Official Speculation Thread ‘19-'20 I: Big decisions on the horizon

[pepe1991]

For Magic, as "passable" as Gordon and Isaac were this year as duo, in both cases team played better when one of them was replaced by Ross.
That's quantifiable, measurable fact.

Well... the Isaac/Gordon/Fournier lineup (+0.1) was actually better than the Isaac/Ross/Fournier lineup (-5.5). The Isaac/Gordon/Ross lineup (+18.9) was far better than any of the combinations involving Fournier.

Not gonna say how much they played ? Because that's context , that does not exist when you put vague things like that ,and is used to create and fill agenda or bias.
Gordon,ROss and Isaac only played 71 min together.

For example Evan, Ross and Gordon played 580 min together.

DJ, Vuc and Gordon 1544. min.
It' completely insignificant sample size to care about. Vučević , Ross and MCW have net rating of +40, best among any Magic 3 men lineups, with at least 20 min played ( they played 32) . That's why it's important to use sample size of at least 200 min to get any realistic outlook on that.

If we are using stats to put up personal crap, here is one , .M. Carter-Williams, .J. Martin, .A. Jefferson are better 3 men lineup than Isaac, Ross and Gordon, by wide margin. With net rating of +35

[Xatticus]

For Magic, as "passable" as Gordon and Isaac were this year as duo, in both cases team played better when one of them was replaced by Ross.
That's quantifiable, measurable fact.

Well... the Isaac/Gordon/Fournier lineup (+0.1) was actually better than the Isaac/Ross/Fournier lineup (-5.5). The Isaac/Gordon/Ross lineup (+18.9) was far better than any of the combinations involving Fournier.

Not gonna say how much they played ? Because that's context , that does not exist when you put vague things like that ,and is used to create and fill agenda or bias.
Gordon,ROss and Isaac only played 71 min together.

For example Evan, Ross and Gordon played 580 min together.

DJ, Vuc and Gordon 1544. min.
It' completely insignificant sample size to care about. Vučević , Ross and MCW have net rating of +40, best among any Magic 3 men lineups, with at least 20 min played ( they played 32) . That's why it's important to use sample size of at least 200 min to get any realistic outlook on that.

If we are using stats to put up personal crap, here is one , .M. Carter-Williams, .J. Martin, .A. Jefferson are better 3 men lineup than Isaac, Ross and Gordon, by wide margin. With net rating of +35

I made zero assertions. I simply laid out some quantifiable and measurable facts for you. The difference between my quantifiable and measurable facts and yours is that mine are actually facts.

It's curious that sample size is a topic of interest for you now though. You didn't seem to have any concerns with proclaiming victory in the Gasol-Embiid matchup after game 1 of the series when it came to making excuses for Vucevic.

[pepe1991]

Well... the Isaac/Gordon/Fournier lineup (+0.1) was actually better than the Isaac/Ross/Fournier lineup (-5.5). The Isaac/Gordon/Ross lineup (+18.9) was far better than any of the combinations involving Fournier.

Not gonna say how much they played ? Because that's context , that does not exist when you put vague things like that ,and is used to create and fill agenda or bias.
Gordon,ROss and Isaac only played 71 min together.

For example Evan, Ross and Gordon played 580 min together.

DJ, Vuc and Gordon 1544. min.
It' completely insignificant sample size to care about. Vučević , Ross and MCW have net rating of +40, best among any Magic 3 men lineups, with at least 20 min played ( they played 32) . That's why it's important to use sample size of at least 200 min to get any realistic outlook on that.

If we are using stats to put up personal crap, here is one , .M. Carter-Williams, .J. Martin, .A. Jefferson are better 3 men lineup than Isaac, Ross and Gordon, by wide margin. With net rating of +35

I made zero assertions. I simply laid out some quantifiable and measurable facts for you. The difference between my quantifiable and measurable facts and yours is that mine are actually facts.

It's curious that sample size is a topic of interest for you now though. You didn't seem to have any concerns with proclaiming victory in the Gasol-Embiid matchup after game 1 of the series when it came to making excuses for Vucevic.

It's cherrypicking something to make a point.

Joel Embiid shoots 35% in this series. That's 35% overall. Had one good game, looked unplayable in two others.
They are winning because Raptors can't get anything from bench and because Jimmy Butler, in his own words is now "James Butler" .
But mostly because VanVleet and Powell have been disaster.

Raptors in this series are outscored by 35 points when Vleet and Powell are playing. It's almost impressive that Powell has net rating of -40,6. It's even more impressive that his offensive rating is 60. That's some next level of sucking.

[zaymon]

Not gonna say how much they played ? Because that's context , that does not exist when you put vague things like that ,and is used to create and fill agenda or bias.
Gordon,ROss and Isaac only played 71 min together.

For example Evan, Ross and Gordon played 580 min together.

DJ, Vuc and Gordon 1544. min.
It' completely insignificant sample size to care about. Vučević , Ross and MCW have net rating of +40, best among any Magic 3 men lineups, with at least 20 min played ( they played 32) . That's why it's important to use sample size of at least 200 min to get any realistic outlook on that.

If we are using stats to put up personal crap, here is one , .M. Carter-Williams, .J. Martin, .A. Jefferson are better 3 men lineup than Isaac, Ross and Gordon, by wide margin. With net rating of +35

I made zero assertions. I simply laid out some quantifiable and measurable facts for you. The difference between my quantifiable and measurable facts and yours is that mine are actually facts.

It's curious that sample size is a topic of interest for you now though. You didn't seem to have any concerns with proclaiming victory in the Gasol-Embiid matchup after game 1 of the series when it came to making excuses for Vucevic.

It's cherrypicking something to make a point.

Joel Embiid shoots 35% in this series. That's 35% overall. Had one good game, looked unplayable in two others.
They are winning because Raptors can't get anything from bench and because Jimmy Butler, in his own words is now "James Butler" .
But mostly because VanVleet and Powell have been disaster.

Raptors in this series are outscored by 35 points when Vleet and Powell are playing. It's almost impressive that Powell has net rating of -40,6. It's even more impressive that his offensive rating is 60. That's some next level of sucking.

When you look at Embiid highlights from his best game its obvious he didnt get half of the attention Vucevic was getting. On his buckets he was not once double, they dared him to shoot threes and he got lucky with 3/4 abnormal result, on pick and roll they all looked at Butler not Joel. Its so different from what Vucevic got its not even a disscusion. What we can take from this game though is centers are much easier to contain than guards and wings and you need to have very balanced team to leverage them, but the payoffs are great.

[pepe1991]

I'll just go through this game to see what's really going on with Embiid- Gasol matchup.

So far, with 7:24 min let in 1Q, Embiid has 0 points (0-1) and his only FGA was when he had Lowry missmatch.
From what i see, he never even tries to post up Gasol, he knows he can't.

-Update- just exited for Monroe.

[pepe1991]

Great, in game where i wanted to explore Gasol- Embiid thing, first Embiid was pulled out of game too early, than he returned after Gasol existed, than he hurt himself while dunking.

[pepe1991]

And during 35 min spent on the floor, Joel Embiid, the best ( allegedly ) center in a game did not have field goal made against Marc Gasol.
And he wasn't even triple -teammed like Vučević.

[darthmerrick]

I think we would've gone to the ECF if we had gotten past Toronto. Sixers look like crap. If Butler goes to LA and Tobias leaves they are screwed.

[Xatticus]

And during 35 min spent on the floor, Joel Embiid, the best ( allegedly ) center in a game did not have field goal made against Marc Gasol.
And he wasn't even triple -teammed like Vučević.

Vucevic was not triple-teamed. A double or triple is when a player abandons their assignment to aggressively close down an immediate threat. Sagging off of your man to show help defense isn't a double team. That's how everyone is supposed to defend away from the ball. It is so effective that the NBA has a rule that prohibits a player from floating into the paint for more than 3 seconds at a time. Only on this forum is that regularly described as a double team. Toronto consistently brought help defense early on pick-and-roll action after the first game, but that technically isn't a double team either. Everyone brings some form of help on those plays. Toronto did so aggressively and with impunity because we couldn't make the passes to punish them for it.

Embiid has scored 72 points on 50 field goal attempts for a TS% of .550. Vucevic scored 62 points on 69 field goal attempts for a TS% of .427. There is no comparison between these performances. Embiid is almost exactly on league average efficiency for the playoffs (.551 TS%). This difference is largely because Vucevic attempted a total of 8 free throws in the series (.116 FTr) while Embiid has taken 35 through just four games (.700 FTr).

[NavalAviator94]

And during 35 min spent on the floor, Joel Embiid, the best ( allegedly ) center in a game did not have field goal made against Marc Gasol.
And he wasn't even triple -teammed like Vučević.

Vucevic was not triple-teamed. A double or triple is when a player abandons their assignment to aggressively close down an immediate threat. Sagging off of your man to show help defense isn't a double team. That's how everyone is supposed to defend away from the ball. It is so effective that the NBA has a rule that prohibits a player from floating into the paint for more than 3 seconds at a time. Only on this forum is that regularly described as a double team. Toronto consistently brought help defense early on pick-and-roll action after the first game, but that technically isn't a double team either. Everyone brings some form of help on those plays. Toronto did so aggressively and with impunity because we couldn't make the passes to punish them for it.

Embiid has scored 72 points on 50 field goal attempts for a TS% of .550. Vucevic scored 62 points on 69 field goal attempts for a TS% of .427. There is no comparison between these performances. Embiid is almost exactly on league average efficiency for the playoffs (.551 TS%). This difference is largely because Vucevic attempted a total of 8 free throws in the series (.116 FTr) while Embiid has taken 35 through just four games (.700 FTr).

Vuc was absolutely doubled by Gasol and Siakam with Kawhi sagging way off in the wings. The defense isn’t even close to what Vuc had to deal with. That’s mostly because of a Jimmy Butler.


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[pepe1991]

Embiid in series vs Raptors shoots 18-51 from the floor . His TS% is being held by supestar calls that get him to FT line. He already had 36 FTs in 4 games. Last night refs waited to see will he miss one hand fadeaway side jumper. When he missed, they called foul super late. Also even on other side he gets away with superstar calls, slapping Ibaka on a wrist for no call and getting favorable offensive foul on Gasol ,when Marc allegedly pushed him late in 4th quater.

Overall whole night Embiid did one big fat nothing, again.
Guy who is during season 27,5 ppg ,13 rpg player on 60% TS, being held on 18 PPG and 34-35% FG probably has to have something to do with former DPOY that he faces.

[MagicStarwipe]

Not going to point out how Embiid wasn't even sure if he was going to play or not because of illness? Seeing as you are not biased.

[Blue_and_Whte]

I made zero assertions. I simply laid out some quantifiable and measurable facts for you. The difference between my quantifiable and measurable facts and yours is that mine are actually facts.

It's curious that sample size is a topic of interest for you now though. You didn't seem to have any concerns with proclaiming victory in the Gasol-Embiid matchup after game 1 of the series when it came to making excuses for Vucevic.

It's cherrypicking something to make a point.

Joel Embiid shoots 35% in this series. That's 35% overall. Had one good game, looked unplayable in two others.
They are winning because Raptors can't get anything from bench and because Jimmy Butler, in his own words is now "James Butler" .
But mostly because VanVleet and Powell have been disaster.

Raptors in this series are outscored by 35 points when Vleet and Powell are playing. It's almost impressive that Powell has net rating of -40,6. It's even more impressive that his offensive rating is 60. That's some next level of sucking.

When you look at Embiid highlights from his best game its obvious he didnt get half of the attention Vucevic was getting. On his buckets he was not once double, they dared him to shoot threes and he got lucky with 3/4 abnormal result, on pick and roll they all looked at Butler not Joel. Its so different from what Vucevic got its not even a disscusion. What we can take from this game though is centers are much easier to contain than guards and wings and you need to have very balanced team to leverage them, but the payoffs are great.

what it tells me is that you can’t win in this league without elite wing talent. Imagine if we had that WITH Vuc/Ag/Fournier/ji

Another point is Toronto’s cerebral approach to defending Embiid which plays into what I’ve read on the Sixers forum and watching him play, if you let Embiid hit a couple of shots, especially 3’s, he tends to become a bit of a black hole which disrupts phillys offense.

[Skybox]

Is it assumed that we are negotiating with our own FA's right now? I know they can't formally sign but it's obviously not tampering to talk to our own free agents...perhaps there is a "post-season cooling off" but I assume they will have our offer in hand before the FA period begins...unless we take a RFA-type position and say "We want you back, you want to return, go see what offers are out there and we'll reconvene"...Just wondering (not how YOU want it to go but) how it works. Often, guys re-sign or re-commit so quickly that it's obvious the deal was just waiting to be announced, with no stories of meetings with other teams, etc.

[OrlandO]

Not going to point out how Embiid wasn't even sure if he was going to play or not because of illness? Seeing as you are not biased.

Yeah, yeah, every game they act like he's not going to play and then he does. It's crying wolf at this point. I'm sure he'll also have another excuse ready if he has another bad game.

[MagicStarwipe]

Not going to point out how Embiid wasn't even sure if he was going to play or not because of illness? Seeing as you are not biased.

Yeah, yeah, every game they act like he's not going to play and then he does. It's crying wolf at this point. I'm sure he'll also have another excuse ready if he has another bad game.

Well this happened before the game, coming off of his dominant game 3. I know we'd give Vuc the benefit of the doubt, so let's give it to him too.

[OrlandO]

Not going to point out how Embiid wasn't even sure if he was going to play or not because of illness? Seeing as you are not biased.

Yeah, yeah, every game they act like he's not going to play and then he does. It's crying wolf at this point. I'm sure he'll also have another excuse ready if he has another bad game.

Well this happened before the game, coming off of his dominant game 3. I know we'd give Vuc the benefit of the doubt, so let's give it to him too.

Vuc had a stomach virus prior to the playoffs and was sick during the series and nobody cares about that. Embiid got sick before game 3. It was all giggles when he was doing windmills and taunting, but now it's an excuse after he struggles for the third time in four games. What's his excuse for averaging 14.5 points on 28% fg and 5 turnovers against Gasol in the regular season? Here's a thought: Gasol is just a really good post defender and it's even harder to play against him now that he's on a great defensive team.

[MagicStarwipe]

Yeah, yeah, every game they act like he's not going to play and then he does. It's crying wolf at this point. I'm sure he'll also have another excuse ready if he has another bad game.

Well this happened before the game, coming off of his dominant game 3. I know we'd give Vuc the benefit of the doubt, so let's give it to him too.

Vuc had a stomach virus prior to the playoffs and was sick during the series and nobody cares about that. Embiid got sick before game 3. It was all giggles when he was doing windmills and taunting, but now it's an excuse after he struggles for the third time in four games. What's his excuse for averaging 14.5 points on 28% fg and 5 turnovers against Gasol in the regular season? Here's a thought: Gasol is just a really good post defender and it's even harder to play against him now that he's on a great defensive team.

Well from what I understand Embiid was sick before game 2 and this was a seperate illness. I don't really know or care if it's true or not. I just find a lot of the comments about this series from certain people to be fairly silly.

[MagicStarwipe]

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/magics-nikola-vucevic-should-be-fine-for-game-1/

Seems Vuc was likely fine or close to it for game 1. A bit different to Embiid not sleeping and being hooked up to an IV.

We all know Gasol is a bad matchup for Vuc, but he could have hit his open jumpers at least. Stepped up on the offensive boards maybe? Maybe Vuc's shoulder was still hurt.

[pepe1991]

Embiid is "injuried and banged up" every single game in playoffs. Yet , that does not destract him for elbowing Allen, mocking Raptors players, throwing windmills, trolling Nets and Raptors fans .

Funnies part about his illness is how Simmons said " he said he is little ill" yet, Brown and Joel runned with it as " he couldn't sleep whole night, was vomiting, had to take IV, was feeling worst in his life" . Give me a break ,every time when he has bad game they come out with illness or injury excuse, yet once in a while when he has monster game nobody says anyhing and he is fine. Grow up a pair and admit that Marc addopted you