hope this joke never dies tbh

what happened to the game I love

This is a pretty realistic view imo. Although Maxey’s game elevates with a true passing pg on the team which Lebron provides. We saw this when he played with Harden. He was one of the most lethal 3pt shooters off the catch in the league, great cutter/finisher.

Jaylen’s never really played with a guy like that, his efficiency could go up.

Embiid is a question mark, but if he is healthy, hes the best player on both squads. We saw this in the playoffs tbis past year, and he wasnt even fully healthy (appendix).

VJ quietly fits that 5th option hustle player role very very nicely. Which people are sleeping on, and he should improve.

I’d just say sixers have a much much higher ceiling, and not much has to break right to get close to it.

Knicks have a higher floor.

Have the Cavs even officially brought back Harden? And lol at including the Raptors on here

the thing that makes it hard to trust this 76ers team’s ceiling is that every single starter is a question mark in some way.

will maxey shrink in the playoffs again or will having more off ball opportunities to get himself free more easily unlock him? does vj take the next step from his impressive rookie campaign? is that even possible with so many volume shooters in the lineup? will JB’s worst hero ball tendencies be reigned in by the sheer headcount of scorers and will having maxey and LeBron to be primary ball handlers cut down on his turnovers? will bron still be doing it at 42? he took a noticeable step back at 41, will he maintain that level for a while longer or take another step back? will embiid play? i don’t believe he’ll ever be fully healthy in a basketball setting again, but will he be healthy enough to participate in games by the playoffs?

but as i type all that out what i’m realizing is that the real question is, how good is adem bona? because embiid hasn’t played 40 games in a season since 2023. unless philadelphia has a trade they’re working on that hasn’t hit the rumor mill, adem is going to have start a lot of regular season games and you need those to make the playoffs. he’s probably going to have to start some games in the playoffs if they make a deep run. so how good is he?

the only real tradable contract they have to get a center upgrade is VJ and he doesn’t make enough money for a deal to make sense. gafford is a contract and position fit but he’s not good enough for a 1 to 1 swap unless dallas was giving up a pick. same for wendell carter jr and make it a bunch of picks for like kornet. clingan would be a really interesting basketball fit and is roughly in the territory of vj’s contract and value but portland has enough guards, so a third team would be needed. vj’s good enough to get that third team easily, but it’s a consideration.

the elephant in the room is that they need to trade embiid. it’ll be expensive to move his massive contract, but otherwise it’s $62M of dead cap on a team that could realistically win playoff games. you can’t do that.

$62M is a lot of money though. they’d need to either find a team willing to give up a bunch of players for one expensive one that won’t play much or find a team with a well paid superstar that asks out. steph curry makes almost exactly as much as joel does. it won’t happen, but philly has enough picks to make it work. it won’t happen though.

anyway, what were we talking about?

lol at Toronto

Bruh

Sixers really need Embiid to consistently and repeatedly play the game of basketball. Things like “defense” are secondary.

Yeah they desperately needed a defensive Sf wound size

holy trash take lol

Accurate

Original but true

Yeah … but that was pretty good last season. This season doesn’t feel like a meaningfully different roster, but the Pistons will have 3 40% 3-point shooters to surround Cade with, and I think that will subtly improve the flow of the offense quite a bit.

Letting Tobias walk when the Spurs didn’t even pay him a big contract was strange, but the Pistons did bring in John Collins as an approximate replacement. Wish I had both on the team, though!

Maybe they should trade for kd lol

The spacing in that lineup is atrocious

Im sure there was another company that’s circling the drain financially that would’ve willing to give the guy a multimillion dollar no show endorsement. Not shady at all

Idk if it was harden or Atkinson, but watching the offense run through him so much in the ECF was weird to see. I agree with you though. The lack of creativity outside of harden ball at his age to get out of situations is just not a good recipe

Absolutely it’s been painful watching the lack of competition In the East

With Adem Bona or Ariel Hukporti starting? Not that hard

Counter: it’s more likely that Robinson and PG play a combined 80 games than one or both play more than 60+.

Totally fair question. First off, I’m not dead set in my ways on this.
I think the pacers are being heavily discounted. The team that made a finals run still largely exists IF Hali is the same guy.
I actually like the pistons more than the Cavs for potential upside but the Cavs have so many fewer gaps it’s just not possible for me to put pistons over them. If Thompson learns to shoot it changes everything for the pistons.
Cavs I’m lower on than a lot of people. The concept of a championship team is there but I think we have seen their ceiling already. I don’t believe in Mobley taking a step up.

Is Kawhi on the team?

Holy glaze

Days.

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Who on paper look to be the worst duo as far as fit goes

Just reads like pandering to others fans to me. Maybe you’re doing it in good faith, and I’m being a homer, but we’ll see. Overlooking the fact that Giannis is the best player out of every single one you listed above and Bam’s the best defensive player (arguably Mobley, sure) of everyone you have listed.

Worrying about the backcourt doesn’t really hit home with me because (A) on the defensive side Davion/Wiggs/Bam/Giannis is an absolute nightmare, (B) Davion and Hardaway Jr are both 40% 3pt shooters and © outside of Cleveland I don’t see anyone competing with the Heat in the paint, the guards just need to knock down open shots.

I also think the Heat can bury some of these teams in the transition game off of the defense. Spo’s up-tempo offense from last season is no joke and there’s a lot of older and/or slower guys on some of these teams above. That Heat culture endurance/stamina is gonna be a major advantage this season especially.

A. No they didn’t, Bam got cut down by LaMelo and missed 90% of that game.

B. The difference between the 5 seed Raptors (46 wins) and the 10 seed Heat (43 wins) was three games.

C. That 3 game difference came with the Heat missing Herro for 50 games. And they just traded him for freaking Giannis.

D. The audacity to put ‘best coach in the league’ in quotes like it’s some absurd statement wasn’t unnoticed and won’t be forgotten.

E. Look forward to clowning on you as well when I come back to this post

Heat will be a play-in team

They’re gonna have an all time defence

I don’t trust their defence

Will be the best defence of the 2020s

You’re nicer than me. Saying the Raptors are lucky to avoid the play-in and laughing at them even being mentioned if Kawhi does end up there like him is an idiotic take to me. Of course Philly and Knicks are higher on the pedestal but they’re looking to be strong.

They just took Cavs to 7 in the playoffs. Scottie has been getting better and better on both ends of the floor. RJ had a rough career start but anyone actually paying attention knows how much he has improved. They have a good mix of positional size as you mentioned and are a very well-rounded/versatile team. Kawhi is coming off an All-NBA season averaging 28ppg on nearly 50/40/90 splits. Like why the fuck would you think they’d be lucky to avoid the play-in adding him unless you’re a casual who only watches Knicks games.