Around The NBA: 2019-20 RESTART

[MrFortune3]

It was painfully obvious the Sixers got worse in the offseason.

I don't know why so many on the GB were so high on them.

I'll be bold and predict they lose in the 1st round in the playoffs.

Their core is still intact with Embiid, Simmons and Harris. You add a pro in Horford who should also help the locker room. Most fans assumed that Butler moving on would help the team gel and Richardson wasn't a bad consolation prize.

[RSP83]

It was painfully obvious the Sixers got worse in the offseason.

I don't know why so many on the GB were so high on them.

I'll be bold and predict they lose in the 1st round in the playoffs.

Their core is still intact with Embiid, Simmons and Harris. You add a pro in Horford who should also help the locker room. Most fans assumed that Butler moving on would help the team gel and Richardson wasn't a bad consolation prize.

Yeah, I haven't seen anything that lead me to believe that Sixers is better than last year. But I'm not going to sleep on Horford, come playoff time that's when he's usually coming up big.

Raptors, what they've been doing this season have been admirable. But it's a fair assessment that they won't have enough in the playoff.

Bucks is the favorite, then the Celtics. Heat is looking like a team that is capable of upsetting either Bucks or Celtics. Celtics IMO is back to playing like 2 years ago when they went to ECF without Kyrie. Kemba > Kyrie or Rozier for this team. I'm curious about what Heat is going to do before deadline, Pat Riley IMO has his eyes set on either Love or CP3 (or both?).

[PrimzyBulls81]

OKC vs Dallas was a fun one. CLUTCH performance by CP3. When healthy, he can still give your team a lot. Hearing him talk in the postgame interview, it seems like he's a great leader for that squad.

I think he likes playing there bcs of less pressure and smaller expectations.

[RSP83]

OKC vs Dallas was a fun one. CLUTCH performance by CP3. When healthy, he can still give your team a lot. Hearing him talk in the postgame interview, it seems like he's a great leader for that squad.

I think he likes playing there bcs of less pressure and smaller expectations.

He had a chance to still play for a championship contender. But he chose to get paid, not a bad decision, no brainer financial decision. But he also could've take a paycut to make it easier for him when he wants to push for a trade elsewhere. I would love to see CP at least make it to the final once and have a chance to win a ring.

[johnnyvann840]

It was painfully obvious the Sixers got worse in the offseason.

I don't know why so many on the GB were so high on them.

I'll be bold and predict they lose in the 1st round in the playoffs.

People just continue to undervalue the impact of Jimmy Butler. No surprise to me that Miami is where they are at and that the Sixers got worse. Those same people who thought Philly would be better are the ones who discounted the Heat.

[johnnyvann840]

KAT has possibly the worst body language in the league towards his teammates. He may be talented (Allstar but not superstar in my opinion) but man I would hate to play alongside him, he's a big baby

There was a clip of Teague dribbling up top and then driving past his defender while Towns stood at the 3 point line having a hissy fit because Teague didn't give him the ball, I couldn't find it but he has reactions like that all the time. As a fan and someone who played basketball for many years including a few seasons alongside a guy like that, there are few things worse than a teammate like that

Agree. Easily one of my least favorite players in the league. Cannot stand him. I did like when he shoved Embiid though.

[Ice Man]

Their core is still intact with Embiid, Simmons and Harris. You add a pro in Horford who should also help the locker room. Most fans assumed that Butler moving on would help the team gel and Richardson wasn't a bad consolation prize.

I don't think any observant, neutral fan thought that Butler moving on would be helpful to the team. Minnesota and Chicago fans with grudges, sure. But not others. Certainly the Philly board wasn't happy about the move. By year end it was pretty clear that the "Butler causing commotion" stories were gossip journalism, and that Jimmy got along fine with Ben and better yet with Joel.

That said, I don't think Butler leaving hurt Philly that much. It's always a struggle to get a team with Embiid and Simmons to be the sum of its parts, because those guys get in each other's way. Also, they both don't fuss much about regular-season records, so unlike say the Bucks the Sixers will just not show up some nights.

I wouldn't want to play Philly in the playoffs. I don't think they're the East favorites, but to me they're still a clear second.

[ArtMorte]

It was painfully obvious the Sixers got worse in the offseason.

I don't know why so many on the GB were so high on them.

I'll be bold and predict they lose in the 1st round in the playoffs.

People just continue to undervalue the impact of Jimmy Butler. No surprise to me that Miami is where they are at and that the Sixers got worse. Those same people who thought Philly would be better are the ones who discounted the Heat.

Butler wasn't anything special for Philly in the regular season, though. He took a backseat and then stepped it up in the playoffs where he was probably their best player. I wouldn't put Philly's current regular season struggles down to not having Butler. To me their mediocre performances are down to three things: 1. Not enough scoring from the bench. 2. Even their best scorer, Embiid, isn't really a player who can take over a game when needed. 3. Nothing suggests that Brett Brown is a good coach.

[Leslie Forman]

Philly's roster is just built like a pile of mismatched, overpriced trash. Giving Harris a full max is one of the dumbest no hindsight moves I've ever seen. Ben Simmons is still the worst shooter in the league, and also on a max. The Horford contract was absolutely idiotic. And they didn't ever bother to offer the max to the only guy on the whole damn team that could both dribble and shoot.

Elton Brand has been a disaster of a GM.

[johnnyvann840]

It was painfully obvious the Sixers got worse in the offseason.

I don't know why so many on the GB were so high on them.

I'll be bold and predict they lose in the 1st round in the playoffs.

People just continue to undervalue the impact of Jimmy Butler. No surprise to me that Miami is where they are at and that the Sixers got worse. Those same people who thought Philly would be better are the ones who discounted the Heat.

Butler wasn't anything special for Philly in the regular season, though. He took a backseat and then stepped it up in the playoffs where he was probably their best player. I wouldn't put Philly's current regular season struggles down to not having Butler. To me their mediocre performances are down to three things: 1. Not enough scoring from the bench. 2. Even their best scorer, Embiid, isn't really a player who can take over a game when needed. 3. Nothing suggests that Brett Brown is a good coach.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. You do realize that when Butler was on the bench for Philly last year, they actually had a negative pt diff. Jimmy was a net +6.3 per 100. Sure, he stepped it up in the playoffs, but without Jimmy Butler last season the Sixers were barely a playoff team. They were basically the Detroit Pistons in point differential.

He had an even bigger impact on the Wolves when he was there and a similar impact on the Bulls. Simply put, Jimmy is one of the highest positive impact players in the NBA and has been for the last half a decade.

[RedBulls23]

It was painfully obvious the Sixers got worse in the offseason.

I don't know why so many on the GB were so high on them.

I'll be bold and predict they lose in the 1st round in the playoffs.

People just continue to undervalue the impact of Jimmy Butler. No surprise to me that Miami is where they are at and that the Sixers got worse. Those same people who thought Philly would be better are the ones who discounted the Heat.

There were people actually arguing that there Jimmy wasn't that much better than Josh Richardson. Let's forget the fact that Jimmy was their closer and arguably best player in the playoffs.

[RedBulls23]

I might have to eat crow on Michael Poeter Jr. He's looked good the last 2 games. Thought the back injury/surgery stuff would be a problem.

[johnnyvann840]

I might have to eat crow on Michael Poeter Jr. He's looked good the last 2 games. Thought the back injury/surgery stuff would be a problem.

I don't think so. He had one good outing against Sac the other night and he did look good. But that was the only time this season he has looked decent that wasn't in garbage time..... He played 10 minutes last night and the Nuggets were -13 with him out there. He's played mostly garbage time minutes this season. I don't think he's going to be able to stay on the floor even if he does get his chance.

And the back injury/surgery stuff is still a problem. He's played 230 NBA minutes and he's almost half way through his 2nd season. If he was able to contribute every night, believe me, Malone would be playing him more. There is a reason why he barely sees the floor.

[johnnyvann840]

Their core is still intact with Embiid, Simmons and Harris. You add a pro in Horford who should also help the locker room. Most fans assumed that Butler moving on would help the team gel and Richardson wasn't a bad consolation prize.

I don't think any observant, neutral fan thought that Butler moving on would be helpful to the team. Minnesota and Chicago fans with grudges, sure. But not others. Certainly the Philly board wasn't happy about the move. By year end it was pretty clear that the "Butler causing commotion" stories were gossip journalism, and that Jimmy got along fine with Ben and better yet with Joel.

That said, I don't think Butler leaving hurt Philly that much. It's always a struggle to get a team with Embiid and Simmons to be the sum of its parts, because those guys get in each other's way. Also, they both don't fuss much about regular-season records, so unlike say the Bucks the Sixers will just not show up some nights.

I wouldn't want to play Philly in the playoffs. I don't think they're the East favorites, but to me they're still a clear second.

I think in the playoffs they will get exposed even more. No more Jimmy to take over games and Simmons still can't shoot. Defenses just sag off of him and dare him to shoot it. J Rich is no Jimmy Butler.

[kodo]

I might have to eat crow on Michael Poeter Jr. He's looked good the last 2 games. Thought the back injury/surgery stuff would be a problem.

I don't think so. He had one good outing against Sac the other night and he did look good. But that was the only time this season he has looked decent that wasn't in garbage time..... He played 10 minutes last night and the Nuggets were -13 with him out there. He's played mostly garbage time minutes this season. I don't think he's going to be able to stay on the floor even if he does get his chance.

And the back injury/surgery stuff is still a problem. He's played 230 NBA minutes and he's almost half way through his 2nd season. If he was able to contribute every night, believe me, Malone would be playing him more. There is a reason why he barely sees the floor.

I think he'll be fine initially, but as the NBA minutes start building up there's a real chance he falls into the Brandon Roy spiral. His first few seasons Roy made everyone think his injury issues were overblown as well.

[Chi town]

Their core is still intact with Embiid, Simmons and Harris. You add a pro in Horford who should also help the locker room. Most fans assumed that Butler moving on would help the team gel and Richardson wasn't a bad consolation prize.

I don't think any observant, neutral fan thought that Butler moving on would be helpful to the team. Minnesota and Chicago fans with grudges, sure. But not others. Certainly the Philly board wasn't happy about the move. By year end it was pretty clear that the "Butler causing commotion" stories were gossip journalism, and that Jimmy got along fine with Ben and better yet with Joel.

That said, I don't think Butler leaving hurt Philly that much. It's always a struggle to get a team with Embiid and Simmons to be the sum of its parts, because those guys get in each other's way. Also, they both don't fuss much about regular-season records, so unlike say the Bucks the Sixers will just not show up some nights.

I wouldn't want to play Philly in the playoffs. I don't think they're the East favorites, but to me they're still a clear second.

I think in the playoffs they will get exposed even more. No more Jimmy to take over games and Simmons still can't shoot. Defenses just sag off of him and dare him to shoot it. J Rich is no Jimmy Butler.

Me too. I see it as Bucks and Heat as the only teams that are serious about making it out of the East.

[Chi town]

I might have to eat crow on Michael Poeter Jr. He's looked good the last 2 games. Thought the back injury/surgery stuff would be a problem.

I don't think so. He had one good outing against Sac the other night and he did look good. But that was the only time this season he has looked decent that wasn't in garbage time..... He played 10 minutes last night and the Nuggets were -13 with him out there. He's played mostly garbage time minutes this season. I don't think he's going to be able to stay on the floor even if he does get his chance.

And the back injury/surgery stuff is still a problem. He's played 230 NBA minutes and he's almost half way through his 2nd season. If he was able to contribute every night, believe me, Malone would be playing him more. There is a reason why he barely sees the floor.

I think he'll be fine initially, but as the NBA minutes start building up there's a real chance he falls into the Brandon Roy spiral. His first few seasons Roy made everyone think his injury issues were overblown as well.

Yep. I don’t trust the back long term.

[Jcool0]

RIP

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[Ice Man]

Me too. I see it as Bucks and Heat as the only teams that are serious about making it out of the East.

The Heat are getting exposed recently. They're winning, by semi-miracles, but a team can only be so good starting two undrafted kid guards and Meyers "The Stiff" Leonard. In December, they lost to the Wizards once and had to rally late another game. They lost to Memphis. The Hawks took them to overtime. The Bulls took them to overtime. They had one easy win the entire month, and that was the Knicks.

They need to get another stud, otherwise they will be remembered for the 2020 season as being a fun, overachieving regular season team that didn't have enough elite horses to get the job done in the playoffs.

[dumbell78]

Their core is still intact with Embiid, Simmons and Harris. You add a pro in Horford who should also help the locker room. Most fans assumed that Butler moving on would help the team gel and Richardson wasn't a bad consolation prize.

I don't think any observant, neutral fan thought that Butler moving on would be helpful to the team. Minnesota and Chicago fans with grudges, sure. But not others. Certainly the Philly board wasn't happy about the move. By year end it was pretty clear that the "Butler causing commotion" stories were gossip journalism, and that Jimmy got along fine with Ben and better yet with Joel.

That said, I don't think Butler leaving hurt Philly that much. It's always a struggle to get a team with Embiid and Simmons to be the sum of its parts, because those guys get in each other's way. Also, they both don't fuss much about regular-season records, so unlike say the Bucks the Sixers will just not show up some nights.

I wouldn't want to play Philly in the playoffs. I don't think they're the East favorites, but to me they're still a clear second.

I think in the playoffs they will get exposed even more. No more Jimmy to take over games and Simmons still can't shoot. Defenses just sag off of him and dare him to shoot it. J Rich is no Jimmy Butler.

Brett Brown must die a little inside every time he sees teams running the old Syracuse 2-3 zone on his team. He probably looks at his team and says thanks Elton! That starting line up will be exposed much more when teams can plan out a 7 game series.

They had reservations about Jimmy getting the max for 5 years but maxed out Harris and Horford. They are both PF and occupy the same space on the floor. No you cant say Horford is a C because Embid is parked there. Simmons in crunch time is treated essentially like a PF that cant shoot, just go stand in the corner. I'm not high on these guys come playoff time. Horrible fit.