Sixers hire Rockets Asst. GM Sam Hinkie

[76ciology]

Another thing that I'd also like to add.

The advanced statistics stuff takes pride in winning. And if you look at the Rockets they've always had mid 1st round picks since Morey took over. That means they always have a mediocre team on the floor for them until recently with the Harden acquisition. That also means that they are more inclined in having a mediocre team out there than tanking.

With this said, do you guys see us going through the same transition the Rox did?

+ Going mediocre again with our current core guys of Thad, Jrue, ET and Hawes.
+ Filling them with veterans/role players that can be backed up by advanced statistics.
+ Accumulating 1sts.

Then when the right time comes, we trade our core guys + picks for that star.

[PhilasFinest]

Perfect "complimentary" guys generally don't take up 20 million dollars of cap space.

Parsons is a much more versatile player than Thad( Better shooter,Defender,Scorer,ballhandler,etc) and still
On a 2nd round rookie scale.

First, I personally think Thad is better than Parsons (Sam Hinkie can defend me on this PER). Second, I think Parsons is going to get more than Thad's contract once his contract expires.

And again, I think long athletic forwards who has the size to match-up with Melo and LBJ is really valuable in this league.

Remember during the late part of the 90s and the early 2000, teams where hoarding big men to guard the Duncan's and the Shaq's of the league? Well, in this era, every team needs a forward who has a physique and athleticism like Thad. This also explains why the Spurs invested a lot in Kawhi Leonard because when the play-offs comes they'd be really handy.

Well I agree to disagree. I'd trade Thad for Parsons any day of the week.

Thad would be more valuable if he was a SF, but he isn't.

[ankle420breaker]

I'm glad we made this hire nice and early. Before we select our coach, before we make our decision on Bynum, before the draft. We'll learn a lot about Sam Hinkie over the next few months.

Anyone have any idea when they're planning on having the press conference?

[Kobblehead]

Perfect "complimentary" guys generally don't take up 20 million dollars of cap space.

Parsons is a much more versatile player than Thad( Better shooter,Defender,Scorer,ballhandler,etc) and still
On a 2nd round rookie scale.

First, I personally think Thad is better than Parsons (Sam Hinkie can defend me on this PER). Second, I think Parsons is going to get more than Thad's contract once his contract expires.

And again, I think long athletic forwards who has the size to match-up with Melo and LBJ is really valuable in this league.

Remember during the late part of the 90s and the early 2000, teams where hoarding big men to guard the Duncan's and the Shaq's of the league? Well, in this era, every team needs a forward who has a physique and athleticism like Thad. This also explains why the Spurs invested a lot in Kawhi Leonard because when the play-offs comes they'd be really handy.

Thad's a power forward. Just thought I'd reiterate that because you've mentioned 4 players in that post that play different positions than Thad.

[51X3RF4N]

My guess is Hinkie will want to re-sign Bynum. Weren't the Rockets super high on trying to get Bynum, and might still try during the offseason?

Maybe there's a conspiracy here where Hinkie agrees to come to Philly and gets a nice big paycheck from the Rockets for letting Bynum walk. LOL

Anyways, so yeah my guess is Bynum re-signed, Hinkie makes a few trades of current players for picks so he can build the team he wants, and then we suck for a bunch of years, fire Hinkie, suck for more years, suck some more, and then we suck. 15 years later, we might be a contending team, but doubtful.

[Bruteque]

My bad. I didn't know Morey wasn't the one who traded Battier for Gay. I've just associated Battier with Morey due to that article where Morey was defending Battier using his advanced statistics.

Morey was being groomed to take over as GM for Dawson at the time and Battier was very much Morey's advanced stats choice, as reported. Quite frankly, though, Battier is more valuable than Rudy Gay is.

- - -

What you have to remember about HOU though is that their owner Les Alexander doesn't want to tank. Every year, the most valuable commodities are handed out to the worst teams. It's just a lot easier to acquire a superstar when you have high lotto prospects like a Derick Favors or Eric Gordon in your pocket.

So the question for Morey and Hinkie was, given what they inherited under Alexander's mandate not to tank, how would they acquire stars without ever getting a pick higher than 14th? That was where Hinkie's contract valuation (and contract leverage) skill and player development focus became invaluable.

1) Acquired Carl Landry for a 2nd round pick, developed him then traded him and cap space for Kevin Martin and busty Jordan Hill, developed Hill and traded him for a 1st.
2) Signed Ariza, started him to increase his value, then traded him for Courtney Lee, developed Lee, then S&Ted him for early 2nd.
3) Signed depreciated Dalembert near the end of FA, played his value back up, then traded him to move up from 14 to 12, then selected Jeremy Lamb with the 12th pick.
4) Traded undrafted Mike James for Rafer Alston, played Alston's value up then traded him for Kyle Lowry, developed Kyle Lowry then traded him for a lotto pick.

The raw assets they started with above were a 1st (the 14th pick) and two 2nds. The end result was a stockpile of assets valuable enough to land James Harden.

A lot of it was Hinkie's contract evaluation and management. You can see some trends, like waiting until near the end of FA to sign a depreciated Carlos Delfino to a team-friendly contract then let him play his contract into an asset (see Dalembert). Signing 2nd rounder Budinger to a 4-year deal, developed him, then flipped him for a 1st (Terence Jones). Developed 14th pick Patrick Patterson, then flipped him for the 5th pick Thomas Robinson.

Unless you are LA, NY, or tanking, high-end assets don't just fall into your lap. Even if assets do fall into your lap, the ability to increase your asset pool is still invaluable, and Hinkie knows how to do that. Yeah, Harden becoming available was an opportunity, but would OKC traded Harden for the 14th pick and two 2nds? Heck no.

[PhilasFinest]

Brut thanks for that. That's great stuff.

Add in drafting chandler parsons and developing him.
Nabbing Patrick Beverley
Developing Greg Smith.


They seem to have mastered the art of gaining value out of something low and selling it high, which is something I like.
They were constantly bringing guys up from the dleague and other sources and trying to see if they can develop any value out of them....then if they did or before they would be forced to offer them money, they weren't fooled into it (like Philly would have) and moved it for another asset.

Even after getting Harden, they still have ample cap space and a good amount of young assets to potentially move to add bigger pieces around him.

I'm excited to see what's in store for us.

[Sixersftw]

With this said, do you guys see us going through the same transition the Rox did?

+ Going mediocre again with our current core guys of Thad, Jrue, ET and Hawes.
+ Filling them with veterans/role players that can be backed up by advanced statistics.
+ Accumulating 1sts.

Then when the right time comes, we trade our core guys + picks for that star.

I'd imagine our transition wil be very different. Houston got blindsided (sorta) by the loss of 2 superstars in a short period of time due to injury. On top of that it sounds like (thanks brut) ownership didn't want to ever rebuild so I'd imagine they were stuck w/ roleplayers from the Yao teams and thus middling picks. Our direction should be much easier to discern. We suck except for 2 players, one of them showing glimpses of being a really good player. We have to accumulate talent and assets first. The variable is Bynum but I try not to think about him anymore lol.

[Ben]

Ben i've always considered you one of the more sensible people on this forum and I respect your knowledge. So i'll ask this...Based on what we have seen so far do you think Evan Turner is a goner? I personally think his time is up in Philly. Not saying he can't be a good player but three years in the league and still no definite position, no consistancy, and no jump shot. Should we be looking at Tyreke Evans instead? I personally think Evans would be a friggin steal. Sacramento hasn't done him any justice these last couple of seasons. He was playing small forward for crying out loud! He'd clearly be a guard here.
I think Evans is every bit as talented as James Harden and would provide us with the same type of impact that Harden has provided for Houston.
Re-sign Bynum? Yeah if we can but I think we really need to try and base a trade for Evans. Offer up Turner and something else and it can get done in my opinion.

Sorry, I didn't see this post until just now. I appreciate the shout-out. I was just saying two things about Hinkie and Turner: (1) Hinkie uses advanced stats, a set of metrics that have never been kind to Turner; and (2) Hinkie's a new GM without any ties to the Turner draft pick, so he has no emotional investment in holding onto the player if things aren't working out.

And as a number of posters in this thread have attested, both the stats test and the "eye test" (by those who watch ET game in and game out) indicate that things aren't working out. I have absolutely nothing against Turner; I just haven't seen him as a guy to build a team around. I'm only guessing that Hinkie will look to get some value out of him if possible.

I have no idea who the "right" kind of players are going to be. Bruteque did a great job of listing Houston's recent, positive moves. I love the Thomas Robinson trade for its low cost and high potential reward. I would like Tyreke Evans on the Sixers (maybe a S&T involving Turner?) but I would never regard him as a savior. I don't put him in Harden's class. Harden was a much better college player and a much more well rounded pro once you got past his rookie season.

I wish it could be as simple as re-signing Bynum. A healthy Bynum would be a game-changer for the Sixers. They would just need to surround him with some excellent shooters and a secondary scorer or two. But I have the same opinion of Bynum's health that most posters here probably have. Bleah. So you get a guy like Hinkie to look for some underpriced value players (I've always liked Brandan Wright, for example) while he tries to stockpile young talent through the draft.

Fingers crossed.

[GoSixersBro]

Live announcement of Hinkie hiring is on CSN right now.

Here's a stream on Sixers.com: http://www.nba.com/sixers/live_stream.html

[PH1LLYSFINEST13]

Annddd Hinkie said," I consider Bynum 1 of the 1000's of free agents". Guess we know where he stands with that one.

[Sixerscan]

Another thing that I'd also like to add.

The advanced statistics stuff takes pride in winning. And if you look at the Rockets they've always had mid 1st round picks since Morey took over. That means they always have a mediocre team on the floor for them until recently with the Harden acquisition. That also means that they are more inclined in having a mediocre team out there than tanking.

With this said, do you guys see us going through the same transition the Rox did?

+ Going mediocre again with our current core guys of Thad, Jrue, ET and Hawes.
+ Filling them with veterans/role players that can be backed up by advanced statistics.
+ Accumulating 1sts.

Then when the right time comes, we trade our core guys + picks for that star.

That's not really an advanced statistics thing. It's a personal decision the Houston front office made based on the make up of their roster. Who knows if Hinkie even agreed with it. When Presti took over the Sonics/Thunder, he stripped the team and completely rebuilt it. Henigan is doing the same thing in Orlando.

I don't think we should assume that because the guy acknowledges advanced statistics that there's some absolute blue print he's going to follow. Analytics take advantage of market inefficiencies, and what those inefficiencies are change from year to year. Maybe this year the best thing to do is tank for a shot at Wiggins...

Plus analytics isn't all that goes into it.

[ankle420breaker]

He's obviously a sharp guy and said all the right things today. He's probably been instrumental in what Houston has done lately, but he's never had the luxury of making final decisions. With us, in our situation, he'll practically be forced to stamp his own blueprint and philosophy on a team in an abbreviated time-frame. New coach, draft, Bynum decision, cap space, personnel decisions. There's a lot of moves that lie ahead to which he'll either be cheered or jeered for.

Hopefully our new-found Hinkie mojo is the catalyst we need to right the ship.

[SJSF]

If he doesn't sign Bynum it's understood. Big risk. If he goes for it It's a swing for he fences idea which you can't really argue with. It's going to be interesting to see what he does.

[PhilasFinest]

I liked what I heard.

Especially the part where he said I'm not afraid to be aggressive in targeting specific individuals who i think are worth the risk, even if others don't necessarily agree with me. He pointed to the rockets being aggressive in offering Asik a deal, where some people shunned it but it turned out to be a good deal.

There's always the no brainier targets/moves, it's often a GM's ability to find players/assets outside the box that set them apart. Hopefully we've got that type of guy in Hinkie.

I'm really intrigued to see what this guys got in store for this offseason. Finally something to at least look forward to instead of bein able to predict the same old same old from our prior regime.

[Chamberlainship]

he's no Pat Croce. Hinkie and Harris speak the same business-school jargon.

Does anyone know how long Hinkie's contract is?

[P2K]

This guy scares the crap out of me after hearing him talk. Please don't have him turn out to be a complete blithering idiot.

And after the Larry Brown and John Nash interviews the past couple days on 94 WIP.....

[PhilasFinest]

This guy scares the crap out of me after hearing him talk. Please don't have him turn out to be a complete blithering idiot.

And after the Larry Brown and John Nash interviews the past couple days on 94 WIP.....

Can we get much worse than we've had?

It's a new face, new voice and new vision.

If it flops, o well. We had no direction or "plan" in place before anyways.

[Eta Carinae]

This guy scares the crap out of me after hearing him talk. Please don't have him turn out to be a complete blithering idiot.

And after the Larry Brown and John Nash interviews the past couple days on 94 WIP.....

Why?

[Skates]

Blithering idots give Kwame Brown a 2 year guaranteed deal when he should be on a year to year vet minimum at best. The blithering idiots just got swpet out the door, Hinkie may not end up being successful, but suggesting that he is an idiot seems to be as far from the truth as possible from what everyone around the league says about him.

Some in Philly won't like this guy because he isn't your blue collar, lunch pail type guy that allegedly fits the Philly stereotype. Too bad, this is a multi-million dollar enterprise he is running, not a road crew.