Sixers' Trade Deadline Action Shows Philadelphia Going All-in on 2015 NBA Draft

Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie is a purveyor of chaos, and Thursday's NBA trade deadline proved as much. 

Notorious for his extreme asset-based approach to team building, Hinkie has now shipped off major components of the team's roster twice in the span of 20 months to acquire a stable of first-round picks.

All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans in July 2013. That draft-day deal netted the Sixers Nerlens Noel and, eventually, the rights to Dario Saric.

But on Thursday, Hinkie took things a step further by dealing reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams to the Milwaukee Bucks in a massive three-team trade, according to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski: 

In return, the Sixers received a delectable first-round pick from the Phoenix Suns (via the Los Angeles Lakers) that's top-five protected this season and top-three protected in 2016 and 2017 before it becomes unprotected in 2018, according to USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt: 

Preceding that megadeal were two smaller moves, each of which has far-reaching consequences for the team's future.

First, the Sixers agreed to gobble up the final year and $12 million on JaVale McGee's contract and a top-18-protected first-round pick (via the Oklahoma City Thunder) from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for the rights to Cenk Akyol. The Nuggets made the move official in a press release Thursday afternoon.

Then in a wild turn of events, Hinkie parted with second-round darling K.J. McDaniels for Isaiah Canaan and a second-round pick in a last-minute deal with the Houston Rockets, per Wojnarowski:   

The McDaniels deal is particularly puzzling. Not only does he possess an insane set of raw physical tools, but his status as an impending restricted free agent meant Philadelphia would have been able to match any incoming offers for the Clemson product.

While his value is surging and Hinkie may be understandably reluctant to shell out major cash after a one-year sample, retaining the right to match offers on a promising homegrown talent would have been a nice way to keep building organically. Instead, the Sixers chose to cash out and snag a cheap rookie-scale point guard and another second-round pick. 

To summarize, the Sixers may select up to four times in the first round of June's draft, with second-round selections overflowing out of Hinkie's back pocket. 

Pick Type	Acquired From	Protections
2015 1st-Round	Original pick	None
2015 1st-Round	Phoenix Suns (via Los Angeles Lakers)	Top-5 in 2015; Top-3 in 2016, 2017; Unprotected in 2018
2015 1st-Round	Miami Heat (via Cleveland Cavaliers)	Top-10 protected in 2015 and 2016; Unprotected in 2017
2015 1st-Round	Denver Nuggets (via Oklahoma City Thunder)	Top-18 protected in 2015; Top-15 protected in 2016 and 2017; Becomes 2018 and 2019 2nd-round picks after that
2015 2nd-round	Golden State (via Indiana)	None
2015 2nd-round	Houston	None
2015 2nd-round	Houston (via Minnesota Timberwolves or Denver Nuggets)	None
2015 2nd-round	New Orleans (via Los Angeles Clippers)	None
2015 2nd-round	Orlando Magic	None

That level of asset collection is unprecedented. It's also incredibly risky.   

The Sixers have embraced the long game since Hinkie arrived, but trading two core pieces of a defense that's evolved into a top-12 unit rests on an extreme pole of the risk-reward spectrum. 

Not only does it set the team back for the foreseeable future from an on-court standpoint, but it sends a message that developmental progress isn't a prerequisite for security within the organization.   

The franchise's preferred operating procedure also sends a strange message to the league's youngest locker room—one that appeared to be bonding quite a bit. Turnover is now quickly becoming accepted as standard practice in the Sixers' personnel department, as skills are being cultivated as a way to acquire more faceless, nameless assets that offer the promise of untapped potential in the future.

"We're trying to make sure that when our guys start getting older, or a legit free agent is attracted to our program, the infrastructure is in place to absorb it all," head coach Brett Brown said, according to ESPN The Magazine's Pablo Torre. "But none of us are beating our chests, saying that it's 100 percent certain we're going to get this right."

To their credit, the players appear to be buying in. 

"They tell us every game, every day, 'Trust the Process,'" point guard Tony Wroten said, according to Torre. "Just continue to build."

Presumed franchise centerpiece Joel Embiid echoed Wroten's sentiment on Twitter shortly after Carter-Williams was traded: 

"

Trust the process #PHILLY

— Joel-Hans Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) February 19, 2015"

But at what point does the process start to pay dividends? For all of the excitement, Thursday was another example of the Sixers taking two steps back to eventually take an idyllic leap forward. 

"The 76ers were starting to create that and instead decided to trade two of their somethings to start over again," SB Nation's Mike Prada wrote. "They seem to think they can build a skyscraper by plopping half the structure onto the ground at once instead of progressing brick by brick."

And the sprint leading up to that leap may very well be slowed. After all, the pick acquired for Carter-Williams is top-five protected this season. Although the Lakers (13-40) can feasibly finish outside of that guarded realm, the odds are higher that Philadelphia will see the pick in 2016, when it's protected for the top three picks. 

The good news is Hinkie's plan doesn't depend upon that pick being conveyed immediately. By adding the Nuggets' pick to his stockpile to go with what will almost assuredly be Philadelphia's own top-five pick and the top-10 selection coming from Miami, Philadelphia is decked out in draft-day gold.

Whether Hinkie uses all of those picks remains to be seen. They can be packaged, and as the Philadelphia front office has made clear, pivoting to a landscape-shifting trade is never out of the question. That's especially true now that the franchise is strutting around in a technicolor dreamcoat stitched together with valuable draft picks of varying shapes and sizes. 

In the end, though, this was another example of process taking precedence over tangible, encouraging results. Carter-Williams and McDaniels were hardly perfect, to be sure, but they certainly could develop into solid complementary pieces. 

Now, the team is selling relatively high, starting anew and eyeing a fresh batch of youngsters to craft in the organization's utopian mold.

Whether those players wind up being the right ones for the plan remains to be seen, but that game of prospect roulette is the norm for a team that refuses to settle for anything less than grand aspirations.