The All-Alpha Sixers Are Still Figuring Things Out

Let's talk about the 76ers, and I, I swore like I anticipated the 76ers starting off slow.

Um, they're 3 and 1 now.

I thought they'd be 1 and 3 just because there's a, a learning curve for a team that is incorporating two new alphas into this group in LeBron James and Jaylen Brown.

Well, they have not had, uh, the slow start I anticipated.

They are 3 and 1 to start the season.

They are top 5 in the NBA defensively, that's good.

They're bottom 5 in the NBA offensively, that's bad, but they've been able to win some pretty good games to start the season, including uh the opening night win against the Knicks.

Um, what do you think of the state of the 76ers right now?

Like how pleased should they, they be with the start?

And are there any warning signs for you that you've seen early on?

No, I mean, I think they should be very happy.

I like you, didn't think that, oh man, the first two weeks are gonna be dreamy.

If you look at, especially with LeBron when, cause he's just such a chemistry changer, right?

I mean, he gets dropped in the pot, your entire recipe changes.

So, if you look at teams LeBron has gone to and gotten started at, it's always been a little uncertain at the beginning and people.

Figuring out their roles.

And this is frankly gone better record-wise, numbers wise than in his last couple of stops in terms of a start.

That being said, when you say, man, they're bottom on offense, that's because that's what we're seeing, right?

They've won the games more than maybe we expected to, but they are still figuring out who goes when, how, how do they work off each other?

How do they get to each other?

What happens when one Guys out, by the way, what happens when they're all in, that kind of thing.

Defensively, I'm not, not pleasantly surprised, but impressed that it's just, you know, look, these guys know how to play defense.

They know how to take their individual matchups.

So much of defense, especially in the regular season, you hear me say it all the time, is effort, effort, effort , effort, and all these guys are full stop efforts.

So, I've, I've loved it.

Hats off to Nick Nurse cause frankly, this was going to be, he was gonna have the hardest job in the first few months of the season of anyone.

Um, hats off to the players who look like they're willing to sacrifice in the right ways.

I don't have any red flags.

I, I just think as you and I have talked about a lot, it's great at the beginning of the season.

Everyone wants things to go well.

It's great at the end of the season, assuming health, you go into that playoffs, knowing, especially vets, knowing what you're playing for, what you wanna do, absolutely willing to sacrifice to.

Get there.

It's the middle of the season when it is boring and it is February and you're in a cold city and it is a Tuesday night and the building is half empty .

Those are the real tests for these kinds of super teams.

To me, is can you make all the parts work and everyone's sort of good vibes in the locker room still happen in those more pressure situations that are actually not pressure at all.

Yeah, um, happy with the way they played.

Gotta be thrilled to Philadelphia to be 3 and 1.

I think there are some Flashing yellow lights maybe with this team.

One is the 3-point shooting.

They're bottom 3rd in the league in 3-point makes, and that was projected to be an issue for this team coming into the season.

LeBron basically an inside the 3-point line guy now.

Jalen Brown, an inside the 3-point line guy now.

Joel and B can't shoot 3s, but you don't want him shooting 3s.

You want him exploiting mismatches in the post or making mid-range jumpers at the high post.

They're not a great 3-point shooting team, and will that cost them if they can't.

Get into like the middle of the pack close to the top 10 in in 3 point percentage, uh, and rebounding that that's a problem for this group.

I saw a clip of LeBron James basically saying was he paraphrasing somebody saying just jump up in the Prince Dorian Prince.

I'm sorry, if, if you, if you're not gonna do the whole thing, I would ask Shelby, our producer, please at this point in the podcast run the bite because it is exceptional and hilarious.

So you can run, run the clip right here.

We'll run the clip and we'll respond to the back end of it.

He said, how do they have, they have rebounds.

You said he get outrebounded.

I was surprised you did.

36-32.

How does Yale outrebound Baylor?

Um, you go up and grab the ball off the rim when it comes off, and then you grab it with two hands and you come down with it and that's considered a rebound.

So they got more of those than we did.

The clip did it better justice than my attempt to paraphrase, uh, the clip, um, but like I, I look, I look at that, I look at that as a as a problem though because, um, they lost Ariel Huck 40 for the season with that Achilles tear.

Um, Adebona is.

OK, but, you know, when Embiid's off the floor, they've got real problems when it comes to rebounding the basketball.

So, if they don't get better contributions from their backup bigs, that's something that Could rear its head as problematic, especially as they go up against, you know, these big teams that are out there.

The Pistons are a big team, the Knicks, we'll get to them, but, you know, they got a, a great big man.

The Celtics have become bigger now that Mitchell Robinson is there.

The teams they're trying to go up against and try to beat, um, have some good size there.

And if you're counting on Joel Embiid, To be, you know, healthy, uh, like he, he didn't play in the Pistons game.

That was smart.

Obviously you don't wanna play him in back to backs, um, but I think that game kind of exploited some of their problems or, or highlighted, I guess to say some of their problems with rebounding.

So 3-point defense, rebounding, those haven't been great for the 76ers, but you're 3 and 1, it's good.

31 to start the seats where you wanna be.

Look, and, and we've seen LeBron take turns here at defensive center.

Doesn't love that.

Don't like that.

Don't like that great for the wear and tear on the body.

So to your point.

You know, they gotta figure something out there because, you know, as I said, at the beginning of the season, everyone's gonna, you know, absolutely, I will pitch in, and at the end of the season, absolutely I will pitch in, and we just don't see that as much in the January, February type type of months of the season.

But I feel like this is a team that wants to watch these guys for the first couple of months because none of us know exactly how they're gonna melt.

Together.

And then before the trade deadline, I can see them adding some pieces around the edges because they're gonna go for it full stop.

It's not like they're holding their, their powder for our future seasons.

And I think that, you know, those kinds of players around the edges are the ones that are a little easier to acquire than wholesale, God, we need another, you know, starter on some of these other teams when they're trying to fix something mid-season.

I don't know, but, like, everybody is gonna be after the type of guy the seventy-Sixers want, right?

Like we're not everybody, not everybody is gonna have a winning season in January, and not everybody is gonna want to spend capital.

The Knicks for it.

The Knicks, I mean, we're gonna get to them in a minute, but they need a backup center as well.

Um, I wonder, you know, to kind of briefly pivot back to Oklahoma City , would the Thunder make Isaiah Hartenstein available given that a day Mara looks like he's ready to play, because a day Marra is ready to play.

Because the guy's legit.

Like, maybe, and if you're looking around saying is available, don't you think New York's gonna pick him up?

I think they would try really hard, but I think the Thunder could ask for a king's ransom for Hartenstein at that point because I think there'd be a bidding war for a player like that.

I, I think the emergence, and not to go back down the Thunder rabbit hole, but I think the emergence of Mara, Mara's ready to play.

Mara's a real guy has looked phenomenal.

I totally agree with you.

I, I would say the reason why I'm pausing on, on Hartenstein is just that, you know, they want to win a title now this year too.

And when you're counting on the development of a brand new guy.

I don't know if you're ready to make that trade yet, but maybe they are because they'll be able to, you know, you know, Sam Presty, he sees an opportunity, he's gonna go for it.

I, I agree with you, but I don't think we have to break down like trade market availability in January now and October.

I would just say that this is a team that if they have the kind of holes we're talking about right now and they're consistent, they consistently become problems.

These are around the edges trades that I I think are easier to make than we are going to see some teams that thought they were contenders on day one, and they have holes and they will be trying to trade for.

So, we'll, we'll just have to see.

But I don't know, maybe I'm more encouraged than you are.

I thought this would be, look pretty like bad across a lot more categories than we have seen and it hasn't.

And I'm impressed with, with Nick Nurse's staff for being, and the players involved for being able to.

You know, kind of take and give and, and work together.

They seem happy, which is nice.

We didn't know if that was gonna happen.

I, you know, you weren't, I, I, you were with the Thunder.

I was with the Knicks and the Sixers on opening night, and these guys, if you look at them and all the little body language things, they seem to like each other, and that is right now, and we'll.

If they like each other still in January, February.

But again, even that wasn't a given, right?

Not everybody, you know, Jalen Brown wasn't traded to a LeBron James team, you know, when he first, when he first thought he was going to Philly.

So it was interesting to see all those guys and how much they seem pleased to be working together, at least for now.

Speaking of Jalen Brown, yes.

Got some beef.

Rachel.

Jalen Brown, it's not a beef beef.

It's some lamb chops.

Did you not listen to him?

I listened to him.

Oh, I always listen to Jalen Brown.

I always listen to Jalen Brown.

This, this flows, of course.

This to for background here.

There was a clip that was out there, I think it was on Bleacher Report of the, uh.

Uh , YouTube series Jason Tatum, Jason Tatum, yeah, Jason Tatum, his own video, they clipped it of him saying like he was shocked when they traded Jalen Brown.

Nobody told him, didn't see it coming, blah blah blah.

Had to put a towel over his face.

He was in public, Jalen Brown right afterwards, um, it was.

After I think they beat the Knicks right in the season opener, right after they beat, it was the next game.

It was after the next game, after a win.

It was after a win.

He goes on social media and puts a cap out there, basically calling Jayson Tatum a liar.

So of course Tatum gets asked about, he has a long answer saying we shouldn't be doing this.

We had too much success.

We're not Shaq and Kobe.

Uh, Jalen Brown says no beef, uh, some lamb chops, but twice, twice, Rachel, he says Jason Tatum's got a great PR team.

I mean that was incredible.

That, that wasn't the headline for the aggregator sites.

It was sure as heck the headline for me, which, by the way, compliments to Tatum's PR team.

But I mean that to me that was a statement that was not just about this back and forth this week.

This , that was a statement about perhaps their entire time in Boston.

Um, and, and look, you know, I like a little pettiness in the NBA, and, and I think these guys, I will say both of them, have the right attitude that their larger statement and both guys, even though they're giving us the spiciness that we love, is We won a championship together.

That's always gonna mean something.

They're both talking about big picture.

They're not taking personal shots at each other.

He's a great basketball player.

One says he's a wonderful family.

The other one says, it's not as if when they celebrate the Celtics title and, you know, that the 10 year anniversary, these guys will like not even be speaking to each other.

And we've had some of that kind of stuff in recent Celtics history.

Um, but I don't think we're gonna have to worry about that.

I think it's just spiciness short term over this season or so, and um I'm here for it, man.

What about you?

I'm here for it.

I believe that Jalen Brown believes that.

Not that Jayson Tatum asked for him to be traded, but that Jayson Tatum could have stopped it.

That's what I believe.

Not reporting that, that's just kind of my read of the tea leaves that's out there.

That Jayson Tatum as the face of the franchise, if he wanted to stop this deal from going down, he could have, and he didn't do it .

And that's why he's saying cap on all that with Tatum.

But here's my question to you.

If you're Jalen Brown today, when you're making these comments this week, would you, and you had someone fairy godmothered you back a couple of months and said, all right, we're gonna give you a chance.

You can be playing on opening night with the Celtics and Jayson Tatum and this team, or you can play opening night with the Sixers, and by the way, you're not gonna believe this 3 months ago, 4 months ago, Jalen Brown, but LeBron's gonna be on that team, and this is what the team's gonna look like.

Which opening night would you want?

I kind of think that while Jalen may be frustrated that Jason did or didn't or stopped or didn't stop this or his voice or whatever, I kind of think Jalen might pick the Sixers anyway.

What do you think?

Uh.

I don't know.

It's a lot happened, um, I know, but at least you wouldn't, he doesn't no longer, regardless of how much he has to sacrifice now or this team or whatever it is, and there's one ball and all that stuff.

You don't have the layers and weight of history.

And I kind of feel like with those guys, it's a little bit like we all had the experience of, of starting a job pretty young, and then maybe you're there for a while and you really level up in that job in terms of responsibility and maturity and your abilities , but the older people at the place don't quite see you at the level you're currently at because they still see you as that kid who started.

I think in Boston, there were years of sort of layers of who's better, and this is the perspective we're giving and those two guys having to have been compared to each other over and over again.

That maybe the fresh start and the level at which he was walking into the Sixers without anyone saying, oh, you're not quite as good as Jayson Tatum.

He's never gonna have to hear that again, whether it's true or not even true in the first place.

I bet in his Secret of Hearts, if you asked Jalen Brown months ago, which team would you rather be on, he may have picked this situation anyway, and that does not mean that some, you know, little raw feelings about how the way things ended in Boston might not still be there or obviously there.

A few lamb chops, but I do think that there is room for him to both feel, well, that was kind of screwed up how that went down, and I wish this guy had been my guy the way he said in public or his PR team said he was my guy, but also be like, and then this is, I might be happier now anyway.

Maybe, but he's clearly still ticked off that he was traded.

Like there's clearly still some bad feelings there.

Yeah, um, I think, look, the thing about Jalen Brown is that he's not, I mean, he's up for a contract extension, I think next year.

Um, I think he would have been happy to come back to Boston and try to accomplish something team-wise with Tatum was one more time, yeah, but I, no, I, I disagree.

I think he would have been happier in Boston to start the season.

I think, you think everybody would have been happier in Boston.

No, but like Jason, Jalen Brown, the ties he has to that city are very real, like off the court stuff.

Like you just follow his social media.

He's doing a lot of stuff in Boston.

I think he would have liked to have continued.

Down that path, but didn't happen, uh, and I'm very much looking forward to that first game in January.

I'll say that and I will say this for guys like Jalen Brown, um, you know, we had one in Washington DC, John Wall, who are just above and beyond involved in the community and not just community projects, but out there with the people in the community.

They don't leave even if they play somewhere else.

They don't leave.

John.

to this day, has so many active projects going on in Washington DC.

Uh, he works with, uh, Monumental, the broadcasting team, the same way I do.

And he, when he comes back, the reaction and the stuff that he checks in on in the neighborhoods he's in, I see Jalen Brown do the exact same thing.

So, the people of Boston, he will not abandon you.

The team of Boston, he feels a little angry about right now, apparently.

Always got to bring it back to DC.

Always gotta find a wizards example for that.

I love it.

John.

John Wall is a damn good example.

Thank you.

Don't, don't say bad things about John Wall.

I would, I like John Wall.

I would never say bad about John Wall.

Um, also knows every, every where everyone went to college.

That's a big thing, knows.

Exactly where every NBA player went to college.