Game 38: Thunder @ Sixers - 7pm

[Eyeamok]

Win at home and lose on the road. Nothing new fellas !

Nothing new? The highlight of the game for me was Harris hitting that shot at the end of the game. The one he should have hit in Miami. That gives me hope that they are learning and growing from their mistakes.

[Eyeamok]

By the way... 25/5/4 for Fultz tonight. Great trade Elton!

True. I still cant believe EB did that trade. Its as if hes just trying to do it to take away personal pressure

The cap room we saved by getting rid of Fultz eventually end up with Al Horford ! Yikes !

IF (big if) we play the Bucks in the playoffs and we can throw Embiid and Al at Mr. Antetokounmpo, hopefully Al will have us signing a different tune.

[rulebook]

Win at home and lose on the road. Nothing new fellas !

Nothing new? The highlight of the game for me was Harris hitting that shot at the end of the game. The one he should have hit in Miami. That gives me hope that they are learning and growing from their mistakes.

Missing an open shot isn't a mistake, it's statistics.

But hopefully Harris is gaining more confidence at the end of games, bc we sure do need some closers.

[ankle420breaker]

True. I still cant believe EB did that trade. Its as if hes just trying to do it to take away personal pressure

The cap room we saved by getting rid of Fultz eventually end up with Al Horford ! Yikes !

IF (big if) we play the Bucks in the playoffs and we can throw Embiid and Al at Mr. Antetokounmpo, hopefully Al will have us signing a different tune.

I always come back to this. He's an unnatural fit here, but if we were to move him I'm sure we'd find ourselves in postseason situations where we wish we still had him.

Sent from my SM-G970U using RealGM mobile app

[Arsenal]

The cap room we saved by getting rid of Fultz eventually end up with Al Horford ! Yikes !

IF (big if) we play the Bucks in the playoffs and we can throw Embiid and Al at Mr. Antetokounmpo, hopefully Al will have us signing a different tune.

I always come back to this. He's an unnatural fit here, but if we were to move him I'm sure we'd find ourselves in postseason situations where we wish we still had him.

Sent from my SM-G970U using RealGM mobile app

Pick your poison. There's a chance Horford gives us matchup strength in the postseason. However there's no doubt his terrible fit is going to cost us a lot of games in the regular season. It already has.

I'd much rather build a team that fits together instead of a team built to try to win one particular playoff matchup.

[Eyeamok]

Win at home and lose on the road. Nothing new fellas !

Nothing new? The highlight of the game for me was Harris hitting that shot at the end of the game. The one he should have hit in Miami. That gives me hope that they are learning and growing from their mistakes.

Missing an open shot isn't a mistake, it's statistics.

But hopefully Harris is gaining more confidence at the end of games, bc we sure do need some closers.

Thank you for correcting me. English is not my first language.

I was under the impression I could say.

I made a mistake and rushed the shot so I missed it.

now I know it is

I made a statistic and rushed the shot so I missed it.

[agiaco]

It is quite ironic how the sixers are searching for a playmaker and trader fultz for jonathon simmons.

Yup. Plus two useless 2nd rounders.

They basically had to trade fultz for salary cap reasons.

If he were making 2 million he would not have been traded. Regardless of the shoulder injury.

I don’t know how the story ends for fultz. But he has already know elite ability to beat guys off the dribble in half court. But he needs the ball. And Simmons is the point guard. So fultz and Simmons would never have worked for sixers long term

Unfortunate situation all around.

[blargh]

IF (big if) we play the Bucks in the playoffs and we can throw Embiid and Al at Mr. Antetokounmpo, hopefully Al will have us signing a different tune.

I always come back to this. He's an unnatural fit here, but if we were to move him I'm sure we'd find ourselves in postseason situations where we wish we still had him.

Sent from my SM-G970U using RealGM mobile app

Pick your poison. There's a chance Horford gives us matchup strength in the postseason. However there's no doubt his terrible fit is going to cost us a lot of games in the regular season. It already has.

I'd much rather build a team that fits together instead of a team built to try to win one particular playoff matchup.

I don’t think it’s just Milwaukee. He would be useful in a matchup against the Lakers as well.

[BB_Fan]

The cap room we saved by getting rid of Fultz eventually end up with Al Horford ! Yikes !

IF (big if) we play the Bucks in the playoffs and we can throw Embiid and Al at Mr. Antetokounmpo, hopefully Al will have us signing a different tune.

I always come back to this. He's an unnatural fit here, but if we were to move him I'm sure we'd find ourselves in postseason situations where we wish we still had him.

Sent from my SM-G970U using RealGM mobile app

Hire a better coach before you tweak roster. Brett brown is not a coach capable of winning championship. He still has no idea how to break a zone defense.

[blargh]

Also, let’s not get it twisted: Horford has underperformed relative to his contract, but he’s still a vastly more productive player than Fultz by just about every metric. Fultz on this team would have a hard time beating Trey Burke out for minutes.

[phifans]

Also, let’s not get it twisted: Horford has underperformed relative to his contract, but he’s still a vastly more productive player than Fultz by just about every metric. Fultz on this team would have a hard time beating Trey Burke out for minutes.

The problem is not if we should trade Fultz but the time and return of giving up on him.

[BB_Fan]

Embiid is an injury risk and will not play more than 60 games. Last year after the all star he had knee soreness and he missed playoff games against raptors and nets.

Horford was signed to be the center when embiid is not playing. If we trade him who will be our defensive anchor.

I think we need a better coach than brett brown who can fit the pieces. Brett brown is not the coach who can bring NBA championship. He cannot make quick adjustment in playoffs.

[Jhawk03]

Also, let’s not get it twisted: Horford has underperformed relative to his contract, but he’s still a vastly more productive player than Fultz by just about every metric. Fultz on this team would have a hard time beating Trey Burke out for minutes.

The problem is not if we should trade Fultz but the time and return of giving up on him.

This, yet if he was still with us I wouldn't know at what point we could have sold high on him. But I agree we sold pretty low.

[HotelVitale]

True. I still cant believe EB did that trade. Its as if hes just trying to do it to take away personal pressure

The cap room we saved by getting rid of Fultz eventually end up with Al Horford ! Yikes !

It is quite ironic how the sixers are searching for a playmaker and trader fultz for jonathon simmons.

I don’t know how the story ends for fultz. But he has already know elite ability to beat guys off the dribble in half court.

Fultz is still bad, guys, literally the last player you have to be worrying about when thinking what this team needs to win now. He had a TS% of 46% for the past 5-6, weeks before having one good game last night against a bad defense. Give Burke or Korkmaz 28-30 mpg and they'll definitely have more 25 point nights than Fultz will muster this year.

Why is it so hard for us to enjoy having a team that, on a good night, crushes the Bucks or Raptors or Celtics--instead of taking that for granted and wailing when some confusing and still floundering prospect we traded last year has a good shooting night?

[Jhawk03]

Embiid is an injury risk and will not play more than 60 games. Last year after the all star he had knee soreness and he missed playoff games against raptors and nets.

Horford was signed to be the center when embiid is not playing. If we trade him who will be our defensive anchor.

I think we need a better coach than brett brown who can fit the pieces. Brett brown is not the coach who can bring NBA championship. He cannot make quick adjustment in playoffs.

You're part of the growing list of fans that are frustrated with Brett. But I can assure you that we will win a championship.

Spoiler:

With our next head coach

[agiaco]

True. I still cant believe EB did that trade. Its as if hes just trying to do it to take away personal pressure

The cap room we saved by getting rid of Fultz eventually end up with Al Horford ! Yikes !

It is quite ironic how the sixers are searching for a playmaker and trader fultz for jonathon simmons.

I don’t know how the story ends for fultz. But he has already know elite ability to beat guys off the dribble in half court.

Fultz is still bad, guys, literally the last player you have to be worrying about when thinking what this team needs to win now. He had a TS% of 46% for the past 5-6, weeks before having one good game last night against a bad defense. Give Burke or Korkmaz 28-30 mpg and they'll definitely have more 25 point nights than Fultz will muster this year.

Why is it so hard for us to enjoy having a team that, on a good night, crushes the Bucks or Raptors or Celtics--instead of taking that for granted and wailing when some confusing and still floundering prospect we traded last year has a good shooting night?

It's more the whole situation. Brand panicked and traded him for the worst player in the NBA. Markelle is proving to be turning things around little by little. Good for him though. He's no surefire stud, but he's not bad anymore. He's an average guard with plenty of untapped potential.

This team that is capable of crushing the Bucks is so polarizing. One game they look great and the next three they could be terrible. There is no consistency with a rather worrisome lineup that doesn't fit super well. I'm about as optimistic as they come generally, but this team is just kind of awkward to watch most of the time. I hope somehow things start clicking but I think they need a move or two before the playoffs start if they're going all-in.

[michaelm]

Also, let’s not get it twisted: Horford has underperformed relative to his contract, but he’s still a vastly more productive player than Fultz by just about every metric. Fultz on this team would have a hard time beating Trey Burke out for minutes.

The problem is not if we should trade Fultz but the time and return of giving up on him.

This, yet if he was still with us I wouldn't know at what point we could have sold high on him. But I agree we sold pretty low.

As has been said you couldn’t have him and Simmons on the same team, so it was one or the other, and it at least reduced the number of players with entourages troublesome for the team from 2 to 1.

It was also in his interests to leave, his baggage/history with Sixers had gotten to pretty much a point of no return. Hard to see how he could have been sold any lower, though, but they did get his salary off the books long term I guess.

[HotelVitale]

It's more the whole situation. Brand panicked and traded him for the worst player in the NBA. Markelle is proving to be turning things around little by little. Good for him though. He's no surefire stud, but he's not bad anymore. He's an average guard with plenty of untapped potential

No, he wouldn't be getting minutes on any team if they weren't developing him. I won't go back over all the discussions we've had on the general board, suffice to say he's limited at everything on offense because doesn't have a stand-out skill that he can bank on to be effective. His strengths are that he's pretty big for a PG and often changes directions well (mostly helpful in transition), but he's not good or dominant enough at those for them to translate into good opportunities for himself, or even consistently good passing opportunities. His type of quickness/athleticism is good enough for him to get separation off pn'r and DHOs and whatnot, which was great in college when he was drilling pull-ups like few NCAA freshmen we've seen before--but if his pull-up doesn't return there's just not much of a path for him to be a particularly good player. The Magic have been giving him huge opportunity--he pushes the ball up almost every time in transition and often initiates the offense in pn'r--and so far he can't make much happen, been averaging like 11/5 despite playing almost 30mpg over the past couple months and having the ball in his hands all the time. In other words, he's producing like a 3D guy or defensive specialist, but his role is actually to be a scorer/creator.

(If you look over highlights over the game last night, by far his best game of the season, he finished over Dinwiddie--one of the most notorious traffic cone guards in the league--about 6 times and then hit some open 3s that he usually misses. Not knocking him but it wasn't a tour de force offensive display.)

To be clear, I'm not saying he's a horrible player or that it's a disgrace that he's in the NBA, just that he's 100% a developmental player now who's only getting minutes because the team is looking to the future and also has no other options (the only other point on the roster is aging midget DJ Augustin). He wouldn't be playing on our team, and a guy like Horford is night and day in terms of how useful they'll be in the PO.

[agiaco]

It's more the whole situation. Brand panicked and traded him for the worst player in the NBA. Markelle is proving to be turning things around little by little. Good for him though. He's no surefire stud, but he's not bad anymore. He's an average guard with plenty of untapped potential

No, he wouldn't be getting minutes on any team if they weren't developing him. I won't go back over all the discussions we've had on the general board, suffice to say he's limited at everything on offense because doesn't have a stand-out skill that he can bank on to be effective. His strengths are that he's pretty big for a PG and often changes directions well (mostly helpful in transition), but he's not good or dominant enough at those for them to translate into good opportunities for himself, or even consistently good passing opportunities. His type of quickness/athleticism is good enough for him to get separation off pn'r and DHOs and whatnot, which was great in college when he was drilling pull-ups like few NCAA freshmen we've seen before--but if his pull-up doesn't return there's just not much of a path for him to be a particularly good player. The Magic have been giving him huge opportunity--he pushes the ball up almost every time in transition and often initiates the offense in pn'r--and so far he can't make much happen, been averaging like 11/5 despite playing almost 30mpg over the past couple months and having the ball in his hands all the time. In other words, he's producing like a 3D guy or defensive specialist, but his role is actually to be a scorer/creator.

(If you look over highlights over the game last night, by far his best game of the season, he finished over Dinwiddie--one of the most notorious traffic cone guards in the league--about 6 times and then hit some open 3s that he usually misses. Not knocking him but it wasn't a tour de force offensive display.)

To be clear, I'm not saying he's a horrible player or that it's a disgrace that he's in the NBA, just that he's 100% a developmental player now who's only getting minutes because the team is looking to the future and also has no other options (the only other point on the roster is aging midget DJ Augustin). He wouldn't be playing on our team, and a guy like Horford is night and day in terms of how useful they'll be in the PO.

I'm not comparing trading Fultz for more hot garbage to the acquisition or production of Horford. It's relative to the entire Fultz situation stemming from the trade to acquire him that resulted in getting Simmons and a 2nd round pick. It sucked all-around.

He would certainly be playing on quite a few other teams solely looking to develop players. He is proving he may be worth something in the NBA now when his career almost fizzled out on the Sixers. He's some top-tier prospect all of a sudden. I'm just acknowledging that he is progressing.

[HotelVitale]

The problem is not if we should trade Fultz but the time and return of giving up on him.

This, yet if he was still with us I wouldn't know at what point we could have sold high on him. But I agree we sold pretty low.

As has been said you couldn’t have him and Simmons on the same team, so it was one or the other, and it at least reduced the number of players with entourages troublesome for the team from 2 to 1. It was also in his interests to leave, his baggage/history with Sixers had gotten to pretty much a point of no return. Hard to see how he could have been sold any lower, though, but they did get his salary off the books long term I guess.

I get this and think I used to think it myself, but teams don't look at highly drafted players like fans tend to. FOs and coaching staffs know what it takes to get by in the league and they've seen many players just not quite be able to do those things or put myself on a path to success. Either they're not quite big or quick enough to do what they did in college, or they clearly aren't going to develop the couple of skills (whether it be quick reads or accurate shooting) they need to be a real player in the near future, or whatever else. FOs are used to seeing busts--or rather players who aren't close to or on their way to putting it together--and in Fultz's case I think it was clear to them that what people thought would work well for him simply wasn't working, and that it'd be a long and slow path for any of us to see if he could remake himself in some other way.

If Fultz were up for a trade right now--right after his 25 pt career high, right after starting 20 games or whatever for a not-horrible team--I don't think he'd net much more in a trade than what he got last year. Maybe you could get a higher 2nd for him or something but I think he's still by FOs 100% as an expensive lottery ticket, will cost you $12m next year and then go into RFA who right now looks like a fringe NBA player but could at some point randomly have his shot return (stranger things have happened).