After the Lottery, Sam Hinkie spoke to reporters. » http://t.co/cdnB5I0Cgz pic.twitter.com/brZUlCQS4E
— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) May 20, 2015
Veteran NBA writer Chris Sheridan went on Sirius XM radio earlier this week to declare that the next big dynasty to take the league by storm is none other than your beloved 76ers (the audio is through the link, Sixers talk starts around the 8:20 mark). While that kind of hyperbole isn't exactly unusual if you listen to a lot of pro-Sixers talk these days, his reasoning behind it was a bit nuanced.
Sheridan doesn't feel that the Sixers will be a dynasty because Joel Embiid is the future, or Nerlens is the next Admiral, or D'Angelo Russel is a future MVP. Rather, his logic went something like this.
The Sixers are going to be able to evaluate 5-6 high ceiling prospects over the next few years, some of whom have already been drafted and some of whom will come from the 4 1st round picks we might have next year. This evaluation period will come while almost all of the players are on rookie scale contracts, and thus will be quite cheap.
By the time these contracts are running up, the Sixers can choose which players to move forward with and will have the ability to sign 2, 3, maybe even 4 max contracts due to the influx of TV money raising the salary cap so substantially (predicted luxury tax threshold of 127 million in 2017-18).
In a nutshell, it's not just the process, it's also the timing, and Hinkie chose about the best possible time to do such a rebuild. Definitely worth a listen if you have 20 minutes (and also want to hear Vinny Del Negro flabbergasted by Sheridan's dynasty proclamation).
