If Hinke was able to evaluate talent and put together a team rather than just tank, the 76ers would be a solid playoff team by now, considering how many high draft picks he had over the last 5-6 years.
But he is not a good talent elevator and he takes way too many risks on injury prone big men that have yet to pan out, including Noel and Embiid. Embiid has not played 40 games in over 3 seasons and Noel was traded for a 2nd round pick at the deadline. The rest of his picks have been disappointments.
The only thing I would say Hinke has over Vlade is his ability to use his cap space to accumulate draft picks, which goes along with not spending any money on players and tanking for so long, and then he screws up the draft pick he accumulates.
As far as fleecing Vlade on the Philly trade, that has yet to be seen. The pick swaps may never happen. And if the Kings pick well with their 2 lottery picks in this years draft and next years draft pick, there is no reason why the Kings 2019 pick won't be a late lottery or lower pick (i.e. #10-16). The Kings already got a first round pick (#22) back from trading Bellilini and drafted Malichi Richardson. The Kings also got their starting center, KK from the salary cap room from that trade.
Fact is, no one knows how the Philly trade works or doesn't work out until the summer of 2019
Oh Look! More denial!!!
2019 pick will be a lottery pick. A top 10 pick! Even if Kings strike it lucky in this draft and draft themselves a couple of franchise level player with the lottery picks, and they get another one with their pick in 2018, the reality of the matter is that these kids (which is what they really are) take time to develop into productive NBA players and it takes time for them to grow us a team.
I think no one can argue that Timberwolves have their foundations set with KAT, Wiggins and LaVine and a bunch of young, very good players that round out the roster. They have a very good coach yet they are still taking their time. They are still learning and getting better. They will eventually get there unless something major goes wrong in Minny but they are well on the way in terms of talent acquisition. Everything else takes time. Cousins took 4 seasons before he started putting up all-star type numbers.
So this talk that somehow, miraculously Kings will buck the trend and get there quicker is just plain funny considering the franchise that we are talking about here. A franchise that keeps sabotaging itself over and over again. An owner that thinks he can outsmart everyone....the same guy that has shown the patience of a 6 month old with the ADD.
Sure Vlade got pick 22 to "offset" the loss of 2019 first rounder which would have been a fair value if the Kings are a mid range play-off team in 2019 which they will clearly not be. So really, he likely traded a lottery pick (likely to be top 10) for pick 22. Brilliant move all around. The ONLY way that trade saves any value is if Philly does not swap with the Kings this year and Kings were going to get a pick in the 22 range in 2019. Now that first part might have good odds of not happening (pick swap) but the second part of Kings being slated to get a pick around 22 in the 2019 draft anyway is so far from happening its not funny. In fact I would say any betting agency would give you excellent odds if you think Kings would be around the pick 22 mark in 2019 (i.e lower to mid range play off team).
And I am not even going to get into the strength of last year's draft and that in 2019. If the 2019 draft is considered to be better than the 2016 draft in terms of talent, then that trade looks even worse.
The trade made SOME sense if you were 100%, unconditionally moving forward with Cousins. Hell if might have made sense if you traded Cousins after the 2019 season but as of right now, that deal looks arguably as all time worst for the Kings in the franchise history. It really is simple when you remove the purple colored glasses and look at things objectively, without a hint of bias.