Kristaps Porzingis (Photo : Elsa | Getty Images Sport)
The Philadelphia 76ers may really need to change their reputation as even the rookies and their agents are avoiding their team.
While players on the draft are technically powerless to choose their team, the agents can still employ tactics to discourage teams from picking their wards.
In a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, it was alleged that Porzingis' agent Andy Miller closed the door on possible meetings with Philadelphia 76ers' GM Sam Hinkie.
"The Sixers wouldn't be afforded Porzingis' physical, nor get a private workout, nor even a face-to-face meeting," Wojnarowski wrote.
They also recounted this conversation between Hinkie and Miller:
"You said that I would get a meeting with him here," Hinkie told Miller.
"I said, 'I'd try,' and it's not going to work out, Sam," Miller responded.
It was emphasized throughout the article that Porzingis really did want to go to the New York Knicks and now that he got his wish, the young Latvian is quickly proving his critics wrong. On last year's draft night, the vocal Knicks fans actually booed when Porzingis name was announced.
In retrospect, the Sixers do not have anyone to blame but themselves. CBS Sports looked at "the Process" as it is now commonly called, referring to Sam Hinkie's tanking exercises which is, as he claims, part of a long-term plan to build a contender.
As the article points out, the Sixers could still have drafted Porzingis with or without the meetings but they felt it was too much of a risk compared to a more seasoned and tangible college product like Duke's Jahlil Okafor.
Porzingis was no longer much of a secret and some pundits were suggesting that the Lakers should gamble on him at the no.2 spot. But the Lakers took another college standout, D'Angelo Russell.
The key takeaway here is that the Sixers are now becoming a joke of a team even among agents. Andy Miller is actually representing Nerlens Noel, the center for the Sixers but he still did not want his other ward on the same team. That seems indicative of how other people view "the Process."
