Aiight, so it's been a week since we traded Michael Carter Williams...our so called point guard of the future and I cant even begin to count how many folk have got at me about why would we trade our best player who's the reigning rookie of the year? Well, everybody needs to just slow down for a sec. See, nowadays everybody is a prisoner of the moment. You gotta have your opinion about what happened at 5pm by 5:02pm to post on your blog or to chop it up about it on your podcast the same day. See, for me I like to take a sec and let things sink in before before I chime in with my two cents. Welp, I've taken my minute and here are my two cents.
First off let me say that I've never had beef with Sam Hinkie since he came to my city back in '13. His first major move was trading Jrue Holiday and everybody in my city lost their mind. Me? I was good with the trade cause I've never been a fan of Jrue Holiday. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking the same thing everybody else was thinking who was coming at my neck, "but he was an all star this year! How the hell do you trade our all star point guard?!?!?!" Welp, let's look at it like this. First of all Jrue Holiday was an all star...in the east...in a year where Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo AND Deron Williams were all hurt. Dude, I could've made the all star roster that year. So let's be honest, Jrue was an all star by default. So trading dude and coming up with Nerlens Noel and the Pelicans top 5 protected pick was a come up in my eyes. My only side eye at Hinkie for that move was, "damn, we just got rid of a big man with knee problems and now we trade for another?" But from that point on I understood Hinkie was a gambler. A gambler with VERY big balls. In fact, I started calling dude Danny Ocean, who was George Clooney's character from Ocean's 11 cause I feel like what he's trying to do in Philly is what Danny was trying to do in Vegas. And that's is, he's trying to pull off one of the greatest heists in the NBA.
Now, while most folk don't dig the whole tanking thing, I'm good with it. I mean, I watched my squad (post Iverson) get to the playoffs every year to just get knocked out in the 1st round (and remember when we did get to the 2nd round back in '12 we beat the Bulls WITHOUT D. Rose and we still almost lost game 6) which was wack to me. So, if that means we gotta tank for a season, so be it. Plus I wanted Wiggins along with the rest of my city and this seemed to be the best way to get him. Well, we all know that #1 pick alluded us thanks to what the NBA OWED the Cavs (more on that here) and we ended up with the #3 pick which we scooped up ANOTHER big man who had a broken foot AND back issues who 9 times outta 10 wasn't gonna play a minute in a Sixers uni this year just like Nerlens didn't hoop for us a year before.
Now, remember when I said that Hinkie was like Danny Ocean? See, with those Ocean 11 movies every piece of the heist has to work PERFECTLY to get the big score. Everybody's moves gotta be on point...or the heist doesn't work. Welp, everybody wasn't doing their part so the heist was falling apart. But if you've ever been a hustler, you gotta understand that if the heist doesn't work the first time, you don't just walk away from it. You just reorganize...and try again. And that's what's Hinkie's doing. So, yeah our plan was to tank for one year and that 1 year has turned into 2 years. But again, what would Danny Ocean do? Just walk away? Nah. So, once word got to ear about the Knicks sitting Melo for the rest of the year to get Okafor with the #1 pick (and trust, the Knicks will get the #1 pick...yup, me with more of my NBA conspiracy theories) Danny (aka Hinkie) had to do something right? So, let's trade away our best player (which ain't saying much) so we can race with the Knicks to see who will not only have the absolute worst starting 5 in the league but who will have the worst record in the league to grab that number 1 pick. Now, I know someone will chime in with the whole "statistics show that the team with the worst record doesn't always get the number 1 pick" and that may be true, but I don't know about ya'll but the more ping pong balls we got sure sounds damn good to me.
Now, back to trading Michael Carter Williams which feels like deja vu to me cause now everyone was shouting, "but MCW is the reigning rookie of the year." But just like with Jrue, he was the rookie of the year by default. I mean, let's not act like this rookie of the year race has been close in recent years cause it hasn't. Plus, the one thing my man Fish is always telling me is that MCW can't shoot the rock and obviously Danny wants a point guard who can cause I'm 100% proof positive that if MCW looked more like Penny Hardaway back in '94 that he'd still be wearing the red and blue but guess what? He ain't Penny and won't ever be anything close to Penny. So why keep him around? Just cause he's the reigning rookie of the year? Nah. That's dumb. And best believe Danny ain't dumb. Plus, I'm sure from our coaching staff have been working day and night with dude to get him to be a better shooter and I'm sure the diagnosis was simply...it ain't happening. So why stay with somebody you KNOW ain't the one? Hell, I think it's commendable that Danny knew dude wasn't for us and got rid of him. Trust me, it's A LOT of folk out here that are stuck in a dead in marriage cause they didn't have the balls to do what Danny just did. So, we get rid of another point guard who, not only didn't fit into our system but probably won't be that good in the long run (how's Jrue doing out in NO? All Star squad this year?) and got the Laker top 5 protected pick for this year's draft and top 3 the next 2 years and guess what? Sounds good to me. Why? Well, let me break it down so it can forever and consistently be broke.
Now remember, with a heist, EVERYTHING has to work together and work together perfectly. So, do me this justice and close your eyes and imagine this. This year we end up getting the number 2 pick in the draft, (which is fine with me) and we scoop up DeAngelo Russell outta Ohio State or Emmanuel Mudiay outta China to run point for us. Me personally, I lean towards Russell cause I actually get to watch him play vs. looking at a highlight reel of Mudiay. And if you follow me on twitter you already know that whenever I tweet about Russell I always use the hashtag #Sixers cause dude is a problem. But I don't think you can go wrong with either one. Now that's only one part of the plan coming together. Next we need Embid to come back 100% healthy. No lingering back or foot problems. Next (yeah, there's another "next."Remember a heist has A LOT of moving pieces) we need that Laker's pick we copped from that MCW trade to fall out the top 5 so we can grab my dude Stanley Johnson outta Arizona. Now, that one I'm hedging my bets on cause the Lakers absolutely suck this year but it's only top 3 protected for the next 2 years...more on that later. Now, if all of those things come together we'll be looking at a starting line up of Russell or Mudiay at the point, Stanley Johnson at the 2 or 3, a healthy Nerlens at the 4 and a healthy Embid at the 5 and to me that's the best starting line up we've had in the last 10 years. Now, I never said that squad is gonna have a winning season (but keep in mind that in the east you can make the playoffs with a losing record) or that we'll even have a losing record that's good enough to make the playoffs but what I do know is we'll at least be exciting to watch. And that's much better then what we've been for the past 3-4 years. And don't act like we were "showtime at the forum" before Danny stepped in and ruined everything in Philly. Now, even if we don't get the Laker's pick this year but Ressell, Nerlens and Embid still put up some numbers on the board and look better then we have in years. We still come back in 2016 with that Laker's top 3 protected pick so next year we get a high lottery pick which sounds good. Now, keep in mind I didn't say "another" lottery pick cause I'm hoping with those 3 players that we don't fall into the lotto again. Sounds like a come up for a point who really wasn't rookie of the year and can't shoot. So at the end of the day, take a minute and go watch the Ocean's trilogy and remember, when you're planning a heist and everything doesn't go according to plan, you don't give up and walk away. Nah, you just reorganize and try again. I just hope this is the last year of us reorganizing and trying again.
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