A report from SI.com Friday raised major concerns over the Sixers' rebuilding process.
Citing several sources, Brian Geltzeiler makes several assertions and claims concerning the activity of general manager Sam Hinkie and 2014 first-round pick Joel Embiid.
Geltzeiler is a contributor for The Cauldron, a new portion of SI.com that serves up a great deal of hot takes.
Here's a summary of both topics:
Sam Hinkie
• While Hinkie still has majority owner Josh Harris "in his corner … largely because the franchise is worth two to three times what Harris and his group paid for it in 2011," other members of the ownership team "are getting less patient."
• One primary point of contention was the trade of point guard Michael Carter-Williams. The decision "was Hinkie’s alone, and the move angered both head coach Brett Brown and team president Scott O’Neil, who were caught unaware." That's much different from the rosy picture Hinkie paints of his relationship with Brown.
• The only quote given from the team was in response to the reaction over the Carter-Williams trade. Michael Preston, the team's director of public relations, refuted the article's claims, stating "that unsubstantiated rumor is a gross mischaracterization of the events leading into the Michael Carter-Williams trade. Our organization has been and will continue to be opportunistic when a deal of that nature becomes available."
NBA
• Speaking of Brown, Geltzeiler said the third-year coach may not be on solid footing within the organization. Geltzeiler pointed to the fact that Brown has lost 130 games in two seasons (Red Auerbach would've had a hard time winning with these rosters). "It’s not lost on Sixers ownership that more coaches off of Gregg Popovich’s coaching tree have struggled than succeeded," Geltzeiler said. While the likes the of Jacque Vaughn and Monty Williams may have struggled, former Cavaliers coach Mike Brown and current Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer have found success as NBA head coaches. Steve Kerr, head coach of the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors, also played for Popovich.
• Fans may have to wait a little longer for first-round pick Dario Saric. The piece states Saric's father doesn't want him playing for the Sixers any time soon. It also asserts Hinkie's face time with Saric was kept to a minimum during a trip to Turkey in 2014. "Saric’s father, who acts as a de facto representative for his son, doesn’t want the Sixers close to Saric," the article said. Supposedly Saric's father wants his son to wait until he is no longer subject to the rookie wage scale in 2017-18.
Joel Embiid
• The article has some bizarre accusations based around the organization's handling of Embiid, who is made out to be a problem child. Harris reportedly didn't want Embiid to attend the Vegas summer league. The article alleges "Brown and Hinkie were both given strict instructions by Harris to keep Embiid from going to Vegas, yet each of them put the onus on the other to handle the job, and neither did."
• Geltzeiler writes, "Embiid was determined to go to Vegas to party for the balance of the 10 days of summer league." He also claimed Embiid was not wearing his walking boot ahead of his second surgery, as he was instructed to do, and "he carried himself as if nothing was wrong with the foot, shooting jumpers and even occasionally dunking." Geltzeiler said this strengthens the theory that Embiid re-broke his foot and not that the original injury didn't heal properly, as the Sixers have stated.
• Last year, there were concerns about Embiid's weight. At one point, Brown sent him home from a West Coast road trip because of a spat he had with the team's strength and conditioning coach. The article asserts the team put healthy food in his hotel room, hoping he'd change his dietary habits. Instead, the team allegedly saw a room service bill that showed "he was ordering junk food along with his signature beverage, a pitcher of Shirley Temples. Embiid also was frequently seen feasting on chicken fingers and hot dogs at and after games."