76ers 2023-24 Season Thread Part 2

[eyeatoma]

Hahaha - ok.

Who is worth trading that is as young has the same potential and isn't injury prone???

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These are speculative names...Keep in mind I'm not in favor of trading Tyrese Maxey. But these are a few names I'd trade him for.

Anthony Edwards if Minnesota has a falling out

Lamelo Ball - You can call him injury prone, but he's worth trading for

Brandon Ingram

Jalen Williams

Trae Young - He's a bit older, but he's a true point guard that can make things work if Embiid were to sit.

Donovan Mitchell- Again a bit older, but he's another player that can hold it down when guys get hurt. At this point I think the Cavs would part with Garland before him.

With that being said, I think we need to kill the trade Tyrese talk. It's just bad mojo all around. There's nothing wrong with Maxey and there's no reason to trade him. Defenses are simply loading up to stop him. It's an easy task for a defense when he's the only one out there who can handle the basketball or get a bucket, and yet he's averaging 29 a game with the current cast of steaming garbage he's surrounded with. Outside of Tobias Harris, this is the biggest collection of bums I've seen in a while on this team. Danuel House, the corpse of Marcus Morris? Pat Bev is still fun, but he shouldn't have the usage he's getting. I like Kelly Oubre, but you simply can't do anything with him. He's the definition of a losing player and it's obvious why nobody wanted him this past summer. Nic Batum is old AF and doesn't want to be here, Mo Bamba is a bum, Korkmaz hates his life, KJ Martin has been a disappointment, Robert Covington is washed like a pair of construction worker socks. None of these vets are worth keeping around at this point aside from Melton and he's quickly getting the injury-prone title attached to his name.

I got off topic which was the ludicrous idea that we should trade Maxey, but here's my take on things. I think we're going to try and fight this out. The goal is to win games, so I expect the team to try and do that. Prep yourself for more House, Korkmaz (hopefully he's traded), Morris, Bev, and Oubre. If Batum feels like basketballing he'll be out there too unless his wife needs him at home with the kids. Covington? Who TF knows and honestly who cares? Once the team realizes that it can't win with those guys, expect some phantom injuries to start popping up. After that we should be able to get a nice decent look at Smith, Council, and Springer in expanded roles. Nurse honestly needs to do it now, but there's no way in hell he will. Pair them with Maxey, Harris, Melton if he comes back, Reed, and Bev. I don't care if I ever see House or Marcus Morris play basketball again. Same goes for Covington and at this point Batum can go too. In short, none of our older vets matter without Joel Embiid here. It'll be a mess trying to get these guys to gel on the floor without him. Maybe I'm being cynical, but things look terrible at the moment and for some ridiculous reason, people are starting to throw out the idea that Maxey needs to be traded because he can't carry the team to a win with the likes of Danuel House, and the rest of the apathetic personalities on this roster. It's an insult to Maxey to have to shoulder this, but it's probably a good thing he's going through this right now. I think it'll actually make him a better player. Oh...He's averaging like half a turnover a game with this cast LOL.

Agreed

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[sixers hoops]

Clowns have been trying to trade Maxey from the jump, starting with for Lowry and then for tons of other has-beens like Dame.

Thankfully Morey isn’t that dumb.

We have three and four starters out these games. It’s Maxey and all bench, or Maxey, Tobias, and all bench. He is having a tremendous season and just made the All-Star team, and people turn it into he can’t dominate with Tobias and three bench guys so we better trade him.

He is having a great season. Joel got hurt. Melton and Batum are hurt. They are undermanned. Maxey is the same player he has been all year, he just doesn’t have enough help right now.

[Mik317]

The Philadelphia Fan Mindset at its finest

the moment things go south the only answer is to trade the best players because they can't carry the whole team lol. Maxey, who is flawed, has won us playoff games. Not being able to elevate Danuel House and Kelly Oubre lineups at 23 is not the end of the world. Kid has gotten better each season of his career and the first sign of struggle some want to sell high. I thought Maxey would be a fine 6th man my damn self but he's already surpassed that IMO....unless you can get a better prospect or multiple O think you let it play out and see how much better he can get...even if he does end up as "only" the 3rd best player on a team level...thats tradeable especially w/ his off ball skillset which he is elite at.

I don't get the rush some seem to have all the damn time..that rush is exactly why we had **** all to trade for so long. That rush ended the process. That rush led to short sighted moves like trading for Tobias. Letting Joe and to a lesser extent Bassey go. If its not instant impact and immediate success no matter what, then you must trade asap because of reasons i guess. Build a **** TEAM for once and one way to do that is to idk keep the players you know are good

[Arsenal]

Brogdon is the primary target.

[SixthStreet]

I may have started this lately round of Maxey "slander" but I want to clear my position that I believe that Maxey one day will definitely be good enough to be today Embiid's Batman, but am growing increasingly concerned that those two timelines aren't going to align. Both due to the fact that I think Maxey is still probably two years from being fully formed when I expect him to be in the range of 10th-15th best player in the league and the now uncertain span of Embiid's prime due to injuries.

How much runway Maxey has to grow is in question. That's why I don't think Morey can punt long-term assets to put together a team to try and make a run this year. Load up for the offseason to throw a haymaker to max out the following two years and get a player who can be the second best player until Maxey can wrestle that role away, or at least a 2A/2B situation.

[M2J]

Can Maxey carry a franchise? Like, carry them to the play in tournament or the championship? The latter requires a higher standard.

Maxey can be sufficient as the number 2 guy, but given our situation, we need our number 2 player to be capable of being an alpha or a franchise player.

Can Maxey fulfill that role? He might be able to, but he's nowhere near that level yet. He’s not yet and maybe wont reached that level where you can give him the ball and let him run your offense against most to all teams.

To that point, I think he's a solid enough #2 to Joel as long as you have a quality enough #3 or co-#2 or 2 high quality, well fitting #3s to go with Joel and Maxey.

[elchengue20]

It would be stupid to trade Maxey. He aint the problem here.

Also if you need to rebuild in a couple of years, he would still be a good starting piece, or could get a nice package because he's young.

I would do it only if we can get someone like ANT, i woudn't do it for Trae Young.

[Mik317]

Harden in theory was the perfect guy for both Biid and Maxey. He was able to carry when Biid was out or in a mood lol. AND he set up Maxey off ball and in transition. The issue was that he couldn't consistently do it and has his own playoff demons lol. The idealized Ben also would assist in this....but well yknow lol. I keep saying it but you have to build around your best players weaknesses and either hide them or "fix" them with the other players on the floor. Jokic is a beast but they don't win **** without Murray going Jordan and their tons of rangy wing defenders. Giannis is relentless but flopped in the playoffs until get got a PG that could defend and set him up and it coincided w/ Middleton also going Jordan and PJ being able to take on the better players allowing Giannis to roam (also some injury luck lolololol). Curry is one of the greatest shooters of all time but has won thanks to being around other great shooters and Draymond setting him up. IDK why Jo doesn't get the same leash and is just expected to carry no matter what (THIS DOES NOT ABSOLVE JO OF HIS OWN FAILURES BTW).

You don't have to create a super team (again nice way to still slander Jo there buddy) you just have to create an actual **** team for once. And TBF our best runs have been technically well built on paper...but thats where the stuff we can't always see come into play (age, ego, mental, dawg energy, ect.)

As of this team, it lack depth and firepower. Its been racked by injury for sure but that was the case the moment the season started. In his time here Jo has had only one real shooter at a time (JJ, Seth and now Maxey). Get more shooters so we don't have to live off of Maxey super 3s or Jo having to hit every mid ranger and also be able to keep up in firefights..or make comebacks. We have been carrying some corpsey dudes forever....get younger and more athletic to make it so Jo doesn't have to always put out fires all the damn time. The issue is that due to past mistakes or just plain stupidity we have not been able to do so. The ideal team is a team in which your best player doesn't have to ALWAYS put up MVP numbers to just exist....so when he does its an easy blowout win instead of a close game still against the **** Spurs. This doesn't mean your best player isn't good enough or doesn't want it enough and should be traded...it should be common sense ffs.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

"The Heatles?" CMon man! *Insert migraine inducing eye roll* I think I just saw my brain!

I do agree that you need a player capable of assuming the #1 role when the inevitable injury bug smashes into the window of our vehicle known as Joel Embiid. I do think Maxey can be that guy, but he still has to have help around him. People for some reason seem to be missing that detail in particular. Cool, he has Tobias Harris, but that's not enough when the other three players on the floor are complete zeros on offense and total turnstiles on the defensive end. Danuel House, Marcus Morris...These guys don't belong in the league anymore. Kelly Oubre is the most frustrating player I've seen in a Sixers uniform since Evan Turner. Paul Reed, I love the guy, but he's a backup and his IQ isn't the highest. He might...Might beat Mareese Speights in a spelling bee.

Now, let's dive even deeper into the actual issues on this team. Rebounding! That is a problem! We can't rebound the basketball! Even with Embiid out there we still get killed on the boards. Teams outhustle us, we don't box out, our guys are constantly out of position because they're gambling on defense, we don't have our backs to the baseline when we guard, we don't rotate, and we constantly get killed on closeouts. We're forced to play 2-3 zone (which we suck at) because we're constantly getting burned by shifty guards that can score on a nightly basis. The problem with this team beyond Maxey and Embiid is first and foremost our rebounding issues, discipline on the defensive end, we no other secondary ball handler that you can pair with Maxey, and we don't have a consistent shooter that can hurt teams from outside. That's the issue with this team. You can't expect Tyrese Maxey to fix that. You can hide most of those issues (outside of rebounding) with Joel Embiid because he's a great player, but ultimately even with a healthy Embiid those issues would have been our downfall in the postseason.

Now lets take Embiid out of the picture for a second. This team still sorely lacks secondary players who can rebound the basketball, play disciplined defense, and hit open threes. In the simplest of terms that is the recipe for being competitive on a nightly basis. You can literally hang with any team in the league if you rebound, play defense, hit threes, and don't beat yourself.
Tyrese Maxey hasn't even turned the ball over in games, despite the garbage he's surrounded with.

This is a problem much deeper than the absence of Embiid. I'm going to say it...This is a player personnel problem. We have low IQ basketball players on this team that are being heavily relied upon right now and the results shouldn't come as a surprise. We're going to get blown off the floor with these guys. Second, I think Nick Nurse is trying his best to teach and to get these guys to buy in, but this is damn sure not the cast of players he wants on this roster.

There's just more to it, then Tyrese Maxey not being an alpha. If the discussion wants to stay with just Tyrese Maxey, that's fine, but a lot other issues and circumstances are being completely ignored. It's the classic blame the quarterback in football when the team loses narrative that people run to when things go bad. Let's ignore the fact that QB so and so has a Swiss cheese offensive line in front of him. "Montana did it, why can't he?!"

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

MIK mentions getting younger and more athletic. I agree! In order to do we need to clean house with some of these bum vets that are here. Let's NOT go trading our 2024 FRDP. While I do understand the idea behind trading for Buddy Hield, lets not do that either. To get younger and athletic the young guys need to play and gain valuable experience moving forward. Right now we have been presented with a golden opportunity to do so. Look at Golden State...They suck this year, but they're playing their rookies and speeding up their growth by doing so. It only took three years, but Johnathan Kuminga has finally been turned loose and is killing it in the league. So yeah, you take a step back when you play the young guys, but it pays off for the future. Golden State both present and future looked as dead as fried chicken. Now things don't look so bad moving forward for them.

[Ben]

MIK mentions getting younger and more athletic. I agree! In order to do we need to clean house with some of these bum vets that are here. Let's NOT go trading our 2024 FRDP. While I do understand the idea behind trading for Buddy Hield, lets not do that either. To get younger and athletic the young guys need to play and gain valuable experience moving forward. Right now we have been presented with a golden opportunity to do so. Look at Golden State...They suck this year, but they're playing their rookies and speeding up their growth by doing so. It only took three years, but Johnathan Kuminga has finally been turned loose and is killing it in the league. So yeah, you take a step back when you play the young guys, but it pays off for the future. Golden State both present and future looked as dead as fried chicken. Now things don't look so bad moving forward for them.

It's hard for me to get why management doesn't see this. One could say that they want the revenue from sold-out crowds who want to see a contender-- at least a playoff contender, if not a title contender-- but I thought that pre-sold luxury boxes comprised the bulk of gate receipts, and that most of the regular tickets had already been purchased by fans or scalpers. (I'd love to learn more about how much mid-season ticket sales affect an organization's profits, and how much that tends to affect personnel decisions.)

And FWIW, I really enjoyed watching some of early process-era teams that won few games but that gutted them out, hustled like heck, while still allowing me to watch the visiting teams' superior stars. If fans adjust their expectations accordingly, young players hustling while losing can be well worth the price of admission or cable viewing. And, as you and MIK write, it can be SO important for a team's mid to long term success! Play the young or unestablished guys, let them develop so that you figure out which ones (if any) to keep, while also building up a few players' trade value. The wins just don't matter that much if you''re not going to make a deep playoff run in the present season.

[the_process]

Building a team is exactly why you needed to break up Tobias' salary for parts long ago. But far too many times I heard that Tobias is too good for that guy or this guy. That is all.

[Negrodamus]

If Hield can get back to last year's form, he'd actually be a pretty great pickup. Underrated distributor and was decent with deflections/steals. I imagine it's from falling off a cliff once Haliburton went out and the Pacers making a stronger commitment to Brown, Nesmith, and Mathurin certainly doesn't help.

He, by no means, is going to fix our issues, but I could see him surging once Embiid returns. I don't know his numbers in DHO, but I know Embiid's gravity creates open looks. Few are more deadly from 3 in the league than Hield when he gets open looks.

[zaz102]

I think the best options to do this trade deadline is:

1. Try to use all our assets to trade for an all-star/super elite role player. Bonus points for being under 28 so (George, Markkanen, Bridges).

2. Trade for a very good player that might that is selling for pennies on the dollar (maybe Murray). This player could hopefully be flipped with remaining assets for a player from option later.

3A. Trade low-level assets (expirings lower rotation players you have no intention to re-sign and 2nds) for helpful expiring/reasonable salary players (Bojan?, Drummond?).

3B. Trade anybody besides Maxey and Embiid/swaps for any 1sts you can get your hands on to help get a player for Option 1.

For 3A and 3B, there's a balance there. If you feel you have a real chance in the playoffs, then maybe you don't consider 3B. If you feel you have no chance, then you don't consider 3A. If somewhere in between, then maybe do a little of both.

I think I'm pretty out on using a 1st on any dudes like DDR, Caruso, etc. that are either expiring or probably won't fetch that in the next year or two.

[eyeatoma]

Read on Twitter

In Windy we Trust... Deal Zone time boys... Been getting calls left and right from friend of a friend of a friend of Marc Jackson.

[Mik317]

my pessimistic guess is Hield, Lowry, and some scrub we all talk ourselves into

(and at this point I am down bad enough to be okay with that lol)

[M2J]

Man, Joel gets hurt a week ago and we’re already trying to strip the franchise for parts.

Because..... Philly fans love a good process.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

MIK mentions getting younger and more athletic. I agree! In order to do we need to clean house with some of these bum vets that are here. Let's NOT go trading our 2024 FRDP. While I do understand the idea behind trading for Buddy Hield, lets not do that either. To get younger and athletic the young guys need to play and gain valuable experience moving forward. Right now we have been presented with a golden opportunity to do so. Look at Golden State...They suck this year, but they're playing their rookies and speeding up their growth by doing so. It only took three years, but Johnathan Kuminga has finally been turned loose and is killing it in the league. So yeah, you take a step back when you play the young guys, but it pays off for the future. Golden State both present and future looked as dead as fried chicken. Now things don't look so bad moving forward for them.

It's hard for me to get why management doesn't see this. One could say that they want the revenue from sold-out crowds who want to see a contender-- at least a playoff contender, if not a title contender-- but I thought that pre-sold luxury boxes comprised the bulk of gate receipts, and that most of the regular tickets had already been purchased by fans or scalpers. (I'd love to learn more about how much mid-season ticket sales affect an organization's profits, and how much that tends to affect personnel decisions.)

And FWIW, I really enjoyed watching some of early process-era teams that won few games but that gutted them out, hustled like heck, while still allowing me to watch the visiting teams' superior stars. If fans adjust their expectations accordingly, young players hustling while losing can be well worth the price of admission or cable viewing. And, as you and MIK write, it can be SO important for a team's mid to long term success! Play the young or unestablished guys, let them develop so that you figure out which ones (if any) to keep, while also building up a few players' trade value. The wins just don't matter that much if you''re not going to make a deep playoff run in the present season.

I know the NBA has always come first as a business, but the mindset of the players has definitely changed these days vrs the days when I first started to watch the game. I was 8 years old, it was 1990, that's when I watched my first Sixers game (vrs Warriors). Somewhere along the way the league changed. I think it changed after David Stern left the most, but it definitely changed from when I first started watching. I think guys are more open to making business decisions these days. They don't lay it all out there anymore like they used to. The slightest of injuries will keep them out of a game, guys are "rested" for load management and it's now even a suggestion that this is done amongst fans. I realize it's all about doing what's best for you and making all the money you can make, but I'm seeing a trend. A lot of the times once these guys get paid, they stop caring about the actual game of basketball. I look at our roster and Embiid, Melton, Maxey, Tobias, Springer, Council, Beverley, and Smith are the guys that stick out as players who are hungry for reasons beyond money. Unfortunately guys like Beverley aren't helping us all that much even with that mindset. That mindset may also change if some of our young guys get a payday, but I just don't see a lot of guys on this team who truly care about their craft or much less winning games. It's like you get paid and you get civilized, it happens and that's ok.

I hate to say it, but you can kind of see it with Paul Reed. Ever since he's been paid I feel like he's taken a step backwards. It happens and I don't think these guys can help it a lot of the time. Marcus Morris, Covington, Batum these guys have made a ton of money in the league and they've had nice careers, but they don't care anymore. Kelly Oubre does not care, he's merely trying to survive the lifestyle that this league provides. You would think he would be out there giving it all he's got to secure another payday, but I think he's fine getting by like he's doing.

I'm not going to go into the whole "dog mentality" bit, but a lot of these guys simply do not want to compete on most nights. It seems like you can't ever get all of them to collectively do it. Some nights it's Maxey and Harris going hard while other guys are taking the night off. This is nothing new though. I remember one of Iverson's quotes during the mid 2000s about his teammates. "Everyone is so pretty, nobody wants to dive on the floor and battle." Michael Jordan complained about it when he was a 40-year-old playing with the Wizards. I don't remember the exact quote, but he basically said that it's pretty sad when a 40-year-old man is willing to compete his heart out when players half his age on the team are unwilling to do so.

As I said, I think this is a player personnel problem. I believe that Nick Nurse is a very good basketball coach, but he's working with some bum-ass players right now and it's making him look bad. I hate that Embiid got injured, but his being injured has also unmasked all the personnel flaws this team actually has. It's peeled back and eclipsed at this point and you have to believe that Morey sees this. Despite Morey seeing it, I'm not sure ownership does and if they do, I doubt they care. It's a business and they're making money. Josh Harris does not seem interested in building a winner. He seems more into making money. That's just the way the world works.

[Bum Adebayo]

Maxey showing what he is with Embiid out - a Tiny shooting guard who relies on circus shots and long threes. If those high-risk shots aren't dropping he is a liability.
I love his passion and attitude, but he gets hunted on defense and doesn't have the playmaking ability to be a true point guard.

This year Embiid has been the main playmaker, and his gravity has given Maxey so much space. With Embiid playing he gets so many uncontested shots, but without that, he struggles.
He's too small to shoot over players, but can blow by most with his speed. However with no Embiid drawing players out of the lane he continues to hit a wall of players.
He will have a few games where the defense is not up on him and his bombs land, but he's not who he has been hyped to be.

He's at best the third option on a good team, or a Kemba Walker on a bad team.

Philly needs to have a good think about what they are going to do. If Joel is going to be back this year it's too late to change things up. But Embiid's injury could be career-changing - depending how big the tear is. It's likely that his mobility will be majorly affected. If it's a bad tear, Phil should trade Maxey for the best package they can get, because his value is the highest it will ever be right now, but it's about to come back down to earth over the next couple of months.

I'm sure nobody here will agree with this, there is rarely the ability to evaluate players without bias on fan pages, but I guess we'll see down the track if I'm right.

Yeah, it's refreshing to have a guy that has heart, something this team has lacked for many time, but he just has low talent for a guy wanting to be a star.
But I disagree about trading Maxey, he is a good tank commander after all, we can be in the lottery with him and if we trade Embiid, the perfect way to rebuild.

[Embiid-MVP]

Any truth about the Klay Thompson stuff on X(Twitter)? Seen we're the favorites if traded. Or is all that bs?