Quick stat snapshot of where the Sixers are after 3 games

[youngcrev]

Everyone is bad at defense

[76ciology]

Basic instructions before watching Sixers game.

First of all, defense is really weak in today’s NBA. Cavs’ league best 109DRtg would be 19th in DRtg 5 years ago.

You’d rather be the team that is NOT complaining about how OP offense is nowadays because OP offense is on your side.

Reg season is trash.
It’s partly positioning for playoffs..Partly trying to get individual awards..and partly practicing for playoffs by playing a lot of close games

Sixers plays the most defense in starting and ending games, more in ending games. The middle of the game is more for our guys to get their numbers, so we dont play much defense but tries to be the more potent offensive team than the opponent with an all out offensive 5 man unit

Sixers do not play hard until the last 6 minutes of every game.

Sometimes not playing hard is already good enough to create a big separation that you wouldn’t need to win a tight game down the stretch.

Currently, the way I see it, we’re trying to get better in playing tight games down the stretch because we’re not as good as other top teams like Nets, Celts and Bucks in crunch time but my belief is we’ll be the better than these teams by the playoffs

[Murray_17]

Reg season is trash.
It’s partly positioning for playoffs..Partly trying to get individual awards..and partly practicing for playoffs by playing a lot of close games

Reg season is every time less important but i don't agree with this.

Only 8 teams have won the championship from the 3rd seed, one from the 4th seed, and 1 from the 6th.

At the end of the day some teams have the experience and know they can coast, yes, but playoffs seeding highly reflects your options of winning the title, why? because sample size normalizes your stats and your play across the 82 games, is highly reflective of how your team actually behaves.

The idea that we/teams can just select to play close games because why not, is something i don't understand either

[76ciology]

Reg season is trash.
It’s partly positioning for playoffs..Partly trying to get individual awards..and partly practicing for playoffs by playing a lot of close games

Reg season is every time less important but i don't agree with this.

Only 8 teams have won the championship from the 3rd seed, one from the 4th seed, and 1 from the 6th.

At the end of the day some teams that have the experience and know they can coast, yes, but playoffs seeding highly reflects your options of winning the title, why? because sample size normalizes your stats and your play across the 82 games, is highly reflective of how your team actually behaves.

The idea that we/teams can just select to play close games because why not, is something i don't understand either

Partly positioning for playoffs, yes.

[Murray_17]

Partly positioning for playoffs, yes.

I mean, that's isn't positioning for the playoffs, over 50 (53) teams that end 1st seed win the championship, that's over 70%, teams at or below the 3th seed win the championship around 13%-14% of the time. And if you take out the teams that won the title on the 3rd seed after being champions the previous season, the percentage is even lower.

Again, you can criticize the regular season for a lot of things, it's still a highly accurate picture of who is going to or can win the championship.

[76ciology]

Partly positioning for playoffs, yes.

I mean, that's isn't positioning for the playoffs, over 50 (53) teams that end 1st seed win the championship, that's over 70%, the teams below at or below the 3th seed win the campionship around 13%-14% of the time. And if you take out the teams that won the title on the 3rd seed after being champions the previous season, the percentage is even lower.

Again, you can criticize the regular season for a lot of things, it's still a highly accurate picture of who is going to or can win the championship.

Yes, thats why it’s partly positioning for the playoffs.

By positioning, im talking about seeding.

Personally, i dont put too much value (not totally disregarding it) on probability of a large sample size to a single event. Specially for 15%-70% occurrence.

We’ve been the first seed.
Had the best 5 man unit NetRtg.
Had been projected to win it all based on mathematic model.

We have different beliefs. But my belief is you have to check multiple boxes. Yes, playoff positioning. But also players being happy (getting their individual goals/awards) and a team that becomes better with pressure.

All of which cant be gained if you just try to blow out teams by double digit.

I think the best example of this was the 2017-2018 season. We ended the season with a 17 game winning streak. Had one of the best 5 man unit. But when the pressure was high against the Celts, our guys cracked to the pressure.

Remember that dumb TO inbound pass by Ben to JJ?
The Roco gambling for a steal that lead to Al’s easy bucket?
Biid trying to win it by forcing it inside which was a no call?

Our guys were not used to playing that level of pressure because we opted for that 17 game winning streak and focused too much on the NetRtg.

Let’s say in those 17 games we opted to get our guys playing a lot of clutch situations. I think we would have been more prepared back then. And all Brett could do in 2018 playoffs was “bbbutt.. it was the best 5 man NetRtg so I had to play that unit”

Ludic Fallacy. People (usually inexperienced) like to believe that life can be modeled with flawless statistical model but real life is complex. There is a lot of variables at play in real life and specially in a single one off event.

[76ciology]

You look at how we have performed in clutch moments. We were just mediocre prior to the last two games. Harden was turning the ball too much and scoring horribly.

I dont know how much practice Doc wants. But im guessing we’re just establishing that extra gear so when we face the top teams or the not so top teams we can be competitive or even beat them without needing to even play that hard.

Not playing hard and knowing when to turn it up is also beneficial. Its like when Biid goes for a dunk or for a block, he doesnt jump for most of the game but when he jumps hard for a dunk or a block the opponent is usually surprised. And he can use that in crunch time or in turning points of the game.

[76ciology]

the only way this team can blow out games or play great defense is with Embiid playing hard. If Embiid will play hard all game…

- he will need to sit out more games
- his scoring will suffer for he has to properly distrubute his energy
- he will be fatigued by crunch time (look at the hawks series in 2021 playoffs)

Let it be. Let him get what he wants. We’re talented enough to win games without him needing to play hard for most games or atleast only for the starting quarter and the last 6 mins of every game. Thats where having this much talent on offense comes in.

[Murray_17]

Personally, i dont put too much value (not totally disregarding it) on the probability of a large sample size to a single event. Specially for 15%-70% occurrence.

The only thing i'm gonna discuss because i think this is, literally, the entire point.

An event happening 15% of the time mean an event happens 15 out of 100 occurrences, an event happening 70% of the time means it happens 70 out of 100 occurrences.

That's a MASSIVE difference, over 4 times. You can disregard that, it's your choice, but acting like it's not that much of a difference seems nuts to me.

[Zumramania]

Glenn has proven he can beat the odds with this team, unfortunately for us it's in the wrong direction. :/

[FireMorey]

Any rumors on deadline guys who might be on the block that would make sense for the Sixers? I haven't been following the rumors much lately.

[youngcrev]

Any rumors on deadline guys who might be on the block that would make sense for the Sixers? I haven't been following the rumors much lately.

Haven't heard anything specifically about us aside from a potential move to get under the tax.

League wide, seems like you hear more and more about Utah's guys now that they've dropped in the standings (Conley/Beasley), and then you've got Crowder and Collins who have been out there since the off-season.

[youngcrev]

Read on Twitter

Kinda crazy.

Unclutch Stockton and fragile Malone?

[Jailblazers7]

The fact that we could have Kyle Anderson on this team instead of PJ is a massive missed opportunity. According to the 538 model, swapping those players improves our title odds by 6 full percentage points.

[youngcrev]

The fact that we could have Kyle Anderson on this team instead of PJ is a massive missed opportunity. According to the 538 model, swapping those players improves our title odds by 6 full percentage points.

Don't know that Harden takes less for him, don't know that he chooses us over them, don't know that he'd actually help more in a playoff series (presuming Tucker isn't just completely cooked).

I would have rather had him even though the fit isn't optimal, but that 538 odd swap is ridiculous.

[Stanford]

The fact that we could have Kyle Anderson on this team instead of PJ is a massive missed opportunity. According to the 538 model, swapping those players improves our title odds by 6 full percentage points.

Proof enough to not take anything they produce seriously

[76ciology]

The fact that we could have Kyle Anderson on this team instead of PJ is a massive missed opportunity. According to the 538 model, swapping those players improves our title odds by 6 full percentage points.

I still hope PJ shows his worth in the playoffs.

Im neither too down or high on him. I saw what he can bring in the playoffs and I trust Harden, Biid, Doc and Morey’s stamp of approval.

I dont think he’s playing that hard in reg season. He’s not yet locking up Trae Young full court and all that.

[76ciology]

Glenn has proven he can beat the odds with this team, unfortunately for us it's in the wrong direction. :/

Thats why we need to take our clutch game into another level

Watch this.

Watch on YouTube

Embiid was 0-12 in the second half. We won this and we’d be up 3-1

Next game

Watch on YouTube

Next game

Watch on YouTube

We need to play more close games in reg season and be really good at in. We dont have a good win-loss record on close game, and we only shoot 40%. While Nets, Celts and Bucks are top teams in close games.

[76ciology]

1- such a luxury to have Maxey off the bench, where you got your opponents already struggling to match Biid and Harden with Tobi’s opportunistic baskets, then you can just put him in the floor against their bench unit while he’s out there full of energy that nobody can match. Reminds me of how Heat uses Tyler Herro against us. And also a bit of Leandro Barbosa back in the days with the high powered Suns/Warriors.

2- how much close games we’re gonna play depends whether if our starters that will play harder than in the first half can pull away in the third quarter or if Harden/Maxey can pull away in the first 6 mins of the fourth. If both are denied, then we welcome our opponent to face the 2nd best defensive team (93 DRtg) in crunch time with the most lethal 2 man game in the league

[SixthStreet]

I don't think the trade deadline will help us. We need a big wing to round out the rotation and there's no one really helpful that won't cost less than a couple FRPs. Probably just duck the tax.

I think this roster without an addition is an honest contender.