FanPost

Conspiracy Theory: Hinkie is Building around MCW (Long)

I first want to start off by saying that MCW is pretty underrated for a RoY for some very arguable reasons like the poor draft class, or the pace that we play with. Other reasons like how bad our team was being less arguable when most Rookie's of the Year play on pretty bad teams. I really think the fact that he was in a poor draft class is just an excuse, note this post will be filled with conspiracies such as the world hates Philly and such so I'll try to warn you before any conspiracy theories with a CONSPIRACY ALERT so you're not ambushed by anything too outrageous. I think it's way too soon to really label the 2013 draft class as one of or the worst one year removed. Really, I think it has been exaggerated due to some Anti-Philly bias with MCW emerging as the clear front runner for the award literally from his debut. Most drafts you can consider truly good, maybe an All-Star or 2 emerge from the haul, couple of starters and long term projects with good potential, and of course there is that superstar at the top of the draft that really seems to make or break how good the draft is. That seems to be case with the 2013 Draft class, with Nerlens Noel being injured and now technically apart of the 2014 class did not get the chance to showcase himself as that superstar, and Anthony Bennett didn't do a good job of living up to that #1 overall pick reputation. Even your regular 1st overall bust has a RoY contender looming only a couple of draft spots lower with the second lowest position a RoY was drafted in the last 10 years next to MCW was both Portland RoY's at 6. Point is, even Bennett can't be counted out as that superstar of the draft when he hasn't been able to honestly show us what he can do on the floor with all the health issues he was playing with, and no one except Oladipo in the top 10 deserved the RoY honors and as history would tell it should have had a better shot at winning the award then MCW taking draft position into consideration.

Both MCW and Oladipo were on lottery teams in the weak Eastern conference but somehow Oladipo should be given leeway for his bad team but MCW is not? No, that's really the last I want to hear about how Oladipo should have won the Rookie of the Year when MCW was leading all rookies in points, rebounds, assists, and minutes. The Magic did manage to beat the Sixers 3 out of 4 times but all those games were won/lost in the fourth quarter by veterans taking advantage of the younger guys. With Jameer Nelson gone I would bet your money on the Sixers in that match up this year. Magic on it's way to becoming the 2nd youngest team in the league and I'm all for the Orlando rivalry that's inevitable at this point. But imagine a top 5 of MCW, Oladipo, Noel, Bennett, and Giannis with maybe Dieng taking Shabazz Muhammad's spot in the lottery. That's a pretty decent lottery depending on how you project the guys taken.

The biggest thing, I feel, that trumped the impact of the rookie class last year was that it felt like either an NBA team was a playoff hopeful, or tanking. Neither of which is good for your average rookie to get productive minutes, unless you're all about player develop like our Sixers. Six teams picking in the lottery in 2012-13 were playoff teams in 13-14, 5 teams were tanking (Sixers, Magic, Jazz, Celtics and you could argue the Pistons), and another four teams stuck in the "I can't make the playoffs in the West, but would still make it in the East" tier of Sacramento, Minnesota, Phoenix, and New Orleans. Then there's Cleveland who managed to lose just enough games to luck into the #1 draft pick.

Again, I don't know the advanced stats to really go into whether or not the draft class really is one of the worst ever, but let's forget his draft class for a second and take a look at MCW. Despite playing on the youngest team in NBA history, and arguably one of the least talented managed to keep the Sixers at the fastest pace in the league. We have to realize that the pace a team runs is very dependent on the point guard and being able to do that in his rookie year is impressive to me. The Spurs run at a much faster pace when Tony Parker is in the game and that is really when they're system is kicking. Another great example of a PG running a quick offense is D'Antoni and Steve Nash running around in Phoenix at the prime of his career. Of course, that's another excuse people use to discredit the impressive numbers he put up averaging 17/6/6 his rookie year saying that it was mostly based off the pace Philly plays at. This is how the Sixers are going to operate, a fast paced, entertaining type of ball that puts butts in WFC seats. You could expect all those numbers to go up with more experience and better teammates; making more of their shots, requiring more attention and causing more misses at the basket and perimeter.The pace he was able to run with the youngest team in the league should be a compliment, not an excuse.Yes, it was terribly inefficient at times, but not being able to generate a lot of fast break points with defensive stops is a big hit to this up tempo style.

Michael Carter-Williams: 15.1 FGA 16.7 PPG

Damian Lillard: 15.7 19.0 PPG

Kyrie Irving: 14.6 FGA 18.5 PPG

Derrick Rose 14.9 FGA 16.8 PPG

Chris Paul: 12.6 FGA 16.1 PPG

Out of the last 5 Rookie of the Year point guards, MCW had the second-most field goal attempts per game, and the fourth most points-per-game. Not taking much more attempts than your average starting RoY point guard, while being a BIG big focus of the opposing defense with his team being slightly less talented than his peer's teams. I would say that the amount he was able to score with the attempts taken is another admirable stat in the long list MCW has going for him. He also managed to lead all these point guards except Chris Paul in steals, and assist per game, while completely blowing out the other recent RoY point guards out of the water in rebounding and blocks with the second to his 43 blocks last year was Kyrie's 20. Of course, MCW being 2-3 years older than most of those points guard cannot be ignored, but definitely could compare him to Damian Lilliard who entered the NBA at the same age and is currently an All-Star in his second year. It would be awesome if MCW could become an All-Star next season, which isn't completely out of this world with the East's back court spots being up for grabs. Jrue was able to nab a spot with a team with the wins in the 30's last year, and a win total in the 30's is probably my optimistic prediction for the Sixers 2014-15. Hell, he was a reliable three point jumper away from averaging 20 PPG.

CONSPIRACY ALERT Who even knows why Michael was so bad at shooting threes, his form is good and his height and elavation usually his eyes well over most guards defending him. Somehow they managed to keep his shoulder injury quiet until the end of the season. Could time off helped with the severity of the injury that maybe it would not require surgery, or maybe even surgery mid season might have even been need but Sixers were already the scapegoat of the 2013 Tankathon, and MCW first stint out due to injury was not without it's own scrutiny. The Sixers would have been literally too bad without MCW on the floor winning only 1 game without him during his time on the bench. Could also be that Hinkie would have gotten him under the knife as soon as he found out in the name of long term health, and maybe MCW hid his injury to keep himself on the court. A bum shoulder, or just poor shooting you can only expect his three point shot to become better over time. MCW took about 3 three-pointers per game, which is the average for all of these RoY PG except Lillard shooting 6.1 per game and only Rose taking less three point attempts per game in his rookie season at less than 1 per game. D. Rose started out shooting even worse from three than MCW (22% and 26% respectively) but has since been able to average a much more respectable 31% career average. MCW shooting trouble's could possibly be many things, but his work ethic has me doubting it'll be an on-going issue. Also, better team mates will allow him to get to open in his spots more easily shooting a respectable 38% from the corner. If he had more confidence in his jump shot he would be averaging more shots per game, and hopefully more points per game. Before his two periods of extended time out with that skin thing and injury (CONSPIRACY!) he was averaging 4.5 3PA, and throughout the season only seven times has MCW taken more than 5 3 pointers, and shot at 30% during a game and 5 of those games was during that stint he was shooting 4.5 a game. Either way, we can expect improvement in every area and we have a lot to look forward too.

Enough MCW ball washing, even though he might be one of my favorite Sixers ever being one of the brightest spots in a bleak season that surprisingly ended up being one of my favorites. Time for the CONSPRIACY!! Now, speaking optimistically which I'm trying to do now and take some time off of my usual Nega-delphian views, MCW is a pretty great prospect to build around. Hinkie mentioned after the 2014 Draft in the press conference he felt a little heartache knowing MCW had been worried about being traded, and stated yet again that he was a player that the Sixers would like to build with. Brett Brown also has obvious ties with MCW both being from Boston, and dealing with this gruesome year together there's definitely some weight to Brett's opinion on whom Hinkie is expected to build and part witn his roster. There wasn't a head coach to give input on the Jrue trade at the time, but I would assume Brett definitely wanted to continue developing Michael due to his huge passion for player development in general. This is expected right? I mean this is the guy he chose to take Jrue's spot at PG, an all important position for running a fast paced offense the Sixers want. MCW's the only player we consider one of our possible cornerstones at the moment that has actually played some NBA minutes. We have to consider the risk Hinkie took with his first draft day trade with New Orleans in 2013. The trade had been rumored to have gone down with either Noel, Bennett, or Oladipo available at #6 which we really can't say at the moment if any of those would have been bad decisions. However, I feel like no matter whom was selected with the Pelican's pick that we were going to grab MCW at #11. A MCW/Oladipo back court would be fun, and very versatile defensively, and who knows about either Noel or Bennett currently but would have been a great trade in any scenario with what we received in the end. Now, Hinkie masterfully moving around the draft this year gives me some inclination he has a good idea who is wanted and when they'll be drafted flipping Elfrid for Dario and picks. I believe he knew he was going to be able to grab MCW at #11.

Of course, I feel like Hinkie would say that injury has allowed him to grab the best possible pick at their draft position two years in a row, with Nerlens Noel being available at #6. Nerlens Noel, another key part in my conspiracy, being the best pairing with MCW with their previous history and obvious chemistry will end up being a huge positive in the future if all goes well, again opsitmism. Other players drafted, acquired, or have rumored ties to certain players seems to be with MCW in mind. Every guard/wing player that is currently on the team is no shorter than 6'5, making sure every back court pairing up remains versatile with two long and tall guards, and drafting Syracuse baller Jerami Grant and the constant "interest" in Dion Waiters, another teammate of MCW's at Cuse. Ok, so that might be a reach, and it could just be that Hinkie is drafting the same type of player which was a post on this site earlier, but not too farfetched to believe that he could be building around a point guard who fits the mold of what he seems to be drafting perfectly being athletic and having good length and height for his position. Once Dario comes over we might have the tallest starting 5 in the NBA. Also, with the iteration that the Sixers have been preparing to pick anywhere in the top 5 makes it seem like he is betting on his proven talent in MCW. Fortunately, we were able to pick and third and hopefully even more fortunately Embiid was available. All that talk of trades for the 1st pick ended of being bull, as you'd expect from tight lipped HInkie.

I might be overrating MCW a bit, but if we really our expecting to be a power house in a couple of years it's not outrageous to expect our soon to be 23 year old point guard to start to flourish into a good player soon, and I trust in Hinkie to put players around him that will help him be successful.

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