Philadelphia 76ers: Jason Kidd firing proves Sam Hinkie was right

Even the best coaches can’t when a championship with just one player, with Kidd’s firing highlighting the genius of ex-Philadelphia 76ers GM Sam Hinkie.

For better or for worse, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks have a lot in common.

Both franchises are young, have players who competed for the 2017 NBA Rookie of the Year award and both are currently fighting tooth and nail for a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

But unlike the Bucks, Brett Brown‘s squad isn’t built around just one star.

Sure, both the Sixers and the Bucks have a player represented in the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference All-Star starting five, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo respectively, but unlike the Bucks, who live or die on the Greek Freak’s shoulders, the Sixers truly play like a team.

When Sam Hinkie started his controversial run as the Sixers general manager back in 2013, he explicitly stated that he believed teams couldn’t win as it was previously constructed and set out on a near half-decade long fever dream in blind pursuit of acquiring high-profile, appreciating assets in a three-year-long search for stars.

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And stars he found.

While watching the team win only 75 games in four seasons was at times incredibly hard to stomach, we now have bona fide NBA stars like Embiid and Ben Simmons to thank for it, and a steady pipeline of young, talented players like Dario Saric, Richaun Holmes, T.J. McConnell, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Markelle Fultz who all contributed in their own ways to the teams current success.

Which is why Brett Brown still has a job, and Jason Kidd, a 10 time NBA All-Star point guard, just lost his.

While the Bucks have been far more competitive than the Sixers over Kidd’s three-year tenure, the team still only produced a 139-152 record, and other than Antetokounmpo, possessed no viable secondary star.

Sure, the team does have promising center John Henson, and 2017 Rookie of the Year winner Malcolm Brogdon on their roster, but neither players has truly stepped up in a way that’s translated to wins in 2017.

Though far from the straw that broke the camel’s back, in the 76ers most recent contest against the Bucks, a game in which both Brogden and Antetokoumpo both sat out, Kidd’s squad looked absolutely unmatched against a near full strength Sixers squad, and quietly scampered back to Milwaukee with their tails between their legs after losing 116-94.

Now the Sixers haven’t exactly been world-beaters in the handful of games Embiid hasn’t appeared in so far this season, having only won two of a possible nine, the team’s roster is loaded with enough young, surging talent to remain competitive regardless of who’s in the starting five.

And more importantly, the 76ers are playing the long game.

Much like the Sixers of yore, the Bucks want to remain competitive while they retool their roster, and will likely continue to consistently finish right around the .500 mark as long as they have Antetokoumpo on the floor. While his ability to single-handedly anchor an otherwise unimpressive team should be commended, it also prevents the team from selecting high enough in the NBA Draft to find him a suitable partner in crime.

Now sure, the Bucks could always go out and sign a high-priced, big name free agent, but for a small town franchise like Milwaukee, they neither have the money nor the draw to swing such a move. They could continue to go after disgruntled players from other teams, like with their recent acquisition of Suns‘ castaway Eric Bledsoe, but these are simply band-aids and not a true solution to the underlying problem.

Though he may be the butt of many a joke, the unfortunate situation in Milwaukee only confirms that Hinkie was right all along in that a team needs to put together a collection young stars to build a winning program in the NBA.

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Though it wasn’t always easy to watch, those who stood by the team through the last five seasons can now wear Trust the Process as a badge of honor and have been supremely rewarded for their undying loyalty with one of the league’s most promising young cores. While the Philadelphia 76ers may never win a championship with the young core of Embiid, Simmons, and Fultz, they surely have a better chance than the Milwaukee Bucks, and that hope is worth the struggles.