Game 1: Bucks @ Sixers 10/23 @ 7:30 pm ET ESPN Thread

[Mik317]

Some nerd level observations and notes from last night. I am going to avoid the "time to trade this guy or fire this guy" stuff this year and attempt to laser in on the actual basketball side of things to again keep my sanity lol

- Maxey and just our team in general need to find some easier looks. Been an issue for most of my life but you watch other teams have bread and butter plays that they can get to whenever they want. The Brook Moving screen for Dame into an easy look is what opened up the game. Meanwhile our offense was pretty much juts Maxey overdribbling into a floater, tough layup or a deep stepback. Which when those are going down its great but you cannot consistantly rely on that especially when the other team is doing the above moving screen hack or simply drive and kicks. Bu-but this will change with Biid and PG...yeah I hope so but it has been an issue in years past with Biid as well. The key to having a great offense is that it comes easy that way when it doesn't THEN you can go for the bail me out please stuff.

- Oubre's jumper is going to be waaay too important for us this year I can already feel it.

- Gordon is built like a fire hydrant lol. He also probably needs to be tethered to PG and Biid as he simply doesn't have the lift to be more than a spot up guy anymore. BTW if you have never seen it go look up his HS mixtape...It is legit one of the greatest things ever..he was a mix of Michael Jordan and Steph Curry...**** was nuts.

- Yabu was good. HOWEVA he is not a 5 at all. BUT I also don't think he fits next to Drummond either. Going to be a weird fit all season I think.

- Martin was like the stock modern wing guy he has advertised as. Does everything to a solid degree. Again tho might be a bit overtaxed as our lock down guy as he got COOKED it felt like.

- Lowry has to be a pain in the ass to play against just an annoying ass dude lol. Hopefully his shot stays with him this year as it was lowkey really bad against the Knicks

- Nurse hates Council like Doc hated BBall Paul....Council's skillset does not fit what he wants from his role player wings tbf. He has an elite gift to get to the line but will never get enough on ball time to use it. Not a good enough shooter nor defender at this stage either. Going to be buttmad when he is thrown in the inevitable KJ trade.

- KJ seemed like he was fine everyone online said he was bad but idk.

- Again Nurse not being as much of a trying weird **** guy as he was advertised does suck. Tonight was a night where you try random **** and see what sticks instead he went with a playoff rotation. Not being Doc honeymoon is coming to a end my dude.

- Why is Reggie Jackson on the team lol. I get having a third string PG but you have Dowtin, LQ and even McCain to fill that role. Just a weird waste imo

- I'm not mad over the loss. BUT this is why I also don't get the optimism around the offseason either. I **** love Joel Embiid. As stated in the past if we ever won one with the big oaf, I'd legit think about retiring from the sport, this board and everything as it will feel complete. I want him to win one so **** badly lol (which is why the Olympics thing didn't bother me as much despite logically it being a really stupid idea lol). Despite that...deep in the recesses of my decaying mind, i know it s probably not going to happen if he continues to be THIS important to the team even being mid. Adding another injury prone playoff demon haver in PG did not really change that for me. I hope just not being Tobias is enough but say what you want about Bookman...he at least played and while I am not a paragon of health as a fellow 35 year old I know **** gets wicked body wise around this age lol. Maxey is not a number one option, hopefully with Biid's gravity and PG as another ballhandler that helps but as stated earlier Maxey's game is based off of deep threes and crazy layups..that is hard to depend on. PG can get his own shot and is an elite shooter so hopefully that also opens things up but time and time again it all comes down to our 7'2 walking glass man to not be broken but also be the entire defense and make it so every other player can actually exist and as much as I love the dude he has not be able to do that. Its bad to look at other recent champs but I look at Boston and while The Js are good (brb going to punch myself in the balls for saying that) their team make up and system allows them to just play their game. They aren't over taxed to be the best at all times on both ends. Their system made it so their main flaw of playmaking is minimized and the offense is simplified down to get open looks and let it go. Time will tell if simply replacing Tobias' slow processing ass with PG is actually all we need but idk it still feels like this is yet another year of the Biid do everything system which idk if that works...idk if that works with better more available players honestly.

[GoSixersBro]

Read on Twitter

Michael Scott and Jim Halpert

[mjkvol]

When Glenn is getting praised and seen as "outcoaching" anyone, it's a clear sign of trouble. His three years here seemed like a decade it was so interminable. As bleak as things appear to be at the moment, not ever having to see Glenn or Tobias on the Sixer sideline again is a huge bright spot regardless of anything else.

I'd love to know what Doc did from a "coaching" standpoint that actually made a different. What did he do, yell out to Dame to start hitting 3's? He tell Prince "don't you dare miss a shot or else?"

Let's be real; his team was barely up double digits at half with the Sixers shooting like crud and missing 2 of their biggest stars. Second half was all about Dame getting hot and the Sixers players abandoning making the kick-outs b/c they felt the 3's weren't falling.

Bingo.

[Kobblehead]

Looking forward to McCain eventually cracking the rotation.

[76ciology]

The main issues for me are on offense. We can’t create good looks, and our three point shooting has been terrible. Maxey, Caleb Martin, and Eric Gordon can attack the paint, but the Bucks aren’t feeling any pressure to send extra help, especially with Brook Lopez holding it down inside. Our shooting has been bad since preseason, and it’s gotten to the point where we’re hesitant to even take shots from deep, opting instead to repeatedly drive into Lopez.

Since before the preseason, I’ve been saying Maxey needs to play alongside another guard. Primarily because I thought having Caleb come off the bench was best for the rotation, and that still holds true. Another one is having another guard, allows us to increase the pace against elite defensive team which in paper should allow us to have more potent dribble drive actions. If it’s Gordon who’s gonna start, he can’t just settle for long threes and reckless drives. He has to handle the ball and maybe run some 2 man games like DHO. If we can’t make that adjustment, we should consider starting Lowry or Reggie Jackson, which for me is l more ideal, letting them be the primary ball handler while Maxey plays off the ball.

A big part of the issue is that our bigs aren’t a real threat. When you look at players like Trae, Brunson, or Doncic, they have bigs who can roll effectively and collapse the defense, creating kick out opportunities. We’ve tried to replicate this with lobs to Drummond, but he doesn’t pose enough of a threat for the Bucks to send help. They’re comfortable letting Brook Lopez handle him 1v1, even when he’s rolling or cutting to the basket.

One effective counter we used was having Maxey act as the screener. This opened up several good driving lanes for Caleb Martin. It’s an action we could easily run for Paul George when he returns, or even have Eric Gordon take on the screener role to keep creating those opportunities for our wings.

[76ciology]

The NBA has officially launched their investigation into the Sixers. So if we're keeping track, we have:

-Investigation into the PJ Tucker signing
-Investigation into Harden signing
-Investigation into James Harden starting last season DNP
-Investigation into Joel Embiid starting this season DNP

Oh, and pressuring our owner to fire the GM back in 2016.

It's not a conspiracy theory to say that the NBA has it out for the Sixers. It's fact. No other team in the NBA gets treated this way.

There’s a saying around here: “If you want to eat, you also need to know how to wipe your mouth after.”

The issue with this franchise is that while they may be smart, they lack experience. The Lakers were tanking back when we were, but they had the Kobe farewell tour to keep the spotlight off it. Why didn’t we do something similar, like an Iverson farewell tour? Why do we have to create so much noise with that historical losing streak record? Even a Thaddeus Young farewell would’ve been a good excuse to tank.

And why release the load management story at the start of the season, just when everything was quiet, fans were hyped for the big three, and the media had nothing else to cover?

Our franchise is like a kid who reads “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and thinks getting rich is as simple as following a manual. But in reality, life doesn’t work that way.

[blargh]

Looking forward to McCain eventually cracking the rotation.

Yeah if Gordon can’t catch-and-shoot 3’s at a high level, I’m not sure he offers us much else. McCain could slot into that role pretty seamlessly.

[Sixerscan]

Bringing Iverson back 4 years after he retired to be in a backcourt with like James Anderson would have been something.

[Black Mage]

The main issues for me are on offense. We can’t create good looks, and our three point shooting has been terrible. Maxey, Caleb Martin, and Eric Gordon can attack the paint, but the Bucks aren’t feeling any pressure to send extra help, especially with Brook Lopez holding it down inside. Our shooting has been bad since preseason, and it’s gotten to the point where we’re hesitant to even take shots from deep, opting instead to repeatedly drive into Lopez.

Since before the preseason, I’ve been saying Maxey needs to play alongside another guard. Primarily because I thought having Caleb come off the bench was best for the rotation, and that still holds true. Another one is having another guard, allows us to increase the pace against elite defensive team which in paper should allow us to have more potent dribble drive actions. If it’s Gordon who’s gonna start, he can’t just settle for long threes and reckless drives. He has to handle the ball and maybe run some 2 man games like DHO. If we can’t make that adjustment, we should consider starting Lowry or Reggie Jackson, which for me is l more ideal, letting them be the primary ball handler while Maxey plays off the ball.

A big part of the issue is that our bigs aren’t a real threat. When you look at players like Trae, Brunson, or Doncic, they have bigs who can roll effectively and collapse the defense, creating kick out opportunities. We’ve tried to replicate this with lobs to Drummond, but he doesn’t pose enough of a threat for the Bucks to send help. They’re comfortable letting Brook Lopez handle him 1v1, even when he’s rolling or cutting to the basket.

One effective counter we used was having Maxey act as the screener. This opened up several good driving lanes for Caleb Martin. It’s an action we could easily run for Paul George when he returns, or even have Eric Gordon take on the screener role to keep creating those opportunities for our wings.

Good post overall. However, I disagree on a few things. There is nothing preventing this team from being Celtics-lite if our center position was a threat to shoot the 3. Horford does not "roll" anymore, but he is an effective "popper." On screens someone has to respect him from the 3 point line and that forces the defense to rotate when the ballhandler beats his man off the screen.

The reason we struggled was because Lopez was literally camping near the paint; he was epic levels of FPS camping. He could play off the screen from Drummond b/c he knew Drummond wouldn't pop and at best would have to roll. So Lopez could drop off and wait for the driver using his length to contest or block while also maintaining his position to turn back towards a rolling Drummond. Any screens set not using Drummond were even worse b/c Lopez was again camped by the paint and the Bucks knew they didn't need to rotate to cover the 5 at the arc b/c that was the ideal outcome if they are going to give up an open look. So non-5 set screens were essentially a 2 on 3 offense versus defense matchup (ballhandler and screener vs on ball defenders and camping Lopez). Bucks could switch the screen knowing if the switch gave an edge to the ballhandler then Lopez would be there to clean it up.

Again, this dynamic changes drastically if you have Joel or even PG13 in there. PG13 will pull up from midrange. Now the defense has to either fight thru the screen or make a smooth switch or Lopez has to come up on a harder show to prevent a walk up jumper. Think back to how many open easy looks we used to give up with Joel in drop coverage. If Maxey has to develop any skill (besides elite ballhandling for 1 on 1 breakdowns) it would be developing a deadly at the foul-line pull up jumper. If Joel's in there, now the center has to sit out away from the paint to cover Joel shooting the 3.

Once Joel and PG13 are back; this team should model a lot of its offense to be Celtics-lite. I'm not saying we can be the Celtics, they just have more consistent willing 3 pot bombers than we do; but Joel is equal to or better than Horford from 3 so spacing our 5 guys around the arc and using screens or dribble penetration and kick should work like it does for the Celtics. This team should being played 5 around the arc when a team has a viable rim-protector at the 5 and then put Joel in the post if a team has a weaker rim-protector or small ball center in there.

[M2J]

Read on Twitter

Michael Scott and Jim Halpert

Looks like a man disappointed that he got locked up, and misses the days where he actually shined in games without Joel and misses 50 win seasons, and getting past the first round. 1000 words indeed

[Stanford]

Okay bro

[GoSixersBro]

Sorry I haven't been on the forum a ton during the summer. Do we have Maxey haters now? Or did Doc Rivers create a burner?