Speaker 1: What is up, fellow sikos.
Speaker 2: I'm Dan Valley coming at you with the tail end
of our' look ahead series. We're on to the Philadelphia
seventy six Ers, which means I have the distinct pleasure
to be joined by a first time guest. Covers this
team fantastically, I might add for phl y Sports, the
links to their social handles will be in the podcast
and YouTube description.
Speaker 1: I don't want to trip over the name more than
I probably already will.
Speaker 2: You can also find his Twitter handle in the podcast
and YouTube description description. Mister Kyle Neubeck, thank you so
much for joining me.
Speaker 1: How the heck are you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm doing well. I thankfully, unlike the Sixers, made it
through the preseason unscathed, so I'm knock on wood. I
guess there's one more game tomorrow night as we're talking
here on Thursday. But doing good. I'm ready for another
season where inevitably it will end in the second round,
but we'll pretend it won't for another six months or so.
Speaker 2: I would guess That's where we have to start. Is
why is the Paul Georgia just audition a bust already?
Speaker 1: Kyle?
Speaker 2: Seems like that might be a censor to flow around
Sixers social media.
Speaker 3: We have some some people who have been in our
chat on our show essentially declaring victory that they never
should have signed this guy. Look, it's already happened because
of it, you know, a very minor preseason injury, which
is it's very I guess it's very online fandom in general,
but definitely very Philadelphia to be declaring a victor or
a loser in mid October. But I'm a little more
optimistic on Paul George, as I'm sure we'll get into
over the course of this show.
Speaker 2: There does seem to be a type of fandom, Like
there's so many different subsets, but there's one more. I
think people just want to be right. And so if
your initial impression was the Sixer shouldn't sign Paul George,
this is validation for that that he's going to miss
a week or two or whatever it ends up being.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean listen, As someone who loves being right himself,
I understand the inclination to say, hey, look at me.
This is I was first on this type of thing,
but normally I would wait until at least the games
start to matter, and you know, if there was a
obviously we don't. We're not knock on wood, We're not
rooting for any injuries, let alone serious injuries. But I
would say wait until Paul actually misses a meaningful game
before anyone has some strong takes on it.
Speaker 2: So that's where I wanted to start, is what's the
level of concern? And I guess we should just start
with Paul George and you already kind of said that.
It doesn't seem like there should be a you know,
five alarm fire here. There's no real concern about this
is like maybe if this was the playoffs, things would
be a little bit more expedited. This is more you
viewed as preseason precaution than anything else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they said when they were the six
Ers released their statement, they'd give an update in a week,
and you know, see where they're at. So they've at
least left the door open on him playing Opening Night,
which bone bruises are tricky, right, They can be a
real lingering injury. There's levels of severity to it. And
I think the fact that they haven't said, hey, he's
not playing Night one, or he's not playing Opening week
or whatever, like pushing it out weeks at a time.
I think that suggests that it's a pretty minor one,
and they escaped about as well as they could given
how gnarly it kind of looked in the moment. But look,
he's a thirty four year old, where I'm sure he's
not healing as quickly anymore. I'm exactly the same age
as Paul, so I can say that without looking down
on him.
Speaker 2: For that five year old who some people think Paul
George is thirty five. That seems to be a sentiment
that's flowing around too.
Speaker 1: I can't confirmed.
Speaker 3: I've gotten some He's thirty six ones this summer. So
it's like every every time something bad happens, he's thirty
eight years old.
Speaker 1: Time He's going to be forty seven by the end
of the season.
Speaker 3: It's crazy. But yeah, so I would say minimal concern
on him and Embeed is the interesting one, I think, right,
and so like that, you know that never dissipates. It's
always we could go four straight months of he as
immaculate health. He plays every game, and everyone always feels
like the trap door is in front of you somewhere.
It's just a matter of where it is. I would
say the fan base is more freaked out about him
because I think afterward seeing him at the Olympics this
summer and had some moments but certainly did not look
his best physically during that run, and then not knowing
that he's not playing a lot of five on five,
if at all, for most of the preseason. He's not
playing in any of their games. There's like, oh, are
the Sixers hiding something sort of deal. But Nick Nurse
came out and said, I want to say it was
Monday or sometime earlier this week that you know he's
on schedule for what they're doing and how they're managing him.
So I mean, unless they're just straight up lying and
he had some kind of stepback, we don't know about.
Always possible, but I would say it's more unlikely. Then
I think this is just kind of the new normal
for Joel. I've talked with people around the team who
they refer to him kind of like the quarterback and
training camp, or they put the red jersey on him
and say like, nobody's touching this guy. And then we'll wait.
Everybody goes to sleep and we'll wake up day one
of the season, and that's when it all starts, But yeah,
I mean concern for sure, because if they're not healthy,
nothing matters, especially in Joel's case. But it does seem
like it's going to be a bit of a paradigm
shift with how they manage him throughout the season.
Speaker 2: And for me, I think that's where I don't know
if it's concerned, But the difficulty reconciling it all comes
in is that it feels like just a lot is
being thrown at us at once. That he's probably gonna
still wear a knee brace, he's not going to play
back to backs. He lost a bunch of weight twenty
plus pounds or whatever it is. How does that factor
and does it make him better leaner? Does it impact
his physicality at all? And just like the Olympics I
tossed that out of just like there's a Joellemban ramp up.
We go through this all the time when he comes
back from injury. So that didn't bother me too much.
But it just feels like we're getting inundated with I
guess realities we could have assumed, but they also feel
new where it was like, Okay, he didn't like the
knee brace, if he's going to continue wearing that, what
does it mean?
Speaker 1: And so does that like just.
Speaker 2: Sort of having all this new or updated information or
I guess now is that, oh, this is just kind
of the new reality. Do you think that plays a
role in kind of the doomsday perception.
Speaker 3: Of it all? Absolutely? And you know the thing with
the brace is I'm interested to see how much carries
over from I think, and this is probably true of
most guys who would have to wear a brace. His
mobility has looked more limited when he's worn a brace,
whether that's in the Olympics and the last season other
times when he's been coming back from this stuff. But
you also have to consider he in most cases where
he's wearing the brace has been rusty or hasn't played
for a while, and it's like, so the conditioning base
is not there. And I saw him interested this year
to see is it just that he cannot be as
mobile that he wants or needs to be wearing a
brace period or has it just been two things happening
at once that it has compounded that And I think
he has probably accepted Look like I've had repeated injuries,
I can't really be taking extreme risk or any more
than the minimal risk with my knee and my lower extremities.
I think he's kind of accepted at this point, like
I'll have to adapt to it, and maybe I think
it'll be less on the defensive end. Then maybe we
won't see as many Euro steps and some of the
more ridiculous stuff that he does offensively. But the tough
part is, right now, we just haven't seen him right, Like,
it's only all we've seen him do in the preseason
is basically shooting drills after practices. So there is a
little bit of hugs, right, Yeah, well, no shooting drills
in the ugs. We have seen him in ugs, but
he's he hasn't had on his new his Sketchers since
he's now the best bootball face of a shoe that
I thought only old people were. So that's a that's
a fun subplot.
Speaker 2: Honestly, that was a good reminder when he signed the
deal that they were a brand for me, Like that's
how far removed I am from Sketchers. I feel like
I've been asking everyone who comes on what the biggest
storyline is for this team?
Speaker 1: Did we just tackle it?
Speaker 2: Because I feel like the East people like, how does
the Big three fit together? But Joel Embiid is still
such so critical to what they're doing. Is that the answer?
Is it a different answer? Like what are you kind
of tracking most closely this year for this team?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So it is the health, right, because if they
don't get to mid April early May with both Joel
and PG healthy, then kind of we could just throw
it out right now, right, Like, I think both of
us are pretty high on Tyrese Maxi in the league landscape.
But if you're asking him to take Andre Drummond and
Kelly Ubra and Caleb Martin past the second round, like
that's just that's not a reasonable ask for anyone. So
the health is number one. But I do think I
think the offshoots of how they manage Joelle are probably
the most fascinating thing to me, right, Like you can
split it up into a bunch of different categories. One
of the ones that is most interesting to me is like,
what are the consequences on the court. For one, you're
taking all the back to backs off the table allegedly,
so that's fifteen games off the top. No Joel, they've
said they'll probably build some other minimal rest in at
some point for him. Let's call that another five to
ten games, so you're in the lower sixties. Let's say
he even if he gets through with like fairly clean
bill health, he misses another five to ten. So you're
talking about, you know, mid fifties, maybe mid to high
fifties in a fair not best case scenario, but a
very good scenario. And with Maxy ascending and Paul George
is probably going to get some time off himself. You know,
what is the identity of this team? And does Maxi
become the guy for long stretches of the season, and
more importantly to me, when you get to the playoffs,
what is your identity? Because I think we see every
year most of the teams that are playoff resilient that
make it to you know, conference finals finals have had
the supporting cast and the stars mostly if not all
healthy the whole year. They figure out that they run
through their plays and their stuff and they're not even
thinking anymore, right, it's just react. Like if it's Jokich,
it's he knows this guy will make this cut at
this time, he doesn't have to look on the pass.
Anthony Edwards is running a pick and roll. He knows
what his reeds are where and you just go down
the list like Luca, same thing last year. He's got
complete command of that offense. And it's just hard when
Joel has said, like Tyresee is going to be the
guy this year and I'm going to help him with that,
and it's like it's easy to say that, and I
believe that he trusts him and wants to empower him
in that way. But once Joel is on the floor,
it's like the guy's getting the ball and the offense
is running through him. And so how do you balance
that idea of like, he's the guy when he's available,
but he's also not going to be available for let's
call it, twenty five to thirty five percent of the
season pretty much guaranteed. And is that a way to
win at a high level in the playoffs. I don't know.
The Raptors did it in twenty nineteen, but they got
absolute Apex Kawhi and they had a ton of high level,
intelligent role players. I mean even they got Marc Gasol
at the deadline. He was you know, high basketball IQ.
Kyle Lowry, high basketball IQ. Danny Green has won in
a million places, Like it's not easy to replicate that
and they were also fortunate in the finals that the
Warriors fell apart as well.
Speaker 2: Does that come down to Embied making more of an
adjustment than Maxie at this point, because I think one
of the things that's impressed me most about Tyrese MAXI
through the first you know leg of his career, he's
played so many different types of roles on like, he's
seen so many different iterations for the Sixers, and he's
only going into year five that we know that he
can adjust and shape shift kind of on a game basis,
a lineup basis, and so like what is the challenge then,
for like, is there a way for Joel Embiid to
be Again He's going to be central to the offense,
but like, what is the path to him being more
offensive compliment for stretches or coming in maybe not disrupting
some of the other elements that the Sixers have going
on without him.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the good news is that Tyresee is
the most hand in glove fit of a star that
he's ever played with offensively, Like, if you go back
through you know, the start of Joel's career, he's succeeded
with guys that are high level shooters that can shoot
on the move, that are successful out of these like
drible handoff looks right, So go back to JJ Reddick,
he was great at it. Seth Curry, who has has
not always had a home everywhere, he's been a great shooter,
but kind of like Journeyman a little bit. He was
awesome in Philly in part because Joel created space for
him and they figured out that two man game. Well,
MAXI no disrespect to those two, a far more advanced
player in a ton of different ways, way more dangerous
off the dribble. And though Joel and ty Resee have
figured out, you know, all the nuances of the two
man game out of those handoffs and just Tyrese using
his big body as a screener, Tyree's turning the corner
and making the reads. Are they trapping? Are they you know, dropping? Whatever?
And I think the most important thing is Joel trusts
Tyrese just blindly, right, I guess not blindly because incredible worker,
like the high character guy, has put the results on
paper every single year gets better, gets better, gets better.
And I think you saw in that Knick series the
what was a game five in the Garden where Maxie
went for like forty seven. That was a game where
Joel struggled for a lot of that game, and there
was a very clear point in the fourth quarter where
Maxy was like, it's my time, like I'm playing better,
and Joelle happily was just like gave him the runway
and said it's your show. Do that. And we saw
that throughout last season, at least when Joel was healthy,
So I think he wants to do whatever is it's
going to take to win. There will certainly be moments
where Joel thinks, like I have the matchup, I'm the guy, whatever.
But I do think they are so tight, both on
and off the floor, that it should help make that
process of figuring out, you know, whose night is it,
who shot is it? All that easier than it probably
would be Otherwise.
Speaker 2: I won't place limits anymore on what Tyre's max he
can become. I'm just going to be resign to the
fact that he's gotten better every year, so his ceiling
is far higher than I ever thought it would be.
Speaker 1: Is there like an area though, of.
Speaker 2: Maybe continued development that you'll be looking at heading into
this season wondering can he get better here? Polish this
off or like shure up a weakness or anything like that.
Speaker 3: So I think he would tell you he wants to
get better defensively, and a lot of his work this
summer was getting stronger, Like if you look at him
right now, he's a lot bigger than he was even
last year. What I want to see are the more
advanced passing reads right like the skip pass out of
the pick and roll. I talked to Nick Nurse some
in the Bahamas and training camp about this, and he's
not necessarily concerned with like any one specific read, but
he wants it to be where if Tyree is in
a pick and roll as the ball handler, he sees
all four reads at any given time, and it's like
I can pick my poison with where I'm going with
the ball. And so I think I want to see
him put more pressure on teams as a passer where
look they're shooting is probably not as good as you
would like it to be. They have guys who like
Caleb Martin, for example, very average regular season shooter, and
then is like Ray Allen in the playoffs apparently, so
you're going to have to get generate open looks for
these guys because I think They're not the type of
team that's going to have a lot of like, oh,
he's a high level, contested shooter, right, so you have
to pass these guys into open or to made threes
to some extent. So that's kind of what I'm looking for.
But I'm with you. I mean, every time I think
he's plateaued or he can't do this, he comes back
and it's like something news there. I actually think I
would keep an eye on his mid range shooting this
year because, oh my god, he has. He has worked
on it in the offseason and he's busted it out
some in the preseason. And Drew Hanlin, who is Embiid's
guy and now one of Maxi's guys, has been here
this week working on some stuff with him from there.
So we'll see if that bears fruit this season.
Speaker 2: If he becomes someone that can kind of like see
everything in the half court against that defense is independent
of Joelle Embid being there, that's like top fifteen player
material at that point based off everything he's already does,
which is kind of bonkers to consider. But and if
you had asked me like a year or two, I'll
be like, no, he's not going to get there and
now I'm not sure if I see it still based
on watching.
Speaker 1: But I'm like it could happen. Like that's just kind
of where I'm at with Tyrese Maxie's apex.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, he came in and he not only
was not shooting all that well, he just didn't shoot
that much. And then a year, year and a half
later he's taking James Harden step back threes and shooting
you know, forty whatever percent on pretty good volume. Like
I think one of the craziest things with him is
not just that he has improved the efficiency. So he
went from like rookie season, I want to say, like
twenty percent of his shots or threes, where last year
it's like forty plus percent of all his attempts are threes,
and so many I would bet you this is just
a blind guess. I would bet you he shot as
many pull up threes as a percentage of his shots
as he shot like total threes as a rookie, which
is just crazy to think about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, in just the usage continuing to go up,
and even kind of look at where he was, you know,
at first coming into the league, where so many of
his shots feel like that, well they are, they're coming
off of sist and then it's like last year almost
half of his threes went on assisted, Like that's just
a crazy spot to be at after where he was
just a few seasons ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think something that you know, dove tailing
with what we're talking about here, we have heard his
voice a lot more like I think he is at
the point now where he had to break through All
Star season last year, like not quite all NBA, but
getting closer to that type of territory. And I think
he now feels like I own part of this team.
It's not just oh, I'm playing next to Jewel Embiid
and Ben Simmons and then Joel Embiid and James Harden
and it's like you're one of the two main guys
and PG is number three, which you know, pretty good
situation to be in.
Speaker 2: I think overall, what is going to be this team's
actually I want to start here. On the defensive end,
there's been like this ground spell, maybe not so much lately,
but after the Paul, like the roster movement settled that
the Sixers don't have this pinnacle on ball defender, and
I kind of like well, okay, well, who is supposed
to be that guy on the roster last year? Like
you added Paul George and Caleb Martin. Of this, Kellyer
Bridge Junior can do a bunch of stuff on the ball,
Kyle Lowry is still pretty frisky.
Speaker 1: What is good?
Speaker 2: Like, is there actually any concern there about the defense?
And then the follow up question that is, like, what's
going to be this team's I've seen a lot of
talk about them creating even more chaos on the defensive end,
But what do you see that Like, what do you
see is being their identity on that end of the floor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm not really concerned about I mean, you
correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think there are
lots of like this guy is a shutdown defender guys
in the league, right, Like I think we probably.
Speaker 1: Said of not having like Blue Dort or Herb Jones.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or like Drew Holliday or whoever it might be
that you just put that guy on someone in there
in jail like that archetype is not super common. So
I think to answer your question, I think the strength
of the defense is just going to be They now
have dwel embiid who's incredible rim protector, has weaknesses as
like a switch guy in the playoffs, and those are meaningful,
but they have him for the rim defense all that,
and now they've surrounded him with three credible playoff wings,
which they basically have never done. He has never played
with basically any combination of wings that are like real guys,
like real playoff players. And so I mean, we've seen
it in the preseason. Eric Gordon has started a couple
of games here and we'll see it that ends up
tracking in the regular season, but it has allowed them
to Caleb Martin will come in with the bench, and
so Caleb comes in and is playing like really aggressive
play in the passing lanes. I think you see at
all times, even with Andre Drummond out there, they're funneling
guys toward the middle of the floor and pg's pinching
over from the wing, Kelly Ubre's pinching over just like
a lot of arms and hands and getting hands on
balls like not to read in the preseason results too hard,
as you and I were talking about before the show started.
But I think Atlanta the other night, which was like
close to a real game shot like thirty seven percent
from the field and just looked like they had no
prayer to score most of the game. So I don't
think they're going to surpass like Boston, And I would
still say Minnesota with Gobert and some of their wing guys,
they're gonna be up there as well. But I think
this team absolutely has like top three to five defensive stealing.
It's it'll be more about, you know, when Joelle's not
out there, how good are they with you know, drumming
and maybe Yabuseli playing center minutes, which that's a that's
a whole different discussion.
Speaker 2: Do they have enough I'll call it supplementary defensive rebounding?
They fared okay last year with Joel on the floor.
They do bring in Drummond, so you have those non
and be minutes. But like Tobias Harris or everything, he
wasn't like relative to disposition could grab boards, the Anthony
Melton relative to position could grab boards. Do they have
like enough of that secondary glass crassing to end those
possessions on the defensive end.
Speaker 3: So that's been probably the number one subject in Philadelphia
all summer as it relates to the Fixers, is do
they have enough rebounding. They don't have any power forwards,
even though power forwards don't exist in high supply anymore. Right,
it's very much a six to eight wing type of league.
And our thesis on on our show has been, You're
going to see, if you know, if Joelle isn't having
to contest every shot at the rim all the time,
if you know, Kelly and Paul and Caleb can at
least like guard the yard, so to speak, if that
will help free Joel up for you know, better attentiveness,
better positioning, all that on the glass. Because I mean,
he puts up good rebounding numbers, and he certainly has
stretches where he's a very good rebounder. But I think
people saw in the Olympics rebounding has never been a
strength of Joel's to the degree is for like Jokich
and some of these other guys at the top of
the big man game. So some of it will be
dependent on Joelle. I think Drummonds, certainly with the backups,
is going to be like, that's just his job. That's
mostly what he's here for is to make up for
all the other issues that they have there. But yeah,
it's something to watch going into the deadline especially, you know,
kind of what does that look like and what are
their upgrades that they probably have to make by February, and.
Speaker 2: How do you make You know, you were mentioning Embid's
limitations before, but you also mentioned how some of the
personnel now that can help him be in position for rebounds.
Speaker 1: How does that kind of impact.
Speaker 2: Though, what they look like with Joelle and being going
up against what feels like an increasing number of teams
who are playing five out where you know, we see
Boston has done it, the Knicks are attempting to do
maybe four point five out, depending on how you feel
about Josh Hart Andduce McBride, And I think you could
probably even make that case that Milwaukee, depending on how
you feel about Giannish, just because they have brooked there.
How do you feel about how this team matches up
against not even know specific opponents, but those types of
offensive models defensively.
Speaker 3: Well, so to your point, I do think it's going
to depend on the specific opponent, right, Like I think
I do not feel good about the Boston one, because
that is a true like you can't leave any of
those guys really at their top. I don't know seven
or eight can all probably shoot at like a credible
enough level that you have to defend them out there.
So what they've done in the past across you know,
multiple coaching staffs and multiple rosters, is if teams try
to spread them out, a lot of times, Joel will
be the roamer and he'll defend you know, whoever the
worst shooter is on the team. So twenty nineteen, they
played Toronto in the playoffs, and that's early Pascal siakam
right where he basically could only shoot corner threes. So
all they did was they had they had Tobias Harris
guard Gasol in the mid to high post, and then
Joel's the roamer, and that worked for a lot of
that series. Defensively, they were really really good, and I
think you'll probably see it repeat of that against team
like the Knicks, where you stick a wing on Karl
Anthony Towns. I don't think they're especially concerned about, Hey,
Carl's gonna like post up Caleb Martin or Kelly Ubray
the whole game, and I think they probably just dare
Josh Hart to shoot. I think Milwaukee Joelle has defended
Jannis fairly well historically and so they probably stick him
on Giannis and say, whoever is the stretch big, whether
it's poor to slope, whoever it might be, that'll be
a wing type assignment. But it is a fair question
because you know, again, I think one of my if
I have real concerns about Joelle the player, not Joelle
the health question mark in the playoffs, it's like, can
you defend five out and defending a switch system at
high enough level to go through four rounds and win
four games in those rounds? Like that's it's one thing
to do it. I think he's good on a game
to game play to play type basis, and you can
do it situationally, but once you start asking him. We
saw it in game seven in Boston in twenty two.
Tatum was just you know, waving him over and there
He's crossing Joel up and hitting jumpers over them over
and over again. So that's something to watch for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you talking about that made me think too that
a lot of the times five out. What's special about
Boston is all five of those guys can put you
in rotation if they're not taking those threes. And I'm
trying to think of another team in the league that
would come close to mirroring that at Oklahoma City for sure,
but they're not in the same conference. Maybe the Knicks,
but like og and Karl Anthony Towns even are in inaturally,
dudes that are gonna do that. So not that that
nullifies the importance of that question, but the one you
were talking, the more I'm thinking about it, like, maybe
this is a problem that's being just a little bit Yeah,
if it runs through Boston, that's certainly, but I'm wondering
if it's a problem that might be a little bit
overblown relative to what some of these five out models
actually look like in practice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think I'm sure. I don't know if
you're fully on the Boston corner, but I mean in
the East especially, I think they're very clearly the best
team coming into the year, and someone is going to
have to put together like an incredible regular season to
move me off of that. I think if things break right,
that the Sixers could beat them, But if you're telling
me they have to beat them to get to the finals,
I don't find it particularly likely. I just think that
top six Boston has is incredible, and whether they can
keep it together long or medium term I should say
with the second apron all that nonsense. That's another story.
But they are set up to I think not easily
when the East again, depending on health, but they are
the clear favorite and deserve to be.
Speaker 2: This kind of steps on the well definitely steps on
the toes of the cookie cutter lightning round rotation question,
I ask, But like, what's going to be the deal
with their starting five? Is it going to be something
that's fluid. I initially came into this thinking that Martin
would just be led into there, but now it kind
of seems like that actually won't be the case. How
do you see that shaking out? And what are the
merits to what Nick Nurse might be thinking.
Speaker 3: So a couple of things going on, Like I think Martin,
if I had the guests, will start more games than
he doesn't. But we have seen Eric Gordon's start, and
I think there's the logic behind it is on a
couple fronts, right, So as much shooting as you can
put around Joel Andbiid is always good. And Gordon, for
whatever his weaknesses are at the stage of his career,
not only is a good catch and shoot guy, but
he's like a thirty plus foot catch and shoot guy
like comfortable be in a deep shooter and when every
foot or every inch of space for Joel is valuable.
That's the sort of thing that's hard to quantify how
much he would help on that front. I think the
other thing is at least short term, and I would imagine,
because it's Nick Nurse and they go back a long way,
that Lowry is going to play a pretty important role
on this team coming off the bench. That Nurse has
said he doesn't necessarily want Gordon and Lowry spending lots
of time together, and so if Gordon is gonna play,
I think you would just say, well, he's probably gonna start,
and he gets his you know, five to seven minutes
to open the game, Lowry comes in, Caleb comes in,
and Caleb also coming in at that time allows you,
or even if it's Uber, whoever it might be, allows
you to still have that thirdy wing defense, depending how
you sub it otherwise. And so it's definitely something to watch.
I think they'll go through several iterations or whatever this
lineup's going to look like, and Nurse has been pretty
transparent that he doesn't feel that they're going to have
just like one night to night. This is how we
started and that's it's ended discussion.
Speaker 2: What type of role is like Yabuselli gonna have on
It is like that more of a night like a
matchup dependent thing, or is this just someone we're penciling
in for regular rotation minutes each night.
Speaker 3: At this point, I think he's the guy that is
the hardest to get a read on because Joel has
not played because with Embiid out the whole preseason, his
minutes have been ninety five percent as a center, and
that was not what I was expecting coming in. I
didn't know if he plays center at all. I thought, maybe, hey,
that's a gadget look that they'd go to every once
in a while, But that has been you know, the
vast majority of his minutes. We've seen from time to
time him play with Drummond. I don't think we've seen
him play with a den Bone at their second round
pick yet, But we don't really know what it looks
like when Yabuselli and Joel Embiid play together, which I
think is probably a more natural Joel can space the
floor Yabuselli. The big question is like is he going
to hit shots? He shot well in the preseason, so
in theory, you should be able to put him out there.
And I think having a a bruiser type like him
next to Joel is definitely gonna be helpful in certain situations.
But yeah, I don't have a ton of feel for
what his role is in there, Like look the Joel
Embiid version of the rotation. I think when Joel is out,
we have a good understanding like he will be Andre
Drummond's primary backup and maybe there's some overlap there depending
on the opponent. And I guess how well Yabuseli might
be shooting on a given night.
Speaker 2: Do you have any early impressions of some of just
the younger newcomers, Jared McCain, who seems like he's doing fine.
He went through a concussion protocol. Hopefully he's doing all
right after that. But what are kind of your early
impressions of him?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we found out he has a bruised lungs,
which normally is our accident type of injury, which is
you know classic sixers that were We've had Zire Smith
almost die from a sesame allergy. Now we have a
guide suffering a bruised lung in a preseason game. It's
just it's never a dull moment. Jared McCain has looked
pretty good in the preseason, definitely better than he did
in Summer League, which you know that environment is too
hard to tell basically anything from has shot the ball
reasonably well. He had a tough game prior to the
injury last night. But I think again, it's another guy
that I want to see him play next to Joel
Embiid because his weaknesses are more as the you're the
point of attack leader. You have to be you have
to manage the game, you have to create off the dribble,
you have to do all these things. You don't necessarily
need those things when Joel is on the floor because
he's sort of the center of the world and the
offense with these backup units especially, and so someone like McCain,
who can relocate and is really comfortable as a quick
catch and shoot guy, is a natural guard fit with him.
But we haven't seen him play a single minute alongside Joell,
so that that's been hard to tell. But he has
gotten really strong reviews from coaches players I know. Down
in the Bahamas, he was talking a lot of trash
behind closed doors is what I heard from members of
the coaching staff and some of the other players. So
came in with all the duke bluster. I guess Bona
hasn't really shown a whole lot. I think he's pretty raw.
Everyone loves his energy, his competitiveness, all that, but he's
a very stereotypical young big where he fouls everyone and
jumps at everything, and so he's gonna spend some time
in Delaware at their G League affiliate this year. The
one guy who has been a pleasant surprise among their
two way guys is Justin Edwards, who Philly kid, who
was highly highly recruited. I think he was at one
point at least the number one player in that class.
Goes to Kentucky, had a really bad freshman season and
had low expectations for me, a pretty poor summer league
stick around, and he's been really solid as like a
three and d off ball forward wing in the preseason.
I don't think he's going to get any time, at
least in the first half of the year, but someone
has like a long term project at nineteen that in
the last you know, a couple of weeks, I've seen
a lot more from than I expected, so not in
the We're not going to see any of Justin Edwards
unless you're watching the G League for a while, but
someone to keep an eye on moving forward.
Speaker 2: I think, are there any kind of like not even
fringe roster players, but fringe rotation players that are like,
is it a like, what is Reggie Jackson going to
do on this team?
Speaker 1: Just kJ Martin gets some minutes here?
Speaker 2: Like they're any kind of just like fringe rotation spots
that you're keeping an eye on.
Speaker 3: So I was a big Ricky Council guy last year.
He has had a disappointing preseason and I think on
the other hand, kJ Martin has had a solid, if
not very good preseason and like last night, he was
he probably had like three lob finishes in one half.
And I think the trick with him is that he's
always been this crazy athlete, right like I'm sure you
as well as I did, grew up watching his dad,
who was just a monster athlete, and that's all kJ
has been. At times, it's been trying to figure out,
you know, what, what do you do with that athleticism
because he's his dad, but he's six four six '
five where his dad was like a true six '
ten forward, big type guy, and he worked all summer
on the shot. He has not taken a single three
in the preseason, which is very funny on a lot
of levels. So that's kind of the thing right between
him and Yabuseli. They have two guys that they're very
different sort of players. But the shot is the difference
between you're gonna play, you know, five ten minutes and
just be you're an energy guy off the bench, or
you could play a real role on this team. If
Joel Embie gets doubled, Boss swings to you and you
make like thirty six thirty seven percent of her three.
So I'm keeping an eye on both those guys for
basically the same reason.
Speaker 2: I like that kJ Martin has been on regular rotation
watch since he entered the league.
Speaker 1: Every year, the year that he can.
Speaker 3: Craft the room, it's gonna be the year, right.
Speaker 2: Something I didn't include when I sent you the outline,
Kelly Bridge Junior.
Speaker 1: Is there any.
Speaker 2: Concern about what his value becomes to this team now
that they have three high usage guys to incorporate and
he's not the most devastating off ball shooter. A rumor
has it he's not the best passer either. I don't
know if that's something that you've heard.
Speaker 3: I can definitely confirm that rumor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or is it just like well, because Biand's gonna
miss a bunch of time, Paul George and Tyres Max
you're so good away from the ball, are kind of
just plugging and playing that this is someone who's gonna
give them like that pace element and inject the chaos
and he's gonna find ways to score anyway.
Speaker 1: Because like intuitively, when you have these other.
Speaker 2: Three high usage guys with kellyubradg Junior, that's like in theory,
that doesn't seem like the cleanest fit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's why I was a little confused and
scratching my head at when Gordon came into the starting lineup.
I was like, oh, Kelly will be like the sixth
man type guy, right, because that brand of chaos and
energy and like he wants the ball is probably better
served as a reserve guy rather than you're playing between
and Caleb Martin as a fifth starter. He might be
the most prototypical fitth starter mentality and like dirty work
guy that they have on the roster. And it's been
one of the things that I end watching this preseason
is like we talked about the two versions of the team, right,
the Joel team and the non Joel team. I am
a little concerned that with the non Joel team, Kelly
is going to be like, oh, this is It's Kelly
Ubret time, right, and he gets into like he's taking
more of those contested threes and he's trying to do
a little too much not passing the ball. I would
say he was a pleasant surprise last season. Obviously they
were under undermanned for a good portion of the season,
and that's so it justified like, hey, it's Kelly, you
bright time moments and games and stretches and whatnot. I'm
a little worried, yes, about is he going to kind
of fit with all these guys? But he really likes
Nick Nurse and if he's back here and sees the landscape,
I think, I don't know. I think he probably has
enough self awareness to be like, I have to buy
in and do the little things, because he did, to
his credit, on top of doing like typical Kelly Ubray stuff,
I thought he bought in a lot more on you know,
off ball attentiveness. Defensively being just like a cutter off
of Joelle and doing stuff without the ball in his
hands on offense, that that's the stuff that's held him back.
I think it's never been that he's had a lack
of talent. It'said the things that he needs to do
to get minutes, he's always kind of looked at as like, eh,
somebody else will do it. So hopefully that holds this year.
Speaker 2: I would imagine last summer like leading into last season,
in the contract he ended up signing after averaging twenty
points or whatever, it was like that had to be
kind of a wake up call for him and almost realizing,
just as the most recent example, a guy like KCP
gets paid because he's just like a glue connective guy
for these really good teams, and if you can fit
into the larger context of a title contender, that might
be the best way to get maybe not caps lock paid,
but a deal that spans longer than one plus one
at this point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so now he's on a decent deal, but
to your point, it's a one plus one player option
where he's getting he's getting decent money, but he's not
getting probably what he would ideally want. So it's uh,
it's you never know. With Kelly, he is a free
spirit in so many ways, and I will I'm just
I was pretty pretty wrong on how his season would
play out. I thought he was at the end of
his rope and it was just going to be he
goes out playing exactly like Kelly Ubre has played his
whole career, and I give him a lot of credit
for how he remodeled himself a little bit last year.
We'll see if that's a trend or just a one off,
just to you know, sometimes guys when they're really under
the heat like that, everything changes. So who knows.
Speaker 2: You mentioned kJ Martin as someone who could potentially be
in the rotation, but he's viewed mostly by fans I
think around the league, maybe outside of Philly, as a
human trade exception. Oh, we obviously have to see how
the games play, how healthy, how the games pan out,
excuse me, how.
Speaker 1: Healthy the players are.
Speaker 2: But how aggressive do you expect this team to be
when they are looking around the trade market. Because they
have first round picks to trade, they can still combine
salaries as long as they're not taking back more money
than they're sending out. Does Daryl Moriy have the license
to one. I mean, there might be opportunities out there,
but I guess it's it's a twofold question of one
do they think they need a significant piece and then
two does Daryn Moriy have the license to take on
someone who might be making real money beyond this year
when you're looking at having to pay and be MAXI
Paul George moving forward?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, knowing Daryl Morrey's m O, I think
if they can get someone they view as an impact
guy at the deadline, they're going to do it. And
I keep throwing around. I don't know who will actually
be available, but the class of players that's like they're
entering restrictive free agency and their teams are kind of
like look at them sideways, like the kamingas I'm watching,
like Trey Murphy in New Orleans where he should be
starting for them, and like half the league is looking
at him right but like he's a guy who should
be starting and has been pretty good. But CJ's there
and it's just a log jam with like everything that's
going on. They can't figure out what they want to do.
So guys like that that are on right now low
salaries that might get paid but also could still like
potentially grow with MAXI I'm keeping an eye on those
type of guys, but I think Darrell's going to do
whatever he can do to increase their title lots, because
I think they're pretty clear eyed on they have two
years and then after that it's probably gravy if you
have like a third year of Paul George will what
thirty six going on thirty seven?
Speaker 2: Well, according to some of the comments, that might be
like forty two going on forty five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, So I think they're pretty clear on you know,
we have at least two years here, everyone's health permitting,
and then we'll see after that. So I think they'll
be aggressive and frankly based on you know, what's going
on with Kawhi in LA. Those Clippers picks that they
own are oh, pretty damn valuable now. I think they're
probably overstated in value by some people, right because even
though it's the Clippers and they're not the glamour team
in LA, you know as well as I do, guys
want to play in LA. So eventually, if they all
fizzle out, they'll have no draft picks. But if you
have open cap space and say to a few guys, Hey,
you want to come live in live and play in
LA and you don't have the pressure of playing for
the Lakers. I think long term they'll still be like
okay rather than disaster old Clippers, especially because Bomber is
just a unmeasurably better owner than Sterling was.
Speaker 2: Also six Ers Fent should know how much players want
to be in LA. Nick, but who went back Everyone
is going to retire. So the name that I have
circle that, I want to be clear, I have it
circled for so many teams because I'm worried about his
playing time relative that much talent they have. And I
actually don't think he's someone his team should trade. But
that's become my shtick is everyone should trade for this
player whose team should not actually trade him.
Speaker 1: Tar Ethan is the name where he's.
Speaker 3: Been thrown around in Philly a bunch this summer. That's like,
I'm actually surprised we haven't done a full show on
him throughout the many I mean we did shows on
pre free agency. It's like, should they sign Klay Thompson?
Should they sign KCP? Like the backup plans to the
backup plans type of thing, Tarry Easton was one of
those guys as a like, hey, here's a young guy
we're watching that might just be like surplus the requirements.
He definitely feels like a Daryl Morey by low guy right,
like his his advanced numbers dating math the college or
off the charts, because he's just like he creates events, rebounds,
block steals. He's also just a bundle of chaos, so
that's always fun. So yeah, he's someone did certainly I
would keep an eye on. I also have some interest,
and we've talked about this is another guy that like
eight eighty teams would trade for him if there were
eighty teams in the league. But like the good Bogdanovitch
down in Atlanta, why I shouldn't say the good. They
both are good for various reasons. But Bojan is old
at this point. But Bogie, I think, is just like
another creator guy who can play off ball. Plenty of
playoff reps at this point, or enough playoff reps at
this point, so he's somebody that probably like fifteen teams
will be calling Atlanta and Trey Young is just steing
mad because they've only won like seventeen games in January
or whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm waiting for we need the deep cuts of
like Vic Crachie will probably pop up on the rails
of continues the fen Well or I'd be a big
too MANI Kamara guy, but I think Portland's officially more
likely Drey Grant than him at this point.
Speaker 1: I'd like to be tagged.
Speaker 2: When you inevitably record the tari easan specific show, I
predict you.
Speaker 3: I'll at least DM you about it. How about that?
Speaker 2: So are you ready to enter the cookie Cutter Lightning
Round portion of this podcast?
Speaker 3: Let's do it.
Speaker 2: So this dovetails nicely with what we just discussed, But
without having seen this team play games that matter, what
do you identify as kind of their single biggest need?
Speaker 3: I weirdly enough. I mean we talked about the three
wings and all that. I think they have too many
little guards on this roster. I just think they need
to get bigger. I don't know whether that's on the
wing forward maybe even like a true It sounds insane
because they have in theory four bigs if you count Yabuselli,
they might need another one because I don't know. Drummond
as a checkered playoff history Yabucelli asking him to play
the five for anything other than like you know, you
have to get by type of minutes. I'm skeptical of
and Bona I just don't think is ready to play
this year. So I would not be surprised if eventually
they need a big but size anywhere, right, because we're
already talking about well, Eric Gordon might start because he
can't play with Lowry. But if it's not Lowry, it's
Reggie Jackson, And if it's not Reggie Jackson, it's Jared McCain. Like,
I think the tallest guy out of those guys is
six to two, and none of them are athletes. Lowry's
thirty eight. I think Reggie's what thirty, let's say thirty
three something like that, thirty three, thirty four.
Speaker 1: I need to look that up.
Speaker 3: He's you can double check that for me. But either way,
he's not a spring chicken anymore.
Speaker 1: He's Paul George. He's thirty four, thirty.
Speaker 3: I actually I made him younger. I Benjamin buttoned him. Yeah. So,
but all those guys are like six ' one six
' to two, either older or in McCain's case, he
just you know, he's completely unproven, and so you want
to have I would love just like a two guard,
like a classic two guard guy who can shoot, play
off the ball, and defend like twos and threes. If
I had trusted the Anthony Meltons back whatsoever, he's a guy,
and if they had been able to get him at
a minimum or whatever, I think he was like a
no doubt bring him back guy. But Golden State rolled
the dice on him and he already has a back
issue in the preseason. It looks like so that type
of guy I have a lot of interest in, but
it's hard to know until Joel Embiid plays like that's
it's the weirdest thing we've gone through the whole preseason
and we have no idea what they look like playing
off of the most unique player.
Speaker 2: That they have, the idea of having to expand to
assets to get another big too is just you it? Yeah,
and it's but I can't remember who made this point.
I was listening to a podcast where didn't it used
to feel like you could just pick a big off
the scrap heap and they can come in and just
soak up some high leverage minutes for you. And now
it's kind of not that way anymore because there are
a lot of teams that can kind of be in
the situation like, oh, we just need like a big
to eat up some minutes and it's all right, Like
who was that Mason Plumbley?
Speaker 1: Was it? Like Beyambo is still floating around out there.
Speaker 2: It feels a lot harder to get like I don't
know how we got here, how long it took to get.
Speaker 1: Here, and I didn't even realize we got here, but
we're here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look it's doing it in the regular season
versus the play playoffs also much different, right, Like I
think Drummond for that innings either type of role in
the regular season great. Drummond as a playoff guy has
had a pretty checkered history because teams are now playing
five out and the biggest guy is like a six
to eight guy who's like it could be like a
Nick patoomb, right, Like we saw the Clippers have a
lot of success with those type of lineups in the playoffs.
Or like Dallas is like, hey, Maxi Kliba is the
biggest guy on the floor in previous playoff runts, Maxi Kliba,
Dori and Finny Smith like those type of guys next
to one another. So that's kind of the thing. I mean,
maybe it's Yabuseli. Maybe he ends up in that type
of if they're playing smaller lineups, that he can do that.
But that's that's a big ass for a guy who's
been out of the NBA for quite a while now.
Speaker 2: Is there anything that we haven't talked about player specific,
team specific stylistic weaknesses concerned strength that's flying under the
radar you think and does serves more shine?
Speaker 3: No, I mean, I think my it was a joke
that turned into like, oh, this is kind of a
serious thing. The whole thing about they just have too
many guys that are shorter than me on the team
because I'm like six ' three. That's been my my
thing that I've been pounding the table for all assie,
like they just kept signing these guys and like, look,
Reggie Jackson is like the fourteenth guy. It doesn't really
matter like those that guy. If you're playing the fourteenth
guy on the roster, you're probably in trouble anyway. But
that is kind of a thing because you look at
how the rotation will actually play out, and it's like, well,
if it's going to be Lowry or mccaina one of
these guys. You have to be pretty careful about how
you structure everything else. And most of those guys also
can't play with Maxi, right, Like, that's the other thing.
If Maxi's going to be your thirty five to on
the high end forty minute guy on a night to
night basis, anybody else that's a backy has to supplement
him defensively in some way. And so that's one of
the challenges. It's it's admittedly not like a crazy like,
oh that's camp, but nobody's ever thought of this type
of thing. But that's that's one of my h let's
see what happens there head and end of the season.
Speaker 2: It's people like you are the reason why I don't
cover games on site anymore. I'm a true five to
eleven and just felt like such a tiny human being
because you're around NBA players and all these media members
were like six feet and taller. I could get to
six feet depending on how long I let my hair
grow out and how high I spike it. But I'm
not the dating app five eleven. I'm a true five eleven,
and I felt so diminutive covering games on site.
Speaker 1: I had to stop.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, One, at least you're honest about it.
And two, I will tell you the first time I
walked into a room with Bobon, I was like, that's
not even We're not the same we don't come from
the same planet. Basically, that guy is just a monster.
And like, by the way, the greatest guy ever. Like,
I'll tell you a quick story while we're here. There
was a media scrum in the locker room one night,
right and Laren Rosen, who covers the Sixers four of
the Sixers like works for Sixers dot Com with got
cut off a couple of times in a row by
one specific reporter who's like talking over her and Bobon
the first time notices it. The second time, after the
guy does it again, he leans over, like puts one
big finger in this guy's face, goes, hold on, let
the lady speak over there. She's trying to ask a question,
like interrupted the whole thing, and it was just like
and didn't do it. Wasn't a mean spirit, it wasn't
like a fu type of thing. It was just like, hey,
show some respect to one of your colleagues. Who's here
and clearly has been trying to ask a question that's
been getting talked over. So like a lot of little
things like that where he's just he goes out of
his way to make sure everyone is included and being heard.
And so like loved Bobon's time here for the you know,
the behind the scenes type stuff.
Speaker 1: I've heard nothing but good stories about him.
Speaker 2: It's always fun when it seems like the personality that
is conveyed from like the ten million foot view lines up.
Speaker 1: With people who cover them more closely.
Speaker 2: It does sound like some of their rotation is going
to be up in the air. And so when you
look at their rotation, would it be safe to say
that there's like eight locks when you have Maxi, Gordon, PG,
Kelly Bridge Jr, EMBIID, Kayla, Martin Lowry and Drummond? Like,
are those just the eight guys that you're etching in
Stone each night?
Speaker 3: Those are the exact eight. I think the next two
are probably kJ and Yabuselli, And we kind of went
over Yabuselli as a swing guy. I think McCain and
to a lesser extent, Ricky Counsel are the younger guys
who have a chance to maybe break through that group
at some point this season. I think the other thing
is Lowry is going to get built in rest time
as well, Like they're pretty aware that he's thirty eight
years old and shouldn't be Like last year he came
in signed him, I believe it was after the deadline
for above the minimum, and he was playing like twenty
five minutes at night, thirty minutes a night sometimes and
starting down the stretch with some of that was they
were a mass unit for a while there. Melton was out,
Covington was out, Joelle's out, like all these guys are
missing time. But it's also like Nurse loves him and
just trusts him like he's a son of his and
so we'll see what that does. Right, Like once Lowry
has removed, you know, what impact does that have on
the rest of the rotation, And maybe that allows McCain
or maybe they throw another wing in there and they say, hey, PG,
you're gonna handle the ball a little bit. Like I
know we got point Paul at times in LA depending
on what was going on there with all their certainly
the Kauhi injuries, but also before Harden showed up that
they were slapping it together.
Speaker 2: So there might be a chance that someone like McCain
would get minutes before Jackson. I was just kind of
was like, well, Jackson's the vet, he's longer that they
might default to him if if Lowry, for example, has
built in rest.
Speaker 3: Yes, I would say we've seen more of McCain in
the preseason in the like the whatever you would call
meaningful minutes in the preseason, which is none, but you know,
first have the games. So it's hard to get to
read though, because he's played most of his minutes with
another ball handler, Like a lot of McCain time has
either been with Lowry or even like with a Jeft
doubt and like guys like that, And so I'm not
sure if when Lowry's out they view him as like, hey,
we're putting the ball in your hands and you're gonna
run the team essentially. So that's I think McCain will
spend time in Delaware in the G League, but I
don't know. We'll see what happens when actual start.
Speaker 2: I guess, right now, what do you think Winds go
to closing lineup?
Speaker 3: I think it'll be Joel Maxy PG. So obviously the
like my dog.
Speaker 2: I'd be a spicy take if you're like, you know,
pg's probably gonna be watching a lot of crunch Time
movies from the sidelines.
Speaker 3: I think Caleb, and then I think it'll be Kelly,
But I think it'll if Eric Gordon has a hot hand,
for example, I think they'll ride him. I just it's
hard to know, right, Like we don't even know what
the starting lineup looks like when Joel is out there,
but I think the starting lineup that everyone's sort of
penciled in in the off season, which was the three Wings,
Maxie and Embiid, you're kind of overthinking it if you
go with anything else. Now there will be some matchups
or nights or it's like they probably do need Kyle
Lowry to like.
Speaker 1: That's the one. I feel like Nick Nurse could have
some clutch timeline. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he just trust him so inherently that
I would not be shocked if they are games or
he just and look like even at thirty eight, and
maybe especially at thirty eight, he's just so smart that
all the issues with like he's old and not his
athletic and whatever, he can make up for a lot
of them with just positioning and all the other stuff.
So I would not be shocked if Lowry closes games.
But I think at least to open the year, they're
gonna give the triple wing lineup as much runway as
they can, because I think by the playoffs it's gonna
be a lot harder to play Maxi and Lowry against,
you know, especially against Boston. Like I love Kyle Lowry,
but when they have Derek White, Holiday Brown, Tatum, and
Porzingis out there, Lowry and Maxie aren't getting get eaten
alive on defense?
Speaker 2: Is there a weird, funky lineup you would like to
see Nick Nurse roll out in a game that matters?
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to see how shocked you are by this.
I think there is let's call it a thirty chance
that they make a real effort to play Embiid and
Drummond together this year. Oh god, and not as like
so they did this years ago at this when Drummond
was here under Doc Right, they did Embi drumming one
time and it was one of those we got to
miss a free throw, get the rebound and like score
in the last three second type of thing. I think
they're going to try to play it this year and
add a lot more than just the because Drummond's been
shooting threes in the preseason. It's something he's worked on
after every practice, before every game. He even made a
three in the first preseason game against New Zealand. And
we talked about the rebounding thing. I think they're cognizant of, Like, look,
we got to find ways to rebound one way or another,
and whatever issues Drummond has, that guy is going to
get a defensive rebound. So I would not be stunned
if we see that. In fact, I mean, if you
want to go true, just like brain melt, lineup, play
yabull with that, Like I we're gonna play like a
bash brother.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're gonna play those two, Paul George and
Yabuselli also have to be on the court, and then
why don't we just have Kelly oubre Junior on there
as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So look, I think I'm expecting Joel Embiid to
take more threes this year. I think he shot the
ball well. One of the things he did do well
at the Olympics was he put up a lot of
threes and I think he get a pretty high percentage
of them. We have seen signs that the release is
a little bit quicker on catch and shoot type stuff,
and so I would not be shocked if he's just
like they're going to use him in that way more.
And so if he is more of like that stretch
guy and you just have Andre and the paint like, well,
just bomb away, boys and I'll try to get all
the rebounds and the other end of the floor. I
certainly don't want Andre defending in space that often. But again,
he's such a glass cleaner. If you play some of
these teams that might not have the the best floor spacing,
you just say that we dare you to attack us
in the paint. So I would keep an eye on it.
If it happens, I'll circle back with you and we'll
we'll remember this it does.
Speaker 1: I didn't think that was not even on my radar.
I went the complete opposite the direction.
Speaker 2: I want to see Yabul at the five, I mean
Paul George, Caleb, Martin, Maxi and then I really thought
about getting super weird with the last spot, but just
Pencily and Kyle Lowry for me.
Speaker 1: So you're small, We've.
Speaker 3: Already seen those lineups in the pre Like I think
they will probably play those. Yeah, so Yabuseli's played at
the five, and so I want to say the game
in Atlanta Monday, it was Yabuseli, Caleb Martin, Lowry PG,
and maybe kJ Martin if I remember correctly. So, like
you're most of the way there, and they actually looked
pretty damn good, Like Caleb and Yabuseli came in and
they were getting stops and running the other way. So
I think you will get especially on the Knights that
Joel doesn't play, I think you'll get a healthy portion
of that from someone.
Speaker 2: In my perspective outside of Philly, we're probably not appreciating
the get weird factor for this team enough because of
the Bake did Knights that Joel and Bee is not
going to be on the court, like they're gonna have
to get weird for extended stretches.
Speaker 3: I gotta tell you, as somebody who's got to talk
five hours a week about this team and right about them,
and you know, talk to people like you and people
around the league, I'm really ready for Just like Nick
Nurse throws some stuff at the wall, Let's let's see
what happens. Because there are only so many ways you
can be like, oh, wake me up in April and
we'll see what happens in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: As we record this, they're over under a set of
fifteen and a half wins. I'm actually shocked, given just
what's played out with Embiid and George that that has
not been lowered.
Speaker 1: How many games do you see this team winning?
Speaker 2: Factory and everything that you already know and have discussed
with the Joel Embiid load management.
Speaker 3: I think if they have good health luck, which you
know just gonna laugh at, like the concept of the
Sixers having good health luck, they could pretty easily win
mid fifties. Like, I think they're that talented. It's just
a matter of like, can they actually keep Joel healthy
throughout this year? And is it do you give away
too much by like, hey, we're just not playing them
in any back to the backs And are they good
enough with Tyrese and Paul to shoulder the load so
to speak, to win a lot of those games? So
I would say realistically low fifties, Like I think fifty
and a half is a good number based on what
we know about the plan for Joel Paul coming into
the year, already having you know, his first bone Brews
of the season. I would take the over on that,
but I think they genuinely could get to like the
high fifties if things broke right. So I would settle
somewhere like fifty three fifty four I think is like
not not crazy territory that is reachable with decent lock.
Speaker 2: When we did our win projections, I went fifty one
for them, So I guess.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's right in the same ballpark.
Speaker 2: I just the number I'm going to be looking at
is how many games are Paul George Tarrii's match and
Joe won't be playing in together? Because if Paul George
is getting baked in rest or I know it's never
the same injury. Although he's had some weird shoulder stuff.
Paul George just missed like an average of twenty or
twenty five games over the past half decade per year.
But like, so if you're just baking in rest and
absences for him, I'm assuming the you know, the planned
rest will not happen on nights at which Joelle Beid
is in playing, So, like, what does the final number
of get, Like do these three.
Speaker 1: Play in forty five games together? Is that too ambitious?
Speaker 2: That's that's the number that I think I'm going to
be laser focused on this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And so here's the other thing. Like Joel has
said what he said about him not playing back to backs,
the team can say we're doing this, We're doing that.
My one of my big questions, and maybe we could
have talked about this earlier, is does do the actions
line up with the rhetoric? Right? And when when we
get to let's say it's late December or mid December, right,
we we got there. Last year, Joel had not said
the same things, but was like, you know, I won MVP.
All that matters is the title or whatever. And then
he is just on an unbelievable heater, like he's they
were destroying teams, Like granted their schedule was pretty easy,
but they're winning basically every game in three quarters for
like a month straight. He's putting up like Wilt Chamberlain
scoring Yeah, and if he if they end up in
mid to late and Joelle's, you know, the best player
in the league on like current performance, are you going
to go to him the next back to back and
be like you're just not playing like your body is fine.
All our tests say like there's no risk or whatever.
It's just about we have this plan, like will they
actually stick to that? Like that's another subplot and all this.
You can say, I don't care about this, I don't
care about that, and I believe Joel like I think
he does care about winning a championship above all else.
He's also also a competitor, right, Like he said, you
don't get to the level of these guys get to
about being like, yeah, I don't I don't really feel
like playing, and like yeah, whatever, I don't need to
play these games, and I don't care about this award
or All Star or All NBA or whatever. It is,
Like it's human nature for a high level competitor like
that to say, no, screw that, I don't care what
the medical people say. I want to play. I want
to dominate these guys.
Speaker 2: The the reason I'm in I normally just doubt anything
that players are executive say it like inherently like the
whole oh, this is the year that the offense is
going to run through Anthony Davis instead of Lebron. Of course,
but Joelle, relative to other players, have been pretty open
about when he wants to win the MVP, and so
the fact that he then is saying this makes me
think like, oh, this is for real. But to your point,
I do think that could obviously shift if he's feeling well,
and that maybe his you know, can load management be
done in games because they are winning by so much
that he's not averaging thirty four to thirty five minutes.
Speaker 1: He's more at like thirty or thirty one.
Speaker 2: So that will be something to watch and something that,
you know, the more games he plays that they're going
to be that's not that's not rocket science, that's not novel,
because he is that that dominant.
Speaker 1: So I didn't even frame it.
Speaker 2: I took it at his word because of how open
he's been about wanting all these other individual honors.
Speaker 3: In the past, and I'm saying I take him at
his word in the sense that I think he and
the organization are going into the year saying I'm not
doing these and I'm our goal is at the end
of the row, past all of this. I just think
it's a very different thing to say in October, I'm
not playing back to the backs and I don't care
about this, And then you get to January, you know
it's funny. I'm pretty sure the game in Denver, which
I know has become this huge talking point, is a
third game in four night scenario. And that's like the
most obvious, like don't play him if you're just going
by this is how we manage you. Playing your third
game of four nights at altitude is the most easy,
just like, of course you don't play that game. So
that's the one that's one that we're gonna going into
it be like is he gonna play? Is he not
gonna play? And I would imagine there'll be some heated
discussions about that. So it's just it's the practical reality
of how the season plays out versus everyone's best lead intentions,
I think is what we're talking about here, Kyle.
Speaker 2: Is there anything we have not discussed, I haven't asked
you about that you think needs to be touched upon
for that Uska Dattle.
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I just so I would say this,
I have been, relative to the general internet, been like
a big Joel Embiid defender for you know, various reasons
for health, some of the supporting casts all that. I
think this is undoubtedly the best team that he's had
top to bottom. Like I think in twenty nineteen with
Butler and those guys, they had the best top six.
But this is the year that I think is like
everything's on the table. You got to go get it
done right. Like I think the oh, they can't get
out of the second round stuff is like I don't
really care about that. I think it's not winning a
title is what matters, and I think that's how the
organization looks at it. But I think this is the
year there needs to be some form of real progress, right,
Like you can make all the excuses you want, at
some point you have to beat a real team in
the playoffs, like there has not been. You can't look
at a series and be like, well, that's the signature
win that they've had. And and Joel Embiid's career and
so got to keep him healthy and can't blame him
if he's like he has another injury and it's just
like dragging around out there or whatever. But it's time
for progress. Like I think everyone's been around here has
been relatively fair to him, despite the national dialogue has
gotten crazy on him at this point. But now I
do think it's we're approaching like it's put up or
shot up time. So that to me is very exciting.
Like I I love the idea of like you're under pressure,
you're under the microscope, like how do you respond to that,
whether that's in sports or anywhere else. But it'll make
for a very interesting Does look like PG has been
all over the place as a playoff guy, right, He's
had some runs like that that twenty one run in
La where you know, Qui goes down and he was
still incredible in that Sun series that they lost, And
then he's had the you know, the playoff P complimentary
and playoff P derogatory type of thing going on. So
I it's a team that could go any which way
by the end of the year, and I'm really excited
for this to get gone.
Speaker 1: Is there gonna be actually the top?
Speaker 2: Is there even more pressure on Joombid because it does
seem that a lot of people view some of the
injury problems I don't know if as preventable, but as
a symptom of this guy doesn't stay in shape or
didn't take good enough care of his body for so
for such a large portion of his career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think because the roster has changed so
many times, and if you just look at it on
like a name basis, it's like, oh, well, he's had X,
y Z and he's had this, he's had that. I
think locally there is a they have reached a point
where it's like just some people aren't even paying attention
to the regular season anymore, right, Like.
Speaker 1: It's all wake me up for the NBA's product.
Speaker 3: Look, that's a Philadelphia is that way about almost every
sport in a weird way where it's like they absolutely
love the Eagles, they absolutely love the Sixers, Phillies Flyers.
A lot of them do not watch the league's other
than it's like they ride or die, and they could
tell you the ins and outs of every single player,
their spouses, they're like their high school they went to.
And then you talk about another team and it's like
I don't care about that guy that team, So it's
it's funny, right And so I do think there is
a contingent at this point, and rightfully so, They've been
a frustrating team to follow who doesn't really care about
this season despite the off season, But I do think
they're probably outweighed by There is a lot of excitement
locally about this team, just to see what the hell
it looks like with Paul George in town.
Speaker 2: Kyle, thank you for giving me so much of your
time and your insight. Are you able just to tell
our listeners watchers if they're on YouTube, where you could
where they could find you in all the great work that.
Speaker 3: You do, Yes, sir, so, my written work is at
all phli dot com, all our shows. I'm on the
Phry Sixers podcast. We live stream on YouTube five days
a week, pregame, post game, and then three o'clock pm
Eastern on the non game days. That's at Phry Sports
on YouTube. You can find us on your various podcast platforms, Spotify, Apple,
all that and uh yeah, catch me on I guess
it's X now, but I will never call that. Catch
me on Twitter at Kyle Newbeck and ready for some
hoops man, as I'm sure you are.
Speaker 2: Yes, the links for everyone who wants to follow him
will be in the podcast YouTube description and I will
fix the realizing now there's a rogue e in Kyle's
last name on the oh Man.
Speaker 3: That was honestly so my mic arm that's here has
been in front of that and I never noticed it
or I would have called you out for it at like
the very start of the podcast.
Speaker 2: Sou will be so anyone who's listening to this point
that Eve has been removed. That is the Twitter handle,
because we will never call it X around these parts either.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2: Man, This was fantastic and hopefully I'll be able to
talk to you soon and enjoy the season.