**NBA FINALS THREAD - RAPTORS DEFY GRAVITY**

[BIG LEEMELONE]

Shouldn't the commissioner have gotten involved with the teams who were worse?

Smh yall are just gonna keep playing dumb about it. I got plenty of articles and quotes queued up but there's no point

 

[getback]

you guys are just some corny fans its ok

It's not that serious. I'm a no on booing players. NBA games have an ebb and flow, and booing because the other team goes on a little run (in the 1st quarter no less) is silly.

 

[freeze]

'optics' yall new favorite word. every year you have 1.

 

[angels47]

doesnt even register

Thank you.

 

[Air Pope]

If GS wins without KD...doesn't that invalidate his best player in the world claim?

Whether right or wrong, the narrative will be about Houston’s inability to win w/ the odds more in their favor.

 

[Air Pope]

Smh yall are just gonna keep playing dumb about it. I got plenty of articles and quotes queued up but there's no point

There’s always a point

 

[hand2handking]

Winning what this series? They damn sure ain't winning the chip without him.

damn sure? like 100%?

i thought HOU was GS only competition

raptors bucks blazers or nuggets are a lock if they dont have kd?

are we talking sweep?

 

[pums]

I might lose it if the rockets lose tonight smh.

 

[amitt5504]

It was more than just optics bro . It was tangibly impacting the sixers ability to rebuild. Yall are just gonna keep sidestepping that inconvenient fact tho so whatevs

How? We had picks and cap space. Could’ve easily flipped that for something. Hell Jimmy had a meeting scheduled with us when he was a RFA. And that was while we was tanking

Let’s not trash the Sixers since the Lakers were dumb enough to give Kobe that contract hamstringing them

 

[MVP]

damn sure? like 100%?

i thought HOU was GS only competition

raptors bucks blazers or nuggets are a lock if they dont have kd?

are we talking sweep?

Bucks or Raptors will beat them

 

[Air Pope]

No matter what I’m doing tonight, imma make it my business to be in here... I’m sure it’s gonna be epic

 

[EZMONEY SERVANT]

when ish just aint right......... go see the motherflippin u know who.......

taken before thursdai nites game

 

[storm2006]

 

[freeze]

dawg i'm cryin

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

How? We had picks and cap space. Could’ve easily flipped that for something. Hell Jimmy had a meeting scheduled with us when he was a RFA. And that was while we was tanking

Let’s not trash the Sixers since the Lakers were dumb enough to give Kobe that contract hamstringing them

"The only way an agent will deal with the Sixers is the Jimmy Butler situation," said a league source, noting that the restricted free agent identified the Sixers as possible destination this summer before he re-signed with the Chicago Bulls.


"They'll use the Sixers and [general manager Sam] Hinkie to get leverage for other teams," he added. "They said, 'OK, the Sixers have max money,' and they'll use that and put it out there in the press or whatever just to get leverage."

An equally vocal contingent among owners, however, began making their feelings known to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver that the Sixers' blatant tanking was hurting their collective take at the turnstiles. The 76ers went from 18th in the league in overall average attendance in 2012-13 to 29th in 2013-14, 30th in 2014-15 and 28th in 2015-16.

"They didn't have to be that bad," one owner said. "It was just over the top. It was a disservice to their players. They weren't given a chance to be any good. Their owners said to me, 'We didn't have to be that bad.'"

The NBA apparently told the 76ers to tone down their unbridled effort to lose.

"The league office told them multiple times, 'It's too much,'" a second Western Conference GM said. "Sam didn't come up with anything original. People have been [tanking] for years. They just didn't go to the extremes Sam did. The league doesn't care if you win 22 games; they just don't want you winning 15. It's optics. He rubbed everybody's nose in it to the point the league had to do something."

While Hinkie's critics acknowledge drafting talent is an inexact science that no team has mastered, an array of agents, executives, owners and former Sixers employees took the greatest issue with his administrative skills. They portrayed him as somewhat of a recluse, not staying in the same hotel when traveling with the team, not cultivating relationships with agents or providing enough oversight of the young rosters he assembled and taking a strong-arm approach to every trade conversation or contract negotiation.

"When guys started getting in trouble, there was no structure or adult supervision," an agent said in reference to Okafor's reckless driving incident and several bar fights. "He had zero management over the players. They didn't go to meetings, and they were late for everything."

The perennially playoff-bound front office executive had a similar impression.

"They didn't put much structure in place there," he said. "That's the problem with an approach like that, when your decisions are based strictly on numbers. You're not evaluating culture and character. There's so much that has to be handled when your team is that young. You've got to have support that's beyond the wheelhouse—personal development, professional development, familial management."

Those close to Hinkie say he purposely kept agents—and even some players—at arm's length. Getting close to players on a roster constantly being reshuffled would've been pointless, if not emotionally draining. The 76ers' wealth of cap space, meanwhile, would've made it easy for agents to use them as leverage in contract negotiations elsewhere. However, Hinkie didn't want to allow that because questions eventually would arise about why the Sixers weren't landing any of their supposed free-agent targets.

"Agents would complain to me all the time, 'We only have a 29-team market,' because Sam was not looking to spend any money," a second Western Conference GM said.

Hinkie also aggravated agents by introducing a novel approach to contracts for second-round picks and free agents—multiyear, partially guaranteed deals. The idea from Hinkie's end was to trade the allure of longer-term security for fringe players while keeping the risk factor for the team manageable.

At times, that hurt Hinkie and the 76ers with agents miffed by this new negotiating ploy. Some paid him back by refusing to share information with him or provide access to their players, no matter where they were expected to fall in the draft. Porzingis' refusal to visit or work out for Philly is one example; league sources say Hinkie also didn't have full access to Okafor's medical records prior to drafting him.

"The environment was so toxic that agents, schools and teams wanted nothing to do with him," the second Western Conference GM said.

Executives who have spent time with Hinkie insist he was aloof by choice, not by nature.

"Sam could've helped himself by cultivating relationships," the first Western Conference GM said. "He has more personality than the public really knows."

While Hinkie offered a glimpse of that personality in his resignation letter, he didn't win many converts to his ways. One owner of an Eastern Conference team said the letter—which was not intended to be shared publicly—damaged Hinkie's chances of being hired to run a franchise again as much as anything he did while with with the Sixers.

"Once you stockpiled all those talented players, was Sam capable of flipping the switch and becoming a real GM?" the second Western Conference GM asked. "Because you don't hire the demolitionist to do the remodel. Those are two different jobs with two different skill sets."

 

[blastercombo]

Yo too on point. Stick to the lames cuz the lions ain’t tamed. Girls what the fire but sweat at 70degrees and 2min missionary. This ain’t your life baby cakes. Stay in your life

 

[DLF]

.

 

[DLF]

LeBron to Denver for Murray Jokic and Morris. Asides from the Nuggets, who says no?

 

[blastercombo]

LeBron to Denver for Murray Jokic and Morris. Asides from the Nuggets, who says no?

Any team wanting to make millions in jersey sales alone

 

[danikerhino]

'optics' yall new favorite word. every year you have 1.

I hate when people say "unpack" to break something down.

 

[freeze]

bron would be a dawg in the Big 3

 

[big van vader]

Anyone who watched the 76ers before the 2013-14 season knows exactly why the Process had to happen. The Sixers were in danger of being a middling team for the next decade. Our best players were Jrue Holiday and Thaddeus Young. My homie nicknamed them the Philadelphia First-Round Exits.

Slandering the Process was low hanging fruit for the national media. Most true Sixers fans were knowledgeable enough to understand what was going on because they understood the alternative was no big name free agents and middle of the road draft picks. As someone said before, the only reason it lasted as long as it did was because of injuries.

Bottom line: The Sixers are one game away from the ECF because of the Process. Orlando, Phoenix, Minnesota, New York, Los Angeles, Sacramento, all teams who were bad in that time period are sitting at home. Say whatever you want about it, but it put the Sixers in a better place than they would have been. Slandering the Process is a bad take by short-sighted people and weirdo basketball purists.

 

[wavycrocket]

when ish just aint right......... go see the motherflippin u know who.......

taken before thursdai nites game

Big Boy watch on Dr. J wrist . Dr J too smoove

 

[pums]

 

[wavycrocket]

LeBron to Denver for Murray Jokic and Morris. Asides from the Nuggets, who says no?

That would be my darkest day in basketball right there. F no.