11:57pm: According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is indeed interesting in hiring Hinkie, despite claims to the contrary. Per Wojnarowski, Ranadive seeks “a front-office executive to usurp Vlade Divac’s authority and turn the franchise’s general manager into a “figurehead.”
While the Kings have discussed retaining Divac in a player-personnel role, the “overall management of basketball operations,” would be transferred to someone else. The DeMarcus Cousins trade raised “significant questions inside and outside the organization,” Wojnarowski writes. Despite this, the Kings are hesitant to pair coach Dave Joerger with a GM that didn’t hire him; a situation reminiscent of Pete D’Alessandro‘s ill-fated pairing with Michael Malone.
8:29pm: The Kings have issued a statement dismissing their reported interest in Hinkie, as Sean Cunningham of ABC10 relays (via Twitter): “The Kings are not hiring Sam Hinkie and have no plans to bring anyone in above Vlade.”
While that statement sounds definitive, it’s worth noting that this is the same organization that insisted all year long that DeMarcus Cousins wouldn’t be traded, right up until he was traded.
7:08pm: The Kings have received permission from the Sixers to speak to Sam Hinkie about a front office role, Marc Stein and Zach Lowe of ESPN.com report (Twitter links). Any team looking to speak with Hinkie needs to gain permission since the executive agreed to such terms as part of his non-compete agreement with Philadelphia.
Sacramento has been quietly looking for an executive to put ahead of Vlade Divac in the organization’s hierarchy, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports (Twitter link). Wojnarowski tweets that the team’s minority owners have been pressuring Vivek Ranadive to make the front office “more professional.”
Wojnarowski adds that Ranadive has spoken with Hinkie. However, Hinkie may not be interested in the gig. Hinkie has been away from the NBA since parting with the Sixers.
“Kings interested in ‘Trusting The Process'”
As they say…. when it’s broke… keep breaking it
First good news for kings fans in a long time
More Like more interested in tanking.
I feel like they honestly should give it a go. Not as elaborate a tank, but take on bad contracts for picks, and don’t target the injured rookies to prolong to process, but cycle through the bottom half of the roster to uncover the Richuan Holmes’s and Covingtons among them, but actually rebuild the same way everyone else does, and Hinkie could be good.
Sixers are still in the lottery.
Meanwhile, Boston, Dallas, and Utah have all retooled and become remained competitive. Suns have a better core and the Lakers can bring in better FAs. Nobody wants to be drafted or sign with Philly.
Sorry, the myth of Hinkie is such a fan born conspiracy theory I am waiting for someone to open up his tomb and find Geraldo Rivera.
The 76ers have been above .500 once since 2004-2005. To put how long that is into perspective, someone who was graduating from high school are now turning if not already 30 years old .
Wow, I didn’t know Sam Hinkie ran that organization since 2004… Oh wait, no, The Process began in 2012.
And the same could be said about Minnesota. Both teams are trending up though.
The 76ers have been above .500 once since 2004-2005. To put how long that is into perspective, someone who was graduating from high school are now turning if not already 30 years old.
Not sure why anyone would want anyone involved in the ongoing failure of a franchise.
Hinkie brought the Sixers to embarassing lows, but also set them up for some good highs. Injuries and too many big men have made the process seem like a wrong decision, but it’s not like he could’ve forseen everything bad happening. Noel was going to be out for his rookie year and Embiid had surgery just before the draft, so he loses some points for that but a healthy Embiid has been pretty dominant, likely would’ve been the first overall pick in his draft year, and it’s not like Hinkie could’ve projected Embiid being out for two years before playing a game. Simmons was a no-brainer to tank for and while the Okafor pick was a head scratcher, at the time, no one else had the draft stock to warrant being picked No. 3 overall. Hindsight is great, but not many people would’ve thought Okafor would’ve been this hurt or Porzingas would’ve been the better player (up to this point) or even that someone like Devin Booker would’ve been as good as he has been two years ago.
Um
Last time I checked, the Sixers are STILL in the lottery. SO I guess Hinkie did not do such a wonderful job?
I love that nobody has seen Simmons play against anyone of any talent since he got blown out by 30 by Texas A&M and still he is the next Magic. Plays zero defense, cannot shoot, and really has no position. Oh wait he does but he refuses to play the 4.
Or do you need another Decade of terrible basketball to prove Hinkie is Don the Con, a snake oil salesman.
He also set up the option to swap picks with SacTown this year and a Cousins-less Kings 1st rounder in 2019 for two guys who’ve never set foot on an NBA court and you couldn’t find without internet forensics and drones over Eastern Europe. So if there’s any team that should be interested in hiring Hinkie it’d be the Kings because he made Vlade look like an old lady in Florida who gave her credit card info to a Nigerian internet scam.
Didn’t say the Sixers have been good, I’m just saying he has them potentially set up to be good. Again, it took some embarassing lows, but if every gamble pays off (unlikely), they can be good for a while.
And no one has called Simmons the next Magic. If anything, there were comparisons to him because of his size and passing skill, but that’s about it. And in regards to his college career, it’s kind of hard to keep your team competitive when you’re the only good player on the team. Who else on that LSU team has done anything? And almost everyone knows the coach was incompetent.
What talent you bring onto the team doesnt matter if they are hurt all the time
And but for several key injuries to key players, they’d have broke through this year, what should have been Hinkie’s fourth. Typical rebuild takes five so he’d have been ahead of schedule, with two elite prospects, several high caliber ones and a scrappy, gritty, unified band on the bench backing that up.
Meanwhile, Kings haven’t been to the playoffs for an even longer period. During the same time as Hinkie was here, what do they have to show for it? Buddy Hield?
If the sixes get a top 3 pick next year and score one of the “could be elite” guards, they would have a team of Simmons, Okafor, embiid, and a young guard star. They could be amazing for years to come, but they need to bring in people that know how to pull it together, like Kerr did in Golden state. Let’s not f9rget Jackson’s team was the same team that won the championship, but Kerr brought the experience needed. 76ers could be in the same boat in the next 2 years. Kings on the other hand, have no direction, no talant and no assets. They need to bring in someone like hinkie but they won’t because they don’t think they can survive a few years of tanking, especially with golden state a few hours down the road.its too bad, the kings could be stuck in no man’s land for the better part of a decade. And for basketball, they have one of the coolest names. Really a shame.
Non-compete clause? Seriously? They brought in two clowns to take his job.
People seem to forget… Embiid still hadn’t played a game when Okafor was selected. Okafor has always been an insurance policy against Embiid never playing a game or doing what he’s doing now – not playing. They have mis-handled Okafor’s injury though.
The players that people would have liked Monday-morning QB style – Porzingis didn’t want to come to Philly. Mudiay is not good. Winslow looks nice – also injured. Booker was a find. Everyone else that year is a role player/low min player.
All-in-All I’d take Hinkie back 10/10 over the Coloser brothers.
(I know they’re father & son)
I agree 100% about the draft evaluation. Porzingas was a complete wild card in the draft. No one knew what he was going to be. Anyone saying that they projected Porzingas being this impactful in his career is lying. Everyone thought Booker would’ve been just another shooter, no one could’ve predicted him having 70 point potential (even if his team purposely tried to get him there).
Kings also reports Vlade in charge of all hot dog carts next year, bringing major concern to Sacramento fans who enjoy free ketchup & mustard.
Just when you thought the Kings got smart by unloading that cancer Boogie, then they go and hire one of the most overrated and truly incompetent GMs, Sam “who needs stinkin player development” Hinkie.
Hinkie never understood basketball players, and that is why he failed. I mean to ask players to intentionally lose for 3-5 seasons so the Sixers can draft their replacements is pure stupidity at its best and the Dallas Mavericks thank him every chance they can. So does Noel.
look at their current gm. It cannot get much worse. And other than the noel situation, things are starting to look like hinkie did a good job. I would much rather #trusttheprocess than trust vlade divac if i’m a kings fan
So you’re plan is to be a middling late lottery team then? After they traded Iguodala, Holiday, and Thad Young, the team had absolutely no other talent left. Their options were tank or attempt to sign a bunch of free agents to overpriced contracts in order to be a late lottery/borderline playoff team that would’ve been eliminated in the first round anyway. The Process hasn’t worked out the way it was planned, but its doubtful they would’ve found useful guys like Covington and Holmes otherwise.
Hinkie is the most charitable guy ever. He gave so many D-League guys a cup of tea in the NBA.
The Colangelos are worse for us, trust me
Perspective: Rod Thorn was the GM for the Bynum Trade. And each of the players he traded away is a are better than the guys Hinkie traded away.
Vucevic – Starting Center
Harkless – Plus Wing Defender only 23
Iggy – MVP of the Finals.
Jrue – Missed 107 games in 3 years
MCW – Back-up PG at best
Turner – Lesser version of Harkless
Young – Lesser version of Harkless
He wouldn’t have blown the Cousins trade as terribly as Vlade did. That was an all time horrible trade. I think everyone posting here would have gotten a better return than Vlade.
He died for our sins! #Philly #TrustTheProcess
God bless you Hinkie.
Think Hinkie would’ve turned a better return than they got for Noel or the Atlanta trade? I do
You know if they want to try and get rid of tanking…. start with targeting teams that have traded Protected Picks. Investigate case-by-case, if it’s deemed the team is tanking to keep it’s pick (cough cough LAKERS) then they forfeit the pick protection. 1st rounders ALWAYS seem to have protection on them now-a-days.