Eastern Conference | Round 1 | (4) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (5) Toronto Raptors

[duppyy]

This thread going to 100 pages even before the series starts lol.

[Raps in 4]

If only Siakam was top end talent this year.

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Cameroonian Jokic

[Marty_Budda]

If only Siakam was top end talent this year.

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Cameroonian Jokic

Not gonna lie, having Vuc in there kind of sours it for me lol

[falcolombardi]

how is this the most talked about matchup lmao

[Triple7]

If Harden don’t show up, and FVV gets back to form, then i’d take the Raps in 6

[GiannisAnte34]

Imagine saying offence and defence aren't equal then throwing out names like Holiday, Bam, Gobert and Davis (lol, the guy has missed almost half of the Lakers games the last 3 seasons and isn't near as good as he used to be?) as players that are clearly better than Siakam presumably because of their defence. Not to mention guys like Mitchell, Booker and Towns aren't clearly better than Siakam. Middleton and Beal absolutely do not have any case over Siakam at this point while DeRozan is so bad defensively that he doesn't have much of a case either. Again, Siakam has absolutely been a top 20 player THIS SEASON. Give me a list of players that can put up 30+ points or dish out ~10 assists depending on how teams defend him while being solid on the boards and a very good defender.

The bubble is absolutely not a lot to go off of. As I said in my other post, the Celtics/Raptors series was the most defensive series of the playoffs by far and stars from both teams struggled mightily. It was a 7-game sample against one team whereas Toronto's Championship run was 24 games against 4 very different teams. It is mindboggling that you think the Championship run doesn't mean significantly more than a single series under unusual circumstances.

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What? Booker is not better then Siakam?

Booker isn't clearly better than Siakam, which is what I said. Booker is the better scorer, but Siakam has the edge in most other areas and is the more complete player. I think they have both been incredible this season though and should be 3rd team All-NBA. Same kind of tier.

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only a Raps fan would believe Siakam is on par with Booker, those homer goggles are on a little too tight

Personal attacks are not allowed. Don't insult someone as a homer in order to dismiss their opinion. -b

[T_Brandon]

What? Booker is not better then Siakam?

Booker isn't clearly better than Siakam, which is what I said. Booker is the better scorer, but Siakam has the edge in most other areas and is the more complete player. I think they have both been incredible this season though and should be 3rd team All-NBA. Same kind of tier.

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only a Raps fan would believe Siakam is on par with Booker, those homer goggles are on a little too tight

They live in their own little world

[pingpongrac]

Booker isn't clearly better than Siakam, which is what I said. Booker is the better scorer, but Siakam has the edge in most other areas and is the more complete player. I think they have both been incredible this season though and should be 3rd team All-NBA. Same kind of tier.

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only a Raps fan would believe Siakam is on par with Booker, those homer goggles are on a little too tight

They live in their own little world

If you don't want to watch any Raptors games, you can just look at the stats.

Siakam: 22.8 PPG, 8.5 REB, 5.3 AST, .565 TS%, 25.8 USG%, .151 ws/48, 3.5 BPM, 3.6 VORP, 2.3 EPM, 5.11 RPM, 2.26 LEBRON, +7.4 on/off

Booker: 26.8 PPG, 5.0 REB, 4.8 AST, .576 TS%, 32.0 USG%, .156 ws/48, 4.1 BPM, 3.6 VORP, 4.5 EPM, 4.93 RPM, 2.70 LEBRON, +4.8 on/off

Outside of Booker scoring an extra 4 PPG on much higher usage and Siakam grabbing an extra 3.5 REB in a few extra minutes, their numbers are almost identical across the board. I don't know why I'm even responding to people who have no evidence for their claims though lol.

[Appostis]

If only Siakam was top end talent this year.

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Cameroonian Jokic

Not gonna lie, having Vuc in there kind of sours it for me lol

It's just on defense where Vic falls apart. Guy is a great offensive big.

[art_tatum]

how is this the most talked about matchup lmao

Realgm board is actually the raptors board.

[BillessuR6]

I have Raptors in 6. Sixers have no depth and ISO plays by Harden and Embid won`t cut it. Not to mention Nurse will run circles around Doc...

[Appostis]

Raptors in 6.(maybe 5)

Can't see it changing unless Harden goes prime mode.

[fbalmeida]

Michael Grange made a fine point here to Kenny Smith and Mike Spears.

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He asked: "why is Embiid shooting 37% vs Toronto since 2019 (16 games in total against many different lineups)?"

Neither had an answer.

I've got one:

[sixers4real]

First of all Trae is ABSOLUTELY a better player than Siakam. As for 15 off the top of my head?

Giannis, Tatum, Doncic, Embiid, Jokic, Lebron, Curry, Butler, Gobert, Durant, Harden, Booker, Paul, Young, Mitchell, Ja, Holiday, Bam, Davis, Towns. Then you've got the Beal, Miiddleton's, Derozans, etc. that also have cases.

This is the thing about rating players. Offense and Defense are not created equal in this league. Great offensive players are plentiful and impactful. Truly great defenders are few and far between and unless you're a big, your overall impact on the defensive end is mitigated by role. We're not saying, good offense is one point, good defense is another point here and making them equal. A player, Trae for example, is a better player because he's special on offense and that outweighs the negative contributions on the other end. Siakam's contributions on both ends don't add up to the one for Trae.

Harden has made the 2nd round 3 times and conference finals twice. In the three times he lost in the 1st round, he was an 8 seed twice, and 4 seed once. I hardly qualify those as "early flameouts." In fact, use of the term is click baity and hot take as hell, but I guess that's what the sports media likes so people are following suit. Like I said earlier whether it was in response to you or someone else, there's a lot of area to cover in between a championship and the lottery. There can only be one championship team each year, that does NOT mean everyone else is terrible, an utter failure, trash, choker, blah blah blah.

You can't sit there and tell me the bubble isn't a lot to go off of when FVV and Siakam have one playoff run to offset it. A playoff run in which no Toronto fan wanted to see FVV touch the court until he pulled a rando rabbit out of the hat against Milwaukee. To be frank, I think two playoff series in which they have relevant and increased offensive roles is more applicable than feeding as 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th options whatever during a championship run. You're free to disagree with that part, but that's how I'd weigh them.

I didn't discredit anyone's contribution to the Toronto championship run. That paragraph comes off as someone complaining to complain.

Imagine saying offence and defence aren't equal then throwing out names like Holiday, Bam, Gobert and Davis (lol, the guy has missed almost half of the Lakers games the last 3 seasons and isn't near as good as he used to be?) as players that are clearly better than Siakam presumably because of their defence. Not to mention guys like Mitchell, Booker and Towns aren't clearly better than Siakam. Middleton and Beal absolutely do not have any case over Siakam at this point while DeRozan is so bad defensively that he doesn't have much of a case either. Again, Siakam has absolutely been a top 20 player THIS SEASON. Give me a list of players that can put up 30+ points or dish out ~10 assists depending on how teams defend him while being solid on the boards and a very good defender.

The bubble is absolutely not a lot to go off of. As I said in my other post, the Celtics/Raptors series was the most defensive series of the playoffs by far and stars from both teams struggled mightily. It was a 7-game sample against one team whereas Toronto's Championship run was 24 games against 4 very different teams. It is mindboggling that you think the Championship run doesn't mean significantly more than a single series under unusual circumstances.

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What? Booker is not better then Siakam?

Do you like surprises?

How about Booker making 1st team and a 50/50 of Siakam making 3rd team?

[Roco14]

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[Marty_Budda]

Cameroonian Jokic

Not gonna lie, having Vuc in there kind of sours it for me lol

It's just on defense where Vic falls apart. Guy is a great offensive big.

He’s okay. You can definitely game plan against him tho and shut him down. Either way, everyone on that list is an all time great…then vuc

[visionquest]

Don't take this board as indicative of the overall narrative though. The ESPN poll of its writers went 12-5 in favour of the Sixers. However, every voter had it going 6 or 7.

Good news.

Raptors excel when people count them out.

[Duffman100]

only a Raps fan would believe Siakam is on par with Booker, those homer goggles are on a little too tight

They live in their own little world

If you don't want to watch any Raptors games, you can just look at the stats.

Siakam: 22.8 PPG, 8.5 REB, 5.3 AST, .565 TS%, 25.8 USG%, .151 ws/48, 3.5 BPM, 3.6 VORP, 2.3 EPM, 5.11 RPM, 2.26 LEBRON, +7.4 on/off

Booker: 26.8 PPG, 5.0 REB, 4.8 AST, .576 TS%, 32.0 USG%, .156 ws/48, 4.1 BPM, 3.6 VORP, 4.5 EPM, 4.93 RPM, 2.70 LEBRON, +4.8 on/off

Outside of Booker scoring an extra 4 PPG on much higher usage and Siakam grabbing an extra 3.5 REB in a few extra minutes, their numbers are almost identical across the board. I don't know why I'm even responding to people who have no evidence for their claims though lol.

Ssshh, our own little world includes facts. Nobody wants to hear that from Raptor fans.

[Chandan]

Booker isn't clearly better than Siakam, which is what I said. Booker is the better scorer, but Siakam has the edge in most other areas and is the more complete player. I think they have both been incredible this season though and should be 3rd team All-NBA. Same kind of tier.

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only a Raps fan would believe Siakam is on par with Booker, those homer goggles are on a little too tight

They live in their own little world

not all. Just some have access to nba.com stats and believe they are great basketball minds because they can number!

[JXL]

Who does the Raptors have to throw at Embiid? Khem Birch? Boucher? Young? Don't see anyone stopping him, but their length can bother the rest of them, especially Maxey and Harden. Harden looks washed, and his ISOs go nowhere but brick laying jump shots.

I can see the Raptors pull the upset in 7. VanVleet, OG, Siakim, and GTJ can turn the series if they get hot.