2022-23 Regular Season

[JonFromVA]

Just wanted to point out on that Sabonis didn't start to become an offensive hub until he was already 23 and in his 4th NBA season with his second team. Also the Pacers starting lineup didn't include another play-maker besides Brogdon.

The Pacers did play two big men and while Sabonis' 12.4 rebounds a game was impressive, Turner only averaged 6.6. otoh, Turner averaged 2.1 blocks that season to Sabonis' 0.5.

One of the Cavs strengths is our redundancy. While there's only one basketball and only so many stats to go around, this pays off for us when someone is sitting on the bench. We don't have a LeBron this time around, nobody who's so important that the team can't function when they aren't in the game.

As for offensive schemes, let's see what happens in the playoffs. It's one thing to have a clever scheme that wins a bunch of regular season games, but it's something else to continue to execute at a high-level against elite defenses that have been scheming and preparing for you.

The key is to be able to score consistently and not turn the ball over, there are no bonus points for style. Predictable is fine if the other team can't stop it.

[toooskies]

I've been thinking about this for a while. Would love to get others perspectives on it.

I think the Cavs have outgrown JB. I give him huge credit to what he has built, the culture, the attitudes, really helping develop our young guys. He's been great so far.

I don't think his offense is going to be able to put the Cavs over the edge. It's too slow, too plain, too iso heavy. There's little to no ball movement and too often guys are having to chuck bad 3s late in the clock. Or having to rely on Mitchell to bail us out and bring the Cavs back late in games.

I doubt the Cavs move on from him even if they lose in the 1st round but I think the conversations need to start being had. Maybe I'm way off base here, and I know the Cavs have a top10 offense (which is kinda unbelievable because that doesn't at all match the eye test, just a testament to how good Mitchell is.) but I don't see how this team really scales.

First, take a moment and realize that JBB has coached one of the youngest teams in the league and had them play best-in-the-league defense. He's starting three guys on their rookie contracts and has the #1 defense.

I think we take a lot fewer shots late in the clock ever since we picked up the tempo on offense and got into our actions early in the clock. I think the issue was less on JBB than it was the team, and JBB recognized it and brought the team out of it. Good coaching job!

JBB has made hard rotation calls. He let Love struggle for a long time before benching him. Then he stuck to his guns. It wasn't an injury thing, it was a performance thing. He's repeatedly played a guy, done the evaluation of the guy in the role, and changed it when it wasn't working. That goes for LeVert winning the SF job then moving to the bench; going to Lamar at SF, then Okoro; restricting minutes of Okoro early, Lamar in the middle, and Love and Wade in the second half of the season when they've struggled before shaking things up.

Being flexible enough to play defenses with the personnel he has. Whether that was three seven footers last year or playing super-small when one of Allen or Mobley sits, and still running effective offense and defense.

JBB is running an offense very few other teams in the league can run. It generates the most dunks in the league. We have two great finishers in Allen and Mobley and JBB's offense takes advantage of that. We're a top 10 offense (and may rise as we finish with a soft schedule) and the top defense.

What exactly are you expecting JBB to do? Championship coach Ty Lue has been starting Morris through 65 games and seeing a severe decline in his play and several similar-tier players ready to take his spot from the bench. Championship coach Steve Kerr is barely over .500 with the defending champions who have the highest payroll in basketball.

I love the job JBB has done and continues to do. He doesn't overreact to a few bad games but is honest after a few. He runs unique offenses, tries lots of things with different lineups, and usually gives guys chances to succeed when they're deserving of them. Somehow he's gotten Garland, Mobley, Allen, Mitchell, and Okoro to all be playing the best basketball of their careers. He's gotten LeVert to be playing the most unselfish basketball of his career. Getting Rubio up to speed was necessary for the postseason and he navigated that about as well as you could expect.

The Cavs have a top 10 offense because Allen, Okoro, Mitchell, Mobley, and Garland are all really efficient shooters. They're all at 59% TS or better. (Note that I ordered them above from highest to lowest TS% efficiency-- an Okoro shot is one of the offense's better shots!) Because they're all very good basketball players, but also because they all are great at setting up teammates. Then we have LeVert and Rubio off the bench who also are really efficient at setting up teammates, and LeVert in particular has bought into setting up teammates rather than getting his own. Very good coaching.

And ultimately, we've hit an awesome balance between developing young players while still emphasizing winning. Mobley has the leeway to shoot 3s even though they're not going in right now. Okoro and Stevens are walking the path of becoming 3-and-D guys and you see their year-over-year progress. Vets like Lopez and Neto and Green aren't simply given minutes because they're veterans, but they can produce when called upon.

The hardest issue is balancing Mitchell and Garland in the offense and they're both playing well with each other. Mitchell's biggest problem is doing too much when he's out there without Garland. I feel like Garland and Mitchell are playing off of each other much better than at the beginning of the season and that's a credit to both them and the team.

Notice how the vibes have shifted since Love was bought out-- if anything they got better! Despite the veteran "leader" leaving the team for purely selfish reasons! 10-5 since then, despite missing Allen for a handful of those games.

Cavs are definitely surpassing expectations for the second consecutive year (we just cashed in the "over" on team wins for 2022-23 with six games to play). Replacing the coach is crazy.

Let's at least wait to see how he coaches in a playoff series before we declare he can't coach in a playoff series.

appreciate the post, I certainly don't feel as over the moon about the offense as you do. I do think JB has done a really great job so far.

I do want to expand upon something specific in here tho and it's the bolded part. I genuinely don't understand what you mean by this. To me it seems like this is the most basic, vanilla offense you could possibly have and it's buoyed by Mitchell being so amazing. I don't have second spectrum so I can't get into the specific sets but like anecdotally I can count on 1 hand how many sets I've seen the Cavs run. There's absolutely no offensive flow. It's very ball dominant and stagnant. It relies on having a superstar shot creator to bail us out too often.

Some of that is limitations of personnel. If Okoro is only good at shooting 3s from the corner, you need to stick him in the corner. If we're starting two bigs who can't shoot, we need to run screens for them to have something to do. If we don't have movement shooters, those screens need to be on-ball screens.

Some of it is not noticing the plays we run. I've seen a few twitter threads recently illustrating plays. I'll be honest that these aren't things I notice in real-time-- my analysis is more stat-heavy than about knowing how the game is played.

But come playoff time, the game boils down to ball dominant superstar shot creators making amazing plays. Once the other team learns your plays and how to defend them, you're back to execution of simple plays. I'm fine with Garland and Mitchell getting those reps.

And if you have two star shot creators, your offense absolutely should revolve around using those star shot creators to create shots.

Our offense, specifically with our starters, produces good shots. If you have a choice between "complicated and gets a good shot" and "simple and gets a good shot", I will take simple most of the time. Less can go wrong. As long as the optionality is there, run the thing you know and do well. (On-ball man can shoot or drive, if he drives he can hit the short roll or go to the basket, if continuing the drive you can shoot or lob to the dunker spot big or kick out to the corner, etc.)

We're running an offense with two and sometimes three non-shooters, which nearly no other offense in the NBA runs-- they're mostly playing 4-out offenses. We lean heavily on pick-and-roll action because that's the best way to play with two non-shooting bigs who are effective in the short roll-- they need to be screening on the perimeter to free up space in the paint.

Sometimes (and particularly with Mitchell-led bench units), we do stagnate, but that's less of an issue in the playoffs, should be less of an issue as Rubio gets closer to 100%, and is less of an issue when LeVert is playing well. But again, it's a personnel thing. If we had a real shooter off the bench instead of Osman, we'd be in a better spot.

[jasonxxx102]

First, take a moment and realize that JBB has coached one of the youngest teams in the league and had them play best-in-the-league defense. He's starting three guys on their rookie contracts and has the #1 defense.

I think we take a lot fewer shots late in the clock ever since we picked up the tempo on offense and got into our actions early in the clock. I think the issue was less on JBB than it was the team, and JBB recognized it and brought the team out of it. Good coaching job!

JBB has made hard rotation calls. He let Love struggle for a long time before benching him. Then he stuck to his guns. It wasn't an injury thing, it was a performance thing. He's repeatedly played a guy, done the evaluation of the guy in the role, and changed it when it wasn't working. That goes for LeVert winning the SF job then moving to the bench; going to Lamar at SF, then Okoro; restricting minutes of Okoro early, Lamar in the middle, and Love and Wade in the second half of the season when they've struggled before shaking things up.

Being flexible enough to play defenses with the personnel he has. Whether that was three seven footers last year or playing super-small when one of Allen or Mobley sits, and still running effective offense and defense.

JBB is running an offense very few other teams in the league can run. It generates the most dunks in the league. We have two great finishers in Allen and Mobley and JBB's offense takes advantage of that. We're a top 10 offense (and may rise as we finish with a soft schedule) and the top defense.

What exactly are you expecting JBB to do? Championship coach Ty Lue has been starting Morris through 65 games and seeing a severe decline in his play and several similar-tier players ready to take his spot from the bench. Championship coach Steve Kerr is barely over .500 with the defending champions who have the highest payroll in basketball.

I love the job JBB has done and continues to do. He doesn't overreact to a few bad games but is honest after a few. He runs unique offenses, tries lots of things with different lineups, and usually gives guys chances to succeed when they're deserving of them. Somehow he's gotten Garland, Mobley, Allen, Mitchell, and Okoro to all be playing the best basketball of their careers. He's gotten LeVert to be playing the most unselfish basketball of his career. Getting Rubio up to speed was necessary for the postseason and he navigated that about as well as you could expect.

The Cavs have a top 10 offense because Allen, Okoro, Mitchell, Mobley, and Garland are all really efficient shooters. They're all at 59% TS or better. (Note that I ordered them above from highest to lowest TS% efficiency-- an Okoro shot is one of the offense's better shots!) Because they're all very good basketball players, but also because they all are great at setting up teammates. Then we have LeVert and Rubio off the bench who also are really efficient at setting up teammates, and LeVert in particular has bought into setting up teammates rather than getting his own. Very good coaching.

And ultimately, we've hit an awesome balance between developing young players while still emphasizing winning. Mobley has the leeway to shoot 3s even though they're not going in right now. Okoro and Stevens are walking the path of becoming 3-and-D guys and you see their year-over-year progress. Vets like Lopez and Neto and Green aren't simply given minutes because they're veterans, but they can produce when called upon.

The hardest issue is balancing Mitchell and Garland in the offense and they're both playing well with each other. Mitchell's biggest problem is doing too much when he's out there without Garland. I feel like Garland and Mitchell are playing off of each other much better than at the beginning of the season and that's a credit to both them and the team.

Notice how the vibes have shifted since Love was bought out-- if anything they got better! Despite the veteran "leader" leaving the team for purely selfish reasons! 10-5 since then, despite missing Allen for a handful of those games.

Cavs are definitely surpassing expectations for the second consecutive year (we just cashed in the "over" on team wins for 2022-23 with six games to play). Replacing the coach is crazy.

Let's at least wait to see how he coaches in a playoff series before we declare he can't coach in a playoff series.

appreciate the post, I certainly don't feel as over the moon about the offense as you do. I do think JB has done a really great job so far.

I do want to expand upon something specific in here tho and it's the bolded part. I genuinely don't understand what you mean by this. To me it seems like this is the most basic, vanilla offense you could possibly have and it's buoyed by Mitchell being so amazing. I don't have second spectrum so I can't get into the specific sets but like anecdotally I can count on 1 hand how many sets I've seen the Cavs run. There's absolutely no offensive flow. It's very ball dominant and stagnant. It relies on having a superstar shot creator to bail us out too often.

Some of that is limitations of personnel. If Okoro is only good at shooting 3s from the corner, you need to stick him in the corner. If we're starting two bigs who can't shoot, we need to run screens for them to have something to do. If we don't have movement shooters, those screens need to be on-ball screens.

Some of it is not noticing the plays we run. I've seen a few twitter threads recently illustrating plays. I'll be honest that these aren't things I notice in real-time-- my analysis is more stat-heavy than about knowing how the game is played.

But come playoff time, the game boils down to ball dominant superstar shot creators making amazing plays. Once the other team learns your plays and how to defend them, you're back to execution of simple plays. I'm fine with Garland and Mitchell getting those reps.

And if you have two star shot creators, your offense absolutely should revolve around using those star shot creators to create shots.

Our offense, specifically with our starters, produces good shots. If you have a choice between "complicated and gets a good shot" and "simple and gets a good shot", I will take simple most of the time. Less can go wrong. As long as the optionality is there, run the thing you know and do well. (On-ball man can shoot or drive, if he drives he can hit the short roll or go to the basket, if continuing the drive you can shoot or lob to the dunker spot big or kick out to the corner, etc.)

We're running an offense with two and sometimes three non-shooters, which nearly no other offense in the NBA runs-- they're mostly playing 4-out offenses. We lean heavily on pick-and-roll action because that's the best way to play with two non-shooting bigs who are effective in the short roll-- they need to be screening on the perimeter to free up space in the paint.

Sometimes (and particularly with Mitchell-led bench units), we do stagnate, but that's less of an issue in the playoffs, should be less of an issue as Rubio gets closer to 100%, and is less of an issue when LeVert is playing well. But again, it's a personnel thing. If we had a real shooter off the bench instead of Osman, we'd be in a better spot.

I'd like to see a lot more of Mobley at the elbow/high post and running some more actions out of that. Definitely more ball movement, I get it Okoro can't really do much offensively besides stand in the corner but at least get him moving around. He's a good enough finisher, let him set some screens, if nothing more than making his man or the defense move.

I think Rubio coming back is key. Having a guy who is low usage but is always making the right play and can be an offensive engine of sorts, is a really game changer. It's infinitely better than having to the Brandon Goodwins of the world.

Levert is another guy who frustrates me because he's either dropping 40 or chucking horrible shots the whole game. Barely any in-between.

Ultimately I do agree that simple > complex if you're still getting good shots, just need to make sure that same simple translates to when it matters. Way too many times we've gotten super stagnant and let bad teams get big leads only to come back behind (mostly) amazing Mitchell performances.

[JujitsuFlip]

Cavs signed 2 shooters and JB doesn't play them lol

[toooskies]

Cavs signed 2 shooters and JB doesn't play them lol

One of them is is G-League level talent and the other is still less than a year out from ACL surgery after being washed originally.

They were never going to be contributors on the court, they're 14th and 15th men.

(I think Windler may have more to give in the playoffs TBH.)

[JujitsuFlip]

Cavs signed 2 shooters and JB doesn't play them lol

One of them is is G-League level talent and the other is still less than a year out from ACL surgery after being washed originally.

They were never going to be contributors on the court, they're 14th and 15th men.

(I think Windler may have more to give in the playoffs TBH.)

Sigh, you're probably right.

[JonFromVA]

Cavs signed 2 shooters and JB doesn't play them lol

One of them is is G-League level talent and the other is still less than a year out from ACL surgery after being washed originally.

They were never going to be contributors on the court, they're 14th and 15th men.

(I think Windler may have more to give in the playoffs TBH.)

There's a chance with Danny, but we're not privy to his progress in his recovery or what benchmarks they've decided to apply.

[jbk1234]

Cavs signed 2 shooters and JB doesn't play them lol

One of them is is G-League level talent and the other is still less than a year out from ACL surgery after being washed originally.

They were never going to be contributors on the court, they're 14th and 15th men.

(I think Windler may have more to give in the playoffs TBH.)

Yeah, but we just played the Rockets at home in a game where the second unit was disappointing and they still couldn't get on the court. Wade has apparently been banished despite being a better defender/rebounder than Stevens in most matchups.

We're going to have to add outside shooting to the roster this summer with our exceptions and there's going to have to be a talk with JBB about minutes distribution. I might even Billy Bean him and just let LeVert walk. I'm not saying Altman will, but it should be an option.

[toooskies]

Cavs signed 2 shooters and JB doesn't play them lol

One of them is is G-League level talent and the other is still less than a year out from ACL surgery after being washed originally.

They were never going to be contributors on the court, they're 14th and 15th men.

(I think Windler may have more to give in the playoffs TBH.)

Yeah, but we just played the Rockets at home in a game where the second unit was disappointing and they still couldn't get on the court. Wade has apparently been banished despite being a better defender/rebounder than Stevens in most matchups.

We're going to have to add outside shooting to the roster this summer with our exceptions and there's going to have to be a talk with JBB about minutes distribution. I might even Billy Bean him and just let LeVert walk. I'm not saying Altman will, but it should be an option.

Wade is 3/20 shooting in 104 minutes since the all-star break. He's afraid to shoot and shooting badly when he does.

Wade is not a significantly different rebounder (within 1% in DRB%) and arguably a similar caliber defender than Stevens, but Stevens is playing significantly better on the offensive side of the ball and brings toughness and accountability to a unit that needs it. Stevens is shooting 38% from three since the all-star break.

LeVert is the third best shooter on the team, letting him walk would not improve our shooting.

[jbk1234]

One of them is is G-League level talent and the other is still less than a year out from ACL surgery after being washed originally.

They were never going to be contributors on the court, they're 14th and 15th men.

(I think Windler may have more to give in the playoffs TBH.)

Yeah, but we just played the Rockets at home in a game where the second unit was disappointing and they still couldn't get on the court. Wade has apparently been banished despite being a better defender/rebounder than Stevens in most matchups.

We're going to have to add outside shooting to the roster this summer with our exceptions and there's going to have to be a talk with JBB about minutes distribution. I might even Billy Bean him and just let LeVert walk. I'm not saying Altman will, but it should be an option.

Wade is 3/20 shooting in 104 minutes since the all-star break. He's afraid to shoot and shooting badly when he does.

Wade is not a significantly different rebounder (within 1% in DRB%) and arguably a similar caliber defender than Stevens, but Stevens is playing significantly better on the offensive side of the ball and brings toughness and accountability to a unit that needs it. Stevens is shooting 38% from three since the all-star break.

LeVert is the third best shooter on the team, letting him walk would not improve our shooting.

Yeah, the 104 minutes since the all star break is kind of the entire point. JBB has a really short leash with certain guys and other role players get the benefit of the doubt ten times over. Also, Stevens isn't playing significantly better than anyone on offense. That's crazy talk.

Look, JBB values athleticism, or at least athletic builds, over shooting. It's a fine preference so long as some semblance of balance is maintained. I strongly suspect that we're going to get to a point in the postseason where we're going to wish some of the guys who at least had the potential to space the floor we're given more run.

[JonFromVA]

I suspect Dean is going through the injury dance with his shoulder hoping it will eventually start feeling right, but fearing he'll need to have it operated on this Summer.

Some players have enough game they can play through some problems and still find ways to contribute, others don't have the margin.

Pretty much the later is the case for Love too at this stage of his career.

[toooskies]

Yeah, but we just played the Rockets at home in a game where the second unit was disappointing and they still couldn't get on the court. Wade has apparently been banished despite being a better defender/rebounder than Stevens in most matchups.

We're going to have to add outside shooting to the roster this summer with our exceptions and there's going to have to be a talk with JBB about minutes distribution. I might even Billy Bean him and just let LeVert walk. I'm not saying Altman will, but it should be an option.

Wade is 3/20 shooting in 104 minutes since the all-star break. He's afraid to shoot and shooting badly when he does.

Wade is not a significantly different rebounder (within 1% in DRB%) and arguably a similar caliber defender than Stevens, but Stevens is playing significantly better on the offensive side of the ball and brings toughness and accountability to a unit that needs it. Stevens is shooting 38% from three since the all-star break.

LeVert is the third best shooter on the team, letting him walk would not improve our shooting.

Yeah, the 104 minutes since the all star break is kind of the entire point. JBB has a really short leash with certain guys and other role players get the benefit of the doubt ten times over. Also, Stevens isn't playing significantly better than anyone on offense. That's crazy talk.

Look, JBB values athleticism, or at least athletic builds, over shooting. It's a fine preference so long as some semblance of balance is maintained. I strongly suspect that we're going to get to a point in the postseason where we're going to wish some of the guys who at least had the potential to space the floor we're given more run.

Stevens is shooting 38% from three since the all star break.

[jbk1234]

Wade is 3/20 shooting in 104 minutes since the all-star break. He's afraid to shoot and shooting badly when he does.

Wade is not a significantly different rebounder (within 1% in DRB%) and arguably a similar caliber defender than Stevens, but Stevens is playing significantly better on the offensive side of the ball and brings toughness and accountability to a unit that needs it. Stevens is shooting 38% from three since the all-star break.

LeVert is the third best shooter on the team, letting him walk would not improve our shooting.

Yeah, the 104 minutes since the all star break is kind of the entire point. JBB has a really short leash with certain guys and other role players get the benefit of the doubt ten times over. Also, Stevens isn't playing significantly better than anyone on offense. That's crazy talk.

Look, JBB values athleticism, or at least athletic builds, over shooting. It's a fine preference so long as some semblance of balance is maintained. I strongly suspect that we're going to get to a point in the postseason where we're going to wish some of the guys who at least had the potential to space the floor we're given more run.

Stevens is shooting 38% from three since the all star break.

On how many attempts.

[toooskies]

Yeah, the 104 minutes since the all star break is kind of the entire point. JBB has a really short leash with certain guys and other role players get the benefit of the doubt ten times over. Also, Stevens isn't playing significantly better than anyone on offense. That's crazy talk.

Look, JBB values athleticism, or at least athletic builds, over shooting. It's a fine preference so long as some semblance of balance is maintained. I strongly suspect that we're going to get to a point in the postseason where we're going to wish some of the guys who at least had the potential to space the floor we're given more run.

Stevens is shooting 38% from three since the all star break.

On how many attempts.

You can look that up, and Lamar isn't out there to be a volume shooter, especially when he's getting minutes at the 4. My point is that Lamar is playing waaaaay better than Dean Wade even if you don't think Stevens is above a replacement level NBA basketball player, because Wade hasn't been at that level. Pretty objectively.

Wade has gotten multiple 10+ minute stints since the all-star game and done nothing with them. Whether that's physical (the shoulder acting up) or mental (with Love being moved out) is a question but the results have been clear.

[jbk1234]

Stevens is shooting 38% from three since the all star break.

On how many attempts.

You can look that up, and Lamar isn't out there to be a volume shooter, especially when he's getting minutes at the 4. My point is that Lamar is playing waaaaay better than Dean Wade even if you don't think Stevens is above a replacement level NBA basketball player, because Wade hasn't been at that level. Pretty objectively.

Wade has gotten multiple 10+ minute stints since the all-star game and done nothing with them. Whether that's physical (the shoulder acting up) or mental (with Love being moved out) is a question but the results have been clear.

Our spacing is still broken with Stevens on the floor and the bill is going to come due for that. Even with Allen and Okoro out, we played 4 on 5 offensively against the Hawks the entire time he was out there. Wade's a far better rebounder than Stevens. Depending on the matchup, Wade's the better defender.

If you can only be bothered to look up the data you want to cherry pick, that's fine. But multiple 10 minute stints since the all star break, coming off an injury, is kind of laughable given how much rope Stevens has gotten over the course of the season.

[toooskies]

On how many attempts.

You can look that up, and Lamar isn't out there to be a volume shooter, especially when he's getting minutes at the 4. My point is that Lamar is playing waaaaay better than Dean Wade even if you don't think Stevens is above a replacement level NBA basketball player, because Wade hasn't been at that level. Pretty objectively.

Wade has gotten multiple 10+ minute stints since the all-star game and done nothing with them. Whether that's physical (the shoulder acting up) or mental (with Love being moved out) is a question but the results have been clear.

Our spacing is still broken with Stevens on the floor and the bill is going to come due for that. Even with Allen and Okoro out, we played 4 on 5 offensively against the Hawks the entire time he was out there. Wade's a far better rebounder than Stevens. Depending on the matchup, Wade's the better defender.

If you can only be bothered to look up the data you want to cherry pick, that's fine. But multiple 10 minute stints since the all star break, coming off an injury, is kind of laughable given how much rope Stevens has gotten over the course of the season.

I didn't make a claim that Stevens is going to fix our spacing, just that he's making incremental progress there and is shooting it well right now.

Feel free to present evidence that Wade is a "far better rebounder". I don't see any and it's the easiest counting stat there is. Lamar has more rebounds per 36 despite playing SF more often than PF. (Wade has a slight advantage in defensive rebounding.)

I remember the Dean Wade from early in the season, too, and would play that guy over this version of Stevens. But for whatever reason he hasn't been the same player since his injury and has only gotten worse. He literally hasn't scored more than 3 points in a game since Love was released.

[ijspeelman]

Read on Twitter

He should be back for our potential playoff match-up, but may impact it.

[ijspeelman]

Last important regular season game today (hopefully). Win this one and guaranteed the 4 seed. While the 3 seed is still mathematically possible, 6ers need to win three more games to make it impossible while we win out (tbf our schedule after this game is wildly easy).

Should I still hold out hope that we can sneak into the three seed?

Probably not, but I'm not ready for the team to give up on it just yet. 6ers have to lose 4 out of these next 6 games, Raptors, Bucks, Celts, Heat, Hawks, and Nets. They are dealing w injury issues on top of going through a bit of a rough stretch. Its possible, but still unlikely.

[toooskies]

Last important regular season game today (hopefully). Win this one and guaranteed the 4 seed. While the 3 seed is still mathematically possible, 6ers need to win three more games to make it impossible while we win out (tbf our schedule after this game is wildly easy).

Should I still hold out hope that we can sneak into the three seed?

Probably not, but I'm not ready for the team to give up on it just yet. 6ers have to lose 4 out of these next 6 games, Raptors, Bucks, Celts, Heat, Hawks, and Nets. They are dealing w injury issues on top of going through a bit of a rough stretch. Its possible, but still unlikely.

The 3 seed doesn't give us more homecourt advantage in any round of the playoffs, so it's not a huge deal. It's arguable whether we want to face the Knicks, Nets, or Heat in round 1, and it's arguable whether we want to see the Bucks or Celtics in round 2. So I'm fine letting the chips fall where they may, as long as we're getting the important players ready to play playoff basketball.

Garland's been a little off for a few weeks. I'd like to see him round into shape.
Allen is hurt. I'd like to see him get recovered and get a little bit of that "you're a ****ing all-star" attitude back.
Okoro is hurt. I'd like to see him get right and make sure he's in-rhythm shooting-wise.
Rubio can use all the reps.
Is Danny Green a factor? I guess we could try to find out.
Any chance we're thinking of adding Diakite, Isaiah Mobley, or someone else to the postseason roster? Diakite is getting time when Allen or Mobley sit, so you'd have to think you want him available over either Merrill or Windler.

[ijspeelman]

Last important regular season game today (hopefully). Win this one and guaranteed the 4 seed. While the 3 seed is still mathematically possible, 6ers need to win three more games to make it impossible while we win out (tbf our schedule after this game is wildly easy).

Should I still hold out hope that we can sneak into the three seed?

Probably not, but I'm not ready for the team to give up on it just yet. 6ers have to lose 4 out of these next 6 games, Raptors, Bucks, Celts, Heat, Hawks, and Nets. They are dealing w injury issues on top of going through a bit of a rough stretch. Its possible, but still unlikely.

The 3 seed doesn't give us more homecourt advantage in any round of the playoffs, so it's not a huge deal. It's arguable whether we want to face the Knicks, Nets, or Heat in round 1, and it's arguable whether we want to see the Bucks or Celtics in round 2. So I'm fine letting the chips fall where they may, as long as we're getting the important players ready to play playoff basketball.

Garland's been a little off for a few weeks. I'd like to see him round into shape.
Allen is hurt. I'd like to see him get recovered and get a little bit of that "you're a ****ing all-star" attitude back.
Okoro is hurt. I'd like to see him get right and make sure he's in-rhythm shooting-wise.
Rubio can use all the reps.
Is Danny Green a factor? I guess we could try to find out.
Any chance we're thinking of adding Diakite, Isaiah Mobley, or someone else to the postseason roster? Diakite is getting time when Allen or Mobley sit, so you'd have to think you want him available over either Merrill or Windler.

Personally, I think its too late to add someone new into our line-up and expect them to give real play-off minutes (barring add'l injuries). If we start resting peeps, then I assume everyone not named Evan, Darius, Donovan, or Jarrett will get many more minutes including our g-leaguers.