Flyers, Sixers drafts better be good

THE NEXT 2 days will shape our winters for years to come.

We are the sports capital of the world. At least when it comes to offseasons.

With the possible exception of those murdering, cheating New England Patriots, no team, no town, can top us when it comes to offseason tumult, intrigue and, above all, activity.

And the next 2 days will just be the most recent example of that.

Tomorrow night, Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie will either pick the Sixers' latest point guard of the future or franchise-changing big man, or he'll make his latest head-scratching trade that tells those in charge of next season's draft lottery that they might as well get started painting the new Sixers logo on a bunch more pingpong balls.

On the following day, Ron Hextall, just a little over 1 year into his job as Flyers general manager, will begin, in earnest, the remaking of a franchise notorious for impatience and immediacy into his vision of a homegrown, salary-cap aware, responsible one.

Do they know what they're doing?

Two years into Hinkie's tenure, we're still not sure. One year into Hextall's, we don't know either.

Neither has ever done this before. Each has never been the big boss, the architect; never has seen his vision of how to build a team result in a championship of any kind. To be fair, nor has Chip Kelly, but his near-miss success at the college level and consecutive 10-win seasons with a roster he mostly inherited gives him currency they lack. And yet he too has been the subject of civic consternation and distrust as he moves forward with his "culture."

And speaking of that . . .

Hextall's hiring of a college coach with no pro experience indicates that he, like Kelly, does not operate through fear. But the retention of Craig Berube's assistant coaches at least suggests a lack of a grander scheme, and perhaps, due diligence.

If Hextall was so enamored of Dave Hakstol's "culture" at the University of North Dakota, shouldn't he have laid more groundwork or made it more enticing for his assistants to join him? And shouldn't we be at least a little concerned that Hakstol's culture, like Kelly's, produced zero national championships over 11 seasons?

Even when they entered the Frozen Four as favorites?

Isn't it just a bit alarming, too, that Hextall became aware of Hakstol largely because his son played there, and not the kind of extensive search and interview process Hinkie and Sixers owner Josh Harris undertook before deciding to hire Brett Brown?

With moves that are simultaneously viewed as prudent and arrogant by an increasingly polarized populace, Hinkie has earned every doubt about his methods and, ultimately, the team's direction - even before this latest injury setback for last year's third overall pick, Joel Embiid, or the decision by Dario Saric to remain in Turkey for another season .

That the team has not improved significantly over his two seasons in charge clarifies nothing in this regard: Supporters use it as evidence of a grand plan, and skeptics view it as evidence of its likely doom, or even that there really is no such plan.

Yet an argument can be made that both blows actually aid the march to elite status, allowing the Sixers to allot additional playing time for secondary players who either will serve as bench pieces when Embiid is finally healthy and Saric eventually joins the team, or improve their value as trade currency.

But it's all based on faith or skepticism, depending on where you land in your assessment of Hinkie.

You can at least argue that Hextall has been part of such a process as an assistant general manager with the Los Angeles Kings, and you can argue that Hinkie's analytics helped put the Houston Rockets into the conversation, particularly this season. But as Joe Banner, Ed Wade and Bob Clarke/Paul Holmgren can attest, there's an abyss in both reputation and respect between that and Pat Gillick raising the big trophy over his head at the end of the last game in your sport's season.

And so we debate. And wait. And watch and hope, and pay undue attention to every little detail shared about the slew of teenagers who slap our favorite team's hats on their heads the next few days.

Some analytics formula used by ESPN has ranked D'Angelo Russell as the most likely player in this draft to become an NBA superstar.

It also said he has the greatest odds of being a bust.

Silly as that sounds, it's even sillier to have blind faith that either Hinkie or Hextall will someday be spoken of the way Gillick is now. But we can surely hope.

That's what the offseason's all about, right? And no one does offseason better than our teams do.

Not even the Patriots.

On Twitter: @samdonnellon

Columns: ph.ly/Donnellon