What people forget about The Process is that the Bynum trade was like a nuclear bomb that destroyed the Sixers. After we gave up the equivalent of four first round picks for Bynum, who never played a game for us, we were depleted.

Yes, that Sixers’ team just before we traded for Bynum almost made the ECF, but we never would have gotten there if Derrick Rose and Noah hadn’t had series-ending injuries in the first round. After we traded for Bynum and Moultrie in 2013, giving up Iguodala, Harkless, Vucevic, a 2015 1st and a 2017 1st, we were toast.

Our best player was Jrue Holiday, who is probably the third best player at best on a championship contender. Rounding out the roster were Turner, Thad, and Hawes. We were never winning rings with that core.

Hinkie came aboard and assessed the situation. Contrary to the national narrative, Sixers fans wanted the brass to blow it up and rebuild. Blow it up and rebuild, Hinkie did. If we make the playoffs in either ’14 or ‘15, Boston has our pick, so Hinkie decided it was the perfect time to just consolidate the roster and start over.

For Holiday, we got Noel and NOP 2014 1st. With the NOP 2014 1st, Hinkie hijacked the Magic, who were desperate for Payton, and traded down two spots, getting Dario Saric, a 2nd that became Richaun Holmes, and our lottery protected 2017 1st returned to us. Hinkie got rid of MCW at peak value after he figured out his ceiling, and now we have a Lakers pick that will probably get us a top-10 pick in a 2017 draft loaded with stud point guards and wings. He fleeced Divac and the Kings in a trade that looks crazier and crazier by the day.

The biggest mistake Hinkie made was Okafor over Porzingis, and even that may not have been his call, as there are rumors that the owner refused to sign off on the selection of Porzingis due to the optics of it. Even then, if the Lakers had taken Okafor as expected at #2, we would have Russell right now.

After three seasons playing the long game, the Sixers have a core of Simmons-Embiid-Noel-Okafor-Saric with a bunch of role players on cheap contracts in Covington, TLC (via the Thad trade), Sauce, Grant (from the Turner trade), Holmes, and McConnell. We now have Sergio Rodriguez, Jerryd Bayless, and Gerald Henderson as the locker room vets, and we still have in our pocket the better of Philly/Kings ’17 1st, Lakers ’17 1st (top-3 protected), the rights to Furkan Korkman (via the McGee trade for cap relief), our ’18 and ’19 1st, and the Kings ’19 unprotected 1st (the season after Boogie can walk as an UFA).

Simmons makes us playoff contenders. A healthy Embiid makes us championship contenders in two or three years. Embiid has the size and length of Gobert with the frame of Howard. He’s going to be the closest thing physically the league has seen since Orlando Shaq, and it’s going to be a blast rooting for these Sixers.

Hinkie will get a job somewhere real soon. He might even take over the Kings, which would suck for us, but good for him if that happens.

TRUST THE PROCESS.