What are your pre-season take aways?

76ciology · Post #1 » by **76ciology** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 6:39 pm

I'll keep it short.

Stauskas sucks. Probably the worst player being referred to as a shooter. Short, slow and unathletic on defense. But I'm afraid his 8th pick status makes him tough to cut with.

RoCo played well IMO on his first year with us. I just feel like he, Noel and Ish is suited in a system that is different from Embiid/Okafor. He thrives on playing super fast, drive and draw that allows him to jack up shots with volume and confidence.

Jerami's shot seems improved and promising. He's a scary prospect if he can have a more consistent jumper.

Both TJ and Sergio would be very good back-up PGs. But they are damn frustrating if you give them heavy ball handling responsibilities. They need to play with another playmaker wing.

Saric is a very solid role player. I'm still impressed how he can be a good impact defensive player despite his lack of good length and athleticism at PF. He rebounds the ball and moves his feet well on D. While is a good facilitator and shooter at PF position.

Embiid is a sure star in this league and can be a superstar. He is just in a different level over his opponents out there, just ask Andre Drummond.

Overall.. I'm still not a fan of our schemes on both ends.

Offensively, it's too chaotic thus TO prone. Our PGs aren't good enough to shoulder major ball handling abilities. Our wings are poor ball handlers. If you watch the Celtics game, all they did was to apply high pressure on our guards and we just can't execute our offense. I'm still a fan of integrating triangle offense to BB's offensive system and let our bigs have more facilitating duties at the high post, this should lessen the ball handling load of our perimeter players while also making our post plays more unpredictable (see first possession of Embiid against Whiteside where he was able to drive into the paint from a fake hand-off).

Defensively, our rebounding is much improved thanks to Biid and Saric. But we are weak in generating opponents' TOs (4th worst), while we are 2nd worst in the league in giving up fast break points. A lot of it stems to our undersized (in terms of elite wingspan) and unathletic PGs and wings (aside from RoCo and Jerami).

It still reminds me a lot of how sucky our team was last season. And I'm expecting us to be a high TO team that pulls this team's morale down on most times. Then we'll have Simmons as Ish to arrive around late dec. to early Jan to give this team some direction.

Mik317 · Post #2 » by **Mik317** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 7:40 pm

we gonna suck.

Ericb5 · Post #3 » by **Ericb5** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 7:40 pm

Embiid is proving to be what I expected he would be which is a superstar, future best big man in the league, and overall top 5 player in the NBA.

I am pleasantly surprised that he physically is ahead of where I expected him to be, and the Sixers are giving him more freedom and minutes than I thought he would get at this point. He and Simmons together will be dynamite.

He also is more of a coach on the floor than I thought he would be. His personality is one of dominating the team from the neck up, and that is awesome because that is something you are born with.

Saric is also what we thought he was, and he is going to be a big part of our team moving forward.

I always had preferred Okafor to Noel, and wanted Noel to be the one traded, but now I am even more convinced that we don't need him. Holmes has taken a big step forward.

I am also convinced that Stauskus won't be reaching anywhere near his ceiling, and he might be my first cut when we find someone else.

Hollis Thompson is done improving, and might be my second cut.

Covington is not as good as he has looked at times, and I am strongly considering trading him simply to claim his minutes for others. I would never cut someone like him, but I'm not a big fan of him.

Overall, if Simmons comes back before the all star break, Embiid stays healthy, and we can get some sort of guard help from a Noel trade, I think we surprise some folks and reach the 27.5 win over under mark.

This is also the year where we get lucky with the Lakers pick, and next season we win 35-40 games.

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LloydFree · Post #4 » by **LloydFree** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:46 pm

Embiid is adjusting to the speed of the NBA much faster than I expected, especially defensively.

Saric is a much better player than I gave him credit for being, at the time of the draft.

I hope Robert Covington shakes off whatever has gotten into him, and gets back to just finding open spots on the court for 3's.

Okafor, more of the same. Came back for a few minutes last night and immediately did a spinning drive to the hoop for one (1) beautiful basket, while the other team ran 4 consecutive pick-n-rolls against him, for four (4) straight baskets.

Sergio Rodriguez is pretty much what should have been expected, except for the misguided who felt he just had to be better than Calderon and some of the other back-up Euro PGs. Can run the offense, but can't guard anybody and struggles to get his shot off against NBA athletes.

Gerald Henderson will take his turn as the board's whipping boy before everyone sees Jerryd Bayless. That's what happens when competent bench players are signed as starters and are constantly overexposed, because the team needs them to score.

Nik Stauskas, TJ McConnell and Holis Thomas are three of the luckiest basketball players on earth. There are probably 100 guys playing in Europe or the NBDL better than them, wondering why they can't get a million plus per year to do what they can do.

ankle420breaker · Post #5 » by **ankle420breaker** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 10:00 pm

Everything about Roco's game is concerning me.

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snoopdogg88 · Post #6 » by **snoopdogg88** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:15 am

we are what we are

20-27 win team this season. not nearly as god awful as last season. not even close to the playoffs.

jsa · Post #7 » by **jsa** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:16 am

So far below expectations and so many injuries.To be fair, Embiid, Saric and Holmes showed quite well. Brown has to get Embiid, Okafor and Saric as many early season minutes as they can handle, including on the court together, to see if they can play together,and to see if the others can contribute. Do the best you can without Simmons. Maybe Bayless can get well and contibute. Grant is a 10th man on a good team, bring defense and energy, not much more. At this point, when Noel gets better, they showcase him for the trade deadline.

If Embiid and Okafor can't get enough minutes, individually or together, the 76ers can not score enough to win.

TGFA · Post #8 » by **TGFA** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 3:44 am

Embiid and Saric are good.
everyone else is bad
coaching and front office is bad
how can you go into the season with this kind of back court , didn't they learned nothing from last year?
I don't see a difference between Hinkie and Colangello , both of them are putting on the court teams who cant compete in the NBA.

Post #9 » by **tk76** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 3:55 am

Perimeter defense and offense is not only bad, but paper thin. As good as Embiid is, I don't think they can win games if you go heavy minutes with no legit perimeter players on the floor. Sergio at times looks good offensively, and Henderson defensively. Other then that, I'm not sure any of these guys look like they belong in an NBA roatation- and that includes Covington's recent play (obviously he looked better in prior seasons, so should be OK.)

Post #10 » by **HartfordWhalers** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 7:11 am

I limited my preseason thoughts to Embiid.

kriss73 · Post #11 » by **kriss73** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 12:09 pm

I mainly wanted to see four things:

1. how it would work a backcourt where Simmons was the main ballhander and Bayless the guard next to him.
2. which big man would be the better fit along with Embiid
3. notable improvements in our perimetral defense
4. an healty Joel.

One out of four, so my excitement for the incoming season is 75% less than in June.

And at this point, I'd change Stauskas/Hollis with McDaniels/McRae without a second thought.
I understand the McDaniels issue, but not giving a chance to McRae was/is beyond me.

Post #12 » by **Foshan** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:09 pm

I'm not buying league pass... at least not until Simmons is back.

phantom84 · Post #13 » by **phantom84** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:52 pm

Nothing further need to be said about Embiid. If he stay healthy, he will be the best center in the league in two to three years imo. Saric looks like a promising sixth man. Also, we are in drastic need of guards that can shoot and defend. TIhere looks to be a ton of quality guards coming out in 2017. We should make some deal to get another top 10 pick. We could possibly end up with Fultz, Jackson, and Smith Jr/Dearon Fox.

fkd215 · Post #14 » by **fkd215** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:56 pm

1. A hopefully healthy Embiid looks pretty promising.
2. I was hoping for more clarity about the frontcourt – didn’t get it.
3. I’m done with Hollis and Stauskas.
4. Backcourt is still a mess.
5. We’ve got the 2016-17 Most Injured Players award locked up. Again.
6. My pre-injuries prediction of 23 wins is looking optimistic.

76ciology · Post #15 » by **76ciology** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 3:18 pm

Having a very fast and very perimeter oriented offensive scheme while running it with 2nd unit quality guards and wings would sum up our problem.

Seems to me that the only way we can be respectable on offense is if Embiid and Jah can have star caliber scoring numbers. You can't rely much on our guards and wings on offense, specially with asking them to handle the ball and create. I just hope they can just focus more on knocking down open shots and playing with better motor on D.

wickedwrister · Post #16 » by **wickedwrister** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 7:46 pm

Embiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid

oh and still an under 20 win team so

ping pong balls!

Johnny Firpo · Post #17 » by **Johnny Firpo** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 9:33 pm

I'm shocked to see how negative you guys are. I mean, I'm not shocked I guess, considering the last five or how many years, but just because this wasn't an impressive preseason, it doesn't mean that you can't take a big step forward. At least wait for the first 10 games to be finished, maybe they'll surprise you.

Ericb5 · Post #18 » by **Ericb5** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:04 pm

Johnny Firpo wrote:I'm shocked to see how negative you guys are. I mean, I'm not shocked I guess, considering the last five or how many years, but just because this wasn't an impressive preseason, it doesn't mean that you can't take a big step forward. At least wait for the first 10 games to be finished, maybe they'll surprise you.

Well 20 wins is literally doubling our win total from last year. That by itself would be a big jump. 25-28 wins would be a huge jump.

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Johnny Firpo · Post #19 » by **Johnny Firpo** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:18 pm

Ericb5 wrote:Well 20 wins is literally doubling our win total from last year. That by itself would be a big jump. 25-28 wins would be a huge jump.

Sure, but that team didn't want to win a whole lot of games, and you got three arguably elite talents since (one of whom will not play until around Christmas, but still). I wouldn't be shocked if you guys win 30+. Embiid and Saric are both NBA-ready players.

NJ SixerFan · Post #20 » by **NJ SixerFan** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:38 pm

Johnny Firpo wrote:
Ericb5 wrote:Well 20 wins is literally doubling our win total from last year. That by itself would be a big jump. 25-28 wins would be a huge jump.

Sure, but that team didn't want to win a whole lot of games, and you got three arguably elite talents since (one of whom will not play until around Christmas, but still). I wouldn't be shocked if you guys win 30+. Embiid and Saric are both NBA-ready players.

No shot at 30 without something being done about the perimeter play on this team.