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Donnellon: Hextall, Colangelo roofers or just builders?

ON SUNDAY, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said this about promoting young players and making trades: "I have to stay patient. You make quick decisions and you don't make the right decisions. We've got a lot of thoughts going on, but we'll see how she plays out in the next month or so."

On Sunday, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said this about promoting young players and making trades: "I have to stay patient. You make quick decisions and you don't make the right decisions. We've got a lot of thoughts going on, but we'll see how she plays out in the next month or so."

On Monday, Sixers general manager Bryan Colangelo told CSNPhilly that Ben Simmons' repaired right foot had been scanned one last time, clearing his path to finally play. Colangelo did not provide a timetable for that, saying only that it would be "soon enough."

Careful. Gentle. Don't mess this up now. The process for both men remains more important than any public clamor for wins or playoff spots, even if Colangelo proclaimed the terminology his predecessor used for his rules-bending buildup of assets to be "dead."

It is not, of course. Regardless of whether Simmons joins the Sixers next month or next season, Sam Hinkie's machinations have seen to it that there need be no more tanking. Because of the trade that brought Nik Stauskas from Sacramento, the Sixers have the option to swap first-round picks with the Kings this spring. With the Kings at 16 wins this season, that deal looked like insurance even before Rudy Gay's season ended with a torn Achilles'. The same trade netted them the Kings' top pick in 2019, which, if they don't start winning enough to keep DeMarcus Cousins around, could even end up a lottery pick.

Tracing back to their trade of Michael Carter-Williams, they also own the first pick of the 16-win Lakers this spring, unless it is one of the top three. If so, they receive the Lakers' top pick in 2018. That's a lot of potential contributors to a team that, with Joel Embiid and perhaps Simmons, seems to have two elite-level players already in place.

But as we have already learned, assets are no guarantees, especially in the NBA. It's one reason Hinkie is no longer here. You wonder whether the narrative would be different if he could have made it to this season, when Embiid delivered his big return.

Then again, if Colangelo is the team builder that his resumes in Phoenix and Toronto say he is, this would appear to be the better path. Success in one place does not always equate to success elsewhere, though, and success at one thing does not equate to success in another. Would Ed Wade have ever been able to get the Phillies over the hump with the core he drafted the way Pat Gillick did? His trade history, especially in-season, would suggest no.

Joe Banner came close here, not so much in Cleveland.

Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke once noted that while Larry Brown was excellent at building foundations, Phil Jackson was a roofer. Neither has proved particularly successful doing the other thing, and Jackson, thus far, has been an unmitigated masonry disaster in New York.

Oh, yeah, now that he's been fired in two places, we should adjust the erroneous narrative assigned to Chip Kelly. He was never charged with building a program. He is a roofer. And, if not for that offense of his, not a particularly notable one.

Colangelo had success building up Phoenix and Toronto, a team Sixers coach Brett Brown touted last week as a beacon for long-term success. The irony, of course, is that Colangelo was gone before that beacon lit, and is now charged with finishing off what Hinkie started. Like Gillick with the Phillies last decade, anything short of an eventual championship will not be viewed by the majority as a successful run.

Hextall has a little more wiggle room with a team whose Cup-starved fans have increasingly viewed the company line of eight Stanley Cup final appearances as a grating punchline. That thirst, though, also drives the periodical calls for fresh blood through promotion and/or trades, especially when they hit a funk like the latest one, as clear an indicator of mediocrity as any in sport.

Teams that live on the edge die on the edge – or, to put it in hockey parlance, teams that cite bounces after every loss or win are easily bounced from Cup consideration. There are a half-dozen goalies in the Flyers system right now, and Hextall needs only one to emerge as his franchise guy. He has three big defensemen a year or two away, he has the AHL's leading scorer, Greg Carey, trying hard not to be a Phantom for too much longer.

And he has that long view, especially in the wake of Ed Snider's illness and death, that his predecessors weren't always afforded. But at some point in his not-too-distant future he will have to make that defining move – a trade, a signing, or both – that will put his team over the hump the way the Mike Richards trade did for the Kings when Hextall was there and not here.

If he gets it right, he gets to ride in a parade. Same with Colangelo. They will become elite themselves, in fact. Because we've been here before, with a lot of teams that couldn't quite get it to go over William Penn's hat.

This town's never been short of builders.

Roofers, though . . . they've been rare.

donnels@phillynews.com

@samdonnellon