Embiid Updates/Discussion

Post #381 » by **dbodner** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:51 pm

Some thoughts for PhillyMag on whether I think this changes the Sixers draft strategy

(Hint: I don't think it does)

Post #382 » by **BullyKing** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:53 pm

dbodner wrote:Some thoughts for PhillyMag on whether I think this changes the Sixers draft strategy

(Hint: I don't think it does)

Have you heard anything at all about what the actual issue is with Joel? This is killing us.

Post #383 » by **BullyKing** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:56 pm

By the way, its great that you are writing for PhillyMag. Having you replicate Birds 24/7 for the Sixers would be tremendous.

Tony Franciosa · Post #384 » by **Tony Franciosa** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:57 pm

Not really worried that much. I'm not going to lose sleep if he misses summer league. The start of the season is still 5 months from now... lots can change (for better or worse) between now and then. Our future still rules.

Ericb5 · Post #385 » by **Ericb5** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:00 pm

I have said many times that if Embiid can stay healthy that we are golden, and if he can't we are screwed.

I shouldn't say that we are screwed simply because we DO have all of the other assets that we still have, but it IS true that we are basically nowhere in the rebuild simply because we won't have a star yet.

Rebuilds end when the first star is found.

Without Embiid we are no better off than any number of other bottom feeding teams like the Twolves, Magic, Bucks, etc...

Embiid is our difference maker.

Post #386 » by **dbodner** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:00 pm

BullyKing wrote:By the way, its great that you are writing for PhillyMag. Having you replicate Birds 24/7 for the Sixers would be tremendous.

Only a 2 week thing, but I'm looking forward to it.

Post #387 » by **dbodner** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:01 pm

BullyKing wrote:
dbodner wrote:Some thoughts for PhillyMag on whether I think this changes the Sixers draft strategy

(Hint: I don't think it does)

Have you heard anything at all about what the actual issue is with Joel? This is killing us.

Pretty much in the same boat you are. I've heard speculation around the league, and from other doctors, but nothing from any of the sources actually privy to what's going on.

Post #388 » by **BullyKing** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:02 pm

dbodner wrote:
BullyKing wrote:By the way, its great that you are writing for PhillyMag. Having you replicate Birds 24/7 for the Sixers would be tremendous.

Only a 2 week thing, but I'm looking forward to it.

Well hopefully it turns into a longer engagement. Let's all do our part here by clicking the link to get the page views up.

Post #389 » by **Sixerscan** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:08 pm

BullyKing wrote:
dbodner wrote:
BullyKing wrote:By the way, its great that you are writing for PhillyMag. Having you replicate Birds 24/7 for the Sixers would be tremendous.

Only a 2 week thing, but I'm looking forward to it.

Well hopefully it turns into a longer engagement. Let's all do our part here by clicking the link to get the page views up.

Yep. For everyone that complains about Sixers coverage in this town, driving up the page views of Derek's articles (and people like him) are the most effective ways to change it.

Post #390 » by **tk76** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:12 pm

dbodner wrote:Some thoughts for PhillyMag on whether I think this changes the Sixers draft strategy

(Hint: I don't think it does)

Here's hoping this turns into a permanent fixture at Phillymag beyond this runup to the draft.

Post #391 » by **dbodner** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:12 pm

Honestly don't think it matters. There's just not enough interest in the city for the other 50 weeks out of the year. I appreciate the sentiments, though.

Skates · Post #392 » by **Skates** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:17 pm

Sixerscan wrote:
BullyKing wrote:
dbodner wrote:
Only a 2 week thing, but I'm looking forward to it.

Well hopefully it turns into a longer engagement. Let's all do our part here by clicking the link to get the page views up.

Yep. For everyone that complains about Sixers coverage in this town, driving up the page views of Derek's articles (and people like him) are the most effective ways to change it.

Did exactly that and agree with D-Bods almost to the word. Nice work, Derek, and here is hoping you get plenty more of it!!

JoelNoel · Post #393 » by **JoelNoel** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:17 pm

dbodner wrote:Some thoughts for PhillyMag on whether I think this changes the Sixers draft strategy

(Hint: I don't think it does)

Great article. After this weekends new, I think my top 3 has now changed to from Towns/Russell/Okafor to Towns/Okafor/Russell.

theo42 · Post #394 » by **theo42** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:33 pm

dbodner wrote:Some thoughts for PhillyMag on whether I think this changes the Sixers draft strategy

(Hint: I don't think it does)

Good stuff dbodner!

JRSG · Post #395 » by **JRSG** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:49 pm

A big thing about Embiid missing more potential game times (ignoring any chance of the injury recurring again and again) is that it's eating into our time to develop a core on their rookie deals. Ideally by the end of rookie deals we'd know who was going to be the foundation to build our title challenge on. Saric and Embiid's absence plus Nerlens playing with a bunch of short term plug ins doesn't allow us to build this base that I think is vital and that's a shame.

I'm very undecided on if this impacts or should impact our draft plan this summer or not.

Ericb5 · Post #396 » by **Ericb5** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:27 pm

You have to love the modern media.

The actual information out there is that the Sixers don't know what the impact of this latest medical development is, but it is being reported all over the place as "Embiid could miss the entire year"

They take something that is unknown, and then report the worst case scenario as a possibility, and use that as the headline. Say it enough times and people start to believe that the Sixers or Embiid's doctor has stated that he could miss the year.

The actual news was what Woj said and what the Sixers themselves said in the press release. Those two statements are the basis of all other reporting on the issue with a healthy dose of pure speculation thrown in.

I'm nervous as hell about this already, and it does't help that there are a ton of misleading stories out there quickly becoming the public perception of the situation. This is going to continue until more information comes out from the team or the doctors that have seen the scans. I doubt that any new real information comes out before the draft now unless it is devastating. There is no reason to come out with positive information until after the draft because the fog of war is actually useful to hide the Sixers interntions.

What should be a very enjoyable and exciting time is instead going to be anxious torture for us.

Mr Sixer · Post #397 » by **Mr Sixer** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:28 pm

Embiid maybe missing next season is the biggest bogus report ever. Don't go on the GB and complain about it, and don't let posters get you worked up over this nonsense.

All we know is the following: Embiid's foot injury has not healed up to this point as well as we have anticipated.

Everyone hold your horses until we get some more legit news.

Post #398 » by **CoreyGallagher** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:29 pm

I wonder what it's like to hide behind anonymity, say anything without authentication, and it be taken as fact.

Also, this is totally Billy King.

Skates · Post #399 » by **Skates** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:37 pm

CoreyGallagher wrote:I wonder what it's like to hide behind anonymity, say anything without authentication, and it be taken as fact.

Also, this is totally Billy King.

I actually came back to this thread since the more and more I thought about that anonymous quote, the more it screamed BK to me, you beat me to posting it, CG.

The truth is that we don't know what we don't know and neither does anyone else.

roma258 · Post #400 » by **roma258** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:46 pm

Sixerscan wrote:
roma258 wrote:
Sixerscan wrote:
He's a big part of the end result being a good one. The decision to pick him was right regardless (Unless they ignored some obvious aspect of his foot injury). Process is about decisions not results.

I guess he's important for the process, in that him succeeding vindicates the process in the eyes of people that only care about results.

I'm not sure I really understand this logic. At some point, outcome and results have to matter. Now there can be a debate on when that point is, but if we're 5 years down the road with nothing to show for it, than the process obviously failed. The assumption your making is that the process and decisions are inherently the right course of action, but I don't know of any job that's out there where you don't have to actually validate those decisions....eventually.

Outcomes and results do matter. It's just a separate question from which process you take to get there. I'm not using "process" as a code word for "Whatever Sam Hinkie wants to do is right" I'm saying it in terms of evaluating their decisions based on information that I have. If their decision making was good, then their process was good.

IMO, the decision to take Joel Embiid was the right one in June 2014. Unless you are telling me that he had some degenerate condition in his foot that the Sixers missed (And not just saying "Oh Yao had a similar injury so obviously Embiid was screwed") I'm not really seeing how my mind can be changed about that. We didn't take Embiid over Wiggins or Parker, we took him over Dante Exum and Julius Randle.

I think the problem is that people have a hard time putting themselves in the past. Embiid's recovery from injury was a variable. If Hinkie had 10 doctors tell him that there was an 90% chance that he would make a full recovery, can you blame the guy for pulling the trigger?

Luck is a big factor in all of this. If the reason that we don't succeed is entirely because of stuff like what could happen here, weighted coin flips that go the wrong way, I'm not really seeing how that's anyone's fault. Bad stuff just happens sometimes. And yes, we live in the real world where people get blamed for bad luck stuff happening all the time. It doesn't make it right.

Of course, the law of averages says that enough good decisions should result in a positive result eventually. So if they've really not done anything over that long of a period of time, odds are they've made some bad decisions. But they haven't made any major bad decisions yet.

That's fine and I'm not re-litigating the decision to draft Embiid. And I don't want to come off as a hypocrite, since I've supported the tank and rebuild approach (with some caveats). I guess where I'm starting to question the process is the notion that we must consistently swing for the fences to order to score that elusive, game changing superstar. So far we've seen two pretty big swings that look like misses (Embiid can still work out obviously, but taking things as they currently stand).

To continue the baseball analogy, it'd be nice to see them swing for contact a few times. Start building a rally instead of constantly going for the home run. So that's what I mean by results have to matter at some point. We're two years in, some things have worked out, some haven't and a good strategy depends on adjusting to the reality on the ground.