Ballings7 wrote:esqtvd wrote:Ballings7 wrote:Its the off-season : )
A bit surprising to see from their Boston and even early Clipper days I think. Neat listen, though. Guess they did a whole podcast together hah.. they go into more than just his Sixers run.
Thanks for posting this. You posted it in the right OFF-TOPIC thread. It's very interesting and frank and touches on the Lob City days to boot.
It would be really great if the comments were about what is ACTUALLY SAID HERE rather than the usual vomit.
Haha right, for sure..
Bill's questions and reactions were fun; could see how intrigued he was.
Bill Simmons has [or had] Clippers season tickets and no doubt frequent access to Doc. He was at the infamous Game 5 vs HOU when we blew the 18-point lead with Harden benched. Interesting story--Austin came over to him and said the team, still with a big lead, was getting tight and indeed the home crowd went completely quiet, "HERE WE GO AGAIN." Said it was the only time in his career he felt the entire building quit as one.
Re: The Sixers, Harden is the villain. Played winning basketball in the first half of the season as their PG but then reverted to his usual and looked to score more. Which was OK until the playoffs, when it's easy to adjust against him because he always stands in the same place and it's easy to find him and throw a double-team at him.
I watched a good fifty 76ers games this year and it's true. Harden slows down the dribble at the upper right of the 3-point line and either drives or fakes it and shoots the step-back 3. And as Doc notes, James is a bit older now and not quite the finisher he was, so you can overplay the 3 and close off the drive if you need to.
Sources are saying that The Beard got Doc fired. That is certainly at least partially true--Beard is tight with his old GM Daryl Morey, and Beard can walk away as a UFA and Morey is left with NOTHING for trading Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, AND a FIRST ROUND PICK for him. James wants his "basketball freedom," which means playing however the hell he wants.
Which is what Westbrook did until his final humiliation with the Lakers. When he hooked on with the Clippers, he probably didn't even need a lecture--they ALL know the right way to play, it's just a lot less fun and a lot more like WORK.
As for Doc, the Sixers still have to pay him $16M over the next 2 years, so Doc says he's taking the year off. Hasn't had a year off in 22 years. Says he's gonna hang around in football camps with his pals Nick Saban, Belichick, and Andy Reid. Likes football.
I think his future is either as a mid-season dice-roll replacement for the fired coach of a contending team, or as a PoBO type for an org in disarray. Said Elton Brand brought him into Philly to root out the loser culture--from trainers on up. Doc also remade the Sterling org from stem to stern. At age 61, he's better suited as an exec, I think, although he might get one more shot at the Big Enchilada--championship coaches, even fired ones, have more cred than promoting assistant coaches from within.
Embiid was tight with Doc, who made him an MVP; it was Harden who did him in. Not the first coach he killed.
