Contrary to what it looked like, Sam Hinkie did have a plan, but it was a long process.

On paper, he planned out perfectly how he wanted to build the Philadelphia 76ers. Get younger, lose enough games to get high draft picks, and repeat the process until he had enough talent.

The one miscalculation he made was underestimating the toll losing would take on the organization.

Eventually, the team brought in current GM Bryan Coleangelo to take over while Hinkie would take a demotion, but that was never realistic.

Hinkie departed from the team leaving in a fallout.

Coleangelo spoke on The Vertical Podcast with Woj about the team.

Really, factually, there was a losing culture. There was a losing mindset.

It had been ingrained partly because of the undertaking of rebuilding that they had been going through. And it’s a byproduct of the rebuilding process, if you will. You’re going to lose some games along the way, and it becomes part of the fabric of the team and the organization.

And I think more than anything the mindset needed to shift. The mindset needed to change. And that’s why we’ve been talking about winning and doing everything to promote winning, promote a culture of excellence, to promote better thought process in everything.

It may have been subtle in the way that it came out, but some symptoms surfaced in different ways to the losing culture.

Lottery pick Jahlil Okafor fighting in a street brawl. He was also pulled over by the police for reckless driving. Joel Embiid was unwilling to listen to the coach when he thought he'd play again.

Colangelo's first idea is to bring in veteran players for guidance. There was no veteran presence prior to this year's team and it showed.

This was probably the single most important issue in the locker room, and it's the very first step to fixing it.