Game 6: Philadelphia 76ers (5-0) @ Phoenix Suns (4-2)

[76ciology]

Should have run the offense from the post during crunch time than having Kork and Tobi operate off screen.

Fwiw, Ben was the guy defending Booker who had like 7-10 pts down the stretch.

This game also showed how Ben and Horford can compliment one another. Month opted to put Baynes on Ben, which allowed Horford to be defended by a smaller guy in some possessions.

Going forward if a center is going to defend Ben, Biid can take a smaller man at the post. BUT this also means there is a center in the paint waiting to block his shot.

[TheBallsDeeper]

We lost to a bad team but that happens look they beat the clippers as well
some times **** teams do win some.

It's not that they lost, it's the way they lost. The faults from the past three years are still there, if not worse, and it showed that the Sixers are not going to win a championship unless something major changes.

If by that you mean Embiid not playing and at being at the peak of his powers, then sure.

Simmons had a bad game, he doesn't play like that every night. If it's so easy to stop him, why did he dominate the Celtics opening night? I just think people conflate the lack of off ball spacing he provides (which is constant) with him playing bad (which is not). If he didn't have a garbage game they don't lose. Despite being on the road, despite missing their best player, despite him not taking jump shots.

His shot stuff is more what's stopping them from being an unstoppable juggernaut as opposed to completely cutting them off from winning anything.

The problem that you seem to be missing is that he regularly has bad nights because he has a major problem. It's not like Redick, Curry or Klay having an off shooting night, or Rondo, Paul or Lebron giving up too many turnovers. They will bounce back. Simmons has a major weakness that consistently gets exposed, has never been anything but a liability on offense and seems to be getting worse as teams improve their scouting on him. Talk up his great nights all you want, but he has been exposed when it matters the past two years as well as college, and the Suns game (a team that will probably not make playoffs) exposed him again. It's not a knee jerk reaction, it's a pattern. Until he drops his attitude of believing that he does not need coaching he is a liability, there is no argument against that. He needs to drop the ego and change shotting hands, if it doesn't happen he needs to get traded or the coaches need to be sacked.

[PhillyPhilly]

It's not that they lost, it's the way they lost. The faults from the past three years are still there, if not worse, and it showed that the Sixers are not going to win a championship unless something major changes.

If by that you mean Embiid not playing and at being at the peak of his powers, then sure.

Simmons had a bad game, he doesn't play like that every night. If it's so easy to stop him, why did he dominate the Celtics opening night? I just think people conflate the lack of off ball spacing he provides (which is constant) with him playing bad (which is not). If he didn't have a garbage game they don't lose. Despite being on the road, despite missing their best player, despite him not taking jump shots.

His shot stuff is more what's stopping them from being an unstoppable juggernaut as opposed to completely cutting them off from winning anything.

The problem that you seem to be missing is that he regularly has bad nights because he has a major problem. It's not like Redick, Curry or Klay having an off shooting night, or Rondo, Paul or Lebron giving up too many turnovers. They will bounce back. Simmons has a major weakness that consistently gets exposed, has never been anything but a liability on offense and seems to be getting worse as teams improve their scouting on him. Talk up his great nights all you want, but he has been exposed when it matters the past two years as well as college, and the Suns game (a team that will probably not make playoffs) exposed him again. It's not a knee jerk reaction, it's a pattern. Until he drops his attitude of believing that he does not need coaching he is a liability, there is no argument against that. He needs to drop the ego and change shotting hands, if it doesn't happen he needs to get traded or the coaches need to be sacked.

He worked with Jimmy Butler's personsal coach (Chris Johnson) In the summer hence why all those videos of him shooting came out...but even that one on one time hasn't seemed to have worked. I was praying he would change hands too because most of his buckets come via his right hand but yet again he wasted another summer taking lefty jumpers only to not shoot In the games...I'm so freaking over it now. Like I said before..if I was Elton Brand I would be trying to speak to the Bulls and Kings about a deal involving Levine and Fox. Those are two realistic names we could trade for imo.

[TheBallsDeeper]

If by that you mean Embiid not playing and at being at the peak of his powers, then sure.

Simmons had a bad game, he doesn't play like that every night. If it's so easy to stop him, why did he dominate the Celtics opening night? I just think people conflate the lack of off ball spacing he provides (which is constant) with him playing bad (which is not). If he didn't have a garbage game they don't lose. Despite being on the road, despite missing their best player, despite him not taking jump shots.

His shot stuff is more what's stopping them from being an unstoppable juggernaut as opposed to completely cutting them off from winning anything.

The problem that you seem to be missing is that he regularly has bad nights because he has a major problem. It's not like Redick, Curry or Klay having an off shooting night, or Rondo, Paul or Lebron giving up too many turnovers. They will bounce back. Simmons has a major weakness that consistently gets exposed, has never been anything but a liability on offense and seems to be getting worse as teams improve their scouting on him. Talk up his great nights all you want, but he has been exposed when it matters the past two years as well as college, and the Suns game (a team that will probably not make playoffs) exposed him again. It's not a knee jerk reaction, it's a pattern. Until he drops his attitude of believing that he does not need coaching he is a liability, there is no argument against that. He needs to drop the ego and change shotting hands, if it doesn't happen he needs to get traded or the coaches need to be sacked.

He worked with Jimmy Butler's personsal coach (Chris Johnson) In the summer hence why all those videos of him shooting came out...but even that one on one time hasn't seemed to have worked. I was praying he would change hands too because most of his buckets come via his right hand but yet again he wasted another summer taking lefty jumpers only to not shoot In the games...I'm so freaking over it now. Like I said before..if I was Elton Brand I would be trying to speak to the Bulls and Kings about a deal involving Levine and Fox. Those are two realistic names we could trade for imo.

I'm not a fan of Levine, but I think we are on the same page.

[TheBallsDeeper]

If by that you mean Embiid not playing and at being at the peak of his powers, then sure.

Simmons had a bad game, he doesn't play like that every night. If it's so easy to stop him, why did he dominate the Celtics opening night? I just think people conflate the lack of off ball spacing he provides (which is constant) with him playing bad (which is not). If he didn't have a garbage game they don't lose. Despite being on the road, despite missing their best player, despite him not taking jump shots.

His shot stuff is more what's stopping them from being an unstoppable juggernaut as opposed to completely cutting them off from winning anything.

The problem that you seem to be missing is that he regularly has bad nights because he has a major problem. It's not like Redick, Curry or Klay having an off shooting night, or Rondo, Paul or Lebron giving up too many turnovers. They will bounce back. Simmons has a major weakness that consistently gets exposed, has never been anything but a liability on offense and seems to be getting worse as teams improve their scouting on him. Talk up his great nights all you want, but he has been exposed when it matters the past two years as well as college, and the Suns game (a team that will probably not make playoffs) exposed him again. It's not a knee jerk reaction, it's a pattern. Until he drops his attitude of believing that he does not need coaching he is a liability, there is no argument against that. He needs to drop the ego and change shotting hands, if it doesn't happen he needs to get traded or the coaches need to be sacked.

He worked with Jimmy Butler's personsal coach (Chris Johnson) In the summer hence why all those videos of him shooting came out...but even that one on one time hasn't seemed to have worked. I was praying he would change hands too because most of his buckets come via his right hand but yet again he wasted another summer taking lefty jumpers only to not shoot In the games...I'm so freaking over it now. Like I said before..if I was Elton Brand I would be trying to speak to the Bulls and Kings about a deal involving Levine and Fox. Those are two realistic names we could trade for imo.

I'm not a fan of Levine, but I think we are on the same page.

[Sixerscan]

It's not that they lost, it's the way they lost. The faults from the past three years are still there, if not worse, and it showed that the Sixers are not going to win a championship unless something major changes.

If by that you mean Embiid not playing and at being at the peak of his powers, then sure.

Simmons had a bad game, he doesn't play like that every night. If it's so easy to stop him, why did he dominate the Celtics opening night? I just think people conflate the lack of off ball spacing he provides (which is constant) with him playing bad (which is not). If he didn't have a garbage game they don't lose. Despite being on the road, despite missing their best player, despite him not taking jump shots.

His shot stuff is more what's stopping them from being an unstoppable juggernaut as opposed to completely cutting them off from winning anything.

The problem that you seem to be missing is that he regularly has bad nights because he has a major problem. It's not like Redick, Curry or Klay having an off shooting night, or Rondo, Paul or Lebron giving up too many turnovers. They will bounce back. Simmons has a major weakness that consistently gets exposed, has never been anything but a liability on offense and seems to be getting worse as teams improve their scouting on him. Talk up his great nights all you want, but he has been exposed when it matters the past two years as well as college, and the Suns game (a team that will probably not make playoffs) exposed him again. It's not a knee jerk reaction, it's a pattern. Until he drops his attitude of believing that he does not need coaching he is a liability, there is no argument against that. He needs to drop the ego and change shotting hands, if it doesn't happen he needs to get traded or the coaches need to be sacked.

He took as many outside jump shots in this game as he did against Boston. He had a bad game against Phoenix because he wasn't strong to the basket, wasn't getting contested rebounds, didn't attack in transition, missed passing opportunities and made some basic man defensive mistakes down the stretch he generally doesn't make. Those are things he's good at and has to do. It's like how Redick has to make shots because he's ass at literally everything else on the basketball court. Is Redick's defense not a "major problem"?

Again, I ask, if he's "exposed" and it's so easy to stop him, why did he dominate against Boston, a team that has probably scouted him as much as any team in the league? Why was he so good in the first rounds against the Heat and Nets? Why did he put up 21 on the Raptors in game 6 after two weeks of them scouting him exclusively? Do those games not matter, or is it only when he plays poorly that it matters?

The issue is that when he plays poorly, or even when he plays well, we can always go back to "well he would be better if he took and made jump shots." Which of course that is true. I'm not saying he shouldn't be working on his shot, or the coaches should be trying things to get him to shoot in games. He should and they should. It doesn't make him not a very important and valuable player on the whole though. Some of these guys you guys are talking about rather having over him are just nuts...

[kuclas]

I think embiid still out of shape. Plus the high altitude in salt lake doesn’t help either with embiid conditioning.

Friday game may also been a clunker also against Denver.

[Bum Adebayo]

I think embiid still out of shape. Plus the high altitude in salt lake doesn’t help either with embiid conditioning.

Friday game may also been a clunker also against Denver.

Has he ever been in good shape? lol