2023-2024 Sixers Season

[xogfog]

Please god no on Chris Paul, he might be the only player that gets hurt in the playoffs more than Embiid.

[zambonir]

Right? And he's ancient. And, Morey's track record with these Houston guys isn't so good.

[bkeich]

I was going to watch the game tonight and realized it didn't record. From the sounds of it that is the best thing that happened to me today.

Oh well.

[gmwannabe]

Kay serra serra.

[Docs]

Very disappointing. I thought for sure the sixers were going to keep advancing and become the fourth consecutive philly team to lose in the finals.

[VoteForKalas]

I think Doc needs to go and we need to find out the plans on Harden and Harris. It would be mind blowing to trade Embiid after his MVP year(s), but the process clearly ran its course long ago and the bad decisions doomed the chase for the ring.

I'm mixed on Morey, but, if he brings in Paul, I'm done with him as GM. I'm more open to Williams as HC, but the roster is still the main issue. No HC is going to turn water into wine.

[zambonir]

Doc sounded like he expects to be back though I'm sure that was true of several other coaches this spring already. He seems to have Joel's support

Harden's probably leaving. Can't imagine he'll do the option, and can't imagine they'll give him a longer deal.

Problem is, you can't just replace him cap-wise, which is why a rumor like Chris Paul starts. Neither Harris nor a Harden sign-and-trade likely gets you a perfect solution, or a better player than Harden. Kyrie?

[phillychuck]

Really, no thanks on Kyrie. When he's interested he's better than Harden and a nice fit, but he's just not interested often enough. Add to that he's apparently difficult to deal with and generally not appealing to fans and there are a lot of reasons to opt out on him.

[bkeich]

I would rather give Dr. J a chance to play for the team in his 70s than Kyrie, at least Dr.J would try and show up for all the games.

I fear we are about to enter a rebuild. I don't see Harden as that big a loss as he played almost no defense and his shooting just isn't very good anymore. Embiid and Maxey combined might get you a little better than a .500 season, but honestly I think Embiid doesn't have more than a year or two left in his legs before he drops off a cliff. He will still be able to play, but he is going to be missing too many games to keep being a cornerstone.

This was the chance. The path to the Finals was wide open but they blew it in game 6. I suspect we're are looking at 2030 now for that type of Championship potential, but hey, that is better than the Flyers at least.

[Philsmania]

I think 2019 when we had Butler was our best chance.

The problem, as I see it, is that over the course of three GM's (Hinkie, Colangelo and Morey), they simply have not drafted well. Embiid, Maxey...the draft hits are too few and far between. Plus, they blew the 1-1 in consecutive years though Fultz has fixed himself to some extent (which begs the question of whether the Sixers broke him or just were not patient enough with him).

Considering how the league office did not like the brazenness of the Sixers' tanking under Hinkie, I'm sure there are quite a few people in the league office who are borderline gleeful that it does not looks like it will not pay off in a championship for them.

[zambonir]

I was not remotely suggesting Kyrie, that was merely the illustration of my point that there are no straight-up star level free agents better than Harden (overall, given his issues).

If Harden goes they really don't have much $ to play with unless they move Tobias, but they might not get a surefire starting player for him so then the question is can they do enough to replace both Harden and Tobias?

Or can they somehow go back to the 2001 model and find the right role players? The flaws have really been the same every year in some ways, they have just never had a pure point guard and a pure shot creator around Joel at the same time. This year Harden was a little both and Maxey was a little of the latter. But Butler wasn't both those things (and neither was Ben obviously). And Tobias never was either.

The truth is Chris Paul might make sense, both in terms of role/skill set (even with the age/injury caveat) and matching with Harris or Harden in the right three-way trade.

[VoteForKalas]

The problem, as I see it, is that over the course of three GM's (Hinkie, Colangelo and Morey), they simply have not drafted well. Embiid, Maxey...the draft hits are too few and far between. Plus, they blew the 1-1 in consecutive years though Fultz has fixed himself to some extent (which begs the question of whether the Sixers broke him or just were not patient enough with him).

One could argue if we had retained Butler and drafted Tatum, we would already have a trophy in the case.

[phillychuck]

Either of those, probably, would have resulted in a formidable team, although Tatum may not have developed as well as he did in Boston if he came here. Or if we hadn't traded Bridges. All big mistakes. To be fair, every team makes mistakes, but the impact of these mistakes was enormous. From an outside perspective, I think the Simmons over Butler decision was more than justifiable at the time, but the Sixers knew Simmons better than we did and should have known he was not a competitor.

[bigegypt0417]

Doc Rivers has been fired.

One year too late.

[phillychuck]

Three years too late, actually.

I was always all about him...at least to him it was.

Never shoulda hired.

[bigegypt0417]

I agree...ladt year was it for me. Worst big game coach in the history of the NBA...that isn't anecdote.

[zambonir]

One could argue if we had retained Butler and drafted Tatum, we would already have a trophy in the case.

If they'd drafted Tatum they never would have traded for Butler probably. But they might have won just with what they gave up for Butler and Harris.

On the bright side, at least they didn't put all their chips on Ben. I was admittedly susceptible to the idea that Joel might never be healthy enough (still true) and the two of them not positionally compatible enough (also true) to consider that path. Things might have gone very differently for Ben too (especially as a center) but he still obviously wouldn't have had the stuff to be the Man. And who knows who his #2 would have been.

Doc was never a great hire but the Sixers issues would have been the same with any coach (and already were). The question is was Morey a good hire? I mean, he was still better than when there was no GM, or Brand. And of course, it was Brand and ownership that hired Doc, so now Morey gets one run where it is really his own team.

[phillychuck]

Morey's weakness is that (In my humble opinion) he is too focused on stars and doesn't pay enough attention to the guys around them. But that is a small flaw which can be compensated for... His strength is analytics and trades. It will be interesting to see how he maneuvers the Harden situation (if he has any chance to maneuver it). And what he does with Tobias.

[zambonir]

I also think to some extent Doc is a good coach and his failings are under the microscope because he's a good coach (i.e. he puts himself in a position to have played in that many big games, and didn't meet expectations this year because the team actually was good enough to raise them). But there are also multiple coaches who actually are better (and more innovative) than him on the market. It's possible he would have kept his job if that wasn't the case. We'll see who they get (and please let it be one of them, not D'Antoni or Vogel).

[bigegypt0417]

I felt like they built a pretty solid bench this year...tucker just isn't a valuable rotational player at this point.

I wonder what players come back...