Sixers Post Mortem Talk (Where Do We Go From Here?)

[Negrodamus]

If the Blazers draft someone with their first, I wonder if Morey tries to get involved with the Dame sweepstakes. He, Harden, Embiid all chasing a ring together. Seems like an interesting nba narrative. Silver will get the refs on our side.

[Jhawk03]

If the Blazers draft someone with their first, I wonder if Morey tries to get involved with the Dame sweepstakes. He, Harden, Embiid all chasing a ring together. Seems like an interesting nba narrative. Silver will get the refs on our side.

I wanted Dame here for a long time, but each year it seems less and less likely. Kawhi is probably more obtainable at this stage, but I'm not getting any of my hopes up because I don't even believe Harden will stay which is lousy if so.

[76ciology]

Those two idiot podcasters on Ricky Sanchez take the cake for moronic podcasters. There is another idiot moron on YouTube who looks like a slob who has never taken shower with a huge long beard return to Philly or whatever who can’t even put a sentence to.You can smell his dirty smell coming through the screen…….

Seriously the only podcasts from philly I listen are Danny guy from philly nbc, athletic Philly podcast and Locked on.

Are you leaving when Harden gets traded?

I’m now a huge maxey fan. He is my second favorite player so I’ll still follow the Philadelphia podcasts and maxeys podcast.

Do you also post at clutchfans forum?

[76ciology]

If the Blazers draft someone with their first, I wonder if Morey tries to get involved with the Dame sweepstakes. He, Harden, Embiid all chasing a ring together. Seems like an interesting nba narrative. Silver will get the refs on our side.

Dont you find NBA is pushing the “parity” narrative where they prefer teams winning with less stars?

Regarding those three, I find having three guys who needs the ball to shine is not optimal. Sooner or later, one of those guys will pout and would want more then all would collapse.

And thats where building around Embiid is difficult because you need big 3-ish structure when he’s spriritually or physically absent but you dont want a big 3-ish structure when he’s at his best. And thats why I like Maxey as our 3rd guy.

[76ciology]

There’s a video in youtube that got me thinking about Embiid.

Basically he said how the biggest problem on Embiid on Sixers offense is how it takes a lot of time to set him up then he would survey the court. With surveying the court he would read where his teammates are and where the defense is. Then he would do his move.

The problem is against good teams. Specially in a 7 game series. Teams eventually can figure him out on defense and what his tendencies are. In the moment he surveys the court, the defense also surveys the sixers offense. Where is he likely to kick it out and how they are going to rotate on defense. There’s no “scrambling” on defense moment because everyone knows where to rotate. And whats worse is with all of these action, time is on the defense side and not on Sixers side.

And this is one of the biggest reason why Biid has a hard time on playoffs than reg season. In the reg season, defense is vanilla. Bad teams with not enough familiarity. In the playoffs, mostly good teams and teams eventually has a better read on Sixers and Embiid, and when that moment comes Sixers are in a handicap on offense despite whatever edge we have on talent.

[rocketsfan100]

If the Blazers draft someone with their first, I wonder if Morey tries to get involved with the Dame sweepstakes. He, Harden, Embiid all chasing a ring together. Seems like an interesting nba narrative. Silver will get the refs on our side.

The blazers are stupidly are rumoured to be shopping the third pick which is expected to be Scoot to keep building around dame. They will probaly lose Simons, Scoot and future picks just to get another guy next to Dame to only lose to Denver… at some point the Trailblazers need to bite the bullet and move on. Dame is not going to be a title wining player as the number 1 guy.

[rocketsfan100]

Are you leaving when Harden gets traded?

I’m now a huge maxey fan. He is my second favorite player so I’ll still follow the Philadelphia podcasts and maxeys podcast.

Do you also post at clutchfans forum?

Years ago before it became a cesspool of toxicity

[76ciology]

There’s a video in youtube that got me thinking about Embiid.

Basically he said how the biggest problem on Embiid on Sixers offense is how it takes a lot of time to set him up then he would survey the court. With surveying the court he would read where his teammates are and where the defense is. Then he would do his move.

The problem is against good teams. Specially in a 7 game series. Teams eventually can figure him out on defense and what his tendencies are. In the moment he surveys the court, the defense also surveys the sixers offense. Where is he likely to kick it out and how they are going to rotate on defense. There’s no “scrambling” on defense moment because everyone knows where to rotate. And whats worse is with all of these action, time is on the defense side and not on Sixers side.

And this is one of the biggest reason why Biid has a hard time on playoffs than reg season. In the reg season, defense is vanilla. Bad teams with not enough familiarity. In the playoffs, mostly good teams and teams eventually has a better read on Sixers and Embiid, and when that moment comes Sixers are in a handicap on offense despite whatever edge we have on talent.

And thats also why Im OK to move on from Harden.

I dont want someone who’s just gonna set Biid up on offense in most time. I want somebody who is PRIMARILY a scorer.

Look at Jamal Murray and Jokic. Its hard to stop because Murray is a threat to score.

Eventually Celts figure out Harden isn’t gonna score on those PnR. Harden also can’t drive against those PnR. That whats left is a lot of time wasting for a Biid ISO where the defense is set-up to rotate on Biid kickouts.

Highest midrange FG% in the playoffs (min 20 mid FGA)

1. Martin: 65.2%—23 attempts
2. KCP: 64.0%—25
3. Trae: 61.9%—21
4. Book: 54.7%—64
5. CP: 52.8%—36
6. Harden: 50.0%—22

Harden is top 6 in % on midrange. But its mostly a bluff. Teams know that he’s not that comfortable in taking them. But lets say we have booker instead who takes 3x the volume and would make the defense respect him more, I think it would create more chaos for the defense.

If Harden returns, I want him to be more aggressive on offense because thats the only way we can create chaos when we got two guys looking like alphas out there.

[76ciology]

I’m now a huge maxey fan. He is my second favorite player so I’ll still follow the Philadelphia podcasts and maxeys podcast.

Do you also post at clutchfans forum?

Years ago before it became a cesspool of toxicity

I visit that site alot to check for inside info, specially during the Harden to Sixers rumor back then.

[spikeslovechild]

You guys are gonna hate this one. If Harden really wants Phoenix...


GSW out: Green, Looney, Poole, Kuminga
GSW in: Ayton, Harris, future pick

PHI out: Harden (opt-in), Harris
PHI in: Green, Poole, Kuminga, Shamet

PHX out: Ayton, Shamet, future pick
PHX in: Harden, Looney


Maxey/Poole
Melton/Springer
Kuminga/McDaniels
Green/Tucker
Embiid/Reed

Harden cant go to Phoenix unless we allow him to and they have nothing I want and nothing any 2nd team wants. So simply the answer is no.

Id rather force him to make the decision to walk then sign and trade for another teams trash or in Phoenix case their hot garbage trash. They gave up all their assets for Durant.

[mjkvol]

There’s a video in youtube that got me thinking about Embiid.

Basically he said how the biggest problem on Embiid on Sixers offense is how it takes a lot of time to set him up then he would survey the court. With surveying the court he would read where his teammates are and where the defense is. Then he would do his move.

The problem is against good teams. Specially in a 7 game series. Teams eventually can figure him out on defense and what his tendencies are. In the moment he surveys the court, the defense also surveys the sixers offense. Where is he likely to kick it out and how they are going to rotate on defense. There’s no “scrambling” on defense moment because everyone knows where to rotate. And whats worse is with all of these action, time is on the defense side and not on Sixers side.

And this is one of the biggest reason why Biid has a hard time on playoffs than reg season. In the reg season, defense is vanilla. Bad teams with not enough familiarity. In the playoffs, mostly good teams and teams eventually has a better read on Sixers and Embiid, and when that moment comes Sixers are in a handicap on offense despite whatever edge we have on talent.

This is where Nurse's effect on what we do offensively is going to be critical, because as a coach who has schemed against Embiid in multiple playoff series, he knows these things as well as anyone.

We ran as unimaginative a scheme, with little adjustment, as could be imagined, as Rivers was content to keep Embiid as the focal point come hell or high water. As you alluded to it was easy to defend once good defenses locked in on Embiid's tendencies.

I would hope that part of Nurse's message to Harden would be that he would be playing much more of a Jamal Murray role in the offense as primarily a scorer as well as distributor. The second part of the equation would be selling Embiid on more of a Joker-esque role but utilizing his own strengths as a finisher against mismatches created by P&R and ball movement. It's still going to come down to improving his decision making, and I can't help but think Nurse will be heavily addressing that.

[Arsenal]

Maxey gets his points because of the defenses focus on Embiid and Harden. That said, he’s elite at scoring in that manner.

Popular theory but wrong. Maxey's scoring went up drastically in games that Jo or Harden missed.

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUUVHVyZXNlIG1heGV5IG5mIHN1bnM%3D

Look, I get why you’d say this, but even in the best of times, and I think 37pts without Harden counts as that, he is definitely not “cooking” for his baskets. The closest you get of him generating his “own baskets” is off of PnRs. Otherwise, he’s being fed opportunities off close outs for most of his points. Nothing wrong with that, but when we need baskets in the third quarter of a playoff game when Tatum is going berserk, you can’t toss the ball to Maxey and expect him to start killing it.

I honestly couldn't care less who can "cook." No one has been a better cook than Harden the last 10 years, yet when the playoffs roll around he gets stymied.

Plus we're not going anywhere next year anyway. Best to let Maxey do his thing and see if he can develop as a "cook" himself, since he can already score efficiently every other way.

[Negrodamus]

Popular theory but wrong. Maxey's scoring went up drastically in games that Jo or Harden missed.

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUUVHVyZXNlIG1heGV5IG5mIHN1bnM%3D

Look, I get why you’d say this, but even in the best of times, and I think 37pts without Harden counts as that, he is definitely not “cooking” for his baskets. The closest you get of him generating his “own baskets” is off of PnRs. Otherwise, he’s being fed opportunities off close outs for most of his points. Nothing wrong with that, but when we need baskets in the third quarter of a playoff game when Tatum is going berserk, you can’t toss the ball to Maxey and expect him to start killing it.

I honestly couldn't care less who can "cook." No one has been a better cook than Harden the last 10 years, yet when the playoffs roll around he gets stymied.

Plus we're not going anywhere next year anyway. Best to let Maxey do his thing and see if he can develop as a "cook" himself, since he can already score efficiently every other way.

I mean, you want to talk about "popular theory but wrong", I'd go with Harden being a bad in the playoffs, particularly with the Rockets. Harden aside, in this very playoffs we were knocked out because Tatum started to destroy us in ISO situations. Butler carried his team across the finish line on many occasions. Need past examples? How about Kawhi playing like Jordan against us in the Toronto series?

When the offense is stagnant in the playoffs, the teams that prevail find a way to generate offense. That usually is through ISO offense. It remains to be seen whether Maxey can do that.

[sixers4real]

Popular theory but wrong. Maxey's scoring went up drastically in games that Jo or Harden missed.

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUUVHVyZXNlIG1heGV5IG5mIHN1bnM%3D

Look, I get why you’d say this, but even in the best of times, and I think 37pts without Harden counts as that, he is definitely not “cooking” for his baskets. The closest you get of him generating his “own baskets” is off of PnRs. Otherwise, he’s being fed opportunities off close outs for most of his points. Nothing wrong with that, but when we need baskets in the third quarter of a playoff game when Tatum is going berserk, you can’t toss the ball to Maxey and expect him to start killing it.

I honestly couldn't care less who can "cook." No one has been a better cook than Harden the last 10 years, yet when the playoffs roll around he gets stymied.

Plus we're not going anywhere next year anyway. Best to let Maxey do his thing and see if he can develop as a "cook" himself, since he can already score efficiently every other way.

Why? Even if Harden returns?

[mjkvol]

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUUVHVyZXNlIG1heGV5IG5mIHN1bnM%3D

Look, I get why you’d say this, but even in the best of times, and I think 37pts without Harden counts as that, he is definitely not “cooking” for his baskets. The closest you get of him generating his “own baskets” is off of PnRs. Otherwise, he’s being fed opportunities off close outs for most of his points. Nothing wrong with that, but when we need baskets in the third quarter of a playoff game when Tatum is going berserk, you can’t toss the ball to Maxey and expect him to start killing it.

I honestly couldn't care less who can "cook." No one has been a better cook than Harden the last 10 years, yet when the playoffs roll around he gets stymied.

Plus we're not going anywhere next year anyway. Best to let Maxey do his thing and see if he can develop as a "cook" himself, since he can already score efficiently every other way.

Why? Even if Harden returns?

The only way I see us competing next season, and the only scenario where I would bypass a reset year, is if Harden returns, he and Embiid buy into a revamped quasi-Murray/Joker scheme obviously utilizing the talents of our guys, and Morey can somehow add some useful role players for Harris and others.

It will be threading a needle to get all this done, but to me it's the only path to being a contender.

[Arsenal]

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUUVHVyZXNlIG1heGV5IG5mIHN1bnM%3D

Look, I get why you’d say this, but even in the best of times, and I think 37pts without Harden counts as that, he is definitely not “cooking” for his baskets. The closest you get of him generating his “own baskets” is off of PnRs. Otherwise, he’s being fed opportunities off close outs for most of his points. Nothing wrong with that, but when we need baskets in the third quarter of a playoff game when Tatum is going berserk, you can’t toss the ball to Maxey and expect him to start killing it.

I honestly couldn't care less who can "cook." No one has been a better cook than Harden the last 10 years, yet when the playoffs roll around he gets stymied.

Plus we're not going anywhere next year anyway. Best to let Maxey do his thing and see if he can develop as a "cook" himself, since he can already score efficiently every other way.

Why? Even if Harden returns?

I'm assuming Harden leaves. If he does we need to hand the keys to Maxey and let him develop. No other "star" will be available to save us.

If Harden stays then we obviously run it back and see if Nurse can get us over the hump.

[Negrodamus]

I wonder if Morey would have interest in Dejounte Murray (if Harden is gone). Kind of a perfect match with Maxey as he's an actual point guard who also has length to defend 2s and 3s. Has improved every season. The problem will be his interest in getting paid quite a bit and it's questionable if he's worth his next contract. Definitely one of the best defenders in the league and his shot has definitely improved (almost 35% from 3 last year at volume). Will still need Maxey to be able to get to the line a healthy amount for us to take the next jump.

[JordanMars]

Read on Twitter

I really think morey pulls the trigger on a Tobias for Beal trade.

Just look at the reports that come today..

[Jailblazers7]

For Maxey, I’d argue that he has the extremely valuable trait of being able to plug into any offensive system & still get you a hyper efficient 20 points. He can score off any action & get his points without disrupting the offenses flow. He’s never gonna be an iso god but its extremely rare that a player his size can do that at a championship level anyway.

He’s already a quality 3rd star & is on his way to developing into a #2. Our problem is that we don’t have a #1 that can be relied on.

[Jailblazers7]

On the Beal front, the trade idea that Simmons floated was Tobias + picks for Beal so the posturing would be that we’re trying to build around Beal/Maxey/Embiid (assuming Harden walks). I don’t love the idea of the mortgaging the future for that trio but I could live with it.