Their best player missed a quarter of the season. If you’re going to discount the end of their season, that has to be taken into account. Their last 8 wins were without Embiid. Obviously, they were mostly playing tanking teams but wins are wins. I see no reason why their win total would decrease this year.
The Sixers are good and should win around 50 or more games this year (if healthy).
I don’t disagree with this. My whole point was that they’re my choice as the 2nd best team behind the Celtics, not that they’re currently a serious challenger. However, I do think they’re one impact trade away. If they get Kawhi, the whole calculus changes, at least for a year. I’m not really concerned about any other team at the moment.
I agree with this post. I think I mis-read your other post and took it as an argument that the Sixers were(are) really close to the C's. My bad.
Why?
Not sure why you keep bringing this up. Since college, hes had a stress fracture in his lower back, surgery on his foot, surgery on his knee, and missed several games due to ankle, leg, and back issues. Are you expecting a 7+ footer with a history of leg/foot/back issues to be logging full seasons consistently? Dudes in Gronk territory. Be happy with whatever games you get out of him.
It was a five game series without the Celtics two best players. Project growth for Embiid and Simmons and add new guys--that's totally fair. But to say that it was closer than the Celtics fans are willing to admit, while ignoring that Boston was without its two best players, is disingenuous.
The Sixers are good. But I think the Celtics are better.
My point was that this team is more than Embiid, as they clearly showed last year and they’re only going to get better. This board continues to undersell what Philly has accomplished and what they’re capable of.
I wasn't trying to undersell Philly. I was actually trying to properly rate them.
I'm sold that they're on the way up and have reason for hope. Much of that hope is based on the conference being ass, but they're a big factor now. It should be fun playing them for years.
Yup. And I wasn’t directing my comment at you. Just an observation from reading this board. Embiid is an absolute force and he obviously comes with his injury concerns but when he’s healthy, he’s a top 10 player. Simmons had a tough series against Boston but he is still so young. I’m not really bullish about his shot improving but he’s still very valuable with a poor shot. Saric and Covington are really good players. The latter had a tough series but he’s a very good 3 and D guy. They have some development prospects in Smith, Korkmaz, Luwawu, etc. Redick and Chandler are a couple of quality vets.
Are they more than just Embiid? In the 11 games he missed in the beginning/middle of the season, the team was 3-8 with losses to some pretty bad teams (Chicago, Sacramento, 34 point drubbing by Toronto). In the 8 games they won at the end of the season without him, they only played 2 teams over .500. Cleveland (they won by 2) and Milwaukee (no starter for the Bucks played more than 22 minutes, most played 12 - 15). All of the other 6 games were against lotto teams who were trying their best to lose games.
Fair to disagree and not a wholly unreasonable position. They played poor teams down the stretch but they also looked really, really good in some of them. They absolutely dismantled Milwaukee in the last game without Embiid. I know people can chalk that up to Milwaukee mailing it in but I was sitting on the floor at that game and they really didn’t. As a side not, Jabari Parker had a horrendous attitude on the bench. Wasn’t engaged and wasn’t listening to the coaches when being spoken to. I really soured on him.
Maybe some were, but my point about the 6ers limited ceiling doesn't have much to do with their perform last year.
So Fultz is likely a complete bust, seems agressive but clearly possible. (Edit possible not pissible lol)
Because Embiid is 24 years old, and typically players don't do much improving after that age, and Simmons can't shoot a basketball outside the paint.
Players who can't shoot outside the paint and are horrible free throw shooters don't just learn to shoot. Players extend range all the time, like Gasol, Cousins, Blake Griffin, etc.
Because Simmons can't shoot a basketball and Embiid is 24 years old. 24 year olds don't typically make huge improvements, Embiid is what he is, which is a great player. Players don't just learn to shoot.
Jason Kidd took 3 3pointers a game his rookie year. He shot 70% from the line. He was a bad shooter not a non-shooter. Rondo was and still is a bad shooter, but again, not a non shooter. Rondo took like 20% of his shots from past 16 feet his rookie year, and shot 10% better from the free throw line than Simmons. And Marcus Smart? He shot 33% from 3 his rookie year.
We're totally in love with Jaylen, but last season Saric had almost the exact same stat line as him. I think people are sleeping on how good he is.
Saric is the much better passer/play maker of the two but Jaylen is better on defense. Saric also has the edge in FT shooting and rebounding, but with rebounding who knows how much the team around him factors into that. The Celtics spread rebounds around a bit. Jaylen is 2 1/2 years younger which is no small deal and why I'd much prefer him over Saric, but Saric is still a really good offensive player. His passing game is going to be underrated/nerfed because he plays with Ben Simmons. Kinda like Oladipo in OKC, but not as extreme.
Fair enough, nice job defending your position.
It doesn't help that Embiid is not a good 3 point shooter either, although one would think he will improve a bit given he is a good FT shooter. If Embiid improves, that helps solve a lot of the 6ers problems. I think they could get away with Ben Simmons if Embiid is closer to league average from 3. It is hard having 2 guys on the court that can't hit the 3 for 30+ minutes a game. We've seen it in spurts with Smart and Rozier over the years.
I was the passenger in a car on Monday that had 98.5 on in the afternoon and if not for my seatbelt I may have jumped out on 95 to rid myself of the pain of Mazzeroti saying how Smart would be a PERFECT fit in Philly next to Simmons. Lord help his followers.
The callers are every bit as brutal. They gave this one guy the opportunity to ramble for a full 3 minutes about how he can't fathom why Toronto isn't going after Smart. I can think of over $126M reasons why.
I listened to this one and there was a little more nuance to it. I'm not a huge Vernon fan, but I really like Kevin O'connor's measured approach to evaluating players and the way in which he challenges his own opinions. In the conversation, he originally questioned the Sixers' choice of essentially creating a press release about how good Markelle looks, wondering why you'd place public expectations on a player already struggling with those kind of expectations. Then Vernon brought up a private convo/joke they had at summer league where they saw Markelle eating cheese fries on the sideline and KOC remarked "I'm out."
