2023-2024 Sixers Season

[xogfog]

I'd be okay with Lillard, but he is 32 and in the last four seasons he has played 66, 67, 29, and 58 games a season, hasn't exactly been the picture of health. I guess you could say that for just about all the top players making the kind of money Harden is...

[phillychuck]

Lillard is also a terrible defensive pairing with Maxey--small guards that really don't impact the game significantly on the defensive end of the court. Hard to play both those guys together...at least Harden was able to sort of match up with wing players.

[zambonir]

I can't really judge Dame fairly because I lived in Portland for so long and would get a kick out of it. His defense is indeed trash. On the surface he does seem like a perfect fit for Joel, he can do most of what Harden did with him last year as well as nearly all of what they wanted out of Butler in 2019 (not all of which Butler did then).

But man, doesn't this team just need an old-fashioned point guard? I know that is barely a thing anymore But I don't think Dame would be the facilitator Harden was - and is even more used to the being the man than Harden was. If you're going to have Dame you almost can't have Maxey, find another guard who can play defense and run an offense for others. Of course that would be unwise unless Maxey gets you a piece that really does win you a championship in the next two yeas.

I also don't know that Dame would come here tbh. He is a West Coast dude who wants to play for the same teams Harden does. I think he'd like it though. Portland NBA fans are great but when I finally went to a Sixers game this year the contrast in the atmosphere was profound.

Or he could refuse to leave Portland and we could go get Scoot Henderson

In some ways this is still a game of kick the can no? The Sixers are going to have to take the deal that works when it is in front of them and then figure out other deals, both short and medium-term. And as Harden and Durant and Kyrie and Chris Paul and any other star you can name show, nothing lasts that long anyway.

[xogfog]

The problem is there isn't really a player that matches up in a trade for Harden, except maybe DeRozan, and he is 33, but in much better shape than Harden and a wing, which would pair better with Embiid and Maxey.

[zambonir]

Harden is, according to sources close to him, extremely upset at the way in which the Sixers handled his possible free agency and has made his dissatisfaction clear to the organization.

I mean, I guess I get that. He gave up the $ and was a fairly selfless player with what probably felt like an unspoken understanding that the Sixers would keep make him whole once he opted out. But the whole of his play, and the post-season result, also made it obvious the Sixers would be crazy to give him a full deal. And he also engineered a lot of this himself (both with the Houston talk and by getting Doc fired).

It sounds like the Sixers (correctly!) were playing hardball with him by letting him and the market come to them, and Morey also stonewalled him and his agent (claiming that after last year he couldn't discuss it while it might be tampering).

Maybe this was a genius move, at least vs. Harden opting out where they would have either lost him for nothing or had to do a more difficult sign-and-trade.

Why James Harden's reunion with Daryl Morey in Philadelphia went south

[Philsmania]

Harden is, according to sources close to him, extremely upset at the way in which the Sixers handled his possible free agency and has made his dissatisfaction clear to the organization.

I mean, I guess I get that. He gave up the $ and was a fairly selfless player with what probably felt like an unspoken understanding that the Sixers would keep make him whole once he opted out. But the whole of his play, and the post-season result, also made it obvious the Sixers would be crazy to give him a full deal. And he also engineered a lot of this himself (both with the Houston talk and by getting Doc fired).

It sounds like the Sixers (correctly!) were playing hardball with him by letting him and the market come to them, and Morey also stonewalled him and his agent (claiming that after last year he couldn't discuss it while it might be tampering).

Maybe this was a genius move, at least vs. Harden opting out where they would have either lost him for nothing or had to do a more difficult sign-and-trade.

Why James Harden's reunion with Daryl Morey in Philadelphia went south

I get the sense that Harden is a diva, more so than your typical pro athlete. Then again, so was Butler and we should have kept him.

[zambonir]

lol you "get the sense."

Honestly is anybody not anymore? Some will call them divas, some will say they are using the power they rightly have (and that few other athletes do). But you can't say the Sixers didn't know what they were getting either time. (Simmons, OTOH, they missed. And he hasn't been good enough to get away with this the way a Harden or Kyrie or Durant can).

[bkeich]

Sadly, the other thing that this Harden disaster means is that the upcoming Sixers season is most likely already over. They will get back, at best, expiring contracts that are literally just players whose only value is it might allow them to sign someone NEXT offseason.

Lilliard isn't available (yet?) and the timing of that deal (if it ever happens) will probably be long after the Harden dump. So, the Sixers end up most likely with a chance to improve the team next offseason after Harden is long gone and Harris is a FA.

Until then, well, we will have a good team, but not even as good as last season, which crashed in the second round of the playoffs (partially due to losing the games Harden played poorly)

[xogfog]

Morey has really got to earn his money this offseason. He's got to find a way to turn Harden and Harris into someone like Levine or DeRozan, can't do something equivalent to a Rolen trade where you get back a bunch of middling assets. He was patient with the Simmons situation until it resulted in Harden, now he has to be patient again and make lemonade from lemons.

[zambonir]

Yeah it already feels like options are vanishing, though not all of them are (and most of the free agents never were to begin with).

But does being patient as with Simmons mean keeping Harden and Harris until February? That's also what the Nets wound up having to do (with all of 'em).

It's not like baseball though. You can take middling assets as long as they are expiring. And accompanied by some picks that you can turn into better assets. It may or may not be this year.

And it may never happen. What good is having one of the three best players in the league if four different GMs and three different coaches can't get the right team and level of play around him?

[jimbomill]

Harden is, according to sources close to him, extremely upset

It's just tough for me to be upset about his only getting $35M - by his active choice from a contract he signed. He could have declined the option.

Sad reality of life (if making only 35 million dollars a year can REMOTELY be a sad thing) no other team thought at his age he's worth the contract he sought. Maybe, if the 76ers got out of the second round, he'd have got the contract he wanted, who knows!

[zambonir]

Haha yes, poor guy.

It is just business, I have no doubt he is correct to feel like the Sixers backed away from something they'd quietly agreed to and also correct to feel like the Sixers weren't acting as though they truly wanted him back. He, of course, has also backed away from things he'd previously agreed to in his career.

It's obviously not that fraught because while accepting the option does put money in his pocket it is also much, much better for the Sixers than if he hadn't.

[zambonir]

Blazers star Lillard requests trade, sources say

The Miami Heat, LA Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers are three teams that will have interest in exploring trades for Lillard, sources told ESPN.

Lillard's preference is to be traded to the Heat, a source told Andscape's Marc J. Spears.

[bkeich]

Yea, my prediction that Lillard wouldn't want to be traded for months has gone as well as most of my recent predictions. Good I don't spend any time in casinos

Only issue is I think Harden has even less interest in Portland than Lillard. It would have to be a 3, 4 or even 5 team trade to make this work.

[zambonir]

I think we're a clear third choice for Dame as well. If he goes to Miami, Harden to Clippers but what the heck do the Sixers get?

I think it was always going to be a three-team trade no matter what. Sixers probably can't get Dame w/o Maxey, Harden goes somewhere else.

I don't think we can rule out a repeat of last year (for both the Sixers and Nets) where the big names don't move until the trade deadline.

[bigegypt0417]

Sixers sign Patrick Beverley

[bkeich]

Sign that PJ Tucker is going to be included in a deal? Would be hard to hold 2 roster spots for both of those extremely redundant guys. Of course, we have no draft picks that need a spot....

[bigegypt0417]

The Sixers are signing Mo Bamba to a one-year deal

[VoteForKalas]

Bamba went to my high school: Westtown in West Chester. Going to be fun to root on a fellow alumni, but it better not be at the expense of Reed who I like a lot.

[zambonir]

And he went to my college.

I think Reed's return is pretty much up to Reed right?