Ford: Colangelo Still Following Hinkie’s Model

The combination of the Sixers getting the number one overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft with Bryan Colangelo being in charge of the Front Office, many have framed this as a "New Era" in Philadelphia.  Even 76ers Head Coach has labeled Colangelo as someone who is taking the organization in a "New Direction" after the Sam Hinkie "Trust The Process" Rebuild.  But ESPN NBA Draft Insider Chad Ford says that Bryan Colangelo is just making modifications to the Hinkie plan because in order to build a championship winning team, you need to build through the draft:

"Bryan Colangelo, I think he's still following Sam Hinkie's model but it's going to be more measured, like they're not going to sit out free agency this summer. They're going to bring in better players, they're going to start adding veterans, they're going to try to add basketball games. But they all agree the goal isn't to win 40 or 45 games for the Sixers, the goal is to win a championship and that's primarily going to be done through the draft. And so they got to this, they have to nail this pick, they have to execute here. And I think that they are going to execute in a way that means, look if Ben Simmons is repetitive with Dario Saric, I've read that a lot, Ben Simmons is a much better prospect than Dario Saric. Dario Saric is not athletic and Ben Simmons is an elite athlete. You take Ben Simmons and again you either shop Dario Saric around the league or you have another guy who's a versatile ball handler that happens to play the same position on the roster. But they're not going to make this decision off of need, they're going to make this decision off of who's the guy, the superstar, that we can build around in this draft and they just haven't had that and they need that if they're going to win a championship"

Chad Ford was a guest on The Sports Bash on Friday and spoke about why he thinks the Sixers should draft Ben Simmons along with his analysis of Brandon Ingram and the 2016 NBA Draft Class.