He drafted MCW and decided to trade him
before he got lucky that two orgs ahead of him passed on a generational talent in Embiid that they just had to wait a year for. Same thing happened with Simmons, he sat his first year just like Embiid.
If a GM can't sell the owner on a vision that requires patience to acquire the best talent possible for championship level success (like Presti is doing with the notoriously cheap Clay Bennett right now) then that GM shouldn't be in charge of the program.
It's crazy that I find myself advocating for this, as I'm all about developing and nurturing a culture and building something sustainable, but the truth of the matter is this league is just not built for that with the salary cap, the regional/geographical advantages some cities have and then the state by state tax variables.
It's simply not a even playing field Rich.
I can't say I was a fan of Hinkie and the process either until I read this book just a few months ago that really takes you behind the scenes of his whole process, the Josh Harris ownership groups engagement/involvement with him, and how it was all undermined and nearly sabotaged by a meddling Silver and the Colangelos.
The biggest takeaway from that book is how revolutionary Hinkies thinking and approach to setting Philly up to not just be competitive, but ultimately be contenders after 10 years of being stuck on the treadmill of mediocrity that they were on (Jrue Holiday, Igoudala, Thaddeus Young and the Ghost of Andrew Bynum was what he inherited btw) before he started his process. He found the right developmental coach willing to roll up his sleeves, got ownership onboard and had their buy-in and ultimately, left them with 2 franchise players and more bullets in the chamber to build around them with (if he was never fired, they would have had Embiid, Simmons and Tatum probably).
Ultimately, for the landscape of the current NBA, it worked. Silver be damned.
I like
@Derek recommendation for fixing the broken landscape of the NBA he posted in another thread. But until then or until something is negotiated in the next CBA to remedy it, it looks to be a "haves and haves not" league of championship level talent colluding to win rings in major cities.