christian buschardt

The former 76ers GM stole years from the franchise by intentionally losing

The Philadelphia 76ers have been on the rise since the addition of Sam Hinkie, well actually they were on the decline for the most part. That was Sam Hinkie's method, tanking like tanking has never been done before to then with the idea of getting the lowest record to secure the highest picks in the draft. In Sam Hinkie's defense, it worked... Somewhat.

At the arrival of Hinkie, the new GM of the franchise, decided on ruining the organization in its entirety. In the summer of 2013, Hinkie traded the player with an ounce of hope for the Sixers to the Pelicans, and all for a couple of first round picks. After that, the team went on to record the lowest record in the league, in all of Sam Hinkie's time with the 76ers, the team went on a 47-195 run. Almost 200 losses in nearly 250 games. But Hinkie never budged, he in fact often went to the press and would say nonsensical stuff like "trust the process", and surely enough the Sixers fans started using it too. The real reason why "trust the process" became a thing, is simply because Sixers fans had been on such a long losing streak that a beam of hope was all they needed to chant "trust the process" during games.

As I said in the beginning, Sam Hinkie's little plan actually worked. By acquiring multiple first round lottery picks the sixers were able to get; Markelle Fultz, Nerlens Noel, Dario Milicic, Ben Simmons, and Joel Embiid. Nowadays, Joel Embiid is the only player worth the trust of the process. Fultz forgot how to shoot, Noel couldn't rebound even at 210 cm, Dario Milicic wasn't cut for American basketball, and Ben Simmons never learned how to shoot.

Fortunately for the Sixers, they managed to gain a superstar out of their tanking, a tanking that lasted 3 years. We are talking about 3 years of fans watching their team get beat night after night, all to hear a failed General Manager say "trust the process". This is comparable to Unai Emery coaching Arsenal FC for 2 seasons even if he was rubbish from the get go.

Unfortunately, the Sixers did not have that many future picks after drafting Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz both as first picks, so the franchise had to build around what they had. But having two star players in Embiid and Ben Simmons can't be too bad right? It wasn't, the Sixers were actually pretty good and in the conversation for the playoffs, but like any story there is an end to the peak. That Peak ended when Ben Simmons decided to pass the ball when he was right under the hoop instead of dunking (dunking was his specialty). That lead to the Sixers to get eliminated in the second round of the 2021 playoffs. After the incident, the entire franchise turned against Ben Simmons, who decided to stop playing, even if he was still on contract. Luckily for the Sixers (again), the Nets were having similar issues due to star players not playing and decided on a trade together. Ben Simmons went to the Nets, and James Harden to the Sixers. The rest as we say is history.