Last night as the Sixers were winning their 5th game of the season against a Lebron-less Cavs team the knicks were making moves. Team president and the sole savior of basketball in New York Phil Jackson has officially begun his quest for the #1 pick in the draft. Thats right the Sixers have serious contenders now with one early January trade, but when you break down the deal you’ll truly see how much better Sam Hinkie is than Phil Jackson is at acquiring assets for known talent.

The three-way deal sent starting Guard/Forward and owner of the second best flat top in the league Iman Shumpert and underperforming 3pt specialist JR Smith to the Cavs. The Cavs sent the Thunder former #4 overall pick and Phily guy Dion Waiters, The Thunder sent the Cavs a 1-18 protected First rounder and the Knicks received Alex Kirk and Lou Amundson from the Cavs and Lance Thomas from the Thunder along with a marginal trade exception from both teams ($5 Mill from Thunder $2Mill from Cavs) and a Thunder second rounder. All 3 of the players sent the New York were already waived (sound familiar).

Essentially the Sixers nearly got more for Brandon Freaking Davies than the Knicks got for a very good young player in Iman Shumpert. I understand part of this deal was a salary dump of Smith, but given Shumpert’s value a presumably very late 2nd rounder from OKC and some trade exceptions is a gross underpayment especially considering the Cavs will likely keep Smith as a role player. Mainly this deal makes the Phil Jackson contract look laughable. Some people are meant to stay coaches (and Retire at some point) and some are fit to be NBA GM’s.

There is another level to this, with this deal the Knicks are officially on board with blatant tanking making them the second major market team to go all in on this years draft in the last month alone. I have not heard much criticism of what the Celtics are doing after the Rondo trade and there likely will not be much criticism of the Knicks for doing the same. The bottom line is countless teams are following a Sixer style rebuilding plan and only the Sixers are receiving criticism for it. Trades like this just bolster my overall optimism for this team and their eventual domination of the Atlantic division in the near future. Im hoping Jackson get extended give him 10 years in New York ensure the train wreck continues! There are a lot of teams attempting to pull off a long-term rebuild, at least we all know that the Sixers are doing it best.

In Hinkie we trust.