NBA: Sixers: The superteam from the test tube

The Philadelphia 76ers have perhaps the most exciting young team in the NBA. So the man who laid the foundation stone for the team around Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons is ultimately right.

A 2.08 metre high Point Guard rushes through the Staples Center in a fast-break. He is played, dribbles once and then lets his supposed main rival for the Rookie of the Year Award out with a Eurostep, before he presses the ball into the basket as he passes by. Ben Simmons finishes the game against the Lakers with 18 points, 10 assists, 9 rebounds and 5 steals.

The 14th. It almost became the third triple double of his career. Simmons is a force of nature, even better than announced. When he becomes an all-star in the East this year, nobody should be surprised. Nevertheless, no one talks about him after this game.

A (at least) 2.13 meter high center moves to the basket, where one of the league’s better shot blockers stands in his way. He dances around him, also by Eurostep, and puts the ball effortlessly into the basket. A short time later he unpacked a Dream-Shake a la Hakeem Olajuwon, before that he already scuttled two threesomes. Joel Embiid ends the game with 46 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 blocks.

And somewhere a little man sits and nods. His plan worked out. Even if he’s no longer a part of it.

Sam Hinkie’s “Process”strategy of Sam Hinkie, the ex-GM of the Sixers “gone” in April 2016, has been explained often enough, so here is just the short form: You should get really bad before you can get good. Several seasons were given away by the Sixers to get high draft picks. Victories were actively prevented by management for years.

This strategy was accompanied with a lot of hatred and dislike, understandably enough. All the more so as it seemed as if Hinkie would regularly bet on the wrong horse, for example, when he drafted Jahlil Okafor in front of Kristaps Porzingis, or in 2013 he missed the chance to draft Giannis Antetokounmpo twice, even though the latter would have fitted into the Sixers Plan as a (former) long-term project.

Even the Sixers themselves sooner or later had enough and put Jerry Colangelo in front of him in 2016, even at the insistence of the NBA. A little later, he also brought his son Bryan to Philly – Hinkie recognized the signs of the times and went “by himself”. He bid farewell with a kind of manifesto in which he reiterated all the moves of his tenure.

For outsiders, this seemed petty at the time, but many Sixers fans nevertheless went to the barricades and damned the new front office. Embiid himself honored Hinkie on every occasion by completely internalizing his mantra “Trust the Process” – Hinkie had left behind a cult. Today we can say: He has also created the most exciting young team in the league.

His signature can be found everywhere in the squad today. Simmons wasn’t picked by him anymore, but Philly got the No. 1-Pick only because of Hinkies “work”. Dario Saric was acquired by him via draft-day trade for Elfrid Payton, although the Croatian played in Europe for two years.

Nik Stauskas was picked up by Hinkie in one of the most one-sided trades of modern times together with a pick swap from Sacramento, T. J. McConnell came as an Undrafted Free Agent for a full gasoline tank and a bag of potato chips.

By the way, just like Robert Covington, whom Hinkie negotiated a four-year contract for 4.6 million dollars in 2014, of which only 400,000 dollars were initially guaranteed. The deal was so legendaryly cheap that it was declared a “Hinkie Special” in NBA circles.

Meanwhile, Covington is such a good player that the sixers have given him a $15 million salary increase this week with the greatest pleasure. There has never been a greater increase in salary within one season.

But the crown jewel – and Hinkies biggest problem at the same time – was embiid. Hinkie decided in 2014 at 3. Place for the Cameroonian, although he had a broken foot. He waited with a grind of teeth when Embiid had to give up the first two seasons completely.

Paradoxically enough, if Embiid had made his debut a few months earlier, Hinkie might still be in office with the Sixers. His rookie season was historic, despite a limit of minutes and 31 stakes. Philly performed like a 50-victory team last season when Embiid was there; maybe it could really work this season.

You still want to be careful with the hype because you have no idea if Embiid stays healthy. Whenever he gets fouled up or goes down, not only Sixers fans hold their breath out of fear – but that also speaks for him. Because when he plays, there’s no more fascinating talent in the NBA.

In a league full of “Unicorns”, Embiid looks like the ultimate boss on his best days. He combines Olajuwon-esque footwork and Shaq-style power with a good range to behind the three-line, he unpacks Eurosteps and Power-Dunks, offensively there is nothing he can’t do, even though he is still a turn-over factory. He is making progress in fitting after last season’s definition of a black hole.

What also sets him apart from the other young supertalents in the league is that Embiid not only dominates offensively, he is already one of the best defenders. If the Big Man stands on the court, Philly has a defensive rating of 96.4, which is currently the second best rating of the NBA. Without him, the Sixers defend themselves at the level of the Cavaliers (110.6), who are currently the worst defenders in the league.

“He’s a problem,”said Lakers coach Luke Walton on Wednesday after Embiid had taken his team apart completely. That’s him – if he stays healthy or gets fit. According to his own statement, the 23-year-old is only 50 percent fit as a fiduciary, having had to suspend large parts of the preparation.

A lot of things have been going on in Philly with him, but not everything since this season. Simmons has already indicated that he is bringing a revolutionary talent package. He is still waiting for the first threesome of his NBA career, but apart from the litter he doesn’t lack anything. Especially his passing game is sensational – the rookie currently plays the fifth most assists (7,7) of the league.

“It’s unbelievable to fit like that as a rookie,”said his coach Brett Brown,”He can score-and that helps, but it’s not mandatory. Simmons is even better than announced,” he does not necessarily have to hit litters to be effective. The past year, in which he was banned from watching, has made his game ripen enormously compared to his college year.

Together they form a duo that makes the Sixers fans dream. The fact that this year’s No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz has so far looked disastrous in his four appearances and has been injured since then has almost degenerated into a marginal note – there could hardly be a more meaningful testament to the potential of the young sixers.

Of course, they have to achieve this first. There are no guarantees for this, for Embiids Gesundheit anyway not. I don’t even begin to feel that we have arrived,”Brown told The Ringer earlier this week.

Neither are they. But with every Embiid Dreamshake, every Simmons No-Look pass, every RoCo threesome, the process is a little bit advanced. Just as Hinkie once imagined.