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Number 1 issue though is the need to play Mo Bumba, it's like playing 4 vs 5 on the court.

So tonight Maxey is unavailable as he “continues to battle illness”, like Tobias has been in and out “battling illness”. Given prevailing winter bugs that have been on the rise, I can take a stab at what something lingering might be, but has their been an announcement or reliable report on an exact diagnosis, or is this just a handy excuse for fatigue and aches?

rzzzzz wrote:So tonight Maxey is unavailable as he “continues to battle illness”, like Tobias has been in and out “battling illness”. Given prevailing winter bugs that have been on the rise, I can take a stab at what something lingering might be, but has their been an announcement or reliable report on an exact diagnosis, or is this just a handy excuse for fatigue and aches?

DNP - Tanking basically.
Season is over, we need to at least improve for next season.

Just think about how Atlanta would perform if they missed Young Murray Hunter Capela & Bogdon like what we are tonight. It would makes you feeling much better.

I'm reading this thread and I'm really not sure what everyone was expecting, playing two new guys, a couple of kids, and a bunch of end of the bench pieces. The one thing I''ll totally concur with is regarding Tobias. These should be games where he steps up and sets the tone, but it just isn't what he is or ever was.

Hield and Payne were better than I expected. That’s the only thing important about this game.

Hopefully the entire team isn’t injured after the all star break so we can finally win some games again.

Also it was great to see us playing modern NBA basketball by shooting and making 3’s. Our shooting the prior several games and most of the year has been really bad.

Hield himself took 12 3’s and Payne took 9. We need that kind of 3PT volume.

Arsenal wrote:Hield and Payne were better than I expected. That’s the only thing important about this game.

Hopefully the entire team isn’t injured after the all star break so we can finally win some games again.

You cant be serious? We are playing one of the worst defensive teams in the league and those guys played major minutes. Anybody can score 20ish points against those teams playing 36-40 minutes and taking a ton of shots. Its ridiculous that we are reduced to having average players like Buddy Hield and Cameron Payne fire up 40 shots between them. I dont mean to slag those guys they are average players not good not bad. They have roles to fill on teams but by themselves they rarely win games. This team is going to have to be totally healthy for them to help and by the time that happens we will likely be out of the top 6 and as far as I am concerned that means light out. In a way I appalud you for continuing to grasp at straws. I personally cant do that anymore after 40 years as a fan I just look at a another season of not getting by the second round of the playoffs.

Just watching the replay now. They didn't play defense because executing good defense becomes challenging when you're undermanned in today’s NBA. It can lead to foul trouble, similar to how teams defend against Biid early in the game, allowing him to accumulate points. Additionally, we’re also missing like 50-60 points from Biid and Maxey, which means our starting 5 has to carry an extra load on offense.

Bench was just Kj Martin, Bamba, Terq and Council.

brannigan73 wrote:

Arsenal wrote:Hield and Payne were better than I expected. That’s the only thing important about this game.

Hopefully the entire team isn’t injured after the all star break so we can finally win some games again.

You cant be serious? We are playing one of the worst defensive teams in the league and those guys played major minutes. Anybody can score 20ish points against those teams playing 36-40 minutes and taking a ton of shots. Its ridiculous that we are reduced to having average players like Buddy Hield and Cameron Payne fire up 40 shots between them.

My advice to you is get a Rx for Prozac.

Bamba and Martin are two of the worst Sixers I have ever seen.

And I watched a lot of bad players in the tanking era. Sampson, Malcolm Thomas , Brandon Davies, Isaiah Canaan, Aldemir...
These guys are in their tier, terrible basketball players, zero feel for the game.

So how did Hield and Payne look in their debut?

Poor Buddy Hield. He just wants to be on a winning team for once but gets traded from one to a loser before the playoffs.

Arsenal wrote:

brannigan73 wrote:

Arsenal wrote:Hield and Payne were better than I expected. That’s the only thing important about this game.

Hopefully the entire team isn’t injured after the all star break so we can finally win some games again.

You cant be serious? We are playing one of the worst defensive teams in the league and those guys played major minutes. Anybody can score 20ish points against those teams playing 36-40 minutes and taking a ton of shots. Its ridiculous that we are reduced to having average players like Buddy Hield and Cameron Payne fire up 40 shots between them.

My advice to you is get a Rx for Prozac.

Before anyone goes on SSRIs my advice would be to treat the underlying cause via... not watching the games! For let's say... 4-6 weeks. We can revisit in 4 weeks to figure it out a plan to ease back in.

phillynative wrote:So how did Hield and Payne look in their debut?

Didn't watch but they shot 21 threes!!!

phillynative wrote:So how did Hield and Payne look in their debut?

They did what they do. Payne has a much better offensive game than Pat Bev while playing with the same energy. Obviously not the defensive player he is, but I've always liked Payne for what he is. Alaa got a little annoying with the "Cam-Pain" jokes. I'm not sure if he's a long term fit here, but if he can keep up what he did for us last night, I think we should bring him back. He's always been an off the bench scorer that can come in a run an offense for stretches. You can't ask for anything else I guess. Then again we do have Terquavion Smith waiting so who knows what Payne is for us in the future.

Buddy Hield was good, he competed hard on both ends. All but one of his threes were online and looked good. They just didn't all go in. I think he gives us something we've been missing since Seth Curry left, but better. He attacked the rim a few times, made some things happen, I like what he did.

Bottom line is I think both Payne and Hield would look even better under healthier circumstances. Trying to win with them now as is, is merely a waste of their talents, but maybe they can at least get acclimated with one another in the meantime? IDK, losing sucks, but I'm going to stick it out and watch the games. I'm just going to try and keep my crying to a minimum while it's happening.

I’ll watch the condensed replay later but only losing by 6 is a better result than I expected. Atlanta is a bad, but talented, team and we were missing 4 starters & incorporating 2 new players during there first game.

youngcrev wrote:Before anyone goes on SSRIs my advice would be to treat the underlying cause via... not watching the games! For let's say... 4-6 weeks. We can revisit in 4 weeks to figure it out a plan to ease back in.

Reminds me of a notable psychologist from our local U of P, Martin Seligman, who came up with “learned helplessness”. Basically, when you are exposed to painful stimuli that you can’t do anything about, you end up just sitting there and taking it, even when eventually the chance does come along to make a move.

We're gonna be fine.

Payne is above average PG backup in the league. Hield is a threat.
We're playing without Maxey, Melton, Batum and Embiid (Cov too but he is probably out of rotation at this point).

If we're healthy, we can be dangerous.

Maxey/Payne
Hield/Melton
Batum/Oubre
Harris/Cov
Embiid/Reed

It definitely sucks that we had to give up guys who really bonded with the fanbase and gave us toughness, and I hope we can get that in the buyout market, but eventually the talent is what wins games.

We definitely need to tighten up our defense first.

Bamba played well this game. 111DRtg oncourt vs 134 DRtg offcourt. I dont know why we didnt let him close the game down the stretch.