2019-2020 Sixers Season/Offseason

[Philsmania]

.......which is why Brand really should be gone too. The overpay in the Tobias trade, the max contract for a less than max player in Harris, and the Horford deal are all Brand.

The past few years have seen rapid depletion of the last and best remaining financial and draft-pick assets of "The Process". Sixers enter the offseason desperate to offload Horford and ideally Harris, which means they will have to include assets in any deal. The franchise has gone from a position of strength and growth to limited possibilities and glaring deficiencies pretty quickly.

In other words, they are back to where they before they started The Process. The deal with Boston to draft Fultz isn't of the magnitude of the '86 draft day blunders but it contributed to a downward spiral.

[LegoDoom]

I rewatched the JJ Redick podcast from March (with Jimmy Butler). Without a new coach and GM, this team is going to be in mediocre hell for years. The Harris and Horford contracts are going to weight down the organization.

The team would be so much better off if they rolled back the Butler trade and kept JJ.

[bigegypt0417]

So i'm not really going to jump off a cliff like most Sixers fans...the Harris deal is fine and he as a 3rd piece is exactly what they signed up for.

Horford can be moved and fairly easily if you give a team a pick and if the team needs him to be a bench piece.

What you have to figure out and soon is can you build a team with Embiid and Simmons or do one of them have to move on and bring back a big talent in return. If you are going to move Embiid...perhaps you find a western team that has the assets to trade for him.

Perhaps the pelicans 1st, Ingram, holiday and hart?

[bigegypt0417]

Just horrible plays by embiid down the stretch...such a dumb basketball player.

[zambonir]

Has any reporter actually written this before (with sources, albeit anonymous)?

According to multiple sources, Brown had a hand in breaking that team up due to not wanting to deal with Jimmy Butler, the team’s closer who’s not afraid to speak his mind.

Could Game 4 against Boston be Brett Brown’s last as Sixers coach?

From the start of “The Process,” the young lottery picks were treated like NBA All-Stars even before they played in their first NBA games. As expected, that gave them a sense of entitlement.

Standouts like Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons could basically do whatever they wanted to do. Heck, they still do.

But who’s fault is that?

Is it the coach’s, front office’s or ownership group’s responsibility to change?

And is it fair to assess Brown this playoff series with Simmons (left knee surgery) sidelined? And what about the financial reality of letting him go?

[zambonir]

Ugh. Harris looks like he broke an arm, or something equally bad. A fittingly bleak ending to this year, even if they avoid the sweep.

Ok, maybe more of a head injury, there was also blood. His arm looked immobilized but I guess all of him was at that point.

[xogfog]

Swept. I like Brett Brown a lot, but he clearly has to go and if Brand can't rework this roster in the offseason, he's gotta go too. Got to. Find a way to shed Horfod's contract.

[zambonir]

In a normal season I think moving on from one of the stars would even be on the table. Maybe it is anyway, who knows. With the pandemic making for a lower cap all the options are going to be tricky to pull off. Though isn't that the part Ned Cohen is supposed to be good at?

It's easy to be negative and repeat this prediction, but I don't see how this team wins a championship before Joel's contract is up. Teams that were not supposed to pass us in the pecking order might well do so, and the West still looks to have the edge again overall anyway. And for all the complaints about Ben, this is Joel's team. But he is not that guy.

Obviously if they figure out a way to get rid of two other salaries (counting Horford as one) that would be a start.

[phillychuck]

You don't trade Ben or Joel until you give a different coach a chance with them. Or trade one of them if you get an offer that's impossible to refuse. Hard to imagine what that would be for Joel...

[zambonir]

I don't think it's that hard to imagine, but it would mostly be unworkable/fantasy type trades. For Ben too, really. (Embiid for Lillard and Nurk! Trade one of them and sign Anthony Davis! Etc. and so forth.)

I dunno, it's just a vibe I'm feeling. Still very unlikely when you have the option to fire the coach and/or the GM. As a whole, the franchise has let those two players down more than vice-versa. But it simply may not be possible to find the right third piece and supporting cast around these two players at a championship level. Too much money tied up, and most if not quite all of the young players and draft assets gone now. It's not impossible that you could build a better team, or at least a similarly competitive team, with one of them gone, but better 3rd-8th pieces.

Of course many of our former 3rd-8th pieces are off playing for other teams right now and doing well.

Could still be totally wrong and two years from Joel and Ben will be everything that Kawhi and LeBron eventually became. The calendar still favors that, though the Sixers may not reap the full benefits (any more than Cleveland did with LeBron initially).

[zambonir]

I don't think this is serious drama, but it's nothing either.

Embiid pondering 76ers future after playoff exit

[xogfog]

Jordan didn't win anything in his first six seasons. It's way too early to trade Embiid or Simmons. Of the two, I think you have a better chance of winning with Embiid who is closer to his zenith as a player. My concern with Simmons, beyond the lack of shooting is I'm not sure he has the heart for the game, he doesn't seem to have that dagger mentality that the elite players have. If you build around Embiid, you have to surround him with shooters so he can pass out of double (and triple) teams to someone who can make the other team pay.

As for Brand, the trades he made and contracts he gave out look terrible, He overreacted to not landing Kawai, and he overvalued Horford and Harris and locked them into almost impossible to move contracts leaving little room to improve the team while Ben and Joel are young. Horford looks cooked and doesn't fit with Embiid and Harris is paid like a superstar but is a 3rd or 4th banana.

Thybulle was a good draft pick, but they are now locked into being too good to get into the draft lottery to even get a chance at a high pick going forward, so they are going to need to hit on late 1st and 2nd rounders in order to put players to compliment Joel and Ben, and that is a tall task.

I have to wonder if instead of the trades and signings Brand made if this team wouldn't have been better with Covington, Saric, Shamet, etc... plus the draft picks they gave up for Butler and Harris. It certainly would have been better if they kept Butler long term and didn't trade for Harris.

[jimbomill]

As for Brand, the trades he made and contracts he gave out look terrible, He overreacted to not landing Kawai, and he overvalued Horford and Harris and locked them into almost impossible to move contracts leaving little room to improve the team while Ben and Joel are young

Bingo

[zambonir]

I agree they are still young. But Joel's deal is up in three season. Maybe he becomes a champion at 27 just like Jordan and LeBron but there's also a pretty good chance one of those seasons is lost to injury.

Brand is not impressive but I also don't think he's really in charge, and most of the coverage today references that - that it is a too many cooks type organization. Brown's biggest demerits may not even have to do with his coaching per se - he ran the Zhaire Smith draft (which also got them Shamet, oh well). And it also seems he might have had the biggest say in moving on from Butler. But y'know, he wasn't even supposed to last this long, let alone through this many GMs. We probably need a tougher coach, certainly Richardson implied that today, but will our stars respond to that or rebel?

The Sixers didn't even reallly pursue Kawhi last year did they? Their best shot was when the Raptors traded for him, and we didn't have a GM that summer.

[phillychuck]

Trading Joel has got to be on the table at some point. I think they give another coach a shot at making Jo and Ben effective, but I have a sneaking feeling that Jo just isn't the kind of player anymore who affects winning and losing that much on a consistent basis. Look around the league, the top guys are much better. Giannis, Dame, Luka, Kahwi, Lebron (still), AD, Harden, Steph (healthy), probably Butler. It seems like Joel is in the next tier somewhere, and maybe that's the best a center can do in the modern game if he's not dominating defensively, which Joel really isn't anymore.

Would you trade Joel for Beal if he were younger? For Tatum (I don't think Boston would)? Booker or Trae Young? I don't think there is a really good match, and trading a star for a package never seems to work out well...

[Squire]

I am definitely in the camp of giving a new head coach a chance to make Embiid/Simmons+ work being the first thing we do before we try to move either of those guys. I would clean house in the front office first. Goodbye to Brand, any Colangelo holdovers and Brett Brown.

[bigegypt0417]

My issue with Embiid is he's just not a very smart basketball player...and he's not shown any progress on that front. Ben Simmons with his warts makes the players around him better...

If you do trade embiid, you get a monster return. You need the right GM for that.

[California_Dreamin]

Well, I can tell you one offer they will receive. The Warriors, who are always on the lookout for a top star and have a small window to win another title with Curry, Thompson and Green all around 30 years of age, will offer Andrew Wiggins, their current #1 pick [2nd pick of this draft] and the #1 pick they recently received from Minnesota for next years draft, which is supposed to be an incredible one. It is Top 3 protected but I don't think Minnesota is going to be one of the three worst teams next year with KAT, Russell and the top pick this year, probably Edwards.

I know the Warriors will offer this because that has been their plan all along, they talk about it all the time. They will NOT move Thompson, he is going to retire a Warrior, so it is needless to mention his name. However, if the 6ers think Wiseman is going to be a star, if they like Wiggins, if they think that Minnesota pick looks appealing and if they decide to move on from Embid that deal is there for the taking.

The Warriors have coveted Embid and The Greek Freak for a couple of years now and much like they planned to push for Durant as early as 2015, they are now eyeing either Embid or Giannis, both of whom are close friends with Curry.

Food for thought...Warriors fans [I have been one since I became a Phillie phan] are talking about this opening and I know the front office is going to monitor what the 6ers decide to do. If Philadelphia decides to move Embid I guarantee that Warriors will be front and center to make a deal.

[bkeich]

It is hard to believe that Brett Brown is still employed.

I dont know what to make of Brown, he is obviously a very good basketball mind, but he may be one of those coaches that you can build with but he isnt one that will win big or solve big problems. I can't believe that a very good coach cant find a way to make Embiid and Simmons play together, they SHOULDNT be in each others way, they are complimentary in many, many ways. Add shooters, defenders and a solid 3rd scorer / slasher (like, say Tobias Harris) and you SHOULD have a very good team.

Al Horford is simply put a disaster on this team. I can't think of anyone I have ever seen try so little on a team. I dont know whether you just didnt buy into Brown or Brown couldnt find a place for him with Embiid, but was so bad you can almost say he didnt have a good game all year. He had a few, but he was mostly 7 pts, 4 rebounds and alot of watching things happen. Even his once very, very good defense fell off substantially due to his lack of interest. Funny part is you could say about the same thing about Jimmy Butler last year to a degree, and at that point, the only place to look is Brown.

Brand. I think it is over critical to blame him. He retained Embiid and Simmons, he retained Harris (a good player on a better designed team), he brought in Horford, who looked to be a great addition. Not sure I blame him for a team with those 4 guys at its core that couldnt play together because, I think, the scheme was not correct (was there one?) and they may not have really respected Brown. That doesnt even mention getting a very solid Richardson for Jimmy Butler, who made it clear he wanted out (kinda have to wonder why he was so insistent).

Brand is learning, we should have known that when we hired him. He wasnt a GM yet, he was going to learn on the job, either we accepted that or we made a big mistake by letting him learn.

The window on this team is going to close in a couple years, blowing it now without trying with a WINNING coach seems like a mistake and makes the entire build a complete waste of time.

[bigegypt0417]

It is hard to believe that Brett Brown is still employed.

I dont know what to make of Brown, he is obviously a very good basketball mind, but he may be one of those coaches that you can build with but he isnt one that will win big or solve big problems.

Brett Brown is going to a an successful NBA head coach but it won't be with the sixers. He is an intelligent basketball mind and will end up a winner somewhere.