they squandered on Evan Turner.

Then, a beacon of hope. In the NBA, this usually entails landing a premier free agent or drafting a superstar, but for the Sixers, it was hiring a radicalized data nerd to the front office.

Sam Hinkie preached an approach to team building based around the principle that the league was not fair. Far from it, in fact. More than any other sport, NBA championships are won on the backs of superstars. And a paltry few teams ever have a chance of landing the biggest fish in free agency. Case in point, Philly, the fifth largest market in the NBA, has not landed an All-Star in free agency since 1975’s George McGinnis.

This resonated with me deeply, and the more I learned about his system for acquiring talent and building a future title contender, affectionately called The Process, the more I fell in love. In his own words:

Specifically, we set out to maximize the odds of acquiring star players using all three available methods of acquiring players (draft, free agency, and trade).

1. Draft: invest in the deepest pool of star players—young players via the NBA Draft.
2. Free Agency: maintain financial flexibility to assume contract liabilities of other teams to acquire picks and prospects and move quickly toward special opportunities in signings/trade.
3. Trade: gather attractive, improving players to (best case) develop to win games for the Sixers, or (worst case) trade for better players or players likely to improve at a faster rate.

To maximize the odds of receiving a top lottery pick, the Sixers exploited the NBA’s lottery rules. Because the team with the worst record received the best odds, the Sixers sought to be that team. And they were really good at that. During Hinkie’s three-year tenure with the team, they won just 47 games against 199 losses.

Now I want to make an important distinction. Just because they lost a lot of games does not mean that the team did not try to win games. The players and coaches earnestly tried to win every single game over that stretch. However, due to the way the roster was constructed, they were frequently outgunned and came up short. There is honor in this flavor of tanking, whereas the Pelicans benching Anthony Davis for a third of the season is much less tolerable for me.

But alas, Hinkie did not get to see his vision fulfilled. His exposing of the NBA’s unfairness and his radical attempts to gain an advantage in the face of it had earned him innumerable enemies around the league. The writing had been on the wall since the league forced the Colangelo’s onto the team in December, but I was crestfallen. I read his resignation letter in its entirety and assured myself that even without Captain Sam at the helm, we would see the fruits of his labor in time.

What followed was four years of the Sixers front office not only being a national embarrassment, but the demolition of the talent pipeline Hinkie had worked so hard to construct. Time and again, the front office sacrificed young talent and future assets for aging veterans in a bid to “win now.” Of course the goal of The Process was to bring a title to Philly, but it was about having the longest view in the room. And there are a number of moves you can point to as being bad, but much more troubling for me are all of the moves not made. How many times did they have the opportunity to acquire future draft capital or rising stars that they left on the table? We’ll never know.

Listen to the way Hinkie describes the saga of acquiring Robert Covington:

Robert is a mistake I rubbed my own nose in for over a year. The 2013 Draft was a flurry of activity for us—a handful of trades and selections in both the first and second rounds. We had more action following the draft as we tried to finalize our summer league team and get the myriad trade calls set up with the NBA. I could see this coming a few days before and we informed the media that this kind of approach might lead to an unusually late start for the post-draft press conference. Several of you were still there late that night. At about 1:00 a.m. I went downstairs to address an equally exhausted media on deadline from their editors. When I returned upstairs, the undrafted Robert Covington was gone, having agreed to play for another club’s summer league team, eventually making their regular season roster. He torched the D-League that year, haunting me all the while. When he became available 17 months later, we pounced. But I shudder, even now, at that (nearly) missed opportunity.

Robert Covington was traded as part of a package for a player on an expiring contract who would not return in the off-season.

So, in light of the NBA Draft Lottery tonight and the Sixers imminent ousting from the playoffs, I thought it would be appropriate to pick up where Sam Hinkie left off.

He resigned on April 6th, 2016, so I will assume control of basketball operations beginning the next day. I will do my best to only make transactions that were realistic to make at the time, but I will admit that I am operating with the full benefit of hindsight.

Let’s continue The Process.

Grabbing the Torch

Players Under Contract

• Joel Embiid
• Jahlil Okafor
• Nik Stauskas
• Dario Šarić
• Nerlens Noel
• Richaun Holmes
• Robert Covington
• T.J. McConnell
• Jerami Grant
• Chukwudiebere Maduabum

Draft Capital

2016-17

First thing’s first, we need a coach. Brett Brown has been, to put it politely, extremely underwhelming, so let’s see if we can’t do better.

Well, would you look at that. After a disappointing tenure with the Knicks, who should end up as our Associate Head Coach this season but Mike D’Antoni. Seeing the level of success he’s had with another unconventional GM in Houston, Daryl Morey, he seems like a natural choice. The fact that he’s already in-house is icing on the cake. I trust him to put together a gameplan that will get the most out of the talent we assemble.

Draft

1-1 Ben Simmons

He’s the best player from this draft class and it wouldn’t feel right without him. Easy choice.

1-24 Pascal Siakam

Siakam was a late draft steal and the Sixers had two of the previous three picks. Not that we need another reason to pick an All-Star this late in the first, but he’s one of two NBA players from Cameroon. The other? Joel Embiid.

1-26 Malcolm Brogdon

As we’ve all seen, for a team with Embiid and Simmons to thrive, they need ample shooting surrounding them. Who better than a 50-40-90 club member to provide as much spacing as possible.

Free Agency

Trade Chukwudiebere Maduabum for Sasha Kaun and cash

There’s a good deal of chaff that I inherited that I don’t know what to do with. For most trades, I can’t really say that there was a better offer available because I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, so the option really becomes do the trade or don’t. I’ll do this one.

Waive Sasha Kaun

Trade Kendall Marshall for Tibor Pleiß, 2017 NYK 2nd, and 2017 GSW 2nd

I like future picks.

Waive Tibor Pleiß

Sign Joe Harris for 4 years, $20M

This team really needs shooting and Harris has that in spades. Harris received a contract for 2 years, $2M followed by 2 years, $16M, so I think it’s fair to say he’d take this.

Sign Seth Curry for 4 years, $20M

Nearly identical situation as Harris, except his contracts were 2 years, $5.9M, 1 year $2.8M, then 4 years, $32M. We’re not positioned to make much of a splash in free agency, so we have to make the moves we do make count. I feel like these two are perfect fits.

Sign Jeff Green for 1 year, $17M

I would have loved to have found a salary dump partner to use this cap space, but this was the offseason everybody was signing bad contracts, not trying to get rid of them. The goal of this move is to get us above the salary floor. Welcome Jeff.

In-Season

Trade Jerami Grant for Ersan Ilyasova and 2020 OKC 1st (top 20 protected)

Really went back and forth on whether or not to pull the trigger on this one. Grant is a solid player and I wouldn’t mind keeping him around at all, but I really want to try to build future draft capital. We’ll miss you Jerami.

Trade Ersan Ilyasova and 2017 GSW 2nd for Tiago Splitter, 2017 MIA 2nd, and 2017 ATL 2nd

Happy to take on picks to serve as the landing spot for salary dumps. For a team that isn’t a free agency destination, it’s one of the best ways to use our cap space.

Trade Nerlens Noel for Justin Anderson, Andrew Bogut, and 2017 DAL 1st (top 18 protected)

This one is bittersweet. Noel never became what he was touted to be as the #6 pick, and many speculate that there may have been better deals out there than filler and a first that didn’t convey. But I can’t decide what other deals there were, so I’ll have to take this one.

Waive Andrew Bogut

2017-18

Draft

Oh man, this is a really tough one. The Sixers infamously traded up from 3 to 1 to select Markelle Fultz, leaving the Celtics to select Jayson Tatum. Here are the options that I strongly considered before moving forward.

• Stand pat at 3 and see if Tatum falls
  • Danny Ainge claims he would have taken Jayson Tatum at one, which sounds like something a gloating GM would say after swindling your team, but I have to believe he would.
• Trade back to 15 and 20 to select John Collins and OG Anunoby
  • Wasn’t very realistic. In reality, Portland did this move for the tenth pick. 3 would be overkill. But dang, that would’ve been nice.
• Select Donovan Mitchell or Bam Adebayo at 3
  • Again, not terribly realistic since they went at 13 and 14 respectively, but I would’ve loved to pick up either of these two.
• Select De’Aaron Fox at 3
  • This would’ve very much been in play, but I have fit concerns with him and Simmons since he’s not exactly an elite defender or an efficient shooter. I also understand that the “fit” explanation is what led the Kings to not take Luka Dončić just one year later, but currently, he seems more like a floor raiser than a ceiling raiser for team achievement. Still though, would’ve been cool.
• Select Jonathan Isaac at 3
  • This was my runner up. He’s a defensive stud and would have fit in with the rest of the squad shockingly well. In fact, I’d already worked through the rest of all of this assuming I would take Isaac when I decided that I couldn’t really pass this up.

Trade 1-3 and future 1st (2019 SAC) for 1-1

1-1 Jayson Tatum

Yup. I’m righting this wrong. Would he have fallen to me at 3? Possibly. Danny Ainge and his head games are killing me. But to be fair, he did the same to Hinkie. He’s too good to not take, his fit with Simmons and Embiid is impeccable. This more than anything makes me think about what might have been.

1-25 Derrick White

This one was another stumper. I was really on the fence between White, Kyle Kuzma, and Josh Hart, but in the end I decided that we could really use the backcourt defense, especially for stretches where Simmons sits. Very happy with this pickup. However, it has now come to my attention that I am running out of roster spots. Let’s try to get some future picks where we can.

Trade 2-9 and cash for 2-1

The Hornets originally traded down to 40, so I think they’d still do it for 39

Trade 2-1 for 2019 BKN 2nd

Trading up to trade out of the draft has got to be a first. The Magic originally did this for 35, so we’re clear.

Trade 2-6 for 2018 MIA 2nd

The Grizzlies originally did this for 45.

Trade 2-16 for cash

2-20 Monte Morris

Ah, you thought I was done, didn’t you. Excellent assist/turnover ratio and he knocks down threes. Terrific backup PG.

Free Agency

Trade 2019 SAC 2nd for Jamal Crawford, Diamond Stone, 2018 HOU 1st, and cash

A trade the Sixers didn’t originally do? Impossible, you say. We’re just slating into the position the Hawks took in this salary dump, and as Hinkie said, taking on burdensome contracts for picks is one of the best ways to use extra cap space. We’re giving them a second in the same draft, I’m almost positive they would take this. I also strongly considered taking on DeMarre Carroll, but the cap burden was just a little too much to handle for what we wanted to accomplish and the pick we would have gotten out of it we probably would’ve traded away anyway.

Buyout Jamal Crawford

We’re just doing exactly what the Hawks did.

Waive Diamond Stone

Sign Bojan Bogdanović for 3 years, $42M

Shooting, shooting, shooting. He is an efficiency monster and will serve as our spark-off-the-bench sixth man. He originally signed for 2 years, $21M then inked a deal for 4 years, $73.1M. This is a fair deal that I think he’d take.

Sign Robert Covington for 4 years, $62M

This is the exact deal he got. He’s a defensive monster and I want him on the team.

Let Jeff Green walk

So long Jeff, we hardly knew ye.

Let Tiago Splitter walk

It was cool of us to not cut him until the offseason.

In Season

Trade Jahlil Okafor, Nik Stauskas, and 2019 NYK 2nd for Trevor Booker

This one hurts. Not only was Hinkie allegedly pressured into taking Okafor over Kristaps Porziņģis, but he likely would have moved Okafor when his value was still high, much like he did with Michael Carter-Williams. Okafor trade rumors swirled for years as his value dropped and dropped until finally they got rid of him for an expiring contract, not without attaching a draft pick and Nik Stauskas. Makes me sad. But I can’t say what other trade would have worked and I don’t exactly want him, so I guess we’re doing this one.

Waive Trevor Booker

2018-19

Draft

1-10 Michael Porter Jr.

This is pure Process right here. Porter was the number one recruit in his class coming out of high school and not a scout on the planet could deny his talent and superstar potential. However, he got bit by the injury bug and tumbled down draft boards. Tell me that doesn’t sound like Embiid. Whether or not he’ll be able to stay healthy for the long term is yet to be seen, but the flashes of his game we have seen are extremely promising, and if he’s who he can be, I want him on my team.

Trade 1-26 for 2019 CHA 2nd and 2023 CHA 2nd

1-30 Mitchell Robinson

In the 2019 series against the Raptors, the Sixers were +90 when Embiid was on the court and -112 when he was not. It is far from insane to say that they would have won that series if they had a half-competent backup center. Well let’s just nab a fully competent one just to be sure. Robinson has all the makings of a rim protecting, shot blocking stalwart, and he should serve admirably as principal paint clogger when Embiid is catching his wind.

Trade 2-8 for 2021 DET 2nd and 2023 DET 2nd

This is the actual deal the Sixers did with the Pistons. Good job, I guess.

Trade 2-9 for 2019 CHI 2nd and cash

We did this one too. Proud of you for fifteen minutes out of the last four years.

Trade 2-26 and 2-30 for cash

Free Agency

Trade Richaun Holmes for cash

This is the move the Sixers made in the real timeline. I like Holmes, we’re just hard up for roster spots.

Waive Justin Anderson

No room at the inn. Later Justin.

In Season

Do not trade for Jimmy Butler or Tobias Harris

We have the tools we need in house. We do not need to sell the farm to acquire players who will either leave at the earliest opportunity or demand top 20 pay without providing top 50 performance.

2019-2020

Draft

Trade 1-24 and 2-3 for 1-20

Hey, this is the trade we did to trade up for Matisse Thybulle. Nice.

1-20 Brandon Clarke

But Matisse has been so good! I know, he’s probably the best defender from his class and a joy to watch on the floor. But bigs should not be able to shoot like Brandon Clarke does. It creates a matchup nightmare. Simmons will never see a clearer lane than when Clarke is in the game. I love it.

Trade 2-14 for 2020 LAL 2nd and cash

Lakers originally did this for 46, so 44 should be ample.

Trade 2-24 for cash

Free Agency

Do not sign Al Horford

Truly, I must be clairvoyant to see that spending $109M on a 33 year old who can’t share the floor with your best player would end in disaster.

Let T.J. McConnell walk

Somebody had to be our Ralph Cox. I’m sorry T.J., wish you all the luck in Indiana.

In Season

Don’t. Do. Anything.

Current Depth Chart

Potential Lineups

Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Bojan Bogdanović, Robert Covington, Brandon Clarke

Simmons gets all the spacing he could ever ask for. Seth’s defensive shortcomings are covered by having Simmons next to him. Bojan and Clarke get to thrive as spot up shooters. Maybe RoCo gets some minutes at small-ball 5. (I’m sure D’Antoni would love that.)

Derrick White, Joe Harris, Jayson Tatum, Pascal Siakam, Mitchell Robinson

Tatum and Siakam would be a terror to opposing wings, Robinson and White would lock down the paint and perimeter respectively, and Harris would feast from deep.

Monte Morris, Malcolm Brogdon, Michael Porter Jr., Dario Šarić, Joel Embiid

I trust Morris and Brogdon to be able to get the ball to Embiid in the post. Porter can be a secondary shot creator without the focus of the defense on him. Dario’s there to keep Joel smiling.

None of these lineups have more than two starters and I think they each would be a competitive playoff squad. D’Antoni would have the luxury of being able to mix and match any of these to his heart’s content. I hope he has fun with it.

Passing the Torch

No individual can run the team forever. As Sam Hinkie put it, I am but a steward.

There are some contracts here that would expire in the upcoming offseason. They all have Bird rights, so while ownership may have appreciated my fiscal conscientiousness, the coming years will take the team deep into the luxury tax. I pray they have the stomach for it.

Here are the future draft picks you’ll have at your disposal:

Will this team bring a championship to Philadelphia? I’d like to think I put us in the best position possible — surrounding four All-Stars with elite shooters and defenders usually works out — but luck has more to do with it than most — myself included — are comfortable with.

It’s clear now that I won’t see the harvest of the seeds we planted. That’s OK. Life’s like that. Many of my NBA friends cautioned me against the kind of seed sowing that felt appropriate given the circumstances for exactly this reason. But this particular situation made it all the more necessary, though. Part of the reason to reject fear and plow on was exactly because fear had been the dominant motivator of the actions of too many for too long.

Well Sam, I hope this is the harvest you planted for.