Right now, the hearts of “process trusters” everywhere are broken. They innocently scrolled through their twitters only to see ESPN’s Marc Stein report that Sam Hinkie had stepped down as general manager of the 76ers. The report was met with immediate shock and disbelief. Stein is as good of a reporter as there is, but how could this have happened? Sure, the Sixers are in the midst of a terrible season but no one expected Hinkie to leave in this way. The initial thought is that he may have been forced out, but later reports indicated that he choose to resign when the organization wanted to add another voice to the front office. Hinkie rebuffed the idea of working with Sixers President of Basketball Operations Jerry Colangelo’s son Bryan. I don’t really blame Hinkie here. He already accepted having to work with Jerry, why should he choose to deal with this blatant nepotism?
So Hinkie has left and it seems as though the Sixers have indeed decided to hire Bryan Colangelo after one of the least thorough searches for a general manager ever. Bryan has previously worked as the general manager for the Phoenix Suns and the Toronto Raptors. His Raptors tenure was a disaster, as he made a series of short sighted moves that set the franchise back in the long term and actually hurt their record in the short term. It’s not that Colangelo has no credentials or might not have gotten another job somewhere. The problem is that it seems as though the Sixers hired the son of their recently appointed president (who does not live in Philadelphia) without a thorough search. Hinkie was not perfect, but I would certainly prefer him to Colangelo. Sam made some mistakes but his overall philosophy was solid. He took risks because he wanted to build a winner. He didn’t want to bring in stopgaps and create some mediocre team. The franchise had down enough of that over the past 10 years. Sam truly cared about basketball and about building a championship team. I’m not sure I can trust either Colangelo to do that.
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Still, Hinkie’s work might all not be for nothing. He has helped the team. The roster, draft picks and cap situation are in a much better place than three years ago. This team has legitimate talent and assets. Sure, a lot of it hinges on the health on an injured big man in Joel Embiid, but even if he doesn’t work out, the cupboard isn’t bare by any means. This team has young and talented players on good contracts. They have cap space to target young free agents with. They have three or even possibly four first round picks in June’s draft. They project to bring over talented Croatian Dario Saric, who is playing lights out and has improved every year as a professional. It may be hard to count on things that aren’t here yet but we also can’t pretend like they don’t exist.
Now, the Sixers need to use these assets in order to build an actual team and begin to compete. Someone needs to consolidate these assets. My pick would have been Sam Hinkie, but instead we get Bryan Colangelo. This is the hardest part of the whole process and now we are stuck with a general manager who has failed twice before. Maybe Colangelo has learned and will do a great job. Maybe Sam left enough assets that even Bryan won’t be able to screw it up that much. Maybe they get all the draft luck this year and in future years and Sam Hinkie becomes an Ed Wade like figure. Still, the Sixers will never be the same. Someone new is in charge. Someone we don’t know or trust. Someone who will do things a different way and might not use all the tools at his disposal efficiently.
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This really comes down to a problem with Josh Harris and the ownership group. The same owners who implemented a failed power sharing structure with Ed Stefanski, Rod Thorn and Doug Collins. Harris and company made this mistake in the past and have seemed to repeat it here. This group has been taken hostage by Jerry Colangelo all the way from Phoenix. They have let Colangelo bully them into hiring his son. Either they realized it would cause Sam to leave or they ignorantly thought he would be okay with a second loss of power in 5 months. I’m not sure which is worse. Harris has done a lot of good as an owner. He has heavily invested in the franchise, committing to a new practice. He actually cares about the team unlike the previous owners who only concerned themselves with the hockey team that plays in the Wells Fargo Center. Still, you cannot make these kinds of haphazard decision and expect to build a good organizational culture. The Sixers front office and power structure are a complete mess right now and that’s on ownership.
All of this really is the antithesis of the process and the fans deserve better. This team has so many diehard fans. Fans who have watched one of the worst teams ever for 3 straight years. Fans who show up for lottery parties and bus trips to away games. Fans who spend all their time listening and reading about a team that had no business generating that kind of buzz. The fans watched this terrible team flounder for three years on the premise of a process and a man that gave them hope. Now, that plan has been prematurely cut short and it is so disrespectful to these fans who have poured their hearts and souls into this team. It’s just such a bad look. The team lost the casual fans years ago and now they are going to lose the diehards too. What a way for an era to end. I joked that The Process died with Jakarr Sampson, but tonight, we have seen it come to its actual end. Goodnight Sweet Process.
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