Game 5: Suns @ Sixers 11/4 @ 1 pm ET Happy Birthday Tyrese Thread

[Kova]

In the past few years, this kind of a game where we have 10pt lead all the time would end up with us shrinking and having to play our starters last 8 minutes, and still find a way to lose, or go to overtime.

Never in doubt with this team, led by Nick Nurse. This team is well-coached, and it took 5 games to see it as clear as day. Great scoring balance too, every game we have 3 guys with 20+ points, one in the high teens, which will always give you an opportunity to win, regardless of defense.

RoCo - crazy how he seemed washed for the last 2-3 years, but all of a sudden he brings his defensive presence to this team again, just with the way he is reading the court, his length, and his ability to disrupt and deflect passes. He will never be 25 mpg player again, but he will be useful for 10-15 mpg this season to help us close some games on the defensive end.

[sodmoraes]

Maxey 3 ball seems a little off in the last couple games( he missed on in the first quarter completely alone). Hope he regains his confidence and shoots 8 per game this year, it will make our team more dangerous. When( if) BAtum plays, our forward rotation will be stacked: Oubre, Tobias, Batum and Roco. What we need is a guard(pg) and a backup C. Bumba sucks and i dont think Reed is a Center.

[Da Doctor]

The team is so much more fun without Harden

[Covi_Marsh]

Tobias might price himself out of Philly. If we wanna bring him back for like 20 mil, I think Spurs or Det may be interested and would outbid.

[Sixerscan]

Borderline shocked at how well Oubre has been playing. He’s even playing defense and stuff. He’ll probably fall off at some point but that’s when the Clippers guys will probably play more.

Can’t ask for a much better start from this group. So far so good.

[phillynative]

Maxey 3 ball seems a little off in the last couple games( he missed on in the first quarter completely alone). Hope he regains his confidence and shoots 8 per game this year, it will make our team more dangerous. When( if) BAtum plays, our forward rotation will be stacked: Oubre, Tobias, Batum and Roco. What we need is a guard(pg) and a backup C. Bumba sucks and i dont think Reed is a Center.

Exactly

[phillynative]

Borderline shocked at how well Oubre has been playing. He’s even playing defense and stuff. He’ll probably fall off at some point but that’s when the Clippers guys will probably play more.

Can’t ask for a much better start from this group. So far so good.

Beating the celtics next week...

[Skates]

Not missing Harden or PJ one damn bit, bottom line on that pair. Let’s add Doc into that and make it a trio of see ya, don’t wanna be ya.

[the_process]

I think Tobias is starting to get frustrated with Oubre’s chucker tendencies lol

Oh no, please don't ask for a trade

The fact that Oubre takes a ton of shots and limits Tobias' is my favorite thing about him. Oubre for All Star!

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

We kind of just coasted through todays game. They never once really punched us in the face and with them being shorthanded, it would have been an absolute embarrassment to lose this one at home. I think Kevin Durant is showing his age/longevity in this league. He's still a dynamic scorer, but he's no longer the one-man wrecking crew that he was even 2 years ago.

I love our starting lineup, but I think Oubre needs to come off the bench. Our reserves are dreadful right now. We got like maybe 9 meaningful points from our reserves. Reed scored in the middle part of the 4th that turned the game for us and then Kork hit a set up three which was huge. I'm not so much concerned about the scoring off the bench as long as they give us something when we need it. Today that happened for us and we were able to stay in control of this one. With that said, the bench remains my biggest concern right now. The only Clipper addition I can see helping that would be Marcus Morris, but I'm not sure he has much left to offer at this point. I may be totally off on this, but I would move Oubre to the second unit and turn him loose. Start one of Covington, or Batum. It's either that or we continue to incorporate Korkmaz more. I know that a lot of you don't like him, but he is head and shoulders the best offensive player on that second unit and with his defense being at the very least adequate, I think we continue to use him.

Lastly, I'm trying to look at this roster in terms of how it's going to look in a playoff setting. During the regular season, you can get away with giving minutes to guys like Korkmaz, but how will he fare in a playoff setting? Nurse is going to shorten the rotation big time once the postseason gets here anyway, but my question is how deep are we? I want to see who out of the Clipper return is going to do anything for us.

[Sixersftw]

The team is so much more fun without Harden

No Glen, No harden... I'm cautiously finding myself back in.

[youngcrev]

Maxey 3 ball seems a little off in the last couple games( he missed on in the first quarter completely alone). Hope he regains his confidence and shoots 8 per game this year, it will make our team more dangerous. When( if) BAtum plays, our forward rotation will be stacked: Oubre, Tobias, Batum and Roco. What we need is a guard(pg) and a backup C. Bumba sucks and i dont think Reed is a Center.

He hurt his hand during the Portland game. I don't think he's hurt-hurt, but that feels like the probable culprit to me.

[Ben]

Not missing Harden or PJ one damn bit, bottom line on that pair. Let’s add Doc into that and make it a trio of see ya, don’t wanna be ya.

For sure. Getting rid of PJ for sure was addition by subtraction. I was as pleased with that part of the trade as I was with anything else. I suspect that RoCo won't add much more scoring than PJ (although maybe a little bit more), but he should be better for ball movement and overall defense and -- perhaps most importantly-- hopefully he'll play less than PJ had been playing.

Watch on YouTube

[Skates]

Maxey 3 ball seems a little off in the last couple games( he missed on in the first quarter completely alone). Hope he regains his confidence and shoots 8 per game this year, it will make our team more dangerous. When( if) BAtum plays, our forward rotation will be stacked: Oubre, Tobias, Batum and Roco. What we need is a guard(pg) and a backup C. Bumba sucks and i dont think Reed is a Center.

He hurt his hand during the Portland game. I don't think he's hurt-hurt, but that feels like the probable culprit to me.

That was my thought as well, shooter with a sore/hand and wrist is going to show up on the long ball most. Hopefully those two threes he hit down the stretch make him feel right again. 10 assists was really nice.

[Covi_Marsh]

We kind of just coasted through todays game. They never once really punched us in the face and with them being shorthanded, it would have been an absolute embarrassment to lose this one at home. I think Kevin Durant is showing his age/longevity in this league. He's still a dynamic scorer, but he's no longer the one-man wrecking crew that he was even 2 years ago.

I love our starting lineup, but I think Oubre needs to come off the bench. Our reserves are dreadful right now. We got like maybe 9 meaningful points from our reserves. Reed scored in the middle part of the 4th that turned the game for us and then Kork hit a set up three which was huge. I'm not so much concerned about the scoring off the bench as long as they give us something when we need it. Today that happened for us and we were able to stay in control of this one. With that said, the bench remains my biggest concern right now. The only Clipper addition I can see helping that would be Marcus Morris, but I'm not sure he has much left to offer at this point. I may be totally off on this, but I would move Oubre to the second unit and turn him loose. Start one of Covington, or Batum. It's either that or we continue to incorporate Korkmaz more. I know that a lot of you don't like him, but he is head and shoulders the best offensive player on that second unit and with his defense being at the very least adequate, I think we continue to use him.

Lastly, I'm trying to look at this roster in terms of how it's going to look in a playoff setting. During the regular season, you can get away with giving minutes to guys like Korkmaz, but how will he fare in a playoff setting? Nurse is going to shorten the rotation big time once the postseason gets here anyway, but my question is how deep are we? I want to see who out of the Clipper return is going to do anything for us.

I agree that Oubre should be our 6th man. I never liked looking at the bench scoring and saying the bench didn’t contribute when more time then not, the starters are staggered with that bench. If the bench is in and deferring to Maxey Embiid or Tobias on every possession then of course they are not going to score. If embiid scored with they all bench unit then that’s low key bench scoring. For the most part the teams that’s considered to have high scoring benches have a 6th man that plays 30+ mins a night. He’s basically a starter. It’s semantics to say they have a better bench lol. For example Tyler Herro last season. Love played like 15 mins a night as a starter. He more bench than Herro.

[Covi_Marsh]

With that said, bench needs to hit they open shots when they come however small sample it is and a Oubre should come off the bench and play 30 mins

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

We kind of just coasted through todays game. They never once really punched us in the face and with them being shorthanded, it would have been an absolute embarrassment to lose this one at home. I think Kevin Durant is showing his age/longevity in this league. He's still a dynamic scorer, but he's no longer the one-man wrecking crew that he was even 2 years ago.

I love our starting lineup, but I think Oubre needs to come off the bench. Our reserves are dreadful right now. We got like maybe 9 meaningful points from our reserves. Reed scored in the middle part of the 4th that turned the game for us and then Kork hit a set up three which was huge. I'm not so much concerned about the scoring off the bench as long as they give us something when we need it. Today that happened for us and we were able to stay in control of this one. With that said, the bench remains my biggest concern right now. The only Clipper addition I can see helping that would be Marcus Morris, but I'm not sure he has much left to offer at this point. I may be totally off on this, but I would move Oubre to the second unit and turn him loose. Start one of Covington, or Batum. It's either that or we continue to incorporate Korkmaz more. I know that a lot of you don't like him, but he is head and shoulders the best offensive player on that second unit and with his defense being at the very least adequate, I think we continue to use him.

Lastly, I'm trying to look at this roster in terms of how it's going to look in a playoff setting. During the regular season, you can get away with giving minutes to guys like Korkmaz, but how will he fare in a playoff setting? Nurse is going to shorten the rotation big time once the postseason gets here anyway, but my question is how deep are we? I want to see who out of the Clipper return is going to do anything for us.

I agree that Oubre should be our 6th man. I never liked looking at the bench scoring and saying the bench didn’t contribute when more time then not, the starters are staggered with that bench. If the bench is in and deferring to Maxey Embiid or Tobias on every possession then of course they are not going to score. If embiid scored with they all bench unit then that’s low key bench scoring. For the most part the teams that’s considered to have high scoring benches have a 6th man that plays 30+ mins a night. He’s basically a starter. It’s semantics to say they have a better bench lol. For example Tyler Herro last season. Love played like 15 mins a night as a starter. He more bench than Herro.

Point taken, I get what you're saying. That's why I said that as long as they give us something when we need it. It would be nice to have a Lou Will handling the sixth man duty for us, but I'm fine as long as the ones that play contribute when they are called upon. An example would be today with Korkmaz. He hit a big three for us in the fourth (IIRC) that really stuck it to the Suns. The offense wasn't really doing anything, lots of sloppy play. I think it was Maxey that found him, but I'm not for sure. Thing is, he hit that shot when we needed him to.
But yeah, I see what you're saying about the starters staggering with the bench players. It's never an "all five go out" situation for us. I actually like the way Nurse is handling this situation at the moment. I know with Doc I never liked the way he rotated players.
People keep talking trades with this team. If we make one, I would like to see it done for another combo guard/lead guard if possible. OR...At least a guard that can run the offense when Maxey and Embiid sit. We definitely need a third guy that can do that unless they feel Beverly can be that guy.

[UptownPhilly]

This team has been fun to watch so far. Getting rid of the primadonna and one of the “greatest” coaches of all time worked wonders for this team. Inserting a wing who can score into the starting lineup and depth behind him will give us a much needed boost as the season rolls along. I was over this team when we went out the way we did against Boston. This gives me hope as a fan.

[M2J]

Liking these rotations. Like Kelly starting. Play your best players, especially when they fit the role.Rotation entering the 4th with Reed, Maxey and 3 large wings is what it takes to succeed with non Embiid minutes. Reed needs that length around him, plus the extra scoring from Tobias and Kelly with Maxey is solid.

Maxey taking over in the 4th was impressive too.

Melton scoring improving would be nice but he's playing okay overall

Nice win

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

This team has been fun to watch so far. Getting rid of the primadonna and one of the “greatest” coaches of all time worked wonders for this team. Inserting a wing who can score into the starting lineup and depth behind him will give us a much needed boost as the season rolls along. I was over this team when we went out the way we did against Boston. This gives me hope as a fan.

I agree, this is like a breath of fresh air. Even the weight of the expectations from last season is. It's not there so far. It seems like we are just out there having fun and that's really all that I personally asked for during the offseason. Was for things to be fun again. This team (regardless of its regular season record) was simply not that fun to watch last year. I didn't know it at the time, but we were incredibly boring and I think James Hardens vibe brought everyone down under his spell. I say spell because between his presence and Doc's that's exactly what it felt like. This season so far feels like we're finally coming out of a depression.

The playoffs last year did a number on a lot of us as fans of this team. Game six will never be forgotten for me. It was by far the most crippling moment I've had as a Sixers fan and that includes the Kawhi dagger from a few years ago. I think the objective was to just get back to having fun and so far, that's what we've done. If we can win a bunch of games along the way without guys getting hurt or burned out, then I'm all for it. If we're fortunate enough to have the right cohesion and health come playoff time, then I'm going to have fun watching us make the best run we can make. Big shout out to Morey for the moves he's made. He even corrected the PJ Tucker mistake. The man has us set up for the future and along the way we have at least have fun. So it's been awesome so far.