Insider Q&A Session With Scott O'Neil (Notes Inside)

[Xepa777]

***UPDATE***

Okay it was Scott not Hinkie, my bad. But lots of juicy insights inside from the season ticket holder event tonight.


(There were a lot of stupid questions that he obviously couldn’t answer on roster direction so I’m not taking notes of that).

1) The thing he’s most proud of this season is that opposing teams have constantly said that, for a team that’s supposed to tank, the Sixers have been the “hardest working opponent” they’ve faced. That’s the type of culture they want to build and why they installed the nutrition/conditioning programs.

2) Won’t say whether it will be a guard or center oriented offense, but he did say they’re looking for “grit and toughness” in their team identity. Implied that they wanted a nasty team.

3) Says the Harden situation will never happen to Philadelphia. Pointed to how the team was willing to amnesty Brand to sign Bynum. Team is willing to spend when the time is right.

4) Nerlens shoots with coach Brown 1 on 1 every day. They’re still doing 1 handed free throw shots but next month it moves to 2 handed shots. His agent, his medical staff, and the team knows specific benchmarks of performance (ie: vertical leap) that he has to reach before he’s allowed to be on the floor. It’s very transparent but he lost an inch off his leg in mass, so it’s unlikely he gets on the floor this year. He kept saying Noel’s targets for return are “incredibly aggressive.”

5) Hinkie would still draft Noel over MCW today despite what he knows now. This is an example of how Hinkie thinks as an analytics person, looking at probabilities and outcomes of player careers and impact on the floor (the way it came out was super praise for Noel, don’t interpret it as hating on MCW).

6) He told a story about how Hinkie went through 300 hours of advanced stats with lineup matchups with JVG in Houston but JVG played a different crunchtime lineup. Hinkie was like “what the ****” afterward but JVG said “this player was pouting so if I didn’t play him I knew he wouldn’t have a good road trip.” That example shows how Hinkie balances advanced stats and knows the importance of having a coach with those personnel insights to balance him. That was an important criteria when selecting a coach.

7) Apparently they did background research on 25 candidates for coaches (this may not be the literal number but the way it came out it kind of "slipped" so I feel like this is accurate). This process allows them to get a lot of insight about players from those candidates even if they didn’t end up becoming the coach.

8) He doesn’t know about future trades, but he knows that Hinkie LOVESSSSS to “deal.” So he said there will probably be a lot of activity going into the deadline. He expects it.

9) Players are FULLY aware that if we finish the season below the cap, they will get paid that extra amount

10) Practice facility is still on route for 2015 finish. Money is there, but with large cities there’s always beaurocratic stuff that needs to be worked out.

11) Says he doesn’t want to be a “middle of the pack” team. There’s more detail into this that he told us, but he made us promise not to share it online.

12) He said that my point about the Phoenix Suns medical staff spending and techniques was a really good point in relation to how much the team already spends on payroll each year and how many injuries have occurred the last 2 years in the NBA. Says they’re currently looking to Europe for some experimental therapies.

13) FROM WHAT I GATHERED: Kind of obvious but it’s nice to have confirmation…he heavily, heavily implied that the only 2 people on the team who are “core” are Noel/MCW.

14) There was almost a verbal fight that broke out about tanking during Q&A hahaha. One guy really went overboard and said “let’s lose every game” where XXX responded with “no one is trying to lose or miss free throws intentionally.” Duh, but there were so many stupid questions asked.

15) He generally agreed with my assessment that the future of the NBA will be geared toward minimum and maximum contracts (LeBron can only be paid $18 million, worse contracts are the $9 million ones). I really tried to push the importance of increased scouting spend hahaha, hopefully I made my point.

[JrueHK]

Pretty sure he won't answer this one but ask him who is number one on his draft boards.

[SJSF]

Will the Sixers be players in FA next year?

[SJSF]

Will the rebuilding process be strictly through the draft or will FA be a part of it

[MRxBLACK]

Just say thank you for leading the organization in an exciting direction and tell Mr. Hinkie he is 1,000,000x better than Billy King and Ed Stefanski. That's what I would do.

[eliasrapp98]

First yeah, I'd bow down to him. Then I'd ask him if he's open to a FA rebuild where we acquire multiple stars or if he's strictly trying to rebuild through the draft. If you got 2 I might ask him about Noel's state right now or what he values in a player when he drafts them. A potential guy (Wiggins) or a sure thing (Parker) without saying the names.

[SJSF]

Also thank you for making a great head coaching hire.

[Emseedubu]

What a great opportunity, glad to know he is offering that. I would ask him what style of player he wants to compliment this team with. More specifically what style of player would he play with MCW and Noel. Maybe this will get an idea as to who they might target in the draft and FA

[Sixerscan]

If you want to ask a question he might actually be able to answer concretely, ask if they have made any progress on the new practice facility.

[Mr Sixer]

If he won't tell you number one on his draft boards maybe ask him if he will be drafting players with their fit to the team in mind or if he will only pick who is the best player available (which seems like the analytic approach).

[PhilasFinest]

Ask him when he is gonna trade Turner,Hawes and young.

[ryst]

ask him why Turner don't shave because his beard and no mustache look doesn't work

[OleSchool]

Ask him where does he envision this organization being in 5 years i.e is he trying to turn us into the Spurs East

[KKell2507]

yea id like to know about the practice facility. building a new practice facility would hopefully squash any of this moving to newark nonsense.

[x-]

Ask him whether or not coming from the Rockets makes it easier or harder to deal with those guys (i.e. agree on trades), given that you'd think they'd value players similarly and know each others mind-games.

[Kova]

1. How long does he think the rebuilding period should last? 2 years, 4 years, 5 years?
2. Do they plan becoming a contender through the draft (longer period) or chasing FAs and superstars through trades?
3. Does he envision anyone from Turner, Thad and Hawes staying here long term?
4. Will Nerlens Noel play this season and when?
5. Can MCW become franchise guy, or are we still looking for a franchise guy in next draft or with trades?
6. Is he familiar with Dario Saric and his game (Croatian prospect for next draft) and what does he think of him?

I'm sure he wouldn't give proper answers to any of those questions, but it's worth a shot..

Thanks!

[Ming]

ask him about his fascination with 6-5 PGs, and if he would ever sign someone shorter than 6-4 lol

[76ciology]

Ask him to give the top three teams who did well rebuilding their teams?
-to know if he will opt for a quick turnaround or a series of losing season

Ask him if he would prefer a big three or a collective effort like the pacers?
-to know the future of TTH.

Ask him to rank the ways to get a franchise player, trades, via FA or draft.
- to know the his plans for our salary cap

[Xepa777]

From what I've read on this thread, I plan on asking about the practice facility. That was a great question.

Still waiting to hear some good ones. Come on guys, keep brainstorming hahaha. He's not going to give his opinion on specific prospects (tip his hat) or a preference for a big 3 / Pacers model (a lot of that is just situational). Of course he'll say MCW can be a franchise player...and he's not going to talk about status of any FAs other than a vague response.

I probably only have the opportunity to ask 1-2 official questions and maybe a few more in a private conversation afterwards. I want to talk to him about increased use of analytics / international scouting to find hidden prospects.

[underpressure]

Well, in light of all those injuries that have already happened this season, it would be interesting to hear about the state of the Philly medical staff and whether they are engaged in active injury prevention. Also, ask whether Hinkie is aware of the Suns program (interesting read: http://valleyofthesuns.com/2012/04/05/s ... ing-staff/ ) and if they seek to implement same or similar type of medical procedures.