hello friends it's the 2018 NBA Playoffs, a place where dreams GO 2 DIE

they need a player like him, hes only got two years left on his deal and if the raptors are willing to dump him for a shitty first the sixers can just absorb him into their cap space, downside is just theyd mss one summer of being a player in the free agent market

obvs the raps have to be ready to blow it up which im not sure really makes sense for them

on the other hand lowry is 32 and def fits the profile of a player who cld get very old very fast and hes not a long term solution for the sixers

itd be good for him to be in a little bit more of a supporting role too as weve seen him be overmatched as a star in the offs over n over

lowry would be good for them

thinking very big picture i feel like the best thing for the sixers offense would not be simmons learning how to shoot but simmons learning to be a force in the post. if simmons is the best big man passer in the league since lebron, and you think about where lebron is most deadly as a passer, i feel like putting simmosn down there w/ some shooters around him would be pretty deadly. of course, he has to be able to score 1 on 1 in the post and not just bcuz he got position on a guard who can't stop him. in this model saric would be a great fit but idk how embiid would work, you don't want him that far from the basket all the time. then again he's amazing as a pump and driver so maybe it would work.

in a sense also the sixers have the same problem as a lot of teams which is trying to find guys who can shoot on offense but not give it all up on defense. bellineli was on fire vs the heat but his shooting cooled in this series and on defense he was getting demolished on every switch. they have 4 more years of covington at a pretty good number, they really need him to be that kind of guy.

one reason why the bucks were a tougher matchup for the celtics than the sixers despite being a generally worse team is the bucks cld match the celtics size-athleticism on the perimeter where the celtics just destroyed the sixers there, poor jj last night my lord

― sprout god (lag∞n), Thursday, May 10, 2018 1:01 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

RoCo picked a bad time to play absolutely terrible basketball

agree that simmons in the post makes sense but yeah what do you do with embiid--his skills on the perimeter have been severely overstated

yeah covington really flamed out in this series hopefully it's a one time thing. his defense wasnt even great which is his calling card. he just looked like he was in his own head.

bellinelli, jj and ily were great patches but lagoon otm they became too reliant on them as top-of-the-food-chain scoring options instead of guys that open things up for embiid and simmons to go to work inside. the whole team really played like they anointed themselves too early.

The biggest # for me is the inefficiency in Postups for 76ers -

76ers .77ppp on postups
Celts at 1.26

76ers also running ~10% more postups a game.

— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) May 9, 2018

ben simmons needs a livingston type pull up 10 foot jumper/floater thingy

also lowry has the local villanova connection / a pugnacious philly tude

76ers .77ppp on postups
Celts at 1.26

76ers also running ~10% more postups a game.

feel like these numbers are connected philly was forcing it in the post for lack of a better option where the celtics were using the post in the flow of their normal offense

im not a huge covington believer like even if his shot is falling he cant really credibly attack the close out, to be effective 3 n D really requires that extra element, imo hes prob best more as a situational player than a core contributor

also lowry has the local villanova connection / a pugnacious philly tude

― sprout god (lag∞n), Thursday, May 10, 2018 2:22 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark

not just nova he's homegrown from north philly i think

o nice

agree that simmons in the post makes sense but yeah what do you do with embiid--his skills on the perimeter have been severely overstated

― call all destroyer, Thursday, May 10, 2018 2:01 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hes just got to shoot better and make better decisions do decisive one dribble drives and so forth, his game is so undisciplined right now, he can def get there but its..................a process

feel like these numbers are connected philly was forcing it in the post for lack of a better option where the celtics were using the post in the flow of their normal offense

― sprout god (lag∞n), Thursday, May 10, 2018 11:24 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, way too many possessions where boston took out their first option or two and just dumped it to embiid with 8 on the shot clock.

the number of turnovers embiid makes from doing pointless shit is out of control, badly needs to hone his game down to stuff hes actually good at / get good at more stuff

im not worried about the 76ers yet. they need another year to develop and see what fultz has to really be able to see what they will be imo. pretty good results for year 1 of the current iteration all things considered. embiid REALLLY needs to drop 20 lbs he looks completely gassed at the end of every game

embiid needs to tone down the eurostep he's gonna break his foot again!!

his TOs are so bad. theyre not the 'acceptable' type of young player TOs either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1PqyJ_F4CM

lol i wonder if taps are a philly exclusive thing

joel needs to get serious def stop fucking around

also needs to stop thinking hes cute talking shit online/in press conferences everyone in the league is gonna hate him, tho from a fans perspective it is pretty funny

simmons and embiids personalities seems like they cld end up clashing

you gotta know when to turn it off tho.xp

simmons and embiids personalities seems like they cld end up clashing

― sprout god (lag∞n), Thursday, May 10, 2018 11:38 AM (nine seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

last night i saw some stuff that put this thought into my mind as well!

what was it

btw after the game when the teams were milling about congratulating each other and so forth simmons was smiling and being magnanimous and seemed like not maybe a total asshole, embiid had already fled

embiid missed simmons on a couple cuts to the hoop, one where he was wide open and simmons threw a little fit both times.

reddick snipping at mcconnell after he got in his precious way was a bad look too.

embiid walking away seemed kinda out of character to me? he was congratulatory on twitter after tho

obvs the raps have to be ready to blow it up which im not sure really makes sense for them

― sprout god (lag∞n), Thursday, May 10, 2018 1:23 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

To not run into give or take the best player of all time every post-season.

yeah its just they have all these other big contracts even if they unload lowry theyre kinda still in the same boat just not as good

tho getting whatever they can for their guys going full rebuild and waiting out the contracts they cant move is prob the best plan, def a bitter pill to swallow when u finish first in yr conference, idk maybe masai can work some magic and rebuild the team on the fly w/o bottoming out, tough task in this case

The perspective of a Raptors fan like me is that it's never been as good as the past 4-5 years and finally there is some basketball at the forefront in Canada, to blow it up might send us back to the dark ages.

could just shuffle the deck you know, lateral trades with other players stuck in similar situations?

Also Masai is very good and really in the end I blindly trust him.

it's not his fault his top 3 players wet the bed when it matters most.

At night I go to sleep and I'm smiling because I know that what I'll be dreaming of is Boogie signing to Toronto as a FA don't wake me up you monsters.

man i would want NO part of boogie post achilles tear

yeah thats a might risky path, tho if you could get him on a two year deal with a team option for a third it might be a worthy hail mary for the raps, prob have to do a sign n trade with the pelicans for valanciunas + filler

cld def see boogie taking a big short deal since prob no one will want to commit long term, tho the political situation if brow is demanding he be brought back cld force nolas hand

we're gonna learn what kind of GM skills brow has. is he draymond or is he lebron...

he seems really loyal to boogie but he cld just be talking that way for appearances sake who knows

i mean looking at how they played after boogie went down and then learning anything about recovery from a ruptured achilles shd send anyone running in the opposite directions but maybe brow just doesnt think like that

really the best thing wld be for him to force a trade to the celtics

theire ceiling is higher w boogie but yeah, they should just invest in putting the right pieces around brow.

the right pieces around brow are gordon hayward jaylen brown kyrie irving et al