The Sixers Vets Won't Be Able to Play Every Game

Philadelphia.

I wanna ask you about the seventy-Sixers who, uh, just decided to start practicing offense on Thursday, uh, Grant was, you know, doing a lot of scrimmaging the first couple of games, trying to get adjusted to each other.

A lot of defensive principles, but now they're getting into this offense.

And I was watching some of the, the press conference stuff from Thursday.

And you can tell from hearing from Jalen Brown and before that, Tyrese Maxey and Nick Nurse, like it's very much gonna be A work in progress.

They've got a bunch of guys whose skills kind of overlap like Jalen Brown, LeBron James, Joel MB.

These are high post type of guys or mid-post, I should say, type of guys, uh, offensively.

Um, you know, LeBron and, and Brown have played with great bigs, Chris Bosh, Kevin Love, Anthony Davis, Borzingis, Horford for Brown.

Neither of them play with a big like Joel Embiid who needs to get touches in the paint.

So, There's gonna be a lot to figure out.

Like, what do you think the learning curve's gonna be for the seventy-Sixers here?

Like, what should the early expectations be for this team ?

Like how clunky could it look for a team that has extraordinary talent, but a lot of pieces that kind of do similar things and like to be in similar spots on the floor.

Yeah, there's definitely gonna be some clunky stuff, and, and, and the spotlight is gonna be so great on them .

We're gonna be searching for everything.

Oh my God, look at the last, you know, there's gonna be some late minute game stuff where everyone's gonna be like, oh, is it going to LeBron, is it going to Jalen Brown?

How about Maxi?

How about MB, you know, everyone's gonna be searching for these things.

And the great part is when you're that talented, you probably can win games when you're just not playing your best.

And that's the great thing about this team is that as the regular season goes along.

But like you can't, you can't just talk about the Sixers without saying, like, a lot of it depends on Embiid's health.

It just, it just is the fact of the matter.

It's like, if you can have Embiid out there for a lot of the season to get that chemistry right, then by the time playoffs happen, you feel good and he's playing.

But like, if he's gonna miss a huge part of the season and then again come back for the playoffs, like, then the chemistry gets thrown off one more time.

So, can they develop enough chemistry with him throughout the season?

That's what matters most to me.

Do I think that their roster is perfect?

No, I, I do think they're gonna have some spacing issues.

I think there's gonna have some high usage issues because, like, a lot of the guys just aren't great shooters.

They're just not high efficiency outside shooters, right?

And there's a lot of these guys live in that paint area.

I think the wild card about all of this is just, I'm just such a huge Tyrese Maxey fan, and he's getting better and better every year, and the energy that he brings to a game.

Like, we're gonna talk about LeBron, we're gonna focus on Jalen Brown and beats health, but Tyrese Maxey is the key to this whole thing in my mind.

Um, this guy is a guy who could play at an MVP type level without these guys there.

So, um, I, I'm one of the few that actually, I, I really like this Philly team.

Like, I, I really do.

And I know, I know there's a lot of questions out there, but man, when, when it all comes down to it, and you're getting into a playoff series, if this team is healthy, it's gonna be like when everyone walks in defensively.

They have size, they have strength, they can divide up their guys and and you stagger them.

I know everyone wants to talk about this line, the starting lineup, right?

But when you start staggering these guys and figuring out the right combos, then all of a sudden you got two, like, all NBA type guys in every lineup.

Uh, so, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm very excited to see them play, and I, I think, I think they also Feel like there's a target on them, and they are feeling like, hey, we have something to prove, um, which is, it's a dangerous thing for the rest of the league when you have that many talented guys thinking like, hey, we need to play the right way because I want to prove everyone wrong.

Yeah, um, I agree with you on Maxi.

He is the ascendant star on that roster and Look, I, you know, it's, it's too simplistic to kind of like just debate who's gonna get the last touch.

It's gonna be who's got the hot hand, who's got the better matchup.

I mean, there's, there's a lot of variables and all that, but Maxi, you know, he's the guy that is poised to take a big leap or should be poised to take a big leap, and he's gonna be the engine, I think that drives a lot of the success in Philadelphia and be like, Uh, I'm seeing a lot of the, you know, slimmed down and beat, happy Mbiid, healthy Mbied.

Um, I gotta see it on the floor.

I gotta see if his lateral movement is what it was so he can be the same monster he was defensively because they need that.

Um, I, I gotta see if he's embracing going into the post.

You know, in recent years, like he would just drift and drift and drift and look, maybe they do need some spacing on that team.

Maybe Embiid making three-point shots is going to be useful to drag Biggs out of the paint for their more inside the three-point line guys, but He's most effective when he's on the block, getting to the free throw line, scoring that way.

So I gotta see if all that's still there in Embiid.

He's saying all the right things.

He looks great, but I gotta see.

If that's still there.

And look, they, I know they want to play fast like Nick Nurse was talking about having a bunch of grab and go guys.

You got LeBron Brown, VJ Edgecombe.

We haven't talked about grabbing the ball off the rim and just going.

You know, they can play transition a lot of different ways.

But when it gets into the half-court sets in the playoffs, like how does that offense function?

Um, they don't have a ton of spacing.

Like LeBron's not a great 3-point shooter.

Jalen Brown's not a great 3-point shooter.

Tyrese Maxey's OK.

Um, and be, like we said, should be inside the three-point line.

So do they have enough perimeter shooting to, You know, not make it all bogged down in the paint.

I, I think there's gonna be some rough stretches between now and like January, February.

I, I think that's a reality of the seventy-Sixers, but there is so much talent.

And there is so much potential that when we get to the second half of the season post All-Star break, it also wouldn't surprise me to see this team take off in, in a big, big way.

So yeah, I, I think, I look, they're gonna be really good.

Um, I just think it's gonna be a, a big time work in progress with this team and a lot of variables.

Yeah.

Yeah, I, I would say the one other part about it is unlike other MB teams and even some LeBron teams recently, they have innings eaters on this team.

Um, Maxi, Jalen Brown, VJ Edgecombe, like these guys are gonna eat innings, and they're gonna win you some games throughout the regular season too.

And so, that gives them a chance to be a little bit more rested when the playoffs come.

That gives them a chance to kind of stagger this a little bit more.

Um, but like, it's important in today's NBA you need to have both.

You need to have innings eaters, and you have to have the guys when the when the playoffs shine.

That's their moment and, uh, this team has both, yeah, and, and look, Joel Embiid's not gonna play back to backs.

LeBron may miss a lot of back to backs, you know, Nick Nurse is already talking about the load management of his two older, more fragile stars.

So there's gonna be plenty of opportunity during the regular season for guys like Edgecombe to.

I mean, Edgecombe, I don't want to see him get lost in the shovel.

That kid's really good, um, you know, and I think there will be times when it's like, all right, yeah, like.

6 points and 3 rebounds or whatever.

It's gonna be those games, but I think in the games that some of these other guys are out, that's gonna be his opportunity and I hope he gets, uh, a lot of reps in those situations.