The Sixers Look Scary

[Mickey8]

They have defeated Minnesota on their back to back games and the trash Knicks, Embiid wont have this much freebies in the play off, its pathetic how much he's protected by the refs , flopping all over the floor.

[SK21209]

Its only been two games but its been very interesting to see Harden adjust his game when Embiid is on/off the floor. When he's playing with Embiid, Harden has been going full playmaker mode and feeding Embiid on those short roles when the opponent traps Harden in the P&R. With Embiid off, he looks like Houston scoring Harden again. I've hated harden for a decade at this point but he's a brilliant offensive player. Going forward, if I'm the opponent I'm playing Harden straight up when Embiid is also on the floor. It's too easy for Harden to hit Embiid on those short rolls, and Embiid catching those passes with a clear lane to the basket is resulting in all of these free throws.

[dWadeOwnzYou]

The Sixers will win the NBA championship this year. They look too good.

[76ciology]

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[HotelVitale]

Its only been two games but its been very interesting to see Harden adjust his game when Embiid is on/off the floor. When he's playing with Embiid, Harden has been going full playmaker mode and feeding Embiid on those short roles when the opponent traps Harden in the P&R. With Embiid off, he looks like Houston scoring Harden again. I've hated harden for a decade at this point but he's a brilliant offensive player. Going forward, if I'm the opponent I'm playing Harden straight up when Embiid is also on the floor. It's too easy for Harden to hit Embiid on those short rolls, and Embiid catching those passes with a clear lane to the basket is resulting in all of these free throws.

The minutes when it's Harden only have made me a little nervous the last two games tbh. It's not his fault at all--he's been great--but more that there are too many unreliable guys around him who aren't tailored to the opportunities he creates. He's rightly not trying to take every shot and will often set up a shaky shooter with a good look, or hit a big man at the FT line who can't finish (generally Millsap, who sadly looks totally cooked), etc.

That should improve some with the team just adapting to that and the second unit not playing the ball-sharing drive-kick system they did before Harden. And I think some things like a Harris pn'r has a lot of promise. But I wouldn't be surprised if that's an Achilles heel all season, and if the Harden-Embiid pairing has some absurd plus minus that's almost matched by how bad the Harden-only #s are.

[LAL1947]

Read on Twitter

Kendrick Perkins uses a lot of words to say a lot of nothing! He's been well trained by Steven A Smith.

"Here's the thing... I said... that they actually could have a possibility... of being on the verge of being the next Kobe and Shaq."

That's 24 words when 8 would have been enough.

"They could be the next Kobe and Shaq."

Instead we've been subjected to 3x the pain. Why?

[kuclas]

They have defeated Minnesota on their back to back games and the trash Knicks, Embiid wont have this much freebies in the play off, its pathetic how much he's protected by the refs , flopping all over the floor.

Just watch the games. It’s either foul embiid or let him have a dunk or layup. Very few of the fouls are his swing through move. Most are either on drives to the paint or he has such deep positioning. There is no way but to foul him

And since he’s a very good free throw shooter. It’s futile to waste fouls.

So what are teams gonna to choose? Foul him or let him have layups? Those are the choices.

He’s basically playing like shaq in the paint these days. Plus the spacing harden provides. You can’t crowd in and cheat in with help defender anymore.

[R-DAWG]

If healthy, the Sixers have arguably the best 1-2 punch heading into the playoffs (I would still say a healthy Lebron/AD is #1 but I'm not sure we will ever see both of them healthy at the same time again). And when you have 2 elite players, your very difficult to beat.

Add in Maxey and Tobias - both looking like fringe #3 guys, along with other rotation caliber pieces like Thybulle and Danny Green and you have a team that is a real threat.

Sure, you need Embid to stay healthy and Harden to overcome his history of unachieving in the playoffs. But make no mistake, this team can win the championship this year.

[HardenToSixers]

HE WAS PLAYING WITH A TORN MENISCUS

(or don't you believe that?)

What grade tear was it?

Not sure. Most reports had it as a small tear; he did not need surgery to repair it. It happened in Game 4 of the Sixers 1st round series against the Wizards. He didn't play in Game 5, when they eliminated the Wizards, but he did play every game of the Atlanta series. Obviously, he wasn't 100% - I remember the end of Game 4 (I believe...or was it Game 5?) - he had an easy shot right at the rim that would have won the game, but he got zero lift and couldn't finish.

He did his best, but he was far from 100%.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31553588/philadelphia-76ers-joel-embiid-meniscus-tear-right-knee-game-5

no more excuses for Embiid. sure it may have been affecting him but down the stretch everybody is dealing with something. he's played well at times but he needs to elevate his game more in the playoffs. the best credible excuse thus far in his career is Simmons bringing him down and not having a good ballhandler in the 4th quarter messing up the offense. not saying they need to win a ring because that's a ridiculous assertion but he's got to come in and play as well as he has thus far in the RS and elevate his game even more in the playoffs. no excuses.

[HotelVitale]

no more excuses for Embiid. sure it may have been affecting him but down the stretch everybody is dealing with something. he's played well at times but he needs to elevate his game more in the playoffs. the best credible excuse thus far in his career is Simmons bringing him down and not having a good ballhandler in the 4th quarter messing up the offense. not saying they need to win a ring because that's a ridiculous assertion but he's got to come in and play as well as he has thus far in the RS and elevate his game even more in the playoffs. no excuses.

Hmm, another post about how Embiid has supposedly been bad in the PO. I'm not an Embiid fanboy and am pretty aware of his limitations (esp in close-out situations) but that's not a thing, he's been pretty dominant in the PO recently and has generally been distinctly better in the PO than in the RS the last couple years. There seems to be some narrative that he's played like 75% of himself and there's nothing to base it on, it's confusing. (He had the rough TOR series but we've already gone over that, and in any case it was years ago now and he's had enough of a track record for that to be the exception and not the norm.)

You could say that he hasn't proven himself to be an ATG guy who becomes a legit superhero in the PO, that's valid enough. But he's been extremely good by any measure short of that. Unless you're trying to be one of those a-hole aggro fans it feels a lot more fair to say 'Embiid has shown he can be a legit dominant force in the PO, but he needs to show now he can be one of this generation's great winners.'

[LloydFree]

no more excuses for Embiid. sure it may have been affecting him but down the stretch everybody is dealing with something. he's played well at times but he needs to elevate his game more in the playoffs. the best credible excuse thus far in his career is Simmons bringing him down and not having a good ballhandler in the 4th quarter messing up the offense. not saying they need to win a ring because that's a ridiculous assertion but he's got to come in and play as well as he has thus far in the RS and elevate his game even more in the playoffs. no excuses.

Hmm, another post about how Embiid has supposedly been bad in the PO. I'm not an Embiid fanboy and am pretty aware of his limitations (esp in close-out situations) but that's not a thing, he's been pretty dominant in the PO recently and has generally been distinctly better in the PO than in the RS the last couple years. There seems to be some narrative that he's played like 75% of himself and there's nothing to base it on, it's confusing. (He had the rough TOR series but we've already gone over that, and in any case it was years ago now and he's had enough of a track record for that to be the exception and not the norm.)

You could say that he hasn't proven himself to be an ATG guy who becomes a legit superhero in the PO, that's valid enough. But he's been extremely good by any measure short of that. Unless you're trying to be one of those a-hole aggro fans it feels a lot more fair to say 'Embiid has shown he can be a legit dominant force in the PO, but he needs to show now he can be one of this generation's great winners.'

Embiid was a +90 in the 7 game Toronto series, including +10, in 46 minutes in game 7.

[HardenToSixers]

no more excuses for Embiid. sure it may have been affecting him but down the stretch everybody is dealing with something. he's played well at times but he needs to elevate his game more in the playoffs. the best credible excuse thus far in his career is Simmons bringing him down and not having a good ballhandler in the 4th quarter messing up the offense. not saying they need to win a ring because that's a ridiculous assertion but he's got to come in and play as well as he has thus far in the RS and elevate his game even more in the playoffs. no excuses.

Hmm, another post about how Embiid has supposedly been bad in the PO. I'm not an Embiid fanboy and am pretty aware of his limitations (esp in close-out situations) but that's not a thing, he's been pretty dominant in the PO recently and has generally been distinctly better in the PO than in the RS the last couple years. There seems to be some narrative that he's played like 75% of himself and there's nothing to base it on, it's confusing. (He had the rough TOR series but we've already gone over that, and in any case it was years ago now and he's had enough of a track record for that to be the exception and not the norm.)

You could say that he hasn't proven himself to be an ATG guy who becomes a legit superhero in the PO, that's valid enough. But he's been extremely good by any measure short of that. Unless you're trying to be one of those a-hole aggro fans it feels a lot more fair to say 'Embiid has shown he can be a legit dominant force in the PO, but he needs to show now he can be one of this generation's great winners.'

Embiid is my favorite basketball player of all time. We needed him more against the Celtics in our first series against them. We needed more out of him against Toronto. We needed more out of him against the Hawks.

He hasn't choked by any means but it would be great for him to go superhuman in a big moment in the playoffs. Would also be great for him not to be well contained by the likes of Aron Baynes, Al Horford, Marc Gasol, etc. The guy brought up his meniscus and I don't think using that as an excuse (as well as several others that have been made over the years) is the standard that I want to hold Embiid to. You're putting words in my mouth as far as what I said for Embiid and getting overly defensive. I said he needs to elevate his game more in big playoff series when the team needs it because that's the kind of player I think he is.

[HardenToSixers]

no more excuses for Embiid. sure it may have been affecting him but down the stretch everybody is dealing with something. he's played well at times but he needs to elevate his game more in the playoffs. the best credible excuse thus far in his career is Simmons bringing him down and not having a good ballhandler in the 4th quarter messing up the offense. not saying they need to win a ring because that's a ridiculous assertion but he's got to come in and play as well as he has thus far in the RS and elevate his game even more in the playoffs. no excuses.

Hmm, another post about how Embiid has supposedly been bad in the PO. I'm not an Embiid fanboy and am pretty aware of his limitations (esp in close-out situations) but that's not a thing, he's been pretty dominant in the PO recently and has generally been distinctly better in the PO than in the RS the last couple years. There seems to be some narrative that he's played like 75% of himself and there's nothing to base it on, it's confusing. (He had the rough TOR series but we've already gone over that, and in any case it was years ago now and he's had enough of a track record for that to be the exception and not the norm.)

You could say that he hasn't proven himself to be an ATG guy who becomes a legit superhero in the PO, that's valid enough. But he's been extremely good by any measure short of that. Unless you're trying to be one of those a-hole aggro fans it feels a lot more fair to say 'Embiid has shown he can be a legit dominant force in the PO, but he needs to show now he can be one of this generation's great winners.'

Embiid was a +90 in the 7 game Toronto series, including +10, in 46 minutes in game 7.

we needed more out of him in game 6 and the illness he had even if warranted is an excuse that I just don't want to hear. Monroe was also a historically poor replacement in that game so using raw +/- figures is slightly disingenuous. Finally, you can watch the game and see that Marc Gasol did a good job at times giving Embiid troubles.

[kuclas]

Hmm, another post about how Embiid has supposedly been bad in the PO. I'm not an Embiid fanboy and am pretty aware of his limitations (esp in close-out situations) but that's not a thing, he's been pretty dominant in the PO recently and has generally been distinctly better in the PO than in the RS the last couple years. There seems to be some narrative that he's played like 75% of himself and there's nothing to base it on, it's confusing. (He had the rough TOR series but we've already gone over that, and in any case it was years ago now and he's had enough of a track record for that to be the exception and not the norm.)

You could say that he hasn't proven himself to be an ATG guy who becomes a legit superhero in the PO, that's valid enough. But he's been extremely good by any measure short of that. Unless you're trying to be one of those a-hole aggro fans it feels a lot more fair to say 'Embiid has shown he can be a legit dominant force in the PO, but he needs to show now he can be one of this generation's great winners.'

Embiid was a +90 in the 7 game Toronto series, including +10, in 46 minutes in game 7.

we needed more out of him in game 6 and the illness he had even if warranted is an excuse that I just don't want to hear. Monroe was also a historically poor replacement in that game so using raw +/- figures is slightly disingenuous. Finally, you can watch the game and see that Marc Gasol did a good job at times giving Embiid troubles.

A lot of what Gasol and even Horford do with guarding embiid has to deal with sixers spacing issues plus having no iso ball creator.

Embiid has to do it himself. Which he’s been doing great this season. But now with harden in the mix as the real point guard. How the heck is horford gonna to guard that.

Previously teams like Toronto would cheat in on embiid has he tries to back down gasol. The cheat defender comes from ben Simmons man usually. It’s classic defense how to defend embiid. Only double embiid once he’s with 5-7 feet of the basket.

That’s why this season embiid has decided to initiate the offense himself from mid range and not allow the defense to set. Since no Simmons at the point

Let’s see how harden and embiid play a few more games. I’m interested in Miami heat defensive
Schemes. They had some success doing zones Vs embiid. Cause Bam is such much smaller than embiid. They have to find ways to protect Bam. I’m not sure a zone can work with harden running the point though. We will see in a few days.

[HotelVitale]

no more excuses for Embiid. sure it may have been affecting him but down the stretch everybody is dealing with something. he's played well at times but he needs to elevate his game more in the playoffs. the best credible excuse thus far in his career is Simmons bringing him down and not having a good ballhandler in the 4th quarter messing up the offense. not saying they need to win a ring because that's a ridiculous assertion but he's got to come in and play as well as he has thus far in the RS and elevate his game even more in the playoffs. no excuses.

Hmm, another post about how Embiid has supposedly been bad in the PO. I'm not an Embiid fanboy and am pretty aware of his limitations (esp in close-out situations) but that's not a thing, he's been pretty dominant in the PO recently and has generally been distinctly better in the PO than in the RS the last couple years. There seems to be some narrative that he's played like 75% of himself and there's nothing to base it on, it's confusing. (He had the rough TOR series but we've already gone over that, and in any case it was years ago now and he's had enough of a track record for that to be the exception and not the norm.)

You could say that he hasn't proven himself to be an ATG guy who becomes a legit superhero in the PO, that's valid enough. But he's been extremely good by any measure short of that. Unless you're trying to be one of those a-hole aggro fans it feels a lot more fair to say 'Embiid has shown he can be a legit dominant force in the PO, but he needs to show now he can be one of this generation's great winners.'

Embiid is my favorite basketball player of all time. We needed him more against the Celtics in our first series against them. We needed more out of him against Toronto. We needed more out of him against the Hawks.

He hasn't choked by any means but it would be great for him to go superhuman in a big moment in the playoffs. Would also be great for him not to be well contained by the likes of Aron Baynes, Al Horford, Marc Gasol, etc. The guy brought up his meniscus and I don't think using that as an excuse (as well as several others that have been made over the years) is the standard that I want to hold Embiid to. You're putting words in my mouth as far as what I said for Embiid and getting overly defensive. I said he needs to elevate his game more in big playoff series when the team needs it because that's the kind of player I think he is.

Guess you didn't actually say he's been weak but your tone is clearly implying that he should be disappointed in himself and I'm not getting why. If your standards for him are that he MUST do more than average an efficient 30/13/4 (his line in the 7-game ATL series), then yeah you're expecting him to be an all-time-great superhero. Not telling you how to think about Embiid or what emotions to put into the game, but I don't know that he's done anything to show that he's that type of player and it doesn't feel like it's a reasonable expectation. He's extremely good and a legit MVP candidate, but he's already been playing like that in the PO. Seems like you're asking him to be that and also to hit every shot whenever the team needs him to.

Again, don't want to split hairs or police emotions, just feels like you're being a little extra in 'expecting' Embiid to be a super-duper all-everything star, and saying that him not doing that is something you'll accept 'no more excuses' for. There's gotta be something between playing pretty well and being a top-10 ATG god, and it feels like Embiid has steadily been in that zone for a minute. I mean, that's the whole reason why we needed a Harden and not just a Brogdon/McCollum out of the Simmons deal, right?

[bebopdeluxe]

Hmm, another post about how Embiid has supposedly been bad in the PO. I'm not an Embiid fanboy and am pretty aware of his limitations (esp in close-out situations) but that's not a thing, he's been pretty dominant in the PO recently and has generally been distinctly better in the PO than in the RS the last couple years. There seems to be some narrative that he's played like 75% of himself and there's nothing to base it on, it's confusing. (He had the rough TOR series but we've already gone over that, and in any case it was years ago now and he's had enough of a track record for that to be the exception and not the norm.)

You could say that he hasn't proven himself to be an ATG guy who becomes a legit superhero in the PO, that's valid enough. But he's been extremely good by any measure short of that. Unless you're trying to be one of those a-hole aggro fans it feels a lot more fair to say 'Embiid has shown he can be a legit dominant force in the PO, but he needs to show now he can be one of this generation's great winners.'

Embiid is my favorite basketball player of all time. We needed him more against the Celtics in our first series against them. We needed more out of him against Toronto. We needed more out of him against the Hawks.

He hasn't choked by any means but it would be great for him to go superhuman in a big moment in the playoffs. Would also be great for him not to be well contained by the likes of Aron Baynes, Al Horford, Marc Gasol, etc. The guy brought up his meniscus and I don't think using that as an excuse (as well as several others that have been made over the years) is the standard that I want to hold Embiid to. You're putting words in my mouth as far as what I said for Embiid and getting overly defensive. I said he needs to elevate his game more in big playoff series when the team needs it because that's the kind of player I think he is.

Guess you didn't actually say he's been weak but your tone is clearly implying that he should be disappointed in himself and I'm not getting why. If your standards for him are that he MUST do more than average an efficient 30/13/4 (his line in the 7-game ATL series), then yeah you're expecting him to be an all-time-great superhero. Not telling you how to think about Embiid or what emotions to put into the game, but I don't know that he's done anything to show that he's that type of player and it doesn't feel like it's a reasonable expectation. He's extremely good and a legit MVP candidate, but he's already been playing like that in the PO. Seems like you're asking him to be that and also to hit every shot whenever the team needs him to.

Again, don't want to split hairs or police emotions, just feels like you're being a little extra in 'expecting' Embiid to be a super-duper all-everything star, and saying that him not doing that is something you'll accept 'no more excuses' for. There's gotta be something between playing pretty well and being a top-10 ATG god, and it feels like Embiid has steadily been in that zone for a minute. I mean, that's the whole reason why we needed a Harden and not just a Brogdon/McCollum out of the Simmons deal, right?

C'mon, man. Who cares about his numbers going UP from the regular season in the Atlanta series? Who cares about the torn meniscus? Embiid should have averaged 45/21/12 in that series, because...because...

Well, BECAUSE HE SHOULD HAVE.

[PhilBlackson]

They definitely look great as a duo... doesn't mean I think they're the favorites when on the "low end" I can see them struggling with either of CLE or BOS just stylistically. Then if BKN can get/stay healthy can PHI keep up with the pace & shooting they'll have?! How about when Jrue & Middleton get into Harden and Giannis is running suicides on Embiid all game?!?

They're certainly a more legit title contender than they've ever been during "the process" and have JOINED the conversation but I don't think they stand out above everyone. That's not hate because besides my own team (TOR) winning (which won't happen lol), I'd like to see Embiid get a ring but I just don't buy that they're suddenly the favorites. There's actually amazing parity right now especially if DEN gets back a healthy Murray & MP Jr.

[JimmyPlopper]

Read on Twitter

Kendrick Perkins uses a lot of words to say a lot of nothing! He's been well trained by Steven A Smith.

"Here's the thing... I said... that they actually could have a possibility... of being on the verge of being the next Kobe and Shaq."

That's 24 words when 8 would have been enough.

"They could be the next Kobe and Shaq."

Instead we've been subjected to 3x the pain. Why?

Those phrases are filing up time while he is thinking of what to say next.

[HardenToSixers]

Embiid was a +90 in the 7 game Toronto series, including +10, in 46 minutes in game 7.

we needed more out of him in game 6 and the illness he had even if warranted is an excuse that I just don't want to hear. Monroe was also a historically poor replacement in that game so using raw +/- figures is slightly disingenuous. Finally, you can watch the game and see that Marc Gasol did a good job at times giving Embiid troubles.

A lot of what Gasol and even Horford do with guarding embiid has to deal with sixers spacing issues plus having no iso ball creator.

Embiid has to do it himself. Which he’s been doing great this season. But now with harden in the mix as the real point guard. How the heck is horford gonna to guard that.

Previously teams like Toronto would cheat in on embiid has he tries to back down gasol. The cheat defender comes from ben Simmons man usually. It’s classic defense how to defend embiid. Only double embiid once he’s with 5-7 feet of the basket.

That’s why this season embiid has decided to initiate the offense himself from mid range and not allow the defense to set. Since no Simmons at the point

Let’s see how harden and embiid play a few more games. I’m interested in Miami heat defensive
Schemes. They had some success doing zones Vs embiid. Cause Bam is such much smaller than embiid. They have to find ways to protect Bam. I’m not sure a zone can work with harden running the point though. We will see in a few days.

which is why in my initial post I said the only credible excuse I would accept is spacing issues due to Simmons and the lack of a perimeter creator, which we have now fixed

[76ciology]

Spoiler:

Embiid was a +90 in the 7 game Toronto series, including +10, in 46 minutes in game 7.

we needed more out of him in game 6 and the illness he had even if warranted is an excuse that I just don't want to hear. Monroe was also a historically poor replacement in that game so using raw +/- figures is slightly disingenuous. Finally, you can watch the game and see that Marc Gasol did a good job at times giving Embiid troubles.

A lot of what Gasol and even Horford do with guarding embiid has to deal with sixers spacing issues plus having no iso ball creator.

Embiid has to do it himself. Which he’s been doing great this season. But now with harden in the mix as the real point guard. How the heck is horford gonna to guard that.

Previously teams like Toronto would cheat in on embiid has he tries to back down gasol. The cheat defender comes from ben Simmons man usually. It’s classic defense how to defend embiid. Only double embiid once he’s with 5-7 feet of the basket.

That’s why this season embiid has decided to initiate the offense himself from mid range and not allow the defense to set. Since no Simmons at the point

Let’s see how harden and embiid play a few more games. I’m interested in Miami heat defensive
Schemes. They had some success doing zones Vs embiid. Cause Bam is such much smaller than embiid. They have to find ways to protect Bam. I’m not sure a zone can work with harden running the point though. We will see in a few days.

Another thing since last season, Embiid has been facing up and taking more mid range jumper than bulldozing his way to the paint.

Mid Range:
2018-2019: 3.6 attempts 36%
2019-2020: 4.7 attempts 40%
2020-2021: 5.6 attempts 49%
2021-2022: 6.1 attempts 43% (season incomplete)

Embiid also has been averaging 28-30ppg on 18 FGAs in the last two seasons in the playoffs. So its not him choking but its about acknowledging you can’t go far in the playoffs, if you’re second best scorer is JJ Redick or Seth Curry.

Lastly, we’ve seen in the Knicks game that if Embiid struggles with his shooting. Harden can put him in position to get to the line by rolling to the rim.