Ferry Avenue wrote:Skates wrote:Five games in and Harden/Embiid had everyone claiming they broke the NBA with a cheat code (not counting the Harden-less loss in Miami), one loss, one tough game later and everyone is washed, the trade sucked, nothing will ever work, let's start the Process over. The team and fans are in part to blame for not letting the Simmons thing just go and making a wayyyy too big thing out of the Nets game weeks before it happened (I didn't even watch, it was not a hard to predict outcome, only game I was meh about watching all year). It's like some of the fans are as reactionary as SAS and other idiots on the networks that look for controversy to create.
The team was drastically changed at the deadline, total new way of things with Harden coming in and the guys we lost. Athletic teams, even less talented ones have given us trouble even in wins all year, and losing Drummond was a big loss defensively and athletically, don't let any DAJ stats fool you, it is a deep drop off.
We have been wing scarce/weak all season, nothing new there and teams with really good wings like the Celtics and Nets were not great matchups before or now. The team is teaching itself to be a team, there are four players on the roster capable of putting up 20 or close to it every night, and Maxey was balling out even before harden arrived, but still figuring out how to feed each of these guys game to game is a work in progress, as it always had to be. We are in a pseudo-training camp situation at the tired legs part of the season, trying to learn on the fly when everyone is a little tired, a little hurt, it will have ugly days and pretty ones.
Harden's stats are still incredible even after two rough shooting nights (he has always had those), the team doesn't have enough finishers to take advantage of his passing, which is insane, and he is not Harden of 3-4 years ago, but more point Harden who can extend his career Chris Paul style, and hopefully at a relative bargain since the overreaction around the league and his switching teams twice in two years plus his age and wanting to win likely drives his contract number down to something more manageable than the media are proclaiming. He isn't getting a full supermax, and no one else is giving him anything like that now. Harden's brand being a little tarnished is perfect for getting him into a workable deal for a player of his age and still high skill level this summer, one that allows for more team building as we go.
In other words, freaking relax, and if you were too hyped up for the Nets game, that was a silly thing to begin with.
The Nets game has to be appraised for how it unfolded. When you're up against a team that's clearly flipped a switch and kicked into another gear to beat you, there has to be some kind of counterpunch available, especially at home with the energy available from the crowd that night. There was no counterpunch for 48 minutes -- that's concerning.
If they'd have lost a close hard-fought game I'd have no concerns about it. But they were dominated and unable to flip a switch indicative of having some mettle as a team. It should make people wonder exactly who the players are who will provide that when it's needed in the playoffs, because nobody did that evening. That team didn't go down swinging -- it went down without a fight.
This is true. It’s what they have to find before the playoffs. If they don’t then they are not chip ready and have to do the necessary adjustments in the off-season to improve. It has to be figured out. Nets came in and between Durant and Irving they have a punchers chance to win it all even with Simmons out and the season being in disarray. Their downfall is Kyrie. Without him forget it. Teams will throw their focus on Durant and he won’t win the Kyrie less games. The load is too much, it took a 53 point career game to edge out the Knicks. They have to win every road game and I dont see that happening against the Bucks or Heat. The feather in their cap was this game this year. Let them have it.
