Report, Common Sense: Agents Don't Trust Sam Hinkie
Sam Hinkie, a puff of smoke and wisp of hair in a suit, is difficult to deal with. Do I know that for sure? No, but I’d be super amazed if he wasn’t. It’s his job to be, but sometimes, that is going to hurt the team.
According to a report by Keith Pompey, agents don’t trust Hinkie, and some of them don’t want their players to come to the Sixers. That’s not entirely new news, and agents aren’t known as the most reliable sources, but at least one agent told Pompey that he’d steer his max-contract clients away from the Sixers. “One agent said he doesn’t want his max-level players in Philadelphia,” Pompey reports. “He’s open to his midlevel players signing with the Sixers only if they overpay.” So, never then. Pompey continues: “But the Sixers’ front office believes you can’t govern a team by trying to make everyone happy. The team’s lone focus is on building something special that will sustain over a long period of time.”
So, what is the big hook here? We kinda knew all this agent stuff before, so what’s the new info? It’s hilarious:
“A prime example was when the team drafted Michael Carter-Williams with the 11th overall pick in the 2013 draft. The source said the next morning Hinkie had 35 voice messages from agents, stating that they had the perfect veteran backup/mentor for the rookie point guard. The source said all of those players had one thing in common: They were all over 30 years old, unemployed, and were seeking over $1 million.
Hinkie passed and acquired Tony Wroten, who was a second-year player at the time, in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies to serve as Carter-Williams’ backup.
According to the source, the move disappointed agents looking for jobs for their clients.”
Sam Hinkie traded literally nothing – a super-protected second-round pick that didn’t convey – for Wroten, instead of signing numerous 30+ year-old, unemployed, nobodies. That is the big zinger on Hinkie? That’d he’d rather give Wroten a chance at backing up MCW than some old dude who called him out of the blue from home, without a job, saying “hey man I’ll do it for a million or more”? That’s what we’re supposed to think was a bad idea? I get that agents are always in for their clients, but even they gotta step back and realize not signing an out-of-work dude off of a cold call isn’t exactly shocking or offensive.
When it comes time to start signing from free agents – signs point to next off-season – we’ll really see how much Hinkie is trusted, or if that even matters when it comes to the team around the free agent and cap space. But at least now out-of-work PGs know that cold calls don’t fly with Hinkie.