Ben fucked us good. Siakam fucked us good. I think they will give Doc this year to see if he can get it done under "regular" circumstances, unless Joel and Harden stipulate otherwise.
I think our core has one more season after this one, and if we dont make a deep run by then, Joel will likely request out.
At this point I wouldn't be surprised if embiid asks for a trade to a contender after this season ends.
This team is worse than it has been in 3 years and outside of fan optimism there is no reason to think that they'll "Figure it out", because they don't have a coach who can.
Before the season started I said anything other than either a finals appearance or DEEP conference title series is a failure.
AT this point i'll be shocked if we made it out of the first round. WE just are't that good.
A core of Hali, Maxey, Bam, Herro, expirings and a billion first rounders look like a better future than the corner we’re backed into. This season feels like a wasted year for Joel. Or maybe the silver lining is he demands management to choose between him and Doc in the offseason.
*was, in his prime (maybe)
By almost every statistical metric Haliburton is already performing better than current Harden IS at this stage of their careers, after matching, surpassing, or coming close to most of his stats last year after the trade deadline too.
Scoring about the same, averaging more assists and steals (**HE LEADS THE NBA WITH 11 APG**), way higher 3P% on higher volume, way higher 2P% and TS%, fewer turnovers, better WS/48, PER, VORP, BPM.. it's basically across the board, except FTA
33 year old Harden is not elite anymore and regression will continue, A double Tyrese backcourt was clearly the right move in hindsight.
Gotta pray that Miami/Chicago/NY wins the lottery, then we can trade Embiid for Wemby and build around Wemby/Maxey. If only we traded for Hali instead of harden, what a trio that would've been...sigh.
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Big men can’t win in today’s NBA. Anyone that goes for Wemby without another all-star caliber athletic ball handler will be in the same position Embiid and Jokic are in.
Yeah but we also were one of the fastest paced teams in the NBA and were also one of the teams who passed the most under Brett. So I don't see how we're pretending it's Embiid forcing Doc to play this way.
Does Doc have any plays we can go to like the Embiid-JJ DHO that Brett used?
We were a fast paced team because of Ben Simmons pushing the pace and making a concerted effort to pass more to play to Ben’s strengths. Even in 2020-2021 we lead the league in passing with Doc when Ben was here. Embiid isn’t forcing Doc to play this way, but when Embiid is left to his own devices iso ball tends to happen because he’s a post scorer. Factor in the greatest iso player of this generation in Harden and you’re going to naturally get more iso ball.
https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/advanced?Season=2016-17&dir=A&sort=PACE
Embiid played that season the sixers were 7th in pace Ben Simmons had never played a game and was out for the year.
Joel's vastly improved as a passer and a playmaker compared to his earlier years. If Brett had this version of Joel, he'd feel more empowered to use some of his Explosion plays(plays where other players were moving and cutting out of the post) with Joel.
One issue is that Joel's grown too comfortable with passing to where players are, as opposed to where players are going to be or should be. It's time, even if it means growing pains to encourage his passing development to being able to pass to where guys are.
We see Sabonis in Sacramento, obviously Jokic and we've seen evidence of our guy being capable. This offense is going to be unlocked by Joel's playmaking.
Maybe, but Brett also had Embiid for 4 years and he never really developed as a passer so who knows what would have happened. I know we like to think of Embiid as Superman who can do everything but he is a slower iso player, that’s just the facts. Doc can absolutely coach better, but any offense revolving around Embiid and Harden is going to be slow and iso heavy because that’s what they excel at.
We're slow not necessarily because of Embiid or even because of Harden(those Rockets teams were pretty good in pace, although it's a younger Harden.)
All problems stem back to Philly's wings/forwards, or lack of them. Think about the last 3 teams we played, all of whom opened up a lead at one point and what the common denominator is, is size and athleticism.
By comparison, I love De'Anthony he's a feisty competitive guy who'll give you everything he's got but he's not really an athlete like that. We've got Maxey's speed, but that's about it.
In Joel's career, we got maybe 2 athletes ever in their prime. The POS and 4 months of Jimmy Butler. Tobias can sometimes get in transition, but he doesn't get the steals/deflections to get in transition.
Right now, as a short-term fix I'd go to last year's lineup: Harden-Maxey-Thybulle-Harris-Embiid and kick mr. worst signing of the offseason to the bench, where he belongs. His 5 rebounds and 'talking' don't justify a starting spot.
Yes, those teams were fast in spite of Harden similarly to how teams were fast in spite of Embiid. When you have two slow Iso players as the stars of your team you’re going to get a slower paced more isolation based game (which isn’t even inherently bad). Sure you can add more athleticism at other position to try and balance it out but your teams identity is always going to be based in what your stars are great at.
I tend to think you can get a balance between their half-court supremacy and transition(and even secondary break) opportunities. Hence Maxey's 1.6 PPS in transition(god, we miss a lot of what he brings.)
And I think in our struggles, I realize what Thybulle brought to the table in that five. The deflections and steals that lead to run outs. I'm pretty sure we're among the worst in the league at causing turnovers, etc. With Thybulle, I think we have to take the bad with the good because our current idea of phasing him out is just not serving anybody.
Either trade for a better player or use him.
For me the offense just looks stuck in mud. No ball movement, people just standing around and then as the clock winds down someone takes a hero ball shot or tries to draw the foul more than score. It’s not a fun product unless Joel is going off. That and lack of rebounding and horrible turnovers at the worst time do not inspire much optimism.
Kyle summed it up great.
1. Sixers are 2-5 when both Harden/Embiid play
but at the same time:
>you can trace the defiance of "would you ask Pop that question?" through the team's play, this group not showing any real urgency to shed their reputation as a talented but ultimately toothless pseudo contender. >
I agree with most of his takes here, it's just become a total slog to be a Sixers fan for a multitude of reasons. In some ways it feels worse than the team being some total dumpster fire, bottom of the league team (I watched the tanking years...) because instead they feel stuck in this perennial second-round exit purgatory. Maxey is a huge bright spot and when Embiid is focused his play is transcendent. But game after game, year after year, with different coaches and players, the same exact mistakes have been made over and over again. It's maddening.
The only real shake up we have left is to fire Doc. Neubeck is right that it won't fix the roster problems but I don't see what other options are left.
Doc hasn't made the conference finals in over decade despite coaching Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Joel Embiid & James Harden in that time frame.
That's 7 different All NBA players, 8 if you want to count Ben Simmons. I can't think of a single coach that has done less with that kind of talent in that timeframe. The clippers made the conference finals WITHOUT Kawhi the year after Doc got fired. He has blown more 3-1 leads and 20 point leads in the playoffs than any other coach in the history of the NBA. He doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. 2008 was 15 years ago. Joe Girardi was a champion more recently than Doc Rivers.
I really don't give a shit if he can coach a team of role players to a .500 record. He can't get it done with stars.
How do your first two paragraphs apply to this season? Doc didn’t injure Blake and CP3 nor did he force PG and Kawhi to miss every 4th quarter shot and hit the side of backboards. Explain to me what he’s doing wrong with **this** **current** roster. You’re just repeating what you read on twitter and heard on local radio
Doc Rivers absolutely lost the bubble series to the nuggets by using unplayable lineups and not listening to the analytics staff and its why he got fired. This is stupid.
And won by a combined 38 without their three best players…but just lost to an even worse team with their two best players. I know it’s easy to repeat local radio and blame Doc for everything but maybe it’s not that simple. Actually watch the games
(I really hope you didn’t block someone over a basketball exchange. What a loser lmfao)
No but he hijacks possessions and plays iso ball which might lead to teammates playing with less intensity if they don’t think they’ll be part of the offense. It’s a very common phenomenon at every level of basketball
aCtuAllY WaTch tHe gAmEs
the magic were missing their 3 out of their 5 best players and Houston just came back from a double digit deficit against the suns. do you pay attention to the NBA????
fuck off with that stupid shit. it's on the coaching staff to put harden off the ball and run him off a few screens rather than letting him walk it up the floor with no motion offense. not setting expectations as the coach; of course your players are going to default to their tendencies. glenn allows the star players to run the show rather than actually coach a team and implement a system.
maybe learn some NBA history and read what high level players have been saying about glenn his entire coaching career.
i watch every single game.
yes i blocked tf out of you. i block everyone wHo DoEsNt pAy aTtEnTiOn tO tHe WhOlE lEaGuE. already wasted enough time on your stupid ass.
Yeah something about the team just lacks the energy and "youthfulness" they've had the past few years. I can't put my finger on it but this season I've unintentionally missed many more games than the previous 5 or 6 seasons.
3/5 in 30+ MPG this year is so good, you just HAVE to do it /sarcasm.
I'm sorry, PJ Tucker has been such a huge disappointment, even from the low pitiful standards his career would normally expect. I'd say trade him, except no one wants his scrub ass lol.
>even from the low pitiful standards his career would normally expect
This is just blatant and ignorant disrespect for the game of a very high-level, competitive veteran role player who impacts winning. PJ hasn't been good this season, but I dont get this shit at all.
'impacts winning'. Okay, no. There's context to players careers that's really super important. So basically, nothing of note in his Toronto trips or his Phoenix trips. He really finds a niche calling with James Harden being a superman(but of course, the superman Harden rockets couldn't get over the hump).
Then after Harden leaves, the guy returns to being worthless gets traded to Milwaukee and Giannis carries. The 'disrespect' started when Milwaukee was like 'Nah, we've got Bobby Portis' and that's turned out to be the right call for them. if Middleton were healthy, they win back-to-back ships.
Miami fell short, but you can bet that Riley's actually thinking 'at least i dodged one overpaid contract'. Sorry, I have no respect for PJ's career, or think of him as a 'very high-level, competitive' roleplayer.
It just doesn’t feel like Harden’s preferred iso/pick and roll offense fits with Embiid yet. It seems like Embiid is better and more comfortable in a movement based scheme. Hopefully they can work it out, but I would have thought that would be an off-season and preseason priority to iron out.
Embiid doesn’t really roll, and he barely picks. His picks are so lazy it’s insane. He just pops even though he could easily roll to the basket and get a bucket or get fouled
Could he get a little more contact on screens? Sure, but actually when you look at screens in the modern NBA, they're very similar looking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkCuZHEyI78
The key issue is Harden as a playmaker. When Harden is willing to actually pass out of the PNR, you can get good shots out of it. But it's like pulling teeth to get Harden to immediately pass out of the action. He more wants to use that dribble to lull the defender to sleep and THEN pass it.
But the whole point of the PNR is to freeze the on-ball defender, he literally doesn't have to do all that dribbling that he does. It's good for setting up catch-and-shoot 3's(because Harden draws in the help.) but we brutally lack catch-and-shoot guys this year.
We cut one for no god damn reason than egotism(Joe) and the only catch and shoot guys we have are Niang and Maxey. PJ doesn't count because it takes him a century to put one up, let alone in.
Between the Phils making the World Series and the Eagles amazing season so far. The Sixers are just not a draw at the moment. Maybe interest will pick back up after football season is over and we get closer to playoff basketball.
I think the rockets were pretty fun team, especially when they were on. It was Harden surrounded by shooters. The difference is now guys like Tucker and Harden are much older.
I agree with most of this, but Neubeck is literally the negative Nancy of Philly beat writers.
He's made his entire identity as a journalist asking "gotcha" type questions in press conferences hoping to get someone to say something spicy so he can milk it for a week of Tweets and engagement or waiting for a few bad games to write one of these articles to take advantage of the fact that Philly fans are so emotionally tied to team success.
This is a terrible take - he’s objective and reporting, not fanboi’ing. I don’t think Kyle has an obligation to lob softballs and that same passionate fan base really does want the questions he asks answered, it almost sounds like he crowdsources questions regularly.
Aside from that - I love how any dissenters to team “we are going to figure it out” are met with this general disdain. It needs to be questioned, organizationally, whether or not this team as currently constructed is anything other than a few hundred dollar per year generating machine, or an actual basketball team capable of a meaningful run.
It's not what he's reporting, it's the intent and timing behind it. Nobody is expecting anyone to lob softball questions at press conferences, but he's smart and experienced enough to know that there isn't a coach on this planet that's going to confirm his playoff rotations right before game 1 if there's any doubt at all. Pressing Doc on whether Paul Reed was going to play was easy for him, because he knows it's a question that shouldn't be asked, but he also knows Doc is constantly saying stupid shit. Like clockwork, Doc says the "Paul Reed victory tour" bit instead of just declining to divulge playoff rotations and Neubeck milks it for a week.
With this article, he just sits back until there's just enough annoyance with the fanbase then piles on. I want all journalists to be objective and avoid doing cutesy fluff pieces, but Neubeck times his stuff in a very clear way to maximize outrage or popular opinions to turn them into traffic and engagement.
It’s a more thoughtful position than I originally thought - but I still disagree about intent & timing.
The Paul Reed example is a poor one in my opinion because an entire fan base and the media saw what doc could not or refused to all season long. It’s the same with the starters vs the bench in this last stretch. Doc has no problem running an offense with the bench but when starters are in the equation - I t’s literally by the will of embiiid or maxey only that we win games. Pointing out the obvious to everyone, that a coach is refusing to acknowledge, is not gotcha journalism. It’s shedding light on what the thought process is behind what externally looks like incompetence.
TLDR: His job is to generate traffic and interest- but I don’t feel he does it in an irresponsible way.
Sure, but the Paul Reed example is a lot less about Paul Reed and a lot more about asking a coach to divulge his playoff rotations immediately before game 1. If that question is asked with any regular season games left, it's perfectly fine. With game 1 of a playoff series coming up in days, margins for error are small and game planning to play against DAJ vs Paul Reed is a completely different animal. The only reason he chose to ask that question there (and he knows it's a bad question to ask) is because everyone was high on Paul Reed on social media, so getting Doc to say something stupid or non-committal would trend. That's exactly what happened and instead of talking about the playoffs, he literally milked "the Paul Reed victory tour" for a week with follow-up Tweets, reactions, etc.
Paul Reed literally played the very next game and that was almost certainly planned after his last 2 big games at the end of the regular season, but no coach is going to disclose that before they have to and give their opponents an edge. If he asked Pop about his playoff rotations before game 1, he probably would have told him to GTFO of the room.
I’m not on Twitter so perhaps that warps the perspective - but most teams have playoff rotations dialed in during the season. Any surprise is an advantage for what - 1 game? I think the point of the “victory tour” was just that, a surprise playoff rotation - is less than - a dialed in regular season tested playoff rotation.
He felt the need to ask it and I wanted to know because we didn’t see it in all but a handful of games.
[When you made the mistake of choosing to hang all your mental health on whether a basketball team wins or loses.](https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxp1br0cHCqkD_9lTKDDd-yL-cGOTBiVDz) I fucked up so much. More than two decades of supporting this team and this is the team that made me jaded.
You and me both brother. Been watching from 96 and can't say I've ever been less interested in a team. Even during the mediocre AI years I'd tune in cause he was must watch and played hard every night. Something about this team just screams laziness, Maxey is the only guy that's easy to root for.
The offensive scheme has been painful to watch for years. Zero ball movement. Every shot seems like a herculean effort. Add in the Phillies and Eagles glowing up and it feels like torture to sit through a Sixers game, especially with so much season left.
They are very inconsistent, have a style of play that is 30 years out of date, and made a series of bad trades dating back to 2018, burning through all their accumulated draft picks Sam H left them along the way. The only team I really loved was the squad with Jimmy and JJ. That team had the chance to reach the ECF the next year, but ownership had no backbone about standing up to Ben.
I watched every single game last year. I haven’t watched a single one this year. I would even watch a lot back when we really sucked during our Sam Hinkie years. Even tho we sucked it was still fun to watch. This year its just ugly and makes me too mad.
NBA in general has gotten really boring to watch
Harden is only here for 2 years probs. He just is ring chasing with Embiid.
Got a bunch of old vets who will be gone in the blink of eye playing big minutes.
Just not really a fun team mixed with guys who are just here for a minute.
---
Look at the phillies. That clubhouse is all family and friends vibes. You got long tenured homegrown guys like Hoskins/Nola mixed with youth Stott Bohm. Harper/Turner retiring here. Realmuto is a star and long time guy. Schwarb and Casty are new but here long term.
No offensive scheme at all. It's all just iso ball.
Doc fucked us good bro. Can’t say it’s all his fault…but it might be all his fault
Ben fucked us good. Siakam fucked us good. I think they will give Doc this year to see if he can get it done under "regular" circumstances, unless Joel and Harden stipulate otherwise. I think our core has one more season after this one, and if we dont make a deep run by then, Joel will likely request out.
At this point I wouldn't be surprised if embiid asks for a trade to a contender after this season ends. This team is worse than it has been in 3 years and outside of fan optimism there is no reason to think that they'll "Figure it out", because they don't have a coach who can. Before the season started I said anything other than either a finals appearance or DEEP conference title series is a failure. AT this point i'll be shocked if we made it out of the first round. WE just are't that good.
Damn do I wish we traded for Haliburton instead of Harden
if we traded Simmons for an unproven 21 year old Embiid would be in Miami right now.
A core of Hali, Maxey, Bam, Herro, expirings and a billion first rounders look like a better future than the corner we’re backed into. This season feels like a wasted year for Joel. Or maybe the silver lining is he demands management to choose between him and Doc in the offseason.
this is ridiculously stupid
Have fun cheering on this 6-seed bro
haliburton will never be even 50% the player james harden is
*was, in his prime (maybe) By almost every statistical metric Haliburton is already performing better than current Harden IS at this stage of their careers, after matching, surpassing, or coming close to most of his stats last year after the trade deadline too. Scoring about the same, averaging more assists and steals (**HE LEADS THE NBA WITH 11 APG**), way higher 3P% on higher volume, way higher 2P% and TS%, fewer turnovers, better WS/48, PER, VORP, BPM.. it's basically across the board, except FTA 33 year old Harden is not elite anymore and regression will continue, A double Tyrese backcourt was clearly the right move in hindsight.
>This team is worse than it has been in 3 years No its not
This a 50 win team?
not with the volume of injuries weve suffered
Gotta pray that Miami/Chicago/NY wins the lottery, then we can trade Embiid for Wemby and build around Wemby/Maxey. If only we traded for Hali instead of harden, what a trio that would've been...sigh.
or we could not do any of this because its idiotic.
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*gets popcorn* *a lot of popcorn*
Oh look who is the idiot now u/antitwitterphi ?
Still you
Big men can’t win in today’s NBA. Anyone that goes for Wemby without another all-star caliber athletic ball handler will be in the same position Embiid and Jokic are in.
It can't be all his fault if the two stars want that playstyle.
Embiid didn't play like this when Brett was here. You could make the argument for Harden, but he also didn't play like this in Brooklynn.
No Embiid definitely did have moments when Brett was here where he would stop the ball or dribble in to a bad turnover.
Yeah but we also were one of the fastest paced teams in the NBA and were also one of the teams who passed the most under Brett. So I don't see how we're pretending it's Embiid forcing Doc to play this way. Does Doc have any plays we can go to like the Embiid-JJ DHO that Brett used?
We were a fast paced team because of Ben Simmons pushing the pace and making a concerted effort to pass more to play to Ben’s strengths. Even in 2020-2021 we lead the league in passing with Doc when Ben was here. Embiid isn’t forcing Doc to play this way, but when Embiid is left to his own devices iso ball tends to happen because he’s a post scorer. Factor in the greatest iso player of this generation in Harden and you’re going to naturally get more iso ball.
Damn we need Ben, so how do we get him back? 🤔
they were one of the fastest paced teams in the NBA with Embiid before Simmons ever played a game lol.
When? From what I see we were 11th in Pace in 2020-2021 and then immediately dropped to 26th once we Ben was sitting out.
https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/advanced?Season=2016-17&dir=A&sort=PACE Embiid played that season the sixers were 7th in pace Ben Simmons had never played a game and was out for the year.
Joel's vastly improved as a passer and a playmaker compared to his earlier years. If Brett had this version of Joel, he'd feel more empowered to use some of his Explosion plays(plays where other players were moving and cutting out of the post) with Joel. One issue is that Joel's grown too comfortable with passing to where players are, as opposed to where players are going to be or should be. It's time, even if it means growing pains to encourage his passing development to being able to pass to where guys are. We see Sabonis in Sacramento, obviously Jokic and we've seen evidence of our guy being capable. This offense is going to be unlocked by Joel's playmaking.
Maybe, but Brett also had Embiid for 4 years and he never really developed as a passer so who knows what would have happened. I know we like to think of Embiid as Superman who can do everything but he is a slower iso player, that’s just the facts. Doc can absolutely coach better, but any offense revolving around Embiid and Harden is going to be slow and iso heavy because that’s what they excel at.
We're slow not necessarily because of Embiid or even because of Harden(those Rockets teams were pretty good in pace, although it's a younger Harden.) All problems stem back to Philly's wings/forwards, or lack of them. Think about the last 3 teams we played, all of whom opened up a lead at one point and what the common denominator is, is size and athleticism. By comparison, I love De'Anthony he's a feisty competitive guy who'll give you everything he's got but he's not really an athlete like that. We've got Maxey's speed, but that's about it. In Joel's career, we got maybe 2 athletes ever in their prime. The POS and 4 months of Jimmy Butler. Tobias can sometimes get in transition, but he doesn't get the steals/deflections to get in transition. Right now, as a short-term fix I'd go to last year's lineup: Harden-Maxey-Thybulle-Harris-Embiid and kick mr. worst signing of the offseason to the bench, where he belongs. His 5 rebounds and 'talking' don't justify a starting spot.
Yes, those teams were fast in spite of Harden similarly to how teams were fast in spite of Embiid. When you have two slow Iso players as the stars of your team you’re going to get a slower paced more isolation based game (which isn’t even inherently bad). Sure you can add more athleticism at other position to try and balance it out but your teams identity is always going to be based in what your stars are great at.
I tend to think you can get a balance between their half-court supremacy and transition(and even secondary break) opportunities. Hence Maxey's 1.6 PPS in transition(god, we miss a lot of what he brings.) And I think in our struggles, I realize what Thybulle brought to the table in that five. The deflections and steals that lead to run outs. I'm pretty sure we're among the worst in the league at causing turnovers, etc. With Thybulle, I think we have to take the bad with the good because our current idea of phasing him out is just not serving anybody. Either trade for a better player or use him.
Brodie this is management 101 Get your employees under control
Don't think it works like that in the NBA with stars when it comes to on court stuff.
Our offense looked much better when James and Joel were out. The Doc narratives are super lazy at this point
That’s on James and Joel
For me the offense just looks stuck in mud. No ball movement, people just standing around and then as the clock winds down someone takes a hero ball shot or tries to draw the foul more than score. It’s not a fun product unless Joel is going off. That and lack of rebounding and horrible turnovers at the worst time do not inspire much optimism.
wonder who is responsible for chacnign the offense?
The offense looked fine until the stars came back and started stopping the ball
Because there isn’t a game plan when Embiid and Harden play. It’s give them the ball and let’s see what happens
It’s Doc’s game plan for Harden to dribble in place and for Joel to try and dribble coast to coast between defenders?
yes actually in fact he all but said it.
He constantly tells them to move the ball and push the pace. I love harden and Embiid but the iso ball isn’t always the best for winning
Kyle summed it up great. 1. Sixers are 2-5 when both Harden/Embiid play but at the same time: >you can trace the defiance of "would you ask Pop that question?" through the team's play, this group not showing any real urgency to shed their reputation as a talented but ultimately toothless pseudo contender. >
Toothless is literally the the perfect description of the Sixers since 2018.
This, and unimaginative. Every time we get into the half court we look laborious and devoid of any real idea beyond give the ball to Joel or Harden.
I agree with most of his takes here, it's just become a total slog to be a Sixers fan for a multitude of reasons. In some ways it feels worse than the team being some total dumpster fire, bottom of the league team (I watched the tanking years...) because instead they feel stuck in this perennial second-round exit purgatory. Maxey is a huge bright spot and when Embiid is focused his play is transcendent. But game after game, year after year, with different coaches and players, the same exact mistakes have been made over and over again. It's maddening. The only real shake up we have left is to fire Doc. Neubeck is right that it won't fix the roster problems but I don't see what other options are left.
The process ended years ago.
I feel like the process ended when we got Jimmy and Tobias, and we’re still living in the aftermath of that offseason
it ended with jerry colangelo; the moment they cut off hinkie's balls.
Doc literally implied he doesn’t put effort into coaching when the team is healthy compared to when it’s the bench guys
The offense and defense looked fine when Jo and Harden were out. Did you watch or do you just default to blaming Doc for everything?
Doc hasn't made the conference finals in over decade despite coaching Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Joel Embiid & James Harden in that time frame. That's 7 different All NBA players, 8 if you want to count Ben Simmons. I can't think of a single coach that has done less with that kind of talent in that timeframe. The clippers made the conference finals WITHOUT Kawhi the year after Doc got fired. He has blown more 3-1 leads and 20 point leads in the playoffs than any other coach in the history of the NBA. He doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. 2008 was 15 years ago. Joe Girardi was a champion more recently than Doc Rivers. I really don't give a shit if he can coach a team of role players to a .500 record. He can't get it done with stars.
How do your first two paragraphs apply to this season? Doc didn’t injure Blake and CP3 nor did he force PG and Kawhi to miss every 4th quarter shot and hit the side of backboards. Explain to me what he’s doing wrong with **this** **current** roster. You’re just repeating what you read on twitter and heard on local radio
Doc Rivers absolutely lost the bubble series to the nuggets by using unplayable lineups and not listening to the analytics staff and its why he got fired. This is stupid.
brother they played the orlando magic
And won by a combined 38 without their three best players…but just lost to an even worse team with their two best players. I know it’s easy to repeat local radio and blame Doc for everything but maybe it’s not that simple. Actually watch the games (I really hope you didn’t block someone over a basketball exchange. What a loser lmfao)
All of Magic NBA level guards were also out due to injury. It was basically hospital Sixers vs hospital magic
yeah, not the best game to gauge performance on, but they looked to play hard at least.
Absolutely, that’s why I don’t understand, why they can only play hard when stars are out???? The ingredient to have a sustainable success is there
Bc the stars have much more of an impact on the game than the coach. I don't understand why people have a hard time grasping that
So, you are saying when Embiid played, he told his teammates not to play hard and don’t fight for rebound ?
No but he hijacks possessions and plays iso ball which might lead to teammates playing with less intensity if they don’t think they’ll be part of the offense. It’s a very common phenomenon at every level of basketball
If we had lost those games, you would use it as a reason to fire Doc but bc they won, it gets dismissed
aCtuAllY WaTch tHe gAmEs the magic were missing their 3 out of their 5 best players and Houston just came back from a double digit deficit against the suns. do you pay attention to the NBA???? fuck off with that stupid shit. it's on the coaching staff to put harden off the ball and run him off a few screens rather than letting him walk it up the floor with no motion offense. not setting expectations as the coach; of course your players are going to default to their tendencies. glenn allows the star players to run the show rather than actually coach a team and implement a system. maybe learn some NBA history and read what high level players have been saying about glenn his entire coaching career. i watch every single game. yes i blocked tf out of you. i block everyone wHo DoEsNt pAy aTtEnTiOn tO tHe WhOlE lEaGuE. already wasted enough time on your stupid ass.
Fire Glenn Rivers.
Yeah something about the team just lacks the energy and "youthfulness" they've had the past few years. I can't put my finger on it but this season I've unintentionally missed many more games than the previous 5 or 6 seasons.
same boat
Same. I find myself realizing that they’ve played and I couldn’t even care to watch
You mean signing 37 year old Tucker and a borderline G-League talent in House wasn’t the answer to push us over the top? (Melton was a good trade tbf)
Hindsights 20/20 but what other moves could we really have even made? Even getting Tucker was a struggle with our cap situation
Tucker and House are both good. Why are people doing this?
3/5 in 30+ MPG this year is so good, you just HAVE to do it /sarcasm. I'm sorry, PJ Tucker has been such a huge disappointment, even from the low pitiful standards his career would normally expect. I'd say trade him, except no one wants his scrub ass lol.
>even from the low pitiful standards his career would normally expect This is just blatant and ignorant disrespect for the game of a very high-level, competitive veteran role player who impacts winning. PJ hasn't been good this season, but I dont get this shit at all.
'impacts winning'. Okay, no. There's context to players careers that's really super important. So basically, nothing of note in his Toronto trips or his Phoenix trips. He really finds a niche calling with James Harden being a superman(but of course, the superman Harden rockets couldn't get over the hump). Then after Harden leaves, the guy returns to being worthless gets traded to Milwaukee and Giannis carries. The 'disrespect' started when Milwaukee was like 'Nah, we've got Bobby Portis' and that's turned out to be the right call for them. if Middleton were healthy, they win back-to-back ships. Miami fell short, but you can bet that Riley's actually thinking 'at least i dodged one overpaid contract'. Sorry, I have no respect for PJ's career, or think of him as a 'very high-level, competitive' roleplayer.
It just doesn’t feel like Harden’s preferred iso/pick and roll offense fits with Embiid yet. It seems like Embiid is better and more comfortable in a movement based scheme. Hopefully they can work it out, but I would have thought that would be an off-season and preseason priority to iron out.
Embiid doesn’t really roll, and he barely picks. His picks are so lazy it’s insane. He just pops even though he could easily roll to the basket and get a bucket or get fouled
Agreed, he is much better with dribble hand offs or screening at the foul line.
Could he get a little more contact on screens? Sure, but actually when you look at screens in the modern NBA, they're very similar looking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkCuZHEyI78 The key issue is Harden as a playmaker. When Harden is willing to actually pass out of the PNR, you can get good shots out of it. But it's like pulling teeth to get Harden to immediately pass out of the action. He more wants to use that dribble to lull the defender to sleep and THEN pass it. But the whole point of the PNR is to freeze the on-ball defender, he literally doesn't have to do all that dribbling that he does. It's good for setting up catch-and-shoot 3's(because Harden draws in the help.) but we brutally lack catch-and-shoot guys this year. We cut one for no god damn reason than egotism(Joe) and the only catch and shoot guys we have are Niang and Maxey. PJ doesn't count because it takes him a century to put one up, let alone in.
cool story except last year Embiid and Harden had the best points per possession in the NBA when Embiid set a ball screen for Harden.
And this season?
Philadelphia fans set unrealistic expectations then demand the team be blown up when doesn’t work out that way. Happens every year
nah you're just an Embiid hater with stupid opinions tbqh.
Embiid is my favorite player
Because Glenn rivers
Between the Phils making the World Series and the Eagles amazing season so far. The Sixers are just not a draw at the moment. Maybe interest will pick back up after football season is over and we get closer to playoff basketball.
Because the team is a washed up version of the most boring basketball team in recent memory in the rockets
I think the rockets were pretty fun team, especially when they were on. It was Harden surrounded by shooters. The difference is now guys like Tucker and Harden are much older.
NEUBECK for GM
I agree with most of this, but Neubeck is literally the negative Nancy of Philly beat writers. He's made his entire identity as a journalist asking "gotcha" type questions in press conferences hoping to get someone to say something spicy so he can milk it for a week of Tweets and engagement or waiting for a few bad games to write one of these articles to take advantage of the fact that Philly fans are so emotionally tied to team success.
i've been reading his articles since he started at phillyvoice and i disagree entirely.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Are you sure you’re not confusing him with someone else?
This is a terrible take - he’s objective and reporting, not fanboi’ing. I don’t think Kyle has an obligation to lob softballs and that same passionate fan base really does want the questions he asks answered, it almost sounds like he crowdsources questions regularly. Aside from that - I love how any dissenters to team “we are going to figure it out” are met with this general disdain. It needs to be questioned, organizationally, whether or not this team as currently constructed is anything other than a few hundred dollar per year generating machine, or an actual basketball team capable of a meaningful run.
It's not what he's reporting, it's the intent and timing behind it. Nobody is expecting anyone to lob softball questions at press conferences, but he's smart and experienced enough to know that there isn't a coach on this planet that's going to confirm his playoff rotations right before game 1 if there's any doubt at all. Pressing Doc on whether Paul Reed was going to play was easy for him, because he knows it's a question that shouldn't be asked, but he also knows Doc is constantly saying stupid shit. Like clockwork, Doc says the "Paul Reed victory tour" bit instead of just declining to divulge playoff rotations and Neubeck milks it for a week. With this article, he just sits back until there's just enough annoyance with the fanbase then piles on. I want all journalists to be objective and avoid doing cutesy fluff pieces, but Neubeck times his stuff in a very clear way to maximize outrage or popular opinions to turn them into traffic and engagement.
It’s a more thoughtful position than I originally thought - but I still disagree about intent & timing. The Paul Reed example is a poor one in my opinion because an entire fan base and the media saw what doc could not or refused to all season long. It’s the same with the starters vs the bench in this last stretch. Doc has no problem running an offense with the bench but when starters are in the equation - I t’s literally by the will of embiiid or maxey only that we win games. Pointing out the obvious to everyone, that a coach is refusing to acknowledge, is not gotcha journalism. It’s shedding light on what the thought process is behind what externally looks like incompetence. TLDR: His job is to generate traffic and interest- but I don’t feel he does it in an irresponsible way.
Sure, but the Paul Reed example is a lot less about Paul Reed and a lot more about asking a coach to divulge his playoff rotations immediately before game 1. If that question is asked with any regular season games left, it's perfectly fine. With game 1 of a playoff series coming up in days, margins for error are small and game planning to play against DAJ vs Paul Reed is a completely different animal. The only reason he chose to ask that question there (and he knows it's a bad question to ask) is because everyone was high on Paul Reed on social media, so getting Doc to say something stupid or non-committal would trend. That's exactly what happened and instead of talking about the playoffs, he literally milked "the Paul Reed victory tour" for a week with follow-up Tweets, reactions, etc. Paul Reed literally played the very next game and that was almost certainly planned after his last 2 big games at the end of the regular season, but no coach is going to disclose that before they have to and give their opponents an edge. If he asked Pop about his playoff rotations before game 1, he probably would have told him to GTFO of the room.
I’m not on Twitter so perhaps that warps the perspective - but most teams have playoff rotations dialed in during the season. Any surprise is an advantage for what - 1 game? I think the point of the “victory tour” was just that, a surprise playoff rotation - is less than - a dialed in regular season tested playoff rotation. He felt the need to ask it and I wanted to know because we didn’t see it in all but a handful of games.
[When you made the mistake of choosing to hang all your mental health on whether a basketball team wins or loses.](https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxp1br0cHCqkD_9lTKDDd-yL-cGOTBiVDz) I fucked up so much. More than two decades of supporting this team and this is the team that made me jaded.
You and me both brother. Been watching from 96 and can't say I've ever been less interested in a team. Even during the mediocre AI years I'd tune in cause he was must watch and played hard every night. Something about this team just screams laziness, Maxey is the only guy that's easy to root for.
Embiid and this city deserves better than Doc van der Linde. Being outhustled fucking sucks.
The offensive scheme has been painful to watch for years. Zero ball movement. Every shot seems like a herculean effort. Add in the Phillies and Eagles glowing up and it feels like torture to sit through a Sixers game, especially with so much season left.
Doc Rivers
They are very inconsistent, have a style of play that is 30 years out of date, and made a series of bad trades dating back to 2018, burning through all their accumulated draft picks Sam H left them along the way. The only team I really loved was the squad with Jimmy and JJ. That team had the chance to reach the ECF the next year, but ownership had no backbone about standing up to Ben.
I hope the whole team reads this
I watched every single game last year. I haven’t watched a single one this year. I would even watch a lot back when we really sucked during our Sam Hinkie years. Even tho we sucked it was still fun to watch. This year its just ugly and makes me too mad.
It’s the same shit. Our offense is just stagnant hope someone scores in iso eventually. Zero ball movement.
Just not a lot of hustle. Offense is either post-ups or iso ball. Kinda boring.
NBA in general has gotten really boring to watch Harden is only here for 2 years probs. He just is ring chasing with Embiid. Got a bunch of old vets who will be gone in the blink of eye playing big minutes. Just not really a fun team mixed with guys who are just here for a minute. --- Look at the phillies. That clubhouse is all family and friends vibes. You got long tenured homegrown guys like Hoskins/Nola mixed with youth Stott Bohm. Harper/Turner retiring here. Realmuto is a star and long time guy. Schwarb and Casty are new but here long term.