No time but the present for the Sixers

APPARENTLY, to the 76ers organization, time is an illusion. The Plan remains the same after they traded away reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams on Thursday, and that Plan is to be a championship contender. When exactly that might happen isn't really the focus. What general manager Sam Hinkie and coach Brett Brown strongly believe is that following their charted course will provide a special result.

Whenever it happens.

Only minutes before the NBA trade deadline, the team decided to unload MCW to Milwaukee in a three-team trade that brought them the first-round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers, which is top-five protected this year, top-three protected for the next 2 years. In unloading what appeared to be their point guard of the future, the Sixers seem to have pushed the rebuilding process back a little bit, as a new point guard might have to be groomed again, much the way they did with MCW for a little more than a season and a half.

"What we're trying to do is that we're trying to build something great, and it will require making tough decisions," Hinkie said yesterday during a news conference. "They [fans] understand that the way that we see the world is to have a broad set of options, because good decisions will come from a broad set of options. And to be willing to make the tough calls that if we have something, but we have something that we think will move our program forward even more so, then we'll do it. And we will do it unblinkingly. It's so critical to get from where we are to where we want to go for us to be willing to take smart risks when we see them."

Asked when he'll know that the time has come, Hinkie smiled and said: "We'll all know. We'll all know."

Following his rookie season, Carter-Williams was sidelined for the summer after getting surgery to repair a torn labrum, curtailing a chance to work on a shot that has needed improvement since he came out of Syracuse. His shooting percentage was painfully low this season (38 percent, 25.6 percent from three) and he led the NBA in turning the ball over (4.2). He was a key figure in helping the team reach the goals Brown had set before each of his two seasons, as the Sixers led the league in pace a year ago and have improved from last to 12th in overall defense this season. Still, the decision was made to part.

"I think it's clear that, when he [Hinkie] and his group step back and look at they dynamics and the layers of pieces that have ripple effects from this type of a move that he will trace back, pick after pick, to look at what this ended up with in their eyes and in management's eyes and the people that made this decision, the benefits outweighed holding on to Michael," Brown said. "I'll remember for a long time, Sam coming into my office and saying, 'I have a deal that involves Michael that I believe we should do.' You take a deep breath and you listen and you make him repeat it and you ask, 'Do you really think that this deal is going to move us forward?' And he said, 'Yes I do.' Then I think he has to do his job. He and I talk all the time. We do this together with the support with very patient and very supportive owners, and this is the decision that we came up with."

Whether on board or not with The Plan, many still have the same question: When does it all come to fruition?

Neither Hinkie nor Brown would put a timetable on it. They are focused on the here and now of what they are doing - Brown with the ever-changing players he oversees, Hinkie with the fascinating future filled with draft picks.

"I feel strong that if we do the right thing by the city and the program - and maybe I'm naive and maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong - then I think good comes from it," said Brown, who has two more seasons after this on his contract. "I'm going to back myself and I'm going to back Sam in these types of decisions. I remember sitting in a draft room last year and realizing that we're going to take Dario Saric and Joel Embiid and they're not even going to play again this year? They're not going to play this year after we came out with 19 wins?

"Then you take a deep breath, and you say that's what's best for the city, that's what's best for the Philadelphia 76ers, so that's what we should do. So kind of end of story. I think that as a coaching staff, as a front office, if we truly believe that and we deliver through our actions, then good things will come for the program in the long term. That's my philosophy, and it's something that I intend on sticking with."

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