It’s time for the Philadelphia 76ers to bring back Sam Hinkie

The Philadelphia 76ers are the team that Sam Hinkie built. It’s time to bring back the former general manager to finish what he started.

The Philadelphia 76ers‘ search for a new general manager is getting to be as embarrassing as the way they lost their last general manager.

After Bryan Colangelo was fired because his wife used fake Twitter accounts to criticize the team and its players, the search began for a replacement. Philadelphia should be an attractive destination for any front office leader. The Sixers have an exciting young and successful team, a passionate fanbase, salary cap space and a slew of draft picks in 2019 and beyond. But several top candidates have turned down the job, including the Denver Nuggets GM Arturas Karnisovas and the Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey.

So why are the 76ers having such a difficult time filling the position?

First, because the new GM reportedly won’t be in charge. Mainly though, it’s because the team is set and no matter what the new boss does, the old boss will get all the credit, with the old boss being the legendary Sam Hinkie.

Let’s face it. The Philadelphia 76ers are Sam Hinkie’s team. He drafted Joel Embiid and made it possible for the team to draft Ben Simmons. Hinkie traded Elfrid Payton to the Orlando Magic on draft night for the rights to Dario Saric. He signed Robert Covington out of the NBA D-League. He left the 76ers with the core to compete for a championship and the cap space and draft picks to build on that core.

Hinkie was forced out of his job by ownership because the NBA didn’t like that he was able to manipulate contracts, league rules and the NBA Draft process to build a team that will compete for an NBA championship. Hinkie never broke a single rule or guideline, but he discovered how to use the system the NBA established to make a bad team great. And the league hated him for it.

But since Hinkie has left the 76ers, the team has been struggling to complete the Process.

Let’s take a look at some of the post-Hinkie problems the 76ers have had to suffer. Of course, there was the Colangelo burner accounts debacle. But before he left, Colangelo traded two first round picks to the Boston Celtics to move up in the draft and select Markelle Fultz with the top overall pick. The Celtics used the third pick they obtained from the 76ers to select Jayson Tatum. Tatum torched the 76ers in the NBA playoffs while Fultz rode the bench.

Part of Hinkie’s process was to save enough money to trade for or sign a to-five player as the final move to turn a good team into a dynasty. Interim GM Brett Brown was unable to sign either LeBron James or Paul George, or pull off a trade with the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard. No one can say if Sam Hinkie could’ve worked his magic to acquire either player, but we know for certain that the current leadership failed.

76ers fans chant “Trust the Process.” Joel Embiid chose “The Process” as his nickname. It is not uncommon to see a “In Sam We Trust” sign at the Wells Fargo Center. Sam Hinkie has proved that he can build a team. He had a five-year plan and was only given three and a half.

There were at least eight struggling NBA franchises last year trying to replicate what Sam Hinkie did in Philadelphia, but simply tanking without building assets, restructuring contracts and controlling the salary cap is not enough. Sam Hinkie acquired more draft picks and cleared more salary cap in his three years than any general manager in NBA history. The Hinkie posers didn’t seem to have a strategy other than losing games to get a better draft pick.

Still, all of the tanking franchises are afraid to hire Hinkie and suffer the wrath of the NBA commissioner’s office.

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Sam Hinkie is now a professor of sports management at Stanford University’s graduate business school. He was recently hired as a consultant for the Denver Broncos of the NFL. He was successful as a consultant with the Houston Texans and the San Francisco 49ers before he came to the Sixers.

There is waning confidence in the current front office among the Philadelphia fanbase because of a series of alleged missed opportunities with Fultz, LeBron and Kawhi. Sixers fans still trust the Process, they just don’t trust those who inherited it. It’s time to bring back its creator.

The NBA might balk at the prospect of bringing Hinkie back into its fold, but banning Hinkie from the league would also require banning the wannabe GMS who tried to follow in his footsteps. The league can’t single out Hinkie because he was the first and better at the same thing so many attempted to do in his wake.

If the 76ers don’t win a championship, the fans and the media will blame the current ownership. If they do win a championship, the credit will go to Hinkie. The owners have nothing to lose and everything to gain by welcoming Hinkie back into the front office. If the 76ers win, the owners will  then get the credit for standing up to the league and bringing back the brain that built the team.

The best way to complete the Process is to bring back the man who started it. The 76ers need Sam Hinkie.