Two potential roads to success for the Sixers

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Like it or not, you can't argue the fact that Sam Hinkie has set the Sixers up well for the future.

Hinkie started planting the seeds two years ago when he traded Jrue Holiday on draft night for Nerlens Noel. That move started to bear fruit this season, as Noel finished third in Rookie of the Year voting, and in the just completed summer leagues, when Jahlil Okafor showed why he was projected as the top overall draft pick for much of his only season at Duke.

But why grow one tree when you can plant an orchard? The Sixers' future will be determined not only by the seeds Hinkie has used but also by those still in his pocket. In the next three seasons, the Sixers have seven first-round picks (slots still TBA). Will that be enough to bring them their first title since 1983? 

Let’s examine two different roads current contenders have taken:

1. Oklahoma City Thunder 

The Thunder wait their turn at the card table and played their hand. They continually added pieces through the draft and improved each year. 

Now, the Thunder did execute trades, which landed them extra picks to draft players like Jeff Green and Serge Ibaka. But once holding those picks, they didn't leverage them to chase big-name stars. Oklahoma City stayed the course and drafted where slotted.

The downside to this approach is twofold. Once you’re recruiting a team, the process must be perfect. As a result, if you are fortunate to hit on the majority of your picks, it can form logjams at certain positions (as the Sixers saw this year).

And then you have to pay them all.

Oklahoma City, as odd as it may sound, actually drafted too well, landing Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Green, Ibaka and James Harden. To pay Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka, Green and Harden had to go. They traded Green to the Celtics, and after offering him a deal that was less than the max, they sent Harden to the Rockets. 

They are now still in the process of building a roster to fully complement their two stars in Durant and Westbrook, all while hoping those stars don’t view free agency as an exodus.

2. Houston Rockets

As the Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming era came to an end, Hinkie's former employer had a solid supporting cast of Luis Scola, Shane Battier, Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin.

Contracts of veteran players killed their hopes of being a big player in the free-agent market. The Rockets were forced to take risks on former lottery players such as Jonny Flynn, Hasheem Thabeet and Terrence Williams, hoping they would live up to their draft potential. None did.

So Houston spent the next three seasons trading a litany of big names — e.g. McGrady, Lowry, Marcus Camby, Samuel Dalembert and Courtney Lee — to position itself to sign superstars — namely Harden and Dwight Howard.

The Sixers made similar moves when they purged their roster after letting go of coach Doug Collins. Houston acted like the monopoly player with the entire bank, willing to buy up property of any player struggling for cash. The Rockets realized that the Thunder would not be able to pay Harden, so they approached Oklahoma City to work out a trade. Houston sent two players and a collection of three picks for Harden. Three picks for an MVP candidate. Not a bad haul. That process, illustrated in a PowerPoint presentation, wowed Sixers ownership and landed Hinkie the president and general manager job (much more on Hinkie here, if you've never read it).

Then, with Harden as a recruiting tool, Houston landed Howard.

The Sixers haven't been players in free agency since Hinkie's arrival, but come 2016-17, they could have attractive options, such as Durant, Westbrook, Chandler Parsons, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jeff Teague, Blake Griffin, Ibaka, Howard, Stephen Curry, Derrick Rose, Victor Oladipo, Bradley Beal and Harrison Barnes.

Regardless of whether you agree with Hinkie's plan, it's tough to argue with the team's potential. You can complain about the win total for a team that would lose to whatever team LeBron James plays for anyway, or you could be open to the possibilities that the GM has brought to the Sixers' organization so far.

I am by no means on board with every move the team makes, but I realize that Hinkie has planted several seeds in the Sixers' yard, and his legacy in Philadelphia will be determined by which fruits they bear.

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