You’re telling me that starting Luka Garza in a Game 7 wasn’t the move?

Even if joe managed to not get out coached the celtics had no answer for embiid tbh

Thought the same but then when they got swept by Knicks I thought he was gonna be cooked.

I imagine this season is make or break for him. But since he Klutch idk lol. He’s still my goat coach for obvious reasons

In fairness to Joe Mazz, he was forced to play his 7th best player for 40 minutes that game.

fs, some of it was Joe being a dumbass but that was a masterclass from Nurse

NN is built for the playoffs and pretty much nothing else. guy just wants veteran players who can adapt to his schemes. And also needs veteran players to keep the locker room accountable. I think LeBron covers for all of nurses deficiencies as a coach. Player development aside, think that matters less when it’s win now mode.

Mazzulla gets the reputation but I think Nick Nurse is legit crazier

Nurse is an incredible coach, probably one of the few in the league I’d trust to make the most of the new sixers roster. He’s a mad scientist.

Been telling yall that Nick is legit if you give him a good enough roster to work with.

He’s the right coach. Just needs the players to be healthy

I mean yes and no, a healthy Embiid vs arguably the worst front court in the league was a crazy mismatch. Once the Sixers leaned into that it was hard to overcome.

Two years for a coach is a hard sell for LeBron. 

How is it Morey’s fault that Kuminga fell on Embiid (when going for a loose ball) in 2024? Or that Embiid had migraines so severe they caused bells palsy?

In 2025 for as much as you’d want to complain about PG, Embiid was still affected by this and Maxey got hurt as well.

In 2026 the biggest crime is probably not having a backup point guard. And no, McCain wouldn’t have swung the Knicks series. PG was their best player in the playoffs.

This is exactly why GMs get both too much credit and too much blame.

If you are currently a mid-career 30 year old father of 2, you have no adult memory of LeBron’s final year with the Miami Heat or Kobe pre-Achilles tear. You also have strong opinions about both players’ all time rankings.

Basketball reference has him as PG for ‘19 & ‘20 before going to C in ‘21

led the league in the reg at 10.2/gm

Led the league in assists in 2020

He started out his career at shooting guard

He’s playing with a super team. The on ball duties won’t be extensive

Also the fact that Maxey takes a leap every single year, he’s going to cook

What’s going to be difficult for all of them is being efficient with less touches. They’re all used to having the ball in their hands. I think it can work out if they stay engaged, but that will be the challenge. Maxey is the only one I see being willing to sacrifice for a championship. If the others are able to, then they will win it all (if healthy).

It’s wild hearing it, but it’s an instant tell that they just have no clue what they’re talking about. Maxey loves playing off-ball and attacking off-the-catch

He shot 42% on C&S threes and VJ shot 39%. If Jaylen can get to like 36% on C&S, I’d feel amazing.

You would think he would be ok with being a secondary playmaker at this point in his career. He took a while to adjust as the third option with Luka and Reaves but once he accepted his role the Lakers went on a run. I think the same thing will have to happen for Philly to maximize their potential.

Maxey and Brown should be the offensive hub which would allow both LeBron and Embiid to go at their own pace for the regular season.

Yeah, I totally agree. Earlier in his career it was him taking back the reigns quickly, and more recently it’s been because injuries forced him back into that role.

looooooooooooool

That’s a really a really interesting idea that I haven’t thought about from a fit perspective for Brown. You make him the first sub out in the first and bring him back as the focal point to lead the bench unit and cook opposing backups. The staffing 5 is so talented that you don’t need all 5 at every moment and have a lot of flexibility in staggering lineups. 

For the Sixers to win the east imo, Brown needs to be better offball, esp defensively. Also better at generating possessions.

This has basically been my one reservation about this team. He’s obviously a great offensive player but he hasn’t been an off-ball guy in a while and isn’t a great playmaker for others. Bron alleviates some of that, but not entirely imo

I’m not sure him running the bench is the best because of that, but maybe it doesn’t matter as much given that unlike Boston, Philly’s bench isn’t their strong spot

Bron is basically going to get the inbound ball outlet it and get it right back to set the offense. Or have someone get the inbound ball and give it to him in the half court. He too old to get full court pressured lol

He’s gonna need a senzu bean by All-Star Break

Been a sixers fan since I read your comment, can’t believe how hyped I am

i’m a vancouverite lebron fan, so same here as well

He’s not the defender he used to be, that’s for sure. In his prime, his playoff defensive impact was all-time good to the point where you’d have to go to guys like Hakeem and Russell to find clearly better impact

That being said, he was already very banged up by the Knicks series, and I assume there’s thinking that by scaling back his offense he can give more on defense

That’s fair, but I’m not sure how indicative that Knicks series was of his future defensive impact. He was much better against Boston (but still not great), but he was also coming off an appendectomy. I think if he focuses more on the defensive end and lowers his usage rate on offense, we’ll see some real progress there. His rebounding has been terrible the last few years though, and that is 100% an effort thing. That’s my biggest gripe with him.

*5

> actually healthy

It’s believing in the year 2027 that Joel Embiid is going to be healthy that is what makes people question him.

He’s show zero capability of remaining healthy for a full playoff run

Joel Embiid has played in 0 full seasons, and 490 out of a possible 820 career games, not even including the first 2 years after being draft where he didn’t play 1 min because of you guessed it injury

He has played in 39, 18 and 39 games the last 3 seasons

Genuinely, healthy Embiid is a mythical creature

he can run the point for sure. but him bringing the ball up is just a recipe for disaster. At some point they have to let maxey bring the ball up and give to lebron at the nail, like the murray/jokic combo.

no he said “I’m gonna have him dribble the ball up for 48 minutes. No one else will play the role of Point Guard. He will chase point guards on defense too, I wonder what Reddit thinks of that plan.” /s

Y’all are gonna be playing slow as hell if Bron is being the ball up the majority of the time.

The strength and identity of the team needs to be playing fast thru VJ Max