Celtics @ Sixers 7 pm ET

[Embiid P]

IMO the "lost years" came immediately in the years after we traded A.I. The goal then should have been to rebuild, yet it was a half-assed rebuild, management deluded themselves into thinking they could compete, and as a result they made a number of bad free agent signings, trades and draft picks which set us back even longer. Had we done what we were supposed to then, we probably wouldn't even be having this conversation right now but instead possibly competing for a title. But alas, here we are.

Ed Snider. What you wrote is the reason the Flyers are the way they are too.

That's true. I'm not a big Flyers fan or hockey fan in general, but I'm hoping that Snider and Hextall are adopting a more analytical approach to building their team for their fans sake.

[Sixerscan]

Does that answer scare you a little? This is a guy who spent over a decade on on of the greatest coaching staffs in NBA history. Even though this is only his second season as an NBA head coach, the guy has a ton of coaching experience from his days in Australia.

When a team is as devoid of talent as the Sixers are, how do you forget a guy with the relative toolbox that KJ has on your bench? And it is not just tonight...forget that he is not in the starting lineup now that MCW is back, they guy is only averaging one more MPG than Brandon Freaking Davies...

Does that make any sense to you?

I already said I am not sure whether or not he's a good coach for when the main goal transitions to winning games. Anyone who thinks a non-HOF coach is a permanent fixture on a team is delusional.

That being said, McDaniels entered tonight playing more minutes than all but 4 people in his draft class. Can we stop acting like he's been tied to the bench? Also Davies plays a different position than him so I don't get the comparison. Do you want Brown to make McDaniels the backup center? If there's someone he should be playing over its Covington and Thompson.

Fine with me. He SHOULD be playing over those guys.

To be fair, I am totally turned off by what Hinkie did to this roster - he went "full (Please Use More Appropriate Word)" - and so I have watched a grand total of one-half of ONE game this season (the 2nd half of the Houston game). I pray that no one gets hurt, and I will check back in at the lottery.

Seems reasonable. Tough to get judge anyone that doesn't want to watch what is going on right now, it ain't pretty

[MRxBLACK]

That's true. I'm not a big Flyers fan or hockey fan in general, but I'm hoping that Snider and Hextall are adopting a more analytical approach to building their team for their fans sake.

Thankfully they are. Hextall is bringing more modern day / analytic thinking to the team. After he cleans up the mess Holmgren left, we'll see how he builds the team back up. Hopefully Snider stays off his back too.

[Embiid P]

That's true. I'm not a big Flyers fan or hockey fan in general, but I'm hoping that Snider and Hextall are adopting a more analytical approach to building their team for their fans sake.

Thankfully they are. Hextall is bringing more modern day / analytic thinking to the team. After he cleans up the mess Holmgren left, we'll see how he builds the team back up. Hopefully Snider stays off his back too.

That's good. Now all that's left is for the Phillies to join the other three teams in the 21st century. Of course that's wishful thinking with Montgomery and Amaro calling the shots.

[bedjawII]

So this is where I'm a bit torn. On one hand nothing would be sweeter than to get our first victory of the season against our most hated rivals, but on the other hand, it would also be great to subject them to eternal mediocrity like we were for so many years before Hinkie. Decisions decisions.

What the hell? Beat the C's and let them beat up on other teams to stay mediocre.

You make it sound like you believe Hinkie has puled us out of mediocrity or at least has the ship pointed in that direction. Let's be clear Hinkie hasn't done a thing except take a mediocre team and make it abysmal. You can't possibly watch this team play these past 8 games and point to any one tangible thing that says this franchise is headed in the right direction. We are all going on hope and faith at this point.

[Embiid P]

So this is where I'm a bit torn. On one hand nothing would be sweeter than to get our first victory of the season against our most hated rivals, but on the other hand, it would also be great to subject them to eternal mediocrity like we were for so many years before Hinkie. Decisions decisions.

What the hell? Beat the C's and let them beat up on other teams to stay mediocre.

You make it sound like you believe Hinkie has puled us out of mediocrity or at least has the ship pointed in that direction. Let's be clear Hinkie hasn't done a thing except take a mediocre team and make it abysmal. You can't possibly watch this team play these past 8 games and point to any one tangible thing that says this franchise is headed in the right direction. We are all going on hope and faith at this point.

Nothing at all? Noel has shown flashes of becoming an elite defender a la the first game against Houston when he had six steals. He didn't look all that bad on defense tonight either. He's still young at only 20 so of course he's going to struggle a lot against more physical NBA bigs. As far as his offensive game is concerned, he's struggled but let's face it, nobody was expecting him to set the league on fire from that end of the floor when we drafted him.

How about KJ McDaniels who although only a second round-pick is looking like a steal and perhaps an early candidate for ROY?

Or even Brandon Davies who despite being the subject of much ridicule on this board has managed to improve his outside shot from last year.

I can point to all of those things as signs that we are heading in the right direction. But yes, Hinkie has shown that he can tear a team down. The hard part is building it back up. With that said, until he has proven without a doubt that his plan has failed, I will continue to support it.

[Mik317]

Hollis needs to sit tho

He is dying out there

[marcush]

I think the only thing that could possibly lower the perception of the Sixers right now is if they fired the coach.

He is not perfect, sure it would be nice to see KJ more but that should come.

The results are exactly as a impartial person would expect with this roster. BB got reasonable results with Hawes, Thad and Turner last year who are all pretty much reserves.

This is all on Harris. He needs to get Hinkie to bring in some short term reinforcements to ease the load especially offensively. Not fire the coach but maybe just support the guy a little bit. I guess the thing is whether he actually wants to spend the money which I doubt he does.

[BoomBap]

brett should start our most talented players. MCW-Wroten-KJ-Noel and yeah Sims and let them play 35+ minutes. Then we could at least see our young guns getting a lot of playing time, while losing. we be way more fun.

shved can lead the 2nd squad when he is healthy.

[AJ Valliant]

Btw, I really miss Kate Fagan from the Sixers beat. She was the only writer in recent memory who saw the big picture but also called out BS when she saw it. The current crop pretty much repeats common wisdom ad nauseum.

She has been great on Around The Horn. Bright young woman.

[WVU]

Was at the game last night. Thought for sure we'd be getting our first W

We started off great but as soon as Davies was put in.. holy **** That guy really cost us this game. He did NOTHING positive in this game and I'm so fed up Brett Brown let him play that long. We needed KJ out there more as most of you have said.

We will get a win soon Hopefully they heard Bledsoe say the 76ers would get crushed by Kentucky and we take it to PHX

[WorldBeFree]

Was at the game last night. Thought for sure we'd be getting our first W

We started off great but as soon as Davies was put in.. holy **** That guy really cost us this game. He did NOTHING positive in this game and I'm so fed up Brett Brown let him play that long. We needed KJ out there more as most of you have said.

We will get a win soon Hopefully they heard Bledsoe say the 76ers would get crushed by Kentucky and we take it to PHX

If we win vs Suns, i forgive everything! I just want to beat bledsoe, hold to like 4 points and something like 4 to would be amazing. And then all the fukin sixers fans should tweet him.

Sent from my D2303 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[FreesFro]

Boston's two power forwards combined for 45 points tonight....isn't that the position Nerlens Noel played most of the night?

He was a terrible matchup for them and didn't have his typical defensive impact, but Brandon Davies was the one getting abused most of the time Bass was out there at least.

I didn't see tonights game, I actually haven't watched the last couple, but what is his "typical defensive impact'? Dude has been **** garbage all year save for 1 or 2 games. He is not intimidating anybody, the lane doesn't become some no fly zone when he is there. People need to stop with the over the top hype.

There are defensive metric numbers that disagree with 100% of what you just said.

[FreesFro]

I don't see anyone crying about the tanking or the plan
I see people understand reality
and the reality after a 26 losing streak last year and maybe similar streak to start the season this year some people(including me) think it is too much and might get people fired

what is so outrageous about that?

But seriously why are people complaining about a season that we knew was a lost cause since draft night? In the end is there really that much of a difference between a 5 win team and a 20 win team? No, a bad team is still a bad team. I get the whole wanting to win from a player's standpoint to boost morale, but as fans, we all should have known what we were getting into months before the season started.

Right on. Remember last year when we were 5-4 or whatever and people on here were complaining we were winning too much and ruining the tank and our chance for Wiggins? Good times.

[steveb21]

Bledsoe is right. This team as constructed wouldn't beat Kentucky.

How many (future) lottery picks are on UK's roster? How many lottery picks on ours? Noel and MCW. McDaniels should've been a 1st rounder (lucky for us) but the rest of our team is filled with scrubs. Next year with Embiid and maybe Saric would be a different story but right now UK would crush us.

[FreesFro]

So this is where I'm a bit torn. On one hand nothing would be sweeter than to get our first victory of the season against our most hated rivals, but on the other hand, it would also be great to subject them to eternal mediocrity like we were for so many years before Hinkie. Decisions decisions.

What the hell? Beat the C's and let them beat up on other teams to stay mediocre.

You make it sound like you believe Hinkie has puled us out of mediocrity or at least has the ship pointed in that direction. Let's be clear Hinkie hasn't done a thing except take a mediocre team and make it abysmal. You can't possibly watch this team play these past 8 games and point to any one tangible thing that says this franchise is headed in the right direction. We are all going on hope and faith at this point.

What are you talking about? Did you expect us to be a decent team this year? Believe it or not this is the plan. 5 wins, 10 wins or 20 wins? Who cares?

How exactly does one pull an NBA team out of mediocrity? And how long does it take? Does it only take one season, which is all Hinkie has had? I mean come on. Be realistic here. This takes time and I know you know that. So where is the irrationality coming from?

To "pull us out of mediocrity " Hinkie has acquired assets since he's come here. Noel, Embiid, MCW, Wroten, McDaniels, Saric, a high lottery pick in 2015, another first rounder in 2015, major cap space, etc.

You don't go from a terrible NBA team and franchise to a mediocre team overnight. And who wants to be mediocre in the NBA? You? We were stuck there far too long with Iguodala, Thad, etc. Time to move on and rebuild. Again patience is the key. I feel like a broken record (a record is what we used to listen to music on before 8 tracks, tapes, CD's, iPods, phones and they would sometimes skip and repeat a part of a song over and over and over until you moved the needle. Oh forget it).

[FreesFro]

Bledsoe is right. This team as constructed wouldn't beat Kentucky.

How many (future) lottery picks are on UK's roster? How many lottery picks on ours? Noel and MCW. McDaniels should've been a 1st rounder (lucky for us) but the rest of our team is filled with scrubs. Next year with Embiid and maybe Saric would be a different story but right now UK would crush us.

Crush us? What a joke.

[Eyeamok]

"These are the times that try men's souls.

With a rag tag group of players last year. We ended up with a record that was close but was not the worse in the NBA, Only one of the veterans that was a part of our core last year, Thad, is a starter on another team this year. Turner, who previous management made the #2 pick overall, only played 15 minutes against this winless team, and contributed 2 points. That should give you some indication as to what the level of talent was on this team last year. Spenser Hawes is ripping it up as a reserve...but as a reserve. Bret Brown got an amazing amount of mileage out of basically reserves and a rookie point guard last year.

Take away your veterans reserves and this is what you get. Yeah there was a lot of hope and promise at the start of the season but it was all speculation and want. When you gut what talent you have, this is what you get.

Eventually this team will get better. There is too much talent in the pipeline and too much cash on hand not to get better. But this is the growth period the hard part.

It's just like children. You will always hear parents complain about the terrible Two's. How two years old's are the worse. Well my friends we are gong through the terrible two's with this team. Live it embrace it and learn to love it!

[Lapinski]

He was a terrible matchup for them and didn't have his typical defensive impact, but Brandon Davies was the one getting abused most of the time Bass was out there at least.

I didn't see tonights game, I actually haven't watched the last couple, but what is his "typical defensive impact'? Dude has been **** garbage all year save for 1 or 2 games. He is not intimidating anybody, the lane doesn't become some no fly zone when he is there. People need to stop with the over the top hype.

There are defensive metric numbers that disagree with 100% of what you just said.

Metrics don't show that he was in the right place or not during a defensive series. He got lit up tonight, not at the rim but he was leaving people open all night for jumpers. He also doesn't commit and lays back on some defensive sequences, giving up a jumper.

At Kentucky his role was to run to the front of the rim and stay there. In the NBA the defensive 3 second rule negates that strategy.

[mksp]

Our top-5 players (MCW / Wroten / McDaniels / Noel / Sims) can compete with the top-5 of probably 10 other teams. The problem is zero bench, especially with regard to bigs. Davies and Drew Gordon should not be playing in the NBA, period. Thompson has regressed.

Last night was hard to watch. MCW still hasn't really gotten it going, though its hard to judge him too harshly considering the team around him.