When Hinkie took over the team they were mostly a sub .500 team flailing in the east during the height of the LeBron big three, and they had just traded their best player for Andrew Bynum. By the time Hinkie was hired in May 2013 anyone with foresight knows this team is not going to be competitive immediately and is not a favorable landing spot in an already weak FA, and in the NBA you need a star. So he deals MCW (in hindsight this was a pretty good decision right?) he gets Nerlens Noel and a first, so he takes a gamble on the injured Embiid which both provides him with the highest upside and virtually guarantees another high draft slot. At this point even if Embiid is healthy and is having the season he's having right now the 76ers probably still end up in the lotto, so why not grab a high lotto pick? 2015 comes and they miss their chance to grab D'Angelo Russel, so he picks up a trade chip in Oakafor (and yes, misses an opportunity in Porzingis but, no one predicted Zinger would be this good, and on paper at the time it looks like a taller duplicate of Saric.)

In reality, Hinkie only had a chance to tank two seasons. Everyone he dealt was pretty substandard, and Philly was not a free agency destination for a star in those two years. In only two years he built a young core with HUGE potential, and set them up with a ton of assets. How anyone can put forward that another strategy wouldn't have resulted in a decade of mediocrity is beyond me.