Tank Watch 2025

[youngcrev]

Man if we coud catch the craptors in the stands it would be massive, but we have 3 more wins... i dont think they will win another game sadly... that win streak we had was dumb...

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We still play them 2 more times

[Black Mage]

Drinking Kool-aid or wishful thinking; but I am beginning to wonder if a lot of the inexplicable things we are all noticing is a signal of an internal decision to begin an "era" shift. Here me out on this.

What if the decision has been made that next year begins the "era" shift. The reason Joel and PG aren't getting surgeries for injuries that appear to need them is b/c the team is waiting to see if they make the 10th seed. If they hit the lottery the plan will be both guys getting surgery and Joel is probably out all of next year.

Why would they be ok if they lose the pick this year? Because next year is a strong draft and losing this years gives them back their pick for 2026; rather than needing to fall in the Top 4. Mentally, it also lets the players see that "just getting in" doesn't work.

2025/2026 season - Joel misses the entire season from the knee surgery and long recovery (his words). PG either mises part or comes back plays better and we try to move him at deadline next year.

Team fires Nurse and brings in a younger coach to install a new culture and team identity focused around Maxey/McCain/Rookie. The goal being to quasi-tank. End in the upper lottery while the coach is given time to fix habits and install his system.

[JordanMars]

Unfortunately I still see us making the play in and it starts with a win against chicago monday.

[76ciology]

Drinking Kool-aid or wishful thinking; but I am beginning to wonder if a lot of the inexplicable things we are all noticing is a signal of an internal decision to begin an "era" shift. Here me out on this.

What if the decision has been made that next year begins the "era" shift. The reason Joel and PG aren't getting surgeries for injuries that appear to need them is b/c the team is waiting to see if they make the 10th seed. If they hit the lottery the plan will be both guys getting surgery and Joel is probably out all of next year.

Why would they be ok if they lose the pick this year? Because next year is a strong draft and losing this years gives them back their pick for 2026; rather than needing to fall in the Top 4. Mentally, it also lets the players see that "just getting in" doesn't work.

2025/2026 season - Joel misses the entire season from the knee surgery and long recovery (his words). PG either mises part or comes back plays better and we try to move him at deadline next year.

Team fires Nurse and brings in a younger coach to install a new culture and team identity focused around Maxey/McCain/Rookie. The goal being to quasi-tank. End in the upper lottery while the coach is given time to fix habits and install his system.

I see it more like the Warriors’ lost years (between 2019-2021)—lots of A/B testing with under-the-radar players and misfits, while quietly accumulating promising rookies. The hope is that everything clicks for a big run. If not, those rookies give you enough flexibility to either undo bad contracts or package them for elite talent when the opportunity arises—similar to what Morey did before trading for Harden.

[Arsenal]

Man if we coud catch the craptors in the stands it would be massive, but we have 3 more wins... i dont think they will win another game sadly... that win streak we had was dumb...

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I posted this awhile back, but I'll bring it up now as more of us are watching losses. The Sixers have the hardest scheduled out of all remaining lottery teams. The other teams have the most games against each other which means someone has to pick up a win on us. The Raptors are one of the few losing teams we still had direct 1 on 1 matchups against allowing us to further send wins out.

The Raptors, shockingly still have 15 games against tanking teams (tossing Bulls and Spurs now into the mix). We still have 2 games against them; if we out tank them in those games we're down to 1 game for a tie and 2 for the win. Raptors schedule:

2 vs Hornets
2 vs Sixers
2 vs Bulls
2 vs Nets
2 vs Spurs
2 vs Jazz
3 vs Wizards

The Nets games are just icing for us because either team forced into a win is great. Bulls also helps b/c it either feeds Bulls further into the 10th seed or we pick up wins on the Raptors.

It's not just possible, but likely we could reach the 5 seed in the lotto.

This. Lose those 2 games vs. TOR and we're in great shape.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I don't know man. The signs are all there. This team has quit. We haven't shown any fight since January when Maxey was running the show. Embiid has been blatantly dirty out there. Last night I saw him grabbing, pulling, throwing elbows and basically playing as if he didn't GAF. There's a reason he's so disliked around the league and it showed last night. He's beyond frustrated and he's going to eventually check out. This guy was MVP of the league two years ago and he's now being benched in favor of Andre Drummond when the game is on the line. He's playing zero defense out there while still making reckless decisions. He can't even handle the basketball anymore. He's getting beat by the likes of Nic Claxton and Daryon Sharpe. Pre-injury Embiid would have had 40 last night and we would have won that game by 30 points with him sitting the entire 4th quarter. He's down and out both mentally and physically. It's time to shut it down and get the help he needs, OR...Transition into role player status. Unfortunately I think his window of dominance slammed shut the minute Johnathan Kuminga landed on his knee, tearing his meniscus for the second time.

Paul George signed here because nobody else was going to give him max dollars. He clearly doesn't want to be "the guy" anymore. He doesn't even want to be a second option. George still teases us with an extra gear every now and then, but the guy is coasting and probably only giving about 50% out there. He makes the Al Horford signing look like a genius move. He is a by far worse addition to this team than Elton Brand was when we added him years ago. Daryl Morey should be fired for this. Paul George is only going to help us when the players around him are winning games for us. It's just a terrible fit. He doesn't care at all about winning. That alone has been evident since his short run in OKC.

That leaves you with Tyrese Maxey who was an absolute lion in January leading this team. He was fully all in embracing the alpha role. He even had some decent chemistry brewing with Paul George before the inevitable pinky injury. All of us saw the ascension in Maxey and once Embiid came back, it vanished. He's now back to playing frustrated (similar to how we saw him earlier in the year).

It's over at this point. It's time to call it. We also need to make a call on Nick Nurse. You can see it all over his face. He's done with the season and he may be done here all together. I hope not because I do like him as a coach, but there's only so much he can do. He deserves some blame here though because he hasn't built any consistency here in terms of overall game planning and his rotations have been a constant swirl of experimentation which result in complete chaos on the floor. His spacing, where he sets up players on offense has been atrocious. Last night it looked like we were playing 5V5 recreational basketball.

Lastly this team does not look or play like a team that wants the postseason smoke. I think that largely comes down to the vibe that both Embiid and George (to a lesser extent) bring when they do play. Both of them sink any cohesion that forms because naturally these young guys who are hungry to compete defer to them and it sinks the morale. The reason we were winning in January and taking teams like Denver down to the wire was because guys were playing with some freedom out there.

In short, the problem has been Embiid and Paul George all season long. It's not so much the entitlement of them, it's the inconsistencies that they bring each night.

It's beyond obvious that this roster needs to be reshaped and made over. The only time it has worked was when Maxey had the keys and even then we were a .500 team at best 6/7/8 seed. Even then, you take that and build off of it by adding the right pieces around what's working. Like I mentioned, Paul George was working well in January with Maxey and the young guys before the stupid finger injury. He has no problem deferring to Maxey and I'm fine with that. Embiid on the other hand refuses to accept this. It'll take him some time. The bad part is that Embiid has only been effective on the offensive end and even that is starting to wane. His refusal to defend or rebound in the paint makes him a total liability out there. We've talked about how he needs to shift his focus towards other aspects of the game in order for this to work, but he's not doing that. This will ultimately hold Maxey back from ever becoming the player we all know he can be. At this point if we were to simply replace Embiid with Nic Claxton we would be in the drivers seat for the postseason. I hate that I'm saying that, but it's true. Embiid really needs to sit down and reevaluate where his career is headed. He's 30 years old. I'm sure he's having a hard time with that all by itself. 30 is tough for a lot of people and I imagine it's even harder for a professional athlete.

[ProcessDoctor]

Need to catch Toronto to allow at least one team behind us jumping up. Sitting right at #6 is scary AF.

[mjkvol]

Drinking Kool-aid or wishful thinking; but I am beginning to wonder if a lot of the inexplicable things we are all noticing is a signal of an internal decision to begin an "era" shift. Here me out on this.

What if the decision has been made that next year begins the "era" shift. The reason Joel and PG aren't getting surgeries for injuries that appear to need them is b/c the team is waiting to see if they make the 10th seed. If they hit the lottery the plan will be both guys getting surgery and Joel is probably out all of next year.

Why would they be ok if they lose the pick this year? Because next year is a strong draft and losing this years gives them back their pick for 2026; rather than needing to fall in the Top 4. Mentally, it also lets the players see that "just getting in" doesn't work.

2025/2026 season - Joel misses the entire season from the knee surgery and long recovery (his words). PG either mises part or comes back plays better and we try to move him at deadline next year.

Team fires Nurse and brings in a younger coach to install a new culture and team identity focused around Maxey/McCain/Rookie. The goal being to quasi-tank. End in the upper lottery while the coach is given time to fix habits and install his system.

I've thought for a while now that losing this year's pick and getting OKC off our back wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. The odds of getting Flagg are so slim, and there isn't anyone else that is a lock stud. We aren't competing next year anyway, and the important thing is to get off George and finally reset this thing. Whether we reach the play-in is moot as far as I'm concerned.

I like the idea of Embiid sitting out all or most of next season, as he is virtually useless in the condition he is right now. The comical thing is how much of the national media still looks at this "big 3" and that we were just unlucky this year and should continue to build with that in mind. If Morey believes this even a little bit he should be summarily fired, but it's very possible that those are the Harris marching orders.

[FireMorey]

Drinking Kool-aid or wishful thinking; but I am beginning to wonder if a lot of the inexplicable things we are all noticing is a signal of an internal decision to begin an "era" shift. Here me out on this.

What if the decision has been made that next year begins the "era" shift. The reason Joel and PG aren't getting surgeries for injuries that appear to need them is b/c the team is waiting to see if they make the 10th seed. If they hit the lottery the plan will be both guys getting surgery and Joel is probably out all of next year.

Why would they be ok if they lose the pick this year? Because next year is a strong draft and losing this years gives them back their pick for 2026; rather than needing to fall in the Top 4. Mentally, it also lets the players see that "just getting in" doesn't work.

2025/2026 season - Joel misses the entire season from the knee surgery and long recovery (his words). PG either mises part or comes back plays better and we try to move him at deadline next year.

Team fires Nurse and brings in a younger coach to install a new culture and team identity focused around Maxey/McCain/Rookie. The goal being to quasi-tank. End in the upper lottery while the coach is given time to fix habits and install his system.

They aren't that meticulous. It's occam's razor. They're delusional enough to think they can win(spending a lot of money in the summer will do that, it's hard pill to swallow to admit that plan failed already) and Embiid and PG want to be on the court.

I think it's as simple as that. An organization that has done everything wrong is simply continuing to do everything wrong as per usual.

[mjkvol]

Paul George signed here because nobody else was going to give him max dollars. He clearly doesn't want to be "the guy" anymore. He doesn't even want to be a second option. George still teases us with an extra gear every now and then, but the guy is coasting and probably only giving about 50% out there. He makes the Al Horford signing look like a genius move. He is a by far worse addition to this team than Elton Brand was when we added him years ago. Daryl Morey should be fired for this. Paul George is only going to help us when the players around him are winning games for us. It's just a terrible fit. He doesn't care at all about winning. That alone has been evident since his short run in OKC.

This was precisely the reason I screamed from the hilltops not to sign this ingrate since last season when it was clear Morey was going the 'cap space' route. It's not rocket science - no one was giving him anything close to max money and max years. Hell, even Ballmer, who burns cash like it's toilet paper and was opening a new arena, told him to take a hike.

It still blows my mind that we could live through five years of Tobias and turn around and jump right back in with an aging version that has become pretty much the same player but doesn't give a schiit - and didn't want to be here! And then double down with the incredibly reckless Embiid extension. It's almost surreal, and yet it was entirely predictable.

[sixers hoops]

Need to catch Toronto to allow at least one team behind us jumping up. Sitting right at #6 is scary AF.

I have the odds of keeping a top 6 protected pick as:
Worst team: 100%
2nd worst team: 100%
3rd worst team: 93%
4th worst team: 80%
5th worst team: 63.9%
6th worst team: 45.8%
7th worst team: 32%
8th worst team: 26.3%

Significant odds improvement from 6th to 5th worst. 4th worst would be comfortable but not very realistic.

The problem is, Embiid’s knee inflammation goes down every few days off and he shows up and wins us a game. If he needs surgery, get it now and sit for a year.

[sixers hoops]

Man if we coud catch the craptors in the stands it would be massive, but we have 3 more wins... i dont think they will win another game sadly... that win streak we had was dumb...

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We still play them 2 more times

And the Raptors are 3-7 in their last 10, while we are 1-9. They might have a little more fight.

Brandon Ingram seems like he could play for them this season, but probably wouldn’t be significant at this point. After a long layoff and a new team, it probably would be a big boost to their team.

[sodmoraes]

Man if we coud catch the craptors in the stands it would be massive, but we have 3 more wins... i dont think they will win another game sadly... that win streak we had was dumb...

Sent from my SM-G780G using RealGM mobile app

We still play them 2 more times

In this games both teams will be like:

Watch on YouTube

[JordanMars]

Need to catch Toronto to allow at least one team behind us jumping up. Sitting right at #6 is scary AF.

I have the odds of keeping a top 6 protected pick as:
Worst team: 100%
2nd worst team: 100%
3rd worst team: 93%
4th worst team: 80%
5th worst team: 63.9%
6th worst team: 45.8%
7th worst team: 32%
8th worst team: 26.3%

Significant odds improvement from 6th to 5th worst. 4th worst would be comfortable but not very realistic.

The problem is, Embiid’s knee inflammation goes down every few days off and he shows up and wins us a game. If he needs surgery, get it now and sit for a year.

The team has a way better chance of winning right now WITHOUT Joel.

[sixers hoops]

Need to catch Toronto to allow at least one team behind us jumping up. Sitting right at #6 is scary AF.

I have the odds of keeping a top 6 protected pick as:
Worst team: 100%
2nd worst team: 100%
3rd worst team: 93%
4th worst team: 80%
5th worst team: 63.9%
6th worst team: 45.8%
7th worst team: 32%
8th worst team: 26.3%

Significant odds improvement from 6th to 5th worst. 4th worst would be comfortable but not very realistic.

The problem is, Embiid’s knee inflammation goes down every few days off and he shows up and wins us a game. If he needs surgery, get it now and sit for a year.

The team has a way better chance of winning right now WITHOUT Joel.

Right now he is really struggling, but on the season, we are 8-11 with Joel. He has been a minus in most of the recent stretch, and our defense has been a nightmare. However, I think that playing Drummond has to lead to more losses than Embiid, even severely hobbled.

[JordanMars]

I have the odds of keeping a top 6 protected pick as:
Worst team: 100%
2nd worst team: 100%
3rd worst team: 93%
4th worst team: 80%
5th worst team: 63.9%
6th worst team: 45.8%
7th worst team: 32%
8th worst team: 26.3%

Significant odds improvement from 6th to 5th worst. 4th worst would be comfortable but not very realistic.

The problem is, Embiid’s knee inflammation goes down every few days off and he shows up and wins us a game. If he needs surgery, get it now and sit for a year.

The team has a way better chance of winning right now WITHOUT Joel.

Right now he is really struggling, but on the season, we are 8-11 with Joel. He has been a minus in most of the recent stretch, and our defense has been a nightmare. However, I think that playing Drummond has to lead to more losses than Embiid, even severely hobbled.

i think it would be more so yabu as the small ball 5

[sixers hoops]

Also, on the tank watch:
-The Sixers owe a first to Brooklyn in 2027 or 2028.
-If the Sixers keep their pick this year and next year, it is top 4 protected in 2027.
-If the pick conveys in 2027, I would assume they wouldn’t be able to convey a pick to Brooklyn in 2028.
-My understanding is that if we don’t convey a pick to Brooklyn by 2028, then we just give them our 2028 second round pick.

If I am reading it correctly, if we keep our pick this year and next, although not likely, then we won’t be losing picks to both OKC and Brooklyn. It would become one or the other.

[Slacktard]

It would just be the "chef's kiss" perfect ending to this season and era of Sixers basketball to finish 6th worst. See San Antonio without Wemby finish like 7th or 8th and win a top-3 spot to add to Wemby for next season while a GM that was allowed to tank without the NBA commissioner getting involved gets the 7th pick to add or use in a trade to improve an already very talented young roster achieved through that tanking and asset piling.

[Black Mage]

For the doom and gloomers going forward; I think you underestimate the importance of a competent center. Right now we don't have a single competent/healthy center on the team. It hurts team defense cohesion. Defensive rebound gets hurt. It's a snowball effect; having no viable center causes all of the many small ways the center position impacts a team defensively to stack up leading to your team defense being chaos and looking worse than the sum of its parts.

No matter what happens with Joel; this team should be hunting for a starting caliber center. There's a couple older centers coming out of college that may slip to the early 2nd.

[Black Mage]

Also, on the tank watch:
-The Sixers owe a first to Brooklyn in 2027 or 2028.
-If the Sixers keep their pick this year and next year, it is top 4 protected in 2027.
-If the pick conveys in 2027, I would assume they wouldn’t be able to convey a pick to Brooklyn in 2028.
-My understanding is that if we don’t convey a pick to Brooklyn by 2028, then we just give them our 2028 second round pick.

If I am reading it correctly, if we keep our pick this year and next, although not likely, then we won’t be losing picks to both OKC and Brooklyn. It would become one or the other.

I believe having another team's pick would allow us to trade a pick the following year. Since we own the Clippers 2028 pick, we would have to relinquish our 2028 pick to the Nets.