Sam Hinkie meant business, and he was as 4 REAL as a Manic Street Preacher. We would never question again.

This was no small sacrifice we were making with the dealing of Jrue Holiday, however. Jrue had just finished the final year of his rookie contract and made the All-Star team for the first time as a 22-year-old. He averaged 18-4-8 with decent shooting and good defense, and led the team in minutes with his nearly 38 a game. The Sixers didn't really have a franchise player at the time -- unless you counted the decomposing corpse of Andrew Bynum on the bench -- but Jrue was the closest thing we had to one, and he was young, fairly cheap, and under contract for the next four years. It made sense for the Pelicans, who had just drafted a true franchise player in Anthony Davis, to give up a good amount to pry him from the Sixers.

But it was indeed a good amount. Noel sat out his first season as he recovered from his college-torn ACL, then made first team All-Rookie the next year, quickly proving a versatile defensive terror, and improving as a scorer, rebounder and passer throughout the season. Meanwhile, the 2014 New Orleans pick landed at No. 10 -- which Hinkie used to draft Elfrid Payton, Louisiana Tech point guard apparently coveted by the Orlando Magic, who proceeded to give up 12th pick (and likely international stash) Dario Saric, as well as returning to the Sixers a first-rounder that they had previously owed the Magic, and a 2015 second-rounder.

For a while, it looked like the Sixers had swindled the Pelicans in this one, as Noel looked beastly, Dario continued to amass hype overseas playing in the Euroleague, and Jrue seemingly couldn't stay on the court long enough to help the Pelicans reach a different level with Anthony Davis. But their lead shortened on the Pelicans as Noel, made redundant via the Sixers' big-man glut, stagnated over his next few years -- before ultimately being traded to Dallas for a relative pittance -- while Jrue recovered his health and his All-Star form with New Orleans this season, putting up career numbers across 81 games in the regular season, and even winning his first playoff series in the Big Easy. It'd be a lot easier to feel good about the Sixers' guard rotation right now if we had Jrue leading the way in the backcourt, certainly -- his playmaking, shooting, defense and ability to play on or off the ball (as he's done next to Rajon Rondo in NO) would be pretty damn helpful about now.

Still, the trade netted them Dario, who despite still being something of a question mark defensively, has proven to be a game-changer on offense. Not only was he great as an NBA sophomore in the regular season, I think we've forgotten too quickly just how productive The Homie was in the playoffs this year: He averaged a 17-7-4 on 55% True Shooting, with an over 2:1 assist-turnover ratio, and an 18.6 PER -- all marks much higher than his regular season, one of just two Sixers (along with T.J. McConnell, natch) you could say that about. And don't forget about that future first-rounder, which (I believe) would've finally gone to Orlando this year, or that 2015 second-rounder, which we traded to the Knicks for future seconds in 2020 and 2021. And who knows? Maybe Justin Anderson, primary return in the Nerlens trade to Dallas, will still become a thing, and we have a second coming in 2020 from that deal too. The tentacles of this trade stretch deep.