With the recent news that Joel Embiid is not experiencing as much healing as anticipated (still amazed by that verbiage), it's only natural to experience that sinking, sad feeling as you feel your trust for the process going down the drain right along with Embiid's 2015-2016 season. And maybe that's just what Hinkie wants you thinking, EH??
Seriously though. As Bob Cooney opined, there was something odd to the quick return fire from the Sixers shortly after Yahoo! dropped the Woj Bomb. Think about how little information has leaked out of this franchise since Hinkie took over. Probably the only real "leak" was the one declaring that Embiid had ballooned to 300lbs and was not taking hit fitness seriously. That leak was so odd that the general consensus was the Sixers leaked it themselves to light a fire under Embiid while showing him what the big leagues can be like. It worked.
So is it possible something similar is going on here? Are we all just pawns in Sam Hinkie's masterful game of The Association, 2k16 edition? Let's scratch that conspiracy theory itch for all you Hinkie Acolytes by serving up three theories as to what Hinkie is REALLY up to. (Thanks to all on Twitter who threw out some ideas).
1. Hinkie leaked the info to gain leverage against other teams in the draft.
Mwuhahahaha I LOVE how evil this would be. Everyone thinks the Sixers are going PG in the draft, particularly because we have a gaping hole at the QB spot and too many franchise big men. So, Hinkie leaks a report that our franchise center is dinged up, putting us back in contention for drafting a big man. Now if the Lakers go Russell, do we go Mudiay or Okafor/Towns? Maybe we try to trade down with the Knicks, swearing we're about to take whoever they want? Maybe the Lakers no longer have any trade leverage with the Sixers since they no longer know where the team's thinking is at (you know those reports of the Lakers taking Russell are a smokescreen). The point is, Hinkie believes that secrecy is a tactical advantage, that the best approach is to keep teams guessing. Well, with this news, we're all just guessing at this point.
2. Hinkie leaked the info simply to play the media.
Awwww yeah, now we're getting somewhere. This is straight "the game is the game" type Evil Hinkie. I'll let some of our Twitter followers take it from here.
@Sixerdelphia Embiid is fine Hinkie leaked this phantom injury to woj for a do me a solid during the draft where woj will say something
— Dan (@Sixers_Fan1243) June 14, 2015
@Sixerdelphia deceitful about the 76ers causing the Knicks to panic because they want Okafor (towns and Russell go 1 2) and we ransom okafor
— Dan (@Sixers_Fan1243) June 14, 2015
Now that's dastardly. Leak some fake info to Woj to curry his favor, so that you can then get Woj to leak more fake info around draft time just to screw with the Knicks. That's next level Evil Hinkie. Dark Side Evil Hinkie.
Maybe its less Emperor Palpatine evil though, and more Joker-style, I'm gonna screw with everyone just to piss you off evil?
@Sixerdelphia Hinkie is just leaking this to mess with his bff Howard Eskin. Who has proceeded to have a melt down on Twitter. #Hinkied
— Patrick (@PatrickCausey) June 15, 2015
I mean, I've called Eskin on WIP with no goal other than to just piss him off, so this seems about right.
3. Hinkie wants to tank one more season but knows he can't sell the fans on it.
This is perhaps the most nefarious, as it's directly messing with the fans. I think us fans would all agree that we'd like to see some progress this year as opposed to another season that begets a 31-answer Sporcle quiz. The Sixers have been letting on that they hear us, with Brett Brown saying wins will be more important next year and, more recently, reports that the Sixers are trying to buyout Saric's contract and get him over here. Well, maybe Hinkie just wants one more lottery ticket. One more chance to compile assets. One more look at the parts before putting the puzzle together? That would be dastardly.
This is all in good fun of course. But man … I'd prefer if there was some plan at play here if it meant there really was no set back.
