OT: Philadelphia 76ers: Taking Our Talents To The Offseason

[Jack Straw]

Saric is a valuable guy for the Sixers. He's not great at anything in particular, but he's pretty good at most things. He's one of the best the Sixers have on the offensive boards. I like his passing too, we're not seeing quite as much of that this year with Simmons playing. Eventually we'll get Fultz back which should help the shooting issues.

 

[McNasty]

The plays by Brown and bad possessions at critical junctures in the game have been troublesome in the last 7-8 games.

Reddick 5 turnovers at the worst times...

It's getting increasingly frustrating that when they get late in tight games, whether ahead or behind they just start jacking up 3s. In some respects if you have shooters getting open shots you'll roll the dice on that, but there are also times they're tied or even up a few where they just chuck a contested shot up with 18 on the clock. They need to be able to slow the game down, milk the clock, and work some higher percentage shots.

 

[Jack Straw]

I think we can now officially say that there is a curse on Sixers rookies

76ers' Furkan Korkmaz: Out indefinitely with foot injury

 

[Embiid]

I wonder what the Sixers resident zoologist thinks of all these injuries to players hooves ...

 

[Les Averman]

I'm really starting to get over this Embiid missing games thing. This is pathetic. If he can't play because you played him 49 minutes, don't play him 49 minutes.

 

[Jack Straw]

On the positive side, Ben Simmons hits two jump shots in one quarter. Film at 11.

 

[Cody Webster]

I was kind of joking when I said he wasn't going to play again until Christmas, guess it's not far fetched

 

[Embiid]

Sixers about to blow another game....

 

[Jack Straw]

I know they were seriously short handed, but that was a very disappointing loss.

 

[Embiid]

I'm really starting to get over this Embiid missing games thing. This is pathetic. If he can't play because you played him 49 minutes, don't play him 49 minutes.

Supposedly he said he would be playing more come January.....back to back. But probably not likely since now his back is going to be giving him issues. Get used to him being a 50 game player....at best. Remember...statistically the NBA has been tracking games played by first round picks who are over 7 foot and they tend to miss 25 to 30% of their games. Embiid is a big body.....they are going to have to manage his games for his whole career how ever long that may be. He will be like Bynum until he gets totally shot. Kind of sucks but I am resigning myself to this.....

 

[FLYguy3911]

That was terrible.

 

[Jack Straw]

I think at some point the Sixers need an upgrade at SF. Covington’s defense is great, but on offense, if he’s not hitting threes he’s pretty useless. And his 3 pt shooting is just wildly inconsistent. He can’t put the ball on the floor, doesn’t get to the rim, not much of a passer, he should be coming off the bench.

 

[FLYguy3911]

He’s not a primary scorer and when he’s forced to be one he looks bad. Same with Bayless but that goes without saying.

 

[Jack Straw]

Yeah but at least Bayless isn’t a starter.

 

[Stop the Madness]

simmons taking 6 shots after being assertive in the 1st quarter is insane

 

[Jtown]

simmons taking 6 shots after being assertive in the 1st quarter is insane

It’s embarrassing

 

[Jack Straw]

Simmons hit those two jumpers from the elbow and then I don’t think he took another one the rest of the game. He can have that shot any time he wants, he needs take those.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

Brett Brown is really bad at the end of games.

 

[Les Averman]

I'm also starting to get fed up a bit with Brown being given all of these excuses for not being able to close out games. I get that the team is still young, but the turnovers are not getting any better, and the team just seems to have no idea what to do with the ball late in the game. That's not a player issue, but a coaching problem if guys are forcing and jacking up shots that don't make sense because there's no structure to what they should be doing.

The team is just flat out being outcoached late in games. They're playing with no confidence, and guys like Covington, Bayless and Redick, who are not creators, are trying to make things happen on their own off the dribble.

 

[Frickley]

They're actually good in late game situations so far. Brett Brown is not the issue. The fact is that the primary initiator (Simmons) can't shoot at all, your best clutch option (Embiid) is going to get doubled and is turnover prone, and there's no one who can create and make their own shot.

The collapses suck, but big picture, the roster is still not right. Need a player who can generate their own offense at multiple levels (Fultz, hopefully) and some quality wing depth badly.

 

[FatTugboatFlahr]

ATO's and late game must score situations are not even close to being the same thing.

 

[tucson83]

I'm also starting to get fed up a bit with Brown being given all of these excuses for not being able to close out games. I get that the team is still young, but the turnovers are not getting any better, and the team just seems to have no idea what to do with the ball late in the game. That's not a player issue, but a coaching problem if guys are forcing and jacking up shots that don't make sense because there's no structure to what they should be doing.

The team is just flat out being outcoached late in games. They're playing with no confidence, and guys like Covington, Bayless and Redick, who are not creators, are trying to make things happen on their own off the dribble.

it is a coaching issue, if brett brown was so great, why werent other teams going after him? i mean when you see a team like the celtics play with such a high level and their prospects are progressing better than our team, it tells you that's coaching not talent. at some point a change has to be made, otherwise the highly regarded prospects on this team is going to get worse and they are going to want out. you can just look at the team, they look lost, defeated.

 

[Jack Straw]

The Sixers didn't lose this game because they couldn't execute at the end of the game, they lost because they coughed up a 16 pt third quarter lead by missing shots and turning the ball over. Brown doesn't get a free pass but he's not the one handing the ball to the other team and missing open shots.

One of things that I've noticed over the last few weeks is that the Sixers are not consistently showing that nice ball movement that we saw earlier in the year. And they need that, because as others have already noted, they lack guys who can create their own shot. So you need the ball and bodies moving to get those looks. I suspect this may be a result of relying too much on Embiid. Brown has mentioned that it's a bit of a struggle to find the right balance between playing with pace and playing through Embiid, and I think the balance has tilted too far toward relying on Embiid.

 

[FLYguy3911]

1-6 now without Embiid.

 

[Jack Straw]

it is a coaching issue, if brett brown was so great, why werent other teams going after him? i mean when you see a team like the celtics play with such a high level and their prospects are progressing better than our team, it tells you that's coaching not talent. at some point a change has to be made, otherwise the highly regarded prospects on this team is going to get worse and they are going to want out. you can just look at the team, they look lost, defeated.

Which prospects are we talking about here? Marcus Smart? Nice player but not exactly setting the world on fire. Tatum is their most impressive prospect and he's not progressing any better than Simmons, and we don't really know about Fultz yet. Brown has turned two undrafted players, Covington and McConnell into legit NBA players. He's developed Embiid (who was insanely raw at the beginning of last year) into one of the league's best big men, and is turning Simmons into a legit NBA point guard. In fact would argue that the one thing you can't really criticize Brown for is his development of young players. Apart from Okafor, who was just a bad fit, he's done a great job with the young players.