Where Do the Sixers Even Go From Here?

Knicks fans, as we saw in Philadelphia on Sunday, they are the most passionate fans.

They are, and like, I'm not, I'm not a Knicks fan.

I'm not a New Yorker, but any, any conversation.

Any conversation about the best fans in the NBA begins and ends with New York because nobody travels like that.

They travel unquestionably.

I lived in New York for 20 years.

You lived in New York for such a long time.

It is the most fun place to watch a basketball game.

It is the mecca for a reason, and the reason they're on the road.

They're on the road everywhere.

Like if they want.

Up wherever they wind up playing Detroit, Cleveland, they will overpay for these tickets .

They will have a quarter of the building.

They will be the loudest section of the building.

It's so fun.

It's, it's wild.

Like it.

I did feel bad for the Sixers players today.

It is not their fault where they are necessarily and to have, they were booed in their own building .

Joel Embiid was shown at the free throw line.

The fans behind the basket had pictures of him getting dunked on from Mitchell by Mitchell from earlier this series.

You know, this PA announcer at one point says, you know, can we get the Let's go Sixers chant going?

And the PA announcer goes, Let's go Sixers.

That's on the fans that's on the fans of Sixers.

It was all New York fans.

There is a point where, you know, again, as much as I do love New York.

Fans, again, I lived there for a long time.

I, I thought it was one of the most things, like fun things I've gotten to do in my career is cover New York basketball up close, um, but I did feel a little bit bad for the players that are getting booed off their own floor, and it's going to be interesting, you know, to see what happens going forward for both of those teams.

Well, MB, uh, said it right after game two when he asked Sixers fans not to sell their tickets when he did everything publicly to try to get them to keep their butts in the seats, but Knicks fans.

They got money to spend and they're willing to like tap into their savings to buy tickets to these games and it's, it's always gonna be the case.

That, that's on the, the fans got to be better, like Sixer fans gotta be better.

I understand after, after being down 3-0, I get there's probably more of an inclination to be like, you know what, we're not coming back.

I'll sell my tickets, make a couple of bucks, but that was, even while watching on TV as we did on Sunday, that was tough to watch, to see how many Knicks fans invaded, uh, Philadelphia for this game.

On the subject of the Sixers, I don't know what they do like the The good vibes of the Boston series are clearly gone.

Uh, now we're back to the kind of the same conversation where we're talking about Darryl Morey's future in Philadelphia.

We're talking about Nick Nurse's future in Philadelphia.

I mean, Joel Embiid has a future in Philadelphia because he's basically untradeable at this point.

Um, look, Edgecombe is a really good player.

You got something to build around there.

Tyrese Maxey is an all-star, probably gonna be all NBA.

He's a really good player, but I think this postseason kind of exposed that the Sixers just aren't there.

They beat a Boston team that was clearly, Not as good as their regular season record suggested, had more flaws than the regular season, was able to expose.

Then they go up against a battle-tested, ready for primetime New York team and they just couldn't match any.

I don't know what the margin of victory was in the series, but they were getting blown out left and right in these games.

So, I don't know.

I don't know if you have a solution or a thought there.

Uh, I just think it's gonna start with management in the front office and Josh Harris , uh, the owner of that team is gonna have to make a tough call on this because this team kind of feels like it's plateaued.

Um, you know, the Paul George trade or acquisition has not worked out.

Uh, Joel Embiid, I, I don't know if you can ever rely on him ever again.

Like, you know, he can commit to next season at full strength, but you get to the All-Star break and you start talking about these nagging injuries.

Like I don't even know what was, what was bothering him towards the end here, ankle and hip.

Like we're not even talking about the knee anymore.

We're talking about ankle and hip injuries with Joel Embiid.

Well, and he's also a magnet for the most bizarre injuries ever.

He has broken his face twice in the playoffs.

He has broken his face, Chris, in the playoffs twice.

The appendicitis, which, by the way, he did rush back from, and they got, took a shot to that area, that surgical area in the Boston series at the end of it, right?

I would have said a shot to the appendix, but he doesn't have one anymore.

So that area, um, you know, and, and tried to play through that.

It's hard to say.

What to do going forward.

They're in such a salary conundrum.

They're going to be over the tax.

I don't know what else they can do, as you said, Embiid's an untradeable contract.

I just, they're locked up salary wise as far as I can see.

And the guys that they have, they, what do they have?

I'm looking at the numbers right now.

Joel Embiid is $58 million Paul George $54 million.

Tyrese Maxey, who earns that $40 million salary, and then You've got the rookie scale contracts like VJ Edgecombe.

They're already going to exceed the cap.

You've got Kelly Oubre and Quentin Grimes.

Their contracts need to be renegotiated.

And look, you can let them go.

They're unrestricted free agents, but I think because you're better than me at this, at the 18 aprons and the salary rules, I don't think that by freeing up that space they can get back as much as they could by just re-signing those guys.

It's not going to so.

I think, I think that they're kind of locked into this roster again.

And when you're locked into a roster like that, owners tend to fire the front office or fire the coach.

In terms of the coaching, look, I think Nick Nurse is a very good basketball coach.

I have seen him do some pretty impressive things both when the Raptors run and through that series.

What he has done with what he has had with the Sixers at different times over his Sixers career.

I just don't.

know if you can blame the coach for, as you put it, their biggest star, their $58 million player who, as you said, is just not reliable health-wise anymore.

Paul George, who missed 25 games because of a positive drug test.

I just don't know if you can blame the coach for a lot of the things that he has dealt with.

And then, you know, on top of it, I know we don't give sympathy points in this.

League, everyone is a grown up, but the way he coached the Boston series through inevitably the death of his brother and then had to leave midway through the series against the Knicks for the funeral, I just, I don't know if I can blame him for what has gone wrong with the Sixers that if fans are honest with themselves, I know he's not very popular right now in Philadelphia.

I'm just not sure I can point to Nick Nurse and say, man, all of this is Nick Nurse's fault.

I, I just don't think it is, and I wonder if Maury is the one who pays the price here.

I don't think a coaching change reinvigorates this team or does anything different.

I think the roster is stale.

They, they took a chance on Paul George.

I probably would have done the same thing.

It was like a, a hole in the salary cap that they either had to use then or they would lose it.

That was before Tyrese Maxey got his extension, so they had to do something.

Um, it just hasn't worked.

And now you've got Paul George on a contract that's virtually impossible to trade and beat in a contract that is impossible to trade.

Um, really though, like if you want to go back in time, they shouldn't have traded Jarred McCain , and they should have built something around Maxi McCain.

You don't think that they traded high.

What did, what did Darryl say?

We traded high on Jared McCain.

They did not trade, not after watching Jared Jarred McCain's, as we record this shooting, 80% from 3 in the series against the Lakers.

It's absolutely insane, um.

So what do you think that Darryl Morey's future is in Philadelphia?

I don't know.

I I don't know.

Uh.

He's had a few bites at the apple.

And oftentimes when you have more than one crack at it, that's when you start to be in peril.

Uh, I do think if Darryl Morey goes, Nick Nurse probably goes too because whoever comes in is gonna want to hire his own guy, do things his own way.

He'll have a clean slate.

He'll be able to do whatever he has to do to, To get this team steered in a certain direction.

Uh, they tried this thing with Embiid and with Georgia and with Maxie and got lucky with Edgecombe after tanking away the last year, but I, I don't see them going anywhere.

Like all those good feelings off the Boston series, they're gone.

They're gone.

Like if you're getting groomed by the Knicks and beaten like that, who are you competing with in the Eastern Conference?

Like who, who, like the, the Knicks are a really good Eastern Conference team.

They're not a great overall team.

I think most people would admit to that, uh, You're just not in a position to, to, to beat one of those top tier teams.

And again, like, even like, I, I don't want to hear about Mbi like coming into camp lighter and being healthy.

Like his body is just a game.

It's like a game of operation.

Like it's just so many things going on with it that, it's, it's hard to trust that he's gonna be at 100% or close to it come playoff time.

So I don't know, I think it's gonna be a lot of big decisions for the 76ers this offseason and, and it, the most, the spotlight is going to be on the front office right away.

I think that's, uh, that's for sure.