In the classic war movie Apocalypse Now, Marlon Brando plays a decorated American colonel who has abandoned the war in Vietnam to set up his own dystopian military conclave in Cambodia that features random missions, animal sacrifices and human beheadings.
Martin Sheen plays an American captain sent on a classified mission to assassinate the colonel. When Sheen arrives at the camp, he is asked if he believes the colonel’s methods are unsound.
And Sheen replies, “I don’t see any method at all, sir.”
The same might be said for Philadelphia 76ers GM Sam Hinkie. It is very difficult to trust the process – a phrase describing Hinkie’s rebuilding plan that has its own Twitter hashtag – when it becomes increasingly unclear what that process is.
On the surface, Hinkie’s process has some clarity. Gut the roster for draft picks and salary cap room. Sink the Sixers to the bottom of the league. Use those draft picks and cap room to rebuild the roster with a stable of young studs. Watch them grow together and become a perennial contender.
“It’s a process,” Charlotte Hornets guard Kemba Walker said. “One day those guys are going to be really good.”
But the “process” is in its third season, and all Hinkie has done is turn the Sixers into a laughingstock where lottery picks don’t want to land and free agents consider a quarantined area. The new Cambodia.
Since Hinkie’s hiring in 2013, the Sixers are 37-141 in two-plus seasons, by far the worst record in the league. The team with the next fewest wins in that span in the Lakers with 50.
The Sixers have had losing streaks of 17, 24 and 26 games. They are the first team in NBA history to start consecutive seasons with losing streaks of 14 games or more. Meanwhile, no other team has had more than one losing streak of 15-plus games.
The Sixers have used 51 players. Fifty-one. Think about that for a minute. If a team changed two-thirds of its roster in consecutive seasons and signed five guys to 10-day contracts during that span, it would have used 40 players. The only player who has been present since Hinkie’s arrival and played in all three seasons is Hollis Thompson.
The Sixers have ranked 19th, 29th and last in scoring over the last three seasons. They have ranked 29th, last and last in shooting. They have ranked last, 29th and 27th in 3-point shooting. They have ranked 15th, 24th and 26th in assists. They have ranked last, last and last in turnovers. They have ranked last, last and last in offensive rating. And not surprisingly, they have ranked 29th, last and 29th in attendance.
The Sixers are paying five players a total of nearly $26 million to not play for them this season. They are currently paying another $15.5 million to four injured players. Nine players make $1.07 million or less, including starting point guard T.J. McConnell and starting small forward Jerami Grant.
Without talent, there is only one way to play, which wasn’t lost on an opposing coach.
“They’re playing on a go-hard basis,” Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said after beating the Sixers. “If guys aren’t playing hard, they sit down. They have young, motivated guys on small contracts. They try to rat up the game and try to get you to retaliate.”
Enough is enough. It’s time for Hinkie to show Sixers fans – including myself; I have been rooting for the Sixers longer than the 37-year-old GM has been alive – that there actually is a process.
There’s nothing that can be done this season. Modest, attainable goals include ending the current losing streak, winning at least 10 games to avoid matching the worst full-season record in NBA history – which the Sixers already hold – and making sure coach Brett Brown, rookie center Jahlil Okafor and young forward Nerlens Noel don’t sink into a permanent state of depression.
This is the offseason when Hinkie must strike. He could have as many as four first-round picks and $50 million in cap room. He has to stop kicking the can down the road.
It is time for Hinkie to stop drafting players who are injured or under European contracts and start drafting players who can play immediately. And forget that “best available” crap and go after point guards and wings. Today’s NBA is all about small ball, and the roster already is overloaded with traditional big men.
The Sixers also will have more than $50 million in cap room next summer. Given the environment Hinkie has created in Philadelphia since his arrival, it will be next to impossible for him to lure a veteran free agent who has had even the smallest sample size of success. But he may be able to attract a restricted free agent by overpaying him. Make a run at Harrison Barnes or Terrence Jones or Jordan Clarkson or Langston Galloway or Evan Fournier or even Bradley Beal. Pay the “suck” tax.
And get used to that, because that will be the only way to keep Noel, who is eligible for an extension in July. Or Joel Embiid, who is eligible for an extension in July 2017 even though he has yet to play an NBA game.
Then bring in a veteran babysitter or two who can still play a little, because the voice of reason in the locker room cannot be high-pitched. The 2016-17 roster could look like this:
HOLDOVERS (7): Okafor, Noel, Embiid, Nik Stauskas, Robert Covington, Jerami Grant, Richaun Holmes. The first four are on rookie scale deals. Covington ($1.02 million) and Grant ($980,000) have cheap team options. Holmes is guaranteed at $1.03 million.
DRAFTEES (5): Dario Saric, Ben Simmons, Jamal Murray, Isaiah Briscoe, Malik Pope. Saric wants to play in the NBA next season but could increase his leverage by remaining in Europe for a third season. The other four are projected first-rounders based on where the Sixers’ picks are likely to land. They also have a second-round pick via Denver.
FREE AGENTS (3): Fournier, who is not out of the realm of possibility, and a couple of veterans.
In 2017, the Sixers have the right to swap picks with the Sacramento Kings, and anyone who can project where that franchise will be 19 months from now is delusional. The Sixers will have more room under the cap, which is projected to jump to $108 million. And they will have enough young players to possibly swing a deal for a veteran star.
No more hitting the reset button. No more kicking the can down the road. No more Eurostashes or injury bargains or second-round gambles or undrafted free agents.
To borrow a phrase from the Sixers’ marketing department, this starts now.
TRIVIA: This week, Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard became the second-fastest player in NBA history to be part of 200 wins, needing just 262 games. Who was fastest? Answer below.
THE END OF CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT: Kendrick Perkins, who played four-plus seasons with the Thunder, commemorated his return to Oklahoma City on Wednesday by picking up his 100th career technical foul. From the bench. In street clothes.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Cleveland Cavaliers
assistant
coach David Blatt, after
coach
superstar LeBron James checked out of Saturday’s game without a sub replacing him:
“He thought we were playing hockey.”
TANKS A LOT!: The 76ers committed a season-high 27 turnovers Monday vs. Dallas, prompting coach Brett Brown to say, “This team is built to turn the ball over.” After a day of practice to work on their ball security issues, the Sixers went out and committed 31 turnovers Wednesday at Indiana.
LINE OF THE WEEK: Brandon Knight, Phoenix vs. LA Lakers, Nov. 16: 41 minutes, 11-23 FGs, 3-8 3-pointers, 5-7 FTs, 10 rebounds, 15 assists, four steals, two turnovers, 30 points in a 120-101 win. It was the first career triple-double for Knight, who also had a 38-6-11 line on a bum ankle later in the week.
LINE OF THE WEAK: Joakim Noah, Chicago at Golden State, Nov. 20: 17 minutes, 0-3 FGs, 0-0 FTs, seven rebounds, zero assists, zero blocks, one steal, four turnovers, zero points in a 106-94 loss. It was the second straight donut and sixth of the season for Noah, who is averaging 2.5 points per game and is in a contract year. It is hard to believe that Noah was All-NBA First Team, Defensive Player of the Year and fourth in MVP voting less than two years ago.
TRILLION WATCH: After two noisy weeks, it was quiet on the trillion front with the best inaction coming from Mavs guard Justin Anderson, Lakers guard Anthony Brown, Lakers center Tarik Black, Hornets guard Troy Daniels and Cavs forward Sasha Kaun, all of whom posted meager 2 trillions. The sesason leader remains Hawks rookie Lamar Patterson with his 8 trillion at Miami on Nov. 3.
GAME OF THE WEEK: Atlanta at San Antonio, Nov. 28. Record this game on your DVR and show it to the next idiot who tells you that the NBA is all isolation and 1-on-1 with no player movement or ball movement.
GAME OF THE WEAK: Philadelphia at Minnesota, Nov. 23. The winless 76ers have lost 24 straight games dating to last season, two shy of the all-time record they already share with Cleveland. A year ago, they lost their first 17 games before winning at – yup, Minnesota. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves are winless at home.
TWO MINUTES: Stephen Curry’s 3-point streak is up to 88 games, one shy of Dana Barros for second on the all-time list. He can catch Barros on Tuesday at home vs. the LA Lakers and pass him on Black Friday at Phoenix. Whether or not Curry breaks Kyle Korver’s record of 127 consecutive games with a 3-pointer – and the bet here is that he will – he is on pace to shatter the marks for 3-pointers made and attempted in a season. Curry projects to make 402 threes; he set the record with 286 last season. He also projects to attempt 926 threes; the record is 678 by Indiana’s George McCloud in the 1995-96 campaign. … The Celtics are 7-0 in games decided by 13 points or more and 0-6 in games decided by 12 points or less. …Just under a year ago, Mike Malone was inexplicably fired by the Kings, even though it appeared he had begun to effect some change in a moribund franchise that has not been to the playoffs since 2006. Now coach of the Nuggets, Malone is overseeing a rebuilding project with teenage rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay among seven players 25 or younger. After Wednesday’s loss at San Antonio, Malone said, “I go to sleep dreaming about playing like the Spurs. … We are in year one, so we are taking baby steps. I think the progress we have made even in the first 12 games gives me hope that these guys are starting to understand how we need to play to become a good team, not just for today but in the big picture.” But two nights later, his young team took a step back as it surrendered a 16-point halftime lead, giving up 65 points in the second half of a 114-107 loss to Phoenix that left Malone livid. “We have some guys on this team who pick and choose when they play hard,” he said. “Those guys aren’t going to play. Either you play with effort or you don’t play. I didn’t like the effort from a bunch of our guys tonight. I told them, you play hard or you’re going to sit. I don’t care who you are.” Aside from sitting Kenneth Faried, who may have been bothered by an ankle injury, Malone really didn’t change his rotation for Sunday’s loss to Golden State. … However, one coach who did change his rotation this week was Orlando’s Scott Skiles. In Wednesday’s home win over Minnesota, Skiles benched center Nikola Vukevic, who shot 4-of-13 in the first half and and didn’t play in the second half or overtime. Guard Victor Oladipo also sat for most of the second half, although he might have been still feeling the effects of a concussion that forced him to miss two games. Skiles also gave big minutes to Andrew Nicholson, who had not scored all season. “I’m not trying to send messages,” Skiles said. “I mean, I get a fairly sizable check every two weeks to win games. That’s what I’m trying to do.” … In Friday’s loss at New Orleans, Spurs forward Tim Duncan failed to grab a rebound for the first time in 1,343 career regular-season games. … The most dramatic move made thus far by Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been moving guard Ty Lawson to the bench. It hasn’t exactly worked; in three games, Lawson is 3-of-15 from the field for 10 points with seven turnovers, and Houston is a Corey Brewer running prayer from being 0-3 in those games. … In separate games Saturday night, brothers Jerami and Jerian Grant were a combined 0-of-11 from the field.
Trivia Answer: A.C. Green needed 259 games with the Lakers to get 200 wins. … Happy 57th Birthday, Andrew Toney, “The Boston Strangler.” … If Steve Kerr had won Coach of the Year last season, would he now have to give it back?
Chris Bernucca is the managing editor of SheridanHoops.com. His columns appear Monday during the season. You can follow him on Twitter.