Prokorov wrote:Claud wrote:Anybody else feel people are overrating Philly?
They overpaid Harris 5/180 and Horford 4/109 while not adding a closer to their roster since they lost Jimmy Butler.
They are asking Simmons to be THAT guy that brings you home during the last 3 minutes of a game but my man shoots FT worse than Shaq and doesn't even look to shoot the ball. Those guys are easy to guard in today's NBA. We've just seen during the last playoffs where Butler was the one handling the ball for Philly and Simmons was told to clear out and now he's your closer?
Also losing JJ kills their spacing even more since Simmons/Horford/Embiid aren't exactly good shooters. Everyone's acting like Horford is Dirk when the stats says he's just an average shooter overall.
Josh Richardson is a solid 2 way wing that can do a bit everything but he's not the closer Butler is and definitely not as good as JJ creating space in the offense.
Don't get me wrong, they still have a lot of talent and expect them to be one of the better teams of the conference but they aren't built for a championship IMO.
reddick was a huge loss and i love tobias but at SF he has a ton less value. butler to richardson is a big downgrade and horford helps defensively but hurts on offense. they could be an elite defensive team but i think durability and shooting are both big concerns now
I agree 100%, especially with the last sentence.
What makes that team dangerous is their potential on the defensive end. On paper, they look quite formidable. They have the tools to be a very strong half court defense. But even then, I think an uptempo team with multiple scorers (ahem) could give them trouble.
Losing Redick is a big deal offensively. He’s a floor spacer and mini-microwave. It doesn’t matter what offensive set you run; just have Redick run around a few screens and he’ll probably get a good look at the basket half of the time.
Kawhi is the best 2-way player in the game and on his own level, but Jimmy is on the tier just below that. We saw in the playoffs how badly his scoring ability was needed alongside Embiid’s interior play.
Unless Tobias really improves his ISO ability, consistent, reliable scoring could be hard to come by in the playoffs.
Kyrie/Horford PnRs were lethal since you couldn’t leave Kyrie on the drive and Al is a more than capable 3pt shooting big. Until Simmons develops a jumper, you can funnel him to the paint and still have time to contest a Horford jumpshot should Ben pass it back to him.
Embiid doesn’t like taking 3s, but for the sake of his game, he needs to become more proficient. The more of a threat he is from 3, the more free and deadly he can be on the inside.
I wouldn’t put them as title contenders yet but I could see them potentially making the conference finals.
