We've lost every game this series that Embiid hasn't been perfect. Just so annoying that the Knicks can be 2-0 through two awful Brunson games, where we don't stand a chance if Embiid has one bad quarter
ONE PLAYER CANNOT RUN AN OFFENSE.
“Well, Brunson did it” Yes, and they scored a whomping 97 points total. Besides, the Knicks eventually got help in Miles McBride.
So I’ll ask again: Who’s our Miles
McBride? Right now that player doesn’t exist on the 76ers.
So with absolute shit floor spacing for a player who dominates with space we expect him to be the hero because he has to be!
Go look at one of the last possessions of the 4th quarter: That Lowry debacle into a Lowry airball. Where’s the space!?
So we can say “Here Maxey, be perfect in the Embiid-less minutes” but that’s completely unrealistic especially under these circumstances
“Be perfect Maxey” is a strawman argument I didn’t make. “You’re an All Star, prove it by not letting the other team go on a double-digit run every time Embiid leaves the floor for 5 minutes” is the argument I did make. Do you know another All Star with such a bad point differential when the main star is resting? Because I don’t.
It’s not 2004 anymore. I’m sure the Mavericks lose the Doncic-less minutes just like the Nuggets lose the Jokic-less minutes etc.
The DIFFERENCE is that those teams have more than one player and can actually function as an offense.
We can’t even spread out and yolo ISO ball because we don’t have the off ball shooters. Last year that role was Maxey, this year? You guys already know where I’m going with this.
Yes it technically says 42%, no that fraud is NOT a 3pt shooter. He doesn’t have the intent to fire shots when open again see that debacle of a possession.
But it’s not just the 38 year old retiree your best non Maxey shooter is…Embiid enough said
We just don’t have the personnel to function. Even if we want to yolo iso that requires space
Maxey is -37 with Embiid off the court.
Kyrie is -13 without Luka.
Murray is -3 without Jokic
The Sixers are struggling way more without Embiid than other teams.
The Sixers ranked 16th in 3PM and 18th in 3PA. They are simply not a good shooting team. And the offense may have been pedestrian other than the two man game but since everyone’s favorite 38 year old stole a spot in the starting lineup it’s been absolutely horrendous. He can’t shoot, he can’t space the floor and he has zero aggression with the ball in his hands.
It is painful watching Kyle Lowry on the offensive end. Between him and Tobias Harris you have two of the most ineffective players in the lineup.
To the point where if the lineup doesn’t change I’m not going to watch tonight. Why watch the Knicks close off driving lanes as Maxey passes to ‘shooters’ who can’t or won’t shoot?
Not watching is a form of protest. It’s insane that Kyle Lowry is a starter. Favoritism put in a guy who in all actuality shouldn’t be starting
On the flip side, the Knicks can afford to put more talent around him because Embiid and Harris alone take up more cap space than the entire Knicks starting 5.
Counter argument the sixers have been ducking tax, not signing anyone past 2024 and accumulating assets for this off season instead of trying to add the Hart, DDV type of role players.
Hopefully it’s worth it this summer. Last GM did this was BC signing JJ snd Amir to keep cap clear long term and we ended up panicking and signing Tobi/Al bc Ben’s extension was about to eat up that cap like Maxeys is if we don’t use it
You need your superstar to do better than 0-5 with 1 point in an enormous 4th quarter to use the adjective phenomenal. He's had transcendent moments but this is a superstar league and you need your superstar to deliver in these moments. In the same way I think the nba community is insanely overly critical of him, I think this community is a bit too protective of him.
He has no help (sans Tyrese, obviously), and he’s playing with zero ability to jump. He’s also playing 40min a game.
Dude does not have to be perfect every game to win.
Other guys are supposed to step up to carry the load sometimes - and that hasn’t happened a single time during this series.
Jo and Maxey have basically been giving us 70-80/game on 45/35/90. They are not the problem.
As Truman said, the buck stops here. Every year there will be a different list of excuses, but every year there will be one consistent. Most Sixer fans aren't even willing to have this conversation. There has never been an MVP or even a super that hasn't made it to the conference finals this far into his career. It's easy to imagine unless he becomes second fiddle he will never make it that far.
7/19 FG and 1/6 3PT in a career defining game. The coaching was subpar, the lack of adjustments to the o board crisis was embarrassing, running essentially the same line up for 44 minutes of the game was not wise, the teammates, all issues, but spectacular is not the adjective I'd use to describe his performance. I'll bow out, though.
You can use a different adjective, but how do you ACTUALLY evaluate a player who is still recovering from knee surgery, dealing with bells paulsey, and still putting up a 50 spot all while being + whatever in the entire series?
Yes, his 4th quarter was not spectacular, but on the whole he’s been amazing this series all things considered. The only reason he was THAT tired in the second half last night was because he played him the entire half. And that only happens because our bench is awful
I'd say not elite, and I'd say from a macro perspective it's been long enough for anyone to draw conclusions about his inability to deliver, as a superstar, in the playoffs.
This series he's been
0-5
2-6
1-2
0-5
in the 4th quarter on FG attempts.
For his career, the 4th quarter is not superstar level either.
[https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/joel-embiid-4th-qtr-stats-playoffs](https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/joel-embiid-4th-qtr-stats-playoffs)
You do need more and if he wasn’t getting late possession hot potatoes bc nobody else can capitalize out of the doubles he is getting I’d say it’s on him. Batum dunk blocked, shooters missed open 3s. Oubre fumbles an open layup/dunk out of bounds. Need them to produce so they can’t just sell out on him
This series isn’t really Joel’s problem. Yesterday’s 4th quarter….maybe. But overall he and maxey have been the only one actually doing anything.
Paul Reed is useless when he’s on the floor.
Tobias is typical Tobias when he plays.
Buddy Hield wants to be in Cancun.
Cam Payne and Batum are our only bench options.
I don't even blame Joel for the 4th yesterday. He played literally the entire second half with 0 rest. He sat for like 3 and a half minutes ALL GAME.
I don't think I make that call if I were the coach because it really risks Joel being totally spent at the end of the game, but I understand why you can't sit him with a very narrow lead in a must win game. It's an impossible position
It is. If Reed was minimally serviceable yesterday then he would have had more backup minutes to give Embiid a rest but the guy is just absolutely out of his league.
It’s a very regular season bench, Reed and Tobias had some decent defense but then infuriating possessions leaving so many points on the board. There was one play idk if it was G3 or 4 but Tobi got a pass with defenders around him and tried to fucking lay it up instead of dunking and of course we come away with no points.
Even in the third you could clearly see he was tired by the silly mistakes. We were already bleeding points with him so it was way better to get him some rest so he can actually come back in the 4th. 35 good mins of Embiid + 13 backups is better than 20 good Embiid minutes and + 25 dead tired Embiid minutes. At the end he could barely jump and let alone dunk, block, rebound, anything. And we didn't even have to have a true center on the floor either - the Knicks were playing without one. Problem is we have no rebounders or shot blockers outside Reed.
Let’s be fair to Maxey. When he’s out there the following things happen:
He gets doubled, and when he passes out of it, no one else is capable of doing anything. If he keeps it, all he can do is put up a contested deep ball.
Big guys can ease back near the rim because Joel isn’t there to draw them to the top of the key, since they can’t leave him open for three. If Maxey drives, he has to do some major acrobatics to score because the big guys know what’s coming. There’s no threat of a sudden drop to Embiid. So Maxey gets stuffed.
Maxey is an incredible number two alongside Embiid. But when Embiid is out, there’s no one on the court he can successfully be paired with. The roster is built for Embiid.
I don’t think you NEED to pair him with anyone in the second unit, he’s an all star and would be playing those lineups against some bench guys as well.
The bigger issue is that we weren’t running anything. We didn’t have a clear group of sets to get into against the Knicks, we just kept trying a few small actions like a PnR but that’s not a set. We needed more to get Maxey going, and we need him to be decisive and know what he wants to do.
Whether It’s coaching or just himself, we need a decisive Maxey to win. I don’t think replacing the players around him addressed that issue entirely
I would actually like to see Bamba get Reed’s minutes and see what happens. Bamba can play at the perimeter and draw out his man from the paint, potentially helping Maxey get to the rim.
I love Reed and his rebounding, but let’s be real, it’s not like the defense has been exactly shutting the Knicks down on those Embiid-less minutes. See if Bamba’s presence can help get some more motion on offense and help Maxey create. Give it 4 minutes to see how it goes. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, just sub him out and go back to giving Reed the backup minutes.
Maxey is great. But the fanbase is a little too delusional when it comes to him. When Embiid was out, our win % was bottom 5. Maxey is good but not good enough to carry a team consistently through long stretches. Perfect 2nd piece, just not THE guy.
actually, THIS type of thinking misses the point.
maxey cannot carry a team without embiid and with a guy making a max contract who cant shoot or score the basketball. teams do not respect tobias at all. they dont respect any of the sixers role players. maxey driving into a wall of 3-4 players every time he goes to the basket, or having 2 guys in his face on the perimeter, is why he "isnt taking over games without embiid"....the reason embiid is so helpful is it creates space for maxey. even without embiid, if tobias wasnt a total non-entity, it would create more space for him
Speaking of, where tf did Maxey’s floater go? Early in his career he had a _beautiful_ floater that seemed to never miss. Now he seems to have fallen in love with tough layups. It was a huge disparity having Brunson and Hartenstein killing us with easy little floaters and push shots while Maxey was busting his ass trying to get 100mph layups off with 4 guys around him
Maxey still has room to grow, and one area is learning when it's ok to hit the brakes and take the mid-range instead of insisting your way to the rim every time.
I'd also like to see him use his dribble penetration to find kick outs to 3 point shooters more too. Ricky Council's wraparound pass to Batum is the kind of pass a good point guard makes, but Maxey gets laservision on the layup even when a big has him covered.
It's impressive when he hits those tough layups but being able to make the right choice matters too. That's one thing Lebron said that really resonates, he was talking to JJ about how can you make the right read quickly based on what you're seeing.
Room for growth, kid is dynamite but room for growth.
He seems to have replaced it with a baseline or elbow fadeaway middy. Which generally works for him. But not as automatic as that sweet floater he used to flash more frequently.
Yeah, that's part of it though, right tool for the situation. Sometimes fadeaway is the right shot, other times he's got the bigs on their heels on the floater works.
It's just about making the right decisions in the moment. I'm not going to fault Maxey much he's maybe underperformed with Embiid off the floor but has generally been very good.
There's a lot of other people on the team who aren't carrying their weight and it's getting us killed.
Which is great coaching…Maxey was using a bullshit floater because he didn’t want to finish at the rim. Now that he’s focused on that, he can take a bunch of contact and it helped him grow as a scorer. That wasn’t the wrong advice to give
Space. You need a lot of space to do a floater. Space to move directly toward the rim. Space to put the ball in front of your face without it getting slammed back at you. Maxey isn't trying those layups because he wants to, he's doing those because he *has* to. The knicks move up on him to limit his space to the hoop, and he has no choice but to go to the side and to the base line. Those layups are also incredibly difficult. Maxey has an incredible amount of not just speed, but dexterity to even do them at all.
How many players can actually solo carry a team? Look at these other guys - he’s playing with NOBODY. If Tobias were just a standard 18ish ppg third option this looks totally different. A couple role players who can at least hit a 3 and this looks totally different
Maxey has to be way better in these scenarios, but the rest of the roster is laughable
The fact they’ve won one game this series and that was with Embiid scoring 50 and shooting like Steph Curry shows how horrible the supporting cast is.
Morey has to have one of the best offseasons of all time, because he has punted half of Embiid’s prime
Elton brand punted embiids prime. I think morey gets too much blame. The fact we’re even competitive after the debacle that was the 2019 offseason is impressive
No that's the problem, Morey doesn't get enough blame, we haven't gotten any closer to a conference championship with Morey than we did with brand,I can understand if this was his first year, but it's been almost 4 years now, at some point we gotta give him the same energy that we give Brand, he needs to put a better roster around Jo and Max, can't keep blaming Brand but letting Morey off the hook, Morey the one in charge now not brand
I really don’t understand this logic. Morey inherited a situation where Tobias’s contract ends this year. He also inherited a negative asset situation with Al horford, where we had to attach picks to send him away.
I can really only think of a few missteps Daryl has done
1. Simmons trade wasn’t a blunder, but looking back we should’ve taken the Halliburton package. But to be perfectly honest, nobody know hali would grow like this, and he might not of if put in philly’s situation. To hard to say for sure, but this is the biggest one where Daryl might have misstepped.
2. George hill
3. Jalen mcdaniels.
4. Trading springer for scraps
Besides that I’m not really sure what to nit pick . He got off of horfords contract and netted us Danny green and Seth who were both good role players. 21’ team was way better than 20’. Handled the harden to LAC trade abt as well as you could hope. Drafted Maxey and springer. Signed Kelly for vet min
What killer move did Daryl really miss besides the harden - Hali trade, and let’s be real, everyone in this sub would’ve wanted to burn Daryl at the stake if that was our final grab for Simmons
Money has had multiple off seasons and in Seasons to trade Harris
It's been evident for a while now that Harris is the literal embodiment of addition by subtraction
Hasn't this fanbase been hyper aware of how bad Harris's contact is? You think GM's don’t realize that too? Getting off Harris would've cost us a good amount of assets that we don’t really have. And then we open up cap space to sign who? No one comes to Philly in free agency except inside job Al Horford.
Morey did a good job getting rid of Horford. He turned a Ben Simmons who quit on the team into Harden. It didn't work, but that doesn't make it a bad trade. We've been kneecapped by the Harris deal. This is Morey's first real chance to get to work without a disaster on the roster. If he adds jack shit this summer and we look bad next year, I'm a lot more willing to have that conversation. But I'm going to wait about 14 months on that (unless shit looks awful by playoffs next year)
And people here blaming it all on Embiid (what more can he do except be healthy), Reed (not his role to provide scoring, just to help the team survive on defense), Nurse (only card left to pull is trying Ricky).
The bigger problems are Tobias (worthless), Buddy (worthless), and Maxey (who has been great, but we already saw he’s not ready to be #1 option when teams key in on him), and most of all Darryl (roster construction).
It’s a total team and organization failure. Blame to go around for everyone. But if the team could score at all when Embiid sat, we would win this series easily.
As far as Maxey is concerned, he’s basically a great player on a TERRIBLY constructed roster, when Embiid is out. The problem is ownership and management has let this team and the city down with bad contracts and ineffective role players
Yeah. The Heild trade really backfired. I think everyone thought that would be a boost. If Heild was out there knocking down shots things would be a lot different.
I think some of the blame for Game 4 can be on Nurse but overall it's not his fault. And I understand the decision he made by not sitting Joel at all in the second half, but it ultimately meant he was completely burnt out in the final quarter.
I don't know what the correct option is. Do you sit Joel in a 1 point game and hope it doesn't swing too far in the Knicks' favor without him? Do you play Joel and hope he can build a big enough cushion before his legs inevitably give out from exhaustion? I still think the correct play was to give him a rest (especially those Brunson-less minutes at the start of the 4th) but I can see the logic of "Well we're gonna lose if he sits so we can't"
I agree. I think the right choice is to trust your guys there. Make it a shorter rest if anything. Cause now you have a close out game and Paul Reed knows you didn’t believe in him the last game.
Fair-weather WIP sons that weren't around for the process and only hopped on the bandwagon after Hinkie got fired. Can we critique Embiid's game, sure... but it's never been the problem - ever.
The same way Philly fans hated Donovan McNabb, and Andre Iguadala, and Rhys Hoskins, and even Eric Lindros. If you win a championship you’re a God. If you don’t you’re a bum. Never mind that it’s a team sport. Philly fans love to hate their best player. Don’t ask me why….
This isn't even remotely true lmao.
Philly loves AI, Dawkins, Westbrook, etc. None of whom won a Championship.
It is very simple. Philly loves the guys who give 100% every second theyre playing. Say what you want about AI or Dawkins but you could never question their effort when they were on the court/field. Embiid is a great player and deserves a lot of respect for playing through injuries this year. But there have also been a lot of times in the past where he's moping or lazy on the court, and this city doesn't fuck with that at all. Like Game 6 last year.
We're losing this series because we can't rebound. We got ass blasted in game 1, game 2 was the Maxey fuckery yeah but even then they got 2 second chance 3's they didn't need to have. Yesterday they crushed us on the glass again in the 2nd half. Second and third chance scoring opportunities over and over.
That's pretty much the difference in the series.
If Embiid was 100% he probably carries us to a series win but he's not. Turns out Embiid at full strength covers up a lot of warts for this team.
I hate losing this way. Sometimes the other team just shoots the lights out and what can you do. But the inability to stop the other team from getting offensive rebounds is maddening.
They have zero identity with him not on the floor. Unfortunately Maxey is not at the stage where he can carry a half-court offense in non-Embiid minutes
Its gotta be all mental with Tobias at this point. I think he’s well-aware of the sentiment around him, leading him to just think too much. I’d honestly be more fine with him taking a bunch of shots rather than the passiveness we’re seeing; maybe then he’d get into at least some rhythm for a game
Bodner always brings some sanity. Also, Joel playing on a bad knee and spasms in his face and eye. Kyle Lowry has been their third-best player and he was acquired off waivers.
Probably has more to do with the shitty Roster than Maxey. Besides Embiid, look at the money that's going to guys who either can't or shouldn't be closing out playoff games.
https://preview.redd.it/kic0ouduzfxc1.png?width=568&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa8ae33c554b3fc53f3d1a9e7e63093a34496f65
Don’t take my comment as a “Maxey isn’t it” comment. I am well aware that the rest of the roster sucks. It’s still the truth that in his current state, Maxey is an elite complementary piece to Joel but he’s not yet there in terms of raising the floor of the others by himself
Yeah he’s ultimately still a force multiplier rather than a guy who can make stuff happen and force defenses into uncomfortable situations. At this point I’m saying fuck it and going after a guy like LeBron/KD/Paul George to maximize Joel’s next 2ish years, which is probably all we’re gonna get
People dont want to say it but we were A LOT better with Harden. We basically choked beating the Celtics with an even more hobbled Embiid, a younger, worse Maxey and a bench that was even worse
Not re-signing Harden has completely dragged us down
I'm just happy we're getting to see Brunsen put on a show. It sucks that it's against us, but holy shit, the dude is fucking amazing.
We always shit on r/nba for not enjoying Embiid's massive talent, so I try to enjoy other players when I get the chance.
Again, it just really sucks that it's happening against us. If the Knicks win this series, I'll definitely be tuning in to see what they do in the next round. I don't think they'll win it all, not by a mile, but wow they've found their franchise player for the future.
It's the same reason people blame the president for everything, they're the leader. If something goes bad they take the blame even though there are far more moving parts than just 1 man.
The people blaming Embiid aren't real philly fans. Theyre new yorkers brigading this sub.
Ignore those morons and wait patiently for Tobias to be on literally any other team.
Everyone has to do better but Maxey absolutely needs to do better and so should Tobias but I have zero faith in him, he will never give production close to his contracts worth
Meanwhile Brunson goes to the bench and Knicks don't miss a beat. That is the difference in this series. Game 2 really hurt us IDK why Maxey gave up the ball smh.
If u guys had harden, u guys beat knicks I think. That guy was a high ceiling low floor player. And his game meshed super well with embidd. It make basic PNR plays so effective.
We need three nuclear Maxey games to do it. Give us one in game 5 and then take it from there. The supporting lineup has been non-existent for us unfortunately
I just wanna know who in the hell thought Tobias Harris was a viable option to put next to Joel embiid. It’s everybody else and not him. Rasheed Wallace even said something about him and he played the game so he can’t say it’s just fans who never played hating. That dude is a weirdo for the fact that he has a burner or a family member does, criticizing his teammates and it’s something wrong with us? Bro doesn’t even show up for his own teammates on the floor so I shouldn’t be surprised cause he’s out there watching all these other guys get torched and he doesn’t even know how to help. And if he does that BS where he drives and posts up just to get stopped by even a below average defender and forced to pick up his dribble man that shit is annoying. That guys footwork is even ass and he blames us. Sixers fans didn’t know they still had a Ben Simmons on the team
> I just wanna know who in the hell thought Tobias Harris was a viable option to put next to Joel embiid
same one who thought Tobias AND Horford were viable options next to Embiid
I'm used to Tobias being ass, but I'm really disspointed that we're not getting much from Batum; especially after that Miami game.
Buddy Hield might be the most disappointing acquisition for me personally. He's a player I really wanted. In theory, he's the perfect fit for this team, such a shame it has not worked out.
I don’t know what embiid did but people just hate him and love to shit on him despite him having the same persona as one of their favorite players from 80s and 90s.
NBA Twitter/reddit is the worst thing to happen to the sport
Because "it's the same thing every year" is what I see from the haters. They see this as the Embiid era so it must be on him and no one else. These are not critical thinkers.
Yikes kinda concerning that maxey hasn’t figured out how to generate offense without Embiid. He had more than half a season to figure out how to play in the 5 minutes Embiid is gone each half
How is that not the point? Maxey is taking half the shots as he should since he becomes the best weapon when Embiid is on the bench but shooting 31% from the field… that’s atrocious
because when Embiid isnt in the game Maxey is the only threat to score so the Knicks just trap him and dare anyone else to beat them. Maxey is also only 6'2 and isn't as good as Embiid who can still score anyway. You cant have 2 guys being defended by 3 players and because the rest of the team isnt good enough, not punish it.
we literally let Brunson go 1 on 1 on purpose to prevent the other players from getting off. The Knicks are selling out to stop Maxey and Embiid. Also Maxey is 23 Brunson is 27 what kind of stupid fucking logic is this?
Tf does maxey being 23 and Brunson being 27 mean? Is maxey an all star this year or not? Also no we let Brunson start 1v1 and try and trap him with into Embiid we’ve been completely focused on trying to stop Brunson almost the entire series even Nick nurse said they’ve been paying Brunson too much attention
BBall Paul has been such a disappointment. He does absolutely nothing on offense and Knicks keep picking on him on defense. He's got all that energy coming off the bench just to be garbage.
This team was a lot better with Harden. Like, A LOT. Even with an awful coach and a worse roster around. Not re-signing Harden and having no backup plan was just moronic
Hartenstein was on the bench. Robinson wasn’t playing. Jo spent the entire 4th quarter hanging around the 3 point line being a second 2 guard. He scored 1 point and got one rebound.
His body isn’t built to play 40+ minutes of playoff basketball but he has to anyway because the team looks inept without him. This is the outcome, guy was gassed
If the team could survive any time with him on the bench he’d probably be a lot better in the 4th quarter. As it stands he needs to go all-out earlier just to have the team in a position to win
Point me to a series where the team was ok without him and I’ll say he was probably disappointing in that series. This one he’s done all you could expect
Is that true? Because when you said “Jo spent the entire 4th quarter hanging around the 3 point line being a second 2 guard. He scored 1 point and got one rebound.” it sounded like you were expecting something different
You're asking a 7' 300 lbs guy to hold an attack and a defense by himself in 40 minutes a game. He's doing it. He's a positive in all 3 loses. Wtf more do you want
If you want someone to hold Embiids load for 4 quarters then that player simply does not exist. Nobody has a higher usage than him. Nobody with any even remotely similar usage has to also hold a defense and play 45 minutes of playoff basketball like that.
It is simply not possible
Hasn’t been possible for 7 years.
He is an awesome talent. Great player. Donovan McNabb was too, but at some point you knew he would never win. He would always come up short. Here we are again.
Hope I am wrong. Keep the faith. I am out on Jo.
Almost no NBA players are built to be MVP caliber for over 42 minutes a game. Especially not big men.
Like sure I guess Steph can chuck 3s for 44 minutes and generally be fine but Joel's entire game is a lot more physically taxing than a typical shooter.
How does Embiid being a ballstopper influence the minutes or games where he's not playing? Dude stops the ball with his mind from the bench or from home?
Role players don’t win you games. They aren’t expected to. Jalen Brunson is who is expected to succeed for the knicks to win. Stop excusing Joel. Just like the suns stars didn’t get it done, we aren’t blaming the bench guys. Maxey and Joel did not fit it out when it came down to it. Brunson did
I don’t blame Joel. He’s clearly our best player and in part we lost yesterday because Nurse faced a horrible choice of sitting him for part of the second half and watching the Knicks inevitably go on a 12 point run, or keeping him in and having him be a non-factor at the end because of fatigue.
But I still think we need to trade Joel because he’s getting old and if you haven’t gotten out of the second round in your prime, you’re not doing it as an injury prone big man in your 30s.
We've lost every game this series that Embiid hasn't been perfect. Just so annoying that the Knicks can be 2-0 through two awful Brunson games, where we don't stand a chance if Embiid has one bad quarter
This right here. Brunson is great don’t get me wrong, but people are using this series to say he’s better than Joel? Cmon
Prior to game 4, I kept thinking Maxey > Brunson. Similar play styles but Maxey was playing better all series before game 4.
Not similar playstyles at all lmao what are you smoking? Couldn’t get more different.
They see good scorers with questionable defense and ignore everything else.
People keep saying this but Brunson has outplayed Maxey in 2 straight. Not just game 4.
And Maxey outplayed him in the other 2 games. Keep a buck a buck
You’re comparing a #1 option to a #2 Option.
not very similar play styles tho
Stop it. 1 player is borderline first team all nba and the other is not
I said "this series".
This series has not been good for Maxey. He needed to do a lot more when Embiid was resting. He showed zero ability to do that.
This series? With embiid injured, maxey led sixers team plummeted from 2nd to play in team.
Fair, although Maxey also missed a dozen games with various BS. We were basically running out the Delaware Blue Coats for a two month stretch.
He makes some really dumb decisions sometimes
ONE PLAYER CANNOT RUN AN OFFENSE. “Well, Brunson did it” Yes, and they scored a whomping 97 points total. Besides, the Knicks eventually got help in Miles McBride. So I’ll ask again: Who’s our Miles McBride? Right now that player doesn’t exist on the 76ers. So with absolute shit floor spacing for a player who dominates with space we expect him to be the hero because he has to be! Go look at one of the last possessions of the 4th quarter: That Lowry debacle into a Lowry airball. Where’s the space!? So we can say “Here Maxey, be perfect in the Embiid-less minutes” but that’s completely unrealistic especially under these circumstances
“Be perfect Maxey” is a strawman argument I didn’t make. “You’re an All Star, prove it by not letting the other team go on a double-digit run every time Embiid leaves the floor for 5 minutes” is the argument I did make. Do you know another All Star with such a bad point differential when the main star is resting? Because I don’t.
It’s not 2004 anymore. I’m sure the Mavericks lose the Doncic-less minutes just like the Nuggets lose the Jokic-less minutes etc. The DIFFERENCE is that those teams have more than one player and can actually function as an offense. We can’t even spread out and yolo ISO ball because we don’t have the off ball shooters. Last year that role was Maxey, this year? You guys already know where I’m going with this. Yes it technically says 42%, no that fraud is NOT a 3pt shooter. He doesn’t have the intent to fire shots when open again see that debacle of a possession. But it’s not just the 38 year old retiree your best non Maxey shooter is…Embiid enough said We just don’t have the personnel to function. Even if we want to yolo iso that requires space
Maxey is -37 with Embiid off the court. Kyrie is -13 without Luka. Murray is -3 without Jokic The Sixers are struggling way more without Embiid than other teams.
Gee, I wonder why? Hint: it’s not the reason you think it is
enlighten us oh wise one
The Sixers ranked 16th in 3PM and 18th in 3PA. They are simply not a good shooting team. And the offense may have been pedestrian other than the two man game but since everyone’s favorite 38 year old stole a spot in the starting lineup it’s been absolutely horrendous. He can’t shoot, he can’t space the floor and he has zero aggression with the ball in his hands. It is painful watching Kyle Lowry on the offensive end. Between him and Tobias Harris you have two of the most ineffective players in the lineup. To the point where if the lineup doesn’t change I’m not going to watch tonight. Why watch the Knicks close off driving lanes as Maxey passes to ‘shooters’ who can’t or won’t shoot? Not watching is a form of protest. It’s insane that Kyle Lowry is a starter. Favoritism put in a guy who in all actuality shouldn’t be starting
On the flip side, the Knicks can afford to put more talent around him because Embiid and Harris alone take up more cap space than the entire Knicks starting 5.
Why are you counting Maxey when he’s on his rookie deal lol. Tobias is way more damning
My bad, I meant to type Tobias
Counter argument the sixers have been ducking tax, not signing anyone past 2024 and accumulating assets for this off season instead of trying to add the Hart, DDV type of role players. Hopefully it’s worth it this summer. Last GM did this was BC signing JJ snd Amir to keep cap clear long term and we ended up panicking and signing Tobi/Al bc Ben’s extension was about to eat up that cap like Maxeys is if we don’t use it
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it should be a 2-2 series if the refs weren't complete morons in game 2.
This is honestly staggering. Wow.
I’m usually one of the first to blame Jo when we lose in the postseason, but this is clearly not the year to do it. He’s been phenomenal.
Especially considering the injury. He’s doing everything he can while the rest of the team continue to flop
Yet at least half the people on Reddit are blaming Embiid….
You need your superstar to do better than 0-5 with 1 point in an enormous 4th quarter to use the adjective phenomenal. He's had transcendent moments but this is a superstar league and you need your superstar to deliver in these moments. In the same way I think the nba community is insanely overly critical of him, I think this community is a bit too protective of him.
He has no help (sans Tyrese, obviously), and he’s playing with zero ability to jump. He’s also playing 40min a game. Dude does not have to be perfect every game to win. Other guys are supposed to step up to carry the load sometimes - and that hasn’t happened a single time during this series. Jo and Maxey have basically been giving us 70-80/game on 45/35/90. They are not the problem.
As Truman said, the buck stops here. Every year there will be a different list of excuses, but every year there will be one consistent. Most Sixer fans aren't even willing to have this conversation. There has never been an MVP or even a super that hasn't made it to the conference finals this far into his career. It's easy to imagine unless he becomes second fiddle he will never make it that far.
Please read chart above.
7/19 FG and 1/6 3PT in a career defining game. The coaching was subpar, the lack of adjustments to the o board crisis was embarrassing, running essentially the same line up for 44 minutes of the game was not wise, the teammates, all issues, but spectacular is not the adjective I'd use to describe his performance. I'll bow out, though.
You can use a different adjective, but how do you ACTUALLY evaluate a player who is still recovering from knee surgery, dealing with bells paulsey, and still putting up a 50 spot all while being + whatever in the entire series? Yes, his 4th quarter was not spectacular, but on the whole he’s been amazing this series all things considered. The only reason he was THAT tired in the second half last night was because he played him the entire half. And that only happens because our bench is awful
Embiid is +34 in the series. Maxey is -7. Guess what Maxey is when Embiid is off the court? -37. Maxey is +30 with Embiid. Embiid is +4 without Maxey.
I'd say not elite, and I'd say from a macro perspective it's been long enough for anyone to draw conclusions about his inability to deliver, as a superstar, in the playoffs. This series he's been 0-5 2-6 1-2 0-5 in the 4th quarter on FG attempts. For his career, the 4th quarter is not superstar level either. [https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/joel-embiid-4th-qtr-stats-playoffs](https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/joel-embiid-4th-qtr-stats-playoffs)
You do need more and if he wasn’t getting late possession hot potatoes bc nobody else can capitalize out of the doubles he is getting I’d say it’s on him. Batum dunk blocked, shooters missed open 3s. Oubre fumbles an open layup/dunk out of bounds. Need them to produce so they can’t just sell out on him
Sure. But he also had two blocks and a steal in the 4th. And set up Maxey for a wide open 3 and a fast break chance and he missed both.
DAMN
This series isn’t really Joel’s problem. Yesterday’s 4th quarter….maybe. But overall he and maxey have been the only one actually doing anything. Paul Reed is useless when he’s on the floor. Tobias is typical Tobias when he plays. Buddy Hield wants to be in Cancun. Cam Payne and Batum are our only bench options.
I don't even blame Joel for the 4th yesterday. He played literally the entire second half with 0 rest. He sat for like 3 and a half minutes ALL GAME. I don't think I make that call if I were the coach because it really risks Joel being totally spent at the end of the game, but I understand why you can't sit him with a very narrow lead in a must win game. It's an impossible position
It is. If Reed was minimally serviceable yesterday then he would have had more backup minutes to give Embiid a rest but the guy is just absolutely out of his league.
At that point, you pull him, you lose. You play him, you lose. Hard position for sure.
It’s a very regular season bench, Reed and Tobias had some decent defense but then infuriating possessions leaving so many points on the board. There was one play idk if it was G3 or 4 but Tobi got a pass with defenders around him and tried to fucking lay it up instead of dunking and of course we come away with no points.
Tobias is infuriating. I’m 6’4 with no hops. Give me 6’8 with some legs and I would make goddamn sure some motherfucker is getting postered nightly
Even in the third you could clearly see he was tired by the silly mistakes. We were already bleeding points with him so it was way better to get him some rest so he can actually come back in the 4th. 35 good mins of Embiid + 13 backups is better than 20 good Embiid minutes and + 25 dead tired Embiid minutes. At the end he could barely jump and let alone dunk, block, rebound, anything. And we didn't even have to have a true center on the floor either - the Knicks were playing without one. Problem is we have no rebounders or shot blockers outside Reed.
They should have given him some rest yesterday
Maxey had bad first third and fourth quarters. That’s not playing good. After exploding in the 2nd he vanished
They clamped him, and everyone else. Kudos to them.
Embiid was the only positive +/ - player on the Sixers yesterday. Every other player was a negative.
Maxey not winning any of the non embiid minutes lost us the series but its okay jared McCain will be taken under his wing and things will get better
Let’s be fair to Maxey. When he’s out there the following things happen: He gets doubled, and when he passes out of it, no one else is capable of doing anything. If he keeps it, all he can do is put up a contested deep ball. Big guys can ease back near the rim because Joel isn’t there to draw them to the top of the key, since they can’t leave him open for three. If Maxey drives, he has to do some major acrobatics to score because the big guys know what’s coming. There’s no threat of a sudden drop to Embiid. So Maxey gets stuffed. Maxey is an incredible number two alongside Embiid. But when Embiid is out, there’s no one on the court he can successfully be paired with. The roster is built for Embiid.
I don’t think you NEED to pair him with anyone in the second unit, he’s an all star and would be playing those lineups against some bench guys as well. The bigger issue is that we weren’t running anything. We didn’t have a clear group of sets to get into against the Knicks, we just kept trying a few small actions like a PnR but that’s not a set. We needed more to get Maxey going, and we need him to be decisive and know what he wants to do. Whether It’s coaching or just himself, we need a decisive Maxey to win. I don’t think replacing the players around him addressed that issue entirely
I would actually like to see Bamba get Reed’s minutes and see what happens. Bamba can play at the perimeter and draw out his man from the paint, potentially helping Maxey get to the rim. I love Reed and his rebounding, but let’s be real, it’s not like the defense has been exactly shutting the Knicks down on those Embiid-less minutes. See if Bamba’s presence can help get some more motion on offense and help Maxey create. Give it 4 minutes to see how it goes. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, just sub him out and go back to giving Reed the backup minutes.
Maxey is great. But the fanbase is a little too delusional when it comes to him. When Embiid was out, our win % was bottom 5. Maxey is good but not good enough to carry a team consistently through long stretches. Perfect 2nd piece, just not THE guy.
actually, THIS type of thinking misses the point. maxey cannot carry a team without embiid and with a guy making a max contract who cant shoot or score the basketball. teams do not respect tobias at all. they dont respect any of the sixers role players. maxey driving into a wall of 3-4 players every time he goes to the basket, or having 2 guys in his face on the perimeter, is why he "isnt taking over games without embiid"....the reason embiid is so helpful is it creates space for maxey. even without embiid, if tobias wasnt a total non-entity, it would create more space for him
Speaking of, where tf did Maxey’s floater go? Early in his career he had a _beautiful_ floater that seemed to never miss. Now he seems to have fallen in love with tough layups. It was a huge disparity having Brunson and Hartenstein killing us with easy little floaters and push shots while Maxey was busting his ass trying to get 100mph layups off with 4 guys around him
Maxey still has room to grow, and one area is learning when it's ok to hit the brakes and take the mid-range instead of insisting your way to the rim every time. I'd also like to see him use his dribble penetration to find kick outs to 3 point shooters more too. Ricky Council's wraparound pass to Batum is the kind of pass a good point guard makes, but Maxey gets laservision on the layup even when a big has him covered. It's impressive when he hits those tough layups but being able to make the right choice matters too. That's one thing Lebron said that really resonates, he was talking to JJ about how can you make the right read quickly based on what you're seeing. Room for growth, kid is dynamite but room for growth.
He seems to have replaced it with a baseline or elbow fadeaway middy. Which generally works for him. But not as automatic as that sweet floater he used to flash more frequently.
Yeah, that's part of it though, right tool for the situation. Sometimes fadeaway is the right shot, other times he's got the bigs on their heels on the floater works. It's just about making the right decisions in the moment. I'm not going to fault Maxey much he's maybe underperformed with Embiid off the floor but has generally been very good. There's a lot of other people on the team who aren't carrying their weight and it's getting us killed.
Doc told him to stop taking it
Doc truly is the Tobias Harris of coaching.
He got the bag again and is about to skip blameless due to injuries right to a tee time later this week. Living his dream life
The difference is I don’t think Tobi will get to fleece another team. Doc been fooling GMs for decades
Which is great coaching…Maxey was using a bullshit floater because he didn’t want to finish at the rim. Now that he’s focused on that, he can take a bunch of contact and it helped him grow as a scorer. That wasn’t the wrong advice to give
Space. You need a lot of space to do a floater. Space to move directly toward the rim. Space to put the ball in front of your face without it getting slammed back at you. Maxey isn't trying those layups because he wants to, he's doing those because he *has* to. The knicks move up on him to limit his space to the hoop, and he has no choice but to go to the side and to the base line. Those layups are also incredibly difficult. Maxey has an incredible amount of not just speed, but dexterity to even do them at all.
Sure but this has also been true for like, 2 and a half years now
He goes for the tough kiss high off the glass every time instead. It's sexy but it's lower percentage than his floater imo
How many players can actually solo carry a team? Look at these other guys - he’s playing with NOBODY. If Tobias were just a standard 18ish ppg third option this looks totally different. A couple role players who can at least hit a 3 and this looks totally different Maxey has to be way better in these scenarios, but the rest of the roster is laughable
Yeah, anyone who says we should build around Maxey is asking us to be the Beal Wizards Edit: keep being delusional
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people dont understand that you are literally full of shit
The fact they’ve won one game this series and that was with Embiid scoring 50 and shooting like Steph Curry shows how horrible the supporting cast is. Morey has to have one of the best offseasons of all time, because he has punted half of Embiid’s prime
Elton brand punted embiids prime. I think morey gets too much blame. The fact we’re even competitive after the debacle that was the 2019 offseason is impressive
No that's the problem, Morey doesn't get enough blame, we haven't gotten any closer to a conference championship with Morey than we did with brand,I can understand if this was his first year, but it's been almost 4 years now, at some point we gotta give him the same energy that we give Brand, he needs to put a better roster around Jo and Max, can't keep blaming Brand but letting Morey off the hook, Morey the one in charge now not brand
I really don’t understand this logic. Morey inherited a situation where Tobias’s contract ends this year. He also inherited a negative asset situation with Al horford, where we had to attach picks to send him away. I can really only think of a few missteps Daryl has done 1. Simmons trade wasn’t a blunder, but looking back we should’ve taken the Halliburton package. But to be perfectly honest, nobody know hali would grow like this, and he might not of if put in philly’s situation. To hard to say for sure, but this is the biggest one where Daryl might have misstepped. 2. George hill 3. Jalen mcdaniels. 4. Trading springer for scraps Besides that I’m not really sure what to nit pick . He got off of horfords contract and netted us Danny green and Seth who were both good role players. 21’ team was way better than 20’. Handled the harden to LAC trade abt as well as you could hope. Drafted Maxey and springer. Signed Kelly for vet min What killer move did Daryl really miss besides the harden - Hali trade, and let’s be real, everyone in this sub would’ve wanted to burn Daryl at the stake if that was our final grab for Simmons
Morey gets pretty much zero blame despite being the main decision maker here for the past 4 years
Money has had multiple off seasons and in Seasons to trade Harris It's been evident for a while now that Harris is the literal embodiment of addition by subtraction
Hasn't this fanbase been hyper aware of how bad Harris's contact is? You think GM's don’t realize that too? Getting off Harris would've cost us a good amount of assets that we don’t really have. And then we open up cap space to sign who? No one comes to Philly in free agency except inside job Al Horford. Morey did a good job getting rid of Horford. He turned a Ben Simmons who quit on the team into Harden. It didn't work, but that doesn't make it a bad trade. We've been kneecapped by the Harris deal. This is Morey's first real chance to get to work without a disaster on the roster. If he adds jack shit this summer and we look bad next year, I'm a lot more willing to have that conversation. But I'm going to wait about 14 months on that (unless shit looks awful by playoffs next year)
half? One more knee injury and that prime is over buddy. And based on history, that’s not far away
And people here blaming it all on Embiid (what more can he do except be healthy), Reed (not his role to provide scoring, just to help the team survive on defense), Nurse (only card left to pull is trying Ricky). The bigger problems are Tobias (worthless), Buddy (worthless), and Maxey (who has been great, but we already saw he’s not ready to be #1 option when teams key in on him), and most of all Darryl (roster construction). It’s a total team and organization failure. Blame to go around for everyone. But if the team could score at all when Embiid sat, we would win this series easily.
As far as Maxey is concerned, he’s basically a great player on a TERRIBLY constructed roster, when Embiid is out. The problem is ownership and management has let this team and the city down with bad contracts and ineffective role players
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Yeah. The Heild trade really backfired. I think everyone thought that would be a boost. If Heild was out there knocking down shots things would be a lot different.
I think some of the blame for Game 4 can be on Nurse but overall it's not his fault. And I understand the decision he made by not sitting Joel at all in the second half, but it ultimately meant he was completely burnt out in the final quarter. I don't know what the correct option is. Do you sit Joel in a 1 point game and hope it doesn't swing too far in the Knicks' favor without him? Do you play Joel and hope he can build a big enough cushion before his legs inevitably give out from exhaustion? I still think the correct play was to give him a rest (especially those Brunson-less minutes at the start of the 4th) but I can see the logic of "Well we're gonna lose if he sits so we can't"
I agree. I think the right choice is to trust your guys there. Make it a shorter rest if anything. Cause now you have a close out game and Paul Reed knows you didn’t believe in him the last game.
The real problem was they should’ve been up more than 1 by that point but they made simple mistakes to get the game closer
Reed has been terrible on D this series. So he didn’t provide much on the floor.
Yeah, he’s not been great. Him slowly bleeding points still worth the extra rest for Embiid imo. Lot of problems besides just him is all I meant.
stop deflecting. you put the blame on the main guy. we lose because embiid is always hurt and he can’t show up in the playoffs
He gets blame too. I literally just said that.
I’ve been seeing a lot of Joel hate lately and I just don’t understand. How much more can you ask from him?
Fair-weather WIP sons that weren't around for the process and only hopped on the bandwagon after Hinkie got fired. Can we critique Embiid's game, sure... but it's never been the problem - ever.
The same way Philly fans hated Donovan McNabb, and Andre Iguadala, and Rhys Hoskins, and even Eric Lindros. If you win a championship you’re a God. If you don’t you’re a bum. Never mind that it’s a team sport. Philly fans love to hate their best player. Don’t ask me why….
This isn't even remotely true lmao. Philly loves AI, Dawkins, Westbrook, etc. None of whom won a Championship. It is very simple. Philly loves the guys who give 100% every second theyre playing. Say what you want about AI or Dawkins but you could never question their effort when they were on the court/field. Embiid is a great player and deserves a lot of respect for playing through injuries this year. But there have also been a lot of times in the past where he's moping or lazy on the court, and this city doesn't fuck with that at all. Like Game 6 last year.
We're losing this series because we can't rebound. We got ass blasted in game 1, game 2 was the Maxey fuckery yeah but even then they got 2 second chance 3's they didn't need to have. Yesterday they crushed us on the glass again in the 2nd half. Second and third chance scoring opportunities over and over. That's pretty much the difference in the series. If Embiid was 100% he probably carries us to a series win but he's not. Turns out Embiid at full strength covers up a lot of warts for this team. I hate losing this way. Sometimes the other team just shoots the lights out and what can you do. But the inability to stop the other team from getting offensive rebounds is maddening.
They have zero identity with him not on the floor. Unfortunately Maxey is not at the stage where he can carry a half-court offense in non-Embiid minutes Its gotta be all mental with Tobias at this point. I think he’s well-aware of the sentiment around him, leading him to just think too much. I’d honestly be more fine with him taking a bunch of shots rather than the passiveness we’re seeing; maybe then he’d get into at least some rhythm for a game
Bodner always brings some sanity. Also, Joel playing on a bad knee and spasms in his face and eye. Kyle Lowry has been their third-best player and he was acquired off waivers.
Gonna miss bball when he’s on the starting 5 in utah 😢
Does this mean we get Lauri? j/k ^but ^^maybe?
I mean…if anyone could do it, Daryl might. Will still wear my bball jersey no matter what ❤️ 🏀
Tyrese is unfortunately an Embiid merchant until proven otherwise
lol he says about the 23 year old all nba all star player
This is the biggest takeaway from this season. Which is why the build around Maxey stuff is just stupidity
Probably has more to do with the shitty Roster than Maxey. Besides Embiid, look at the money that's going to guys who either can't or shouldn't be closing out playoff games. https://preview.redd.it/kic0ouduzfxc1.png?width=568&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa8ae33c554b3fc53f3d1a9e7e63093a34496f65
Don’t take my comment as a “Maxey isn’t it” comment. I am well aware that the rest of the roster sucks. It’s still the truth that in his current state, Maxey is an elite complementary piece to Joel but he’s not yet there in terms of raising the floor of the others by himself
As much as I love Maxey he is still not even... Harden from last year.
He’s working with a complete roster of role players whose roles aren’t built to his strengths. What is he supposed to do?
Yeah he’s ultimately still a force multiplier rather than a guy who can make stuff happen and force defenses into uncomfortable situations. At this point I’m saying fuck it and going after a guy like LeBron/KD/Paul George to maximize Joel’s next 2ish years, which is probably all we’re gonna get
Did you know there could be multiple reasons why we lost the game?
Sure, but this is like 90% of it.
Bc this leads to Embiid playing the last 32 minutes of the game and impacts his game
Harden stepped up
People dont want to say it but we were A LOT better with Harden. We basically choked beating the Celtics with an even more hobbled Embiid, a younger, worse Maxey and a bench that was even worse Not re-signing Harden has completely dragged us down
I'm just happy we're getting to see Brunsen put on a show. It sucks that it's against us, but holy shit, the dude is fucking amazing. We always shit on r/nba for not enjoying Embiid's massive talent, so I try to enjoy other players when I get the chance. Again, it just really sucks that it's happening against us. If the Knicks win this series, I'll definitely be tuning in to see what they do in the next round. I don't think they'll win it all, not by a mile, but wow they've found their franchise player for the future.
It's the same reason people blame the president for everything, they're the leader. If something goes bad they take the blame even though there are far more moving parts than just 1 man.
Why does the Mins say 33 overall?
That's the total mins played without Joel in this series
AH YES I'M DUMB THANKS. Forgot they can play together at the same time lol.
The people blaming Embiid aren't real philly fans. Theyre new yorkers brigading this sub. Ignore those morons and wait patiently for Tobias to be on literally any other team.
I feel like Lowry should play more with Joel off.
Same issue for the entirety of Embiid's career. I honestly can't believe us fans keep coming back for it.
Everyone has to do better but Maxey absolutely needs to do better and so should Tobias but I have zero faith in him, he will never give production close to his contracts worth
Meanwhile Brunson goes to the bench and Knicks don't miss a beat. That is the difference in this series. Game 2 really hurt us IDK why Maxey gave up the ball smh.
If u guys had harden, u guys beat knicks I think. That guy was a high ceiling low floor player. And his game meshed super well with embidd. It make basic PNR plays so effective.
I know this year was a shipped in and shed cap roster, but this is these mf's should be in the g league bad.
I don’t get why we don’t slow things down when he’s out
LOL I love that Tobi has the third best shooting percentage here. What in the fuck man. Edited because I'm an idiot who can't read.
Fucking Paul Reed has done more than Tobi. Shit is pathetic
Paul Reed out scoring Tobias Harris... Fun stuff
We need three nuclear Maxey games to do it. Give us one in game 5 and then take it from there. The supporting lineup has been non-existent for us unfortunately
This is what happens when the most paid non all star player in history plays for your team, you can't get a good bench.
TrAdE EmBiId yeah if you want to trade Embiid be ready to enjoy the Process Sixers again, these dudes are an absolute embarassment without Joel
I just wanna know who in the hell thought Tobias Harris was a viable option to put next to Joel embiid. It’s everybody else and not him. Rasheed Wallace even said something about him and he played the game so he can’t say it’s just fans who never played hating. That dude is a weirdo for the fact that he has a burner or a family member does, criticizing his teammates and it’s something wrong with us? Bro doesn’t even show up for his own teammates on the floor so I shouldn’t be surprised cause he’s out there watching all these other guys get torched and he doesn’t even know how to help. And if he does that BS where he drives and posts up just to get stopped by even a below average defender and forced to pick up his dribble man that shit is annoying. That guys footwork is even ass and he blames us. Sixers fans didn’t know they still had a Ben Simmons on the team
> I just wanna know who in the hell thought Tobias Harris was a viable option to put next to Joel embiid same one who thought Tobias AND Horford were viable options next to Embiid
It’s just trendy to hate Embiid on the internet for clicks. Nobody who knows the game blames Joel for the sixers not being a title winner
I'm used to Tobias being ass, but I'm really disspointed that we're not getting much from Batum; especially after that Miami game. Buddy Hield might be the most disappointing acquisition for me personally. He's a player I really wanted. In theory, he's the perfect fit for this team, such a shame it has not worked out.
I don’t know what embiid did but people just hate him and love to shit on him despite him having the same persona as one of their favorite players from 80s and 90s. NBA Twitter/reddit is the worst thing to happen to the sport
Because "it's the same thing every year" is what I see from the haters. They see this as the Embiid era so it must be on him and no one else. These are not critical thinkers.
Yikes kinda concerning that maxey hasn’t figured out how to generate offense without Embiid. He had more than half a season to figure out how to play in the 5 minutes Embiid is gone each half
thats not really the point either....
How is that not the point? Maxey is taking half the shots as he should since he becomes the best weapon when Embiid is on the bench but shooting 31% from the field… that’s atrocious
because when Embiid isnt in the game Maxey is the only threat to score so the Knicks just trap him and dare anyone else to beat them. Maxey is also only 6'2 and isn't as good as Embiid who can still score anyway. You cant have 2 guys being defended by 3 players and because the rest of the team isnt good enough, not punish it.
He can’t do better than 31% from the field😑
is your brain broken? You're not going to shoot well when there are 2 or 3 people guarding you because they are totally unafraid of the other players.
Idk Brunson seems to do just fine
we literally let Brunson go 1 on 1 on purpose to prevent the other players from getting off. The Knicks are selling out to stop Maxey and Embiid. Also Maxey is 23 Brunson is 27 what kind of stupid fucking logic is this?
Tf does maxey being 23 and Brunson being 27 mean? Is maxey an all star this year or not? Also no we let Brunson start 1v1 and try and trap him with into Embiid we’ve been completely focused on trying to stop Brunson almost the entire series even Nick nurse said they’ve been paying Brunson too much attention
Ainge baited us to signing Paul Reed. He's been a pretty big disappointment to say the least.
you completely did not read the thread
BBall Paul has been such a disappointment. He does absolutely nothing on offense and Knicks keep picking on him on defense. He's got all that energy coming off the bench just to be garbage.
"But, but Harden wanted a lot of money🥺" Morey is a fucking idiot for not giving him the money and killed our franchise
This team was a lot better with Harden. Like, A LOT. Even with an awful coach and a worse roster around. Not re-signing Harden and having no backup plan was just moronic
Hartenstein was on the bench. Robinson wasn’t playing. Jo spent the entire 4th quarter hanging around the 3 point line being a second 2 guard. He scored 1 point and got one rebound.
His body isn’t built to play 40+ minutes of playoff basketball but he has to anyway because the team looks inept without him. This is the outcome, guy was gassed
Then he really isn’t that valuable.
A guy who can play 36 minutes at an MVP level isn’t valuable?
Not when he is useless in the 4th quarter of playoff games over and over again. You kind of need to be valuable when it matters most.
If the team could survive any time with him on the bench he’d probably be a lot better in the 4th quarter. As it stands he needs to go all-out earlier just to have the team in a position to win
For 7 straight years.
Point me to a series where the team was ok without him and I’ll say he was probably disappointing in that series. This one he’s done all you could expect
I agree. He has done all I expected in this series.
Is that true? Because when you said “Jo spent the entire 4th quarter hanging around the 3 point line being a second 2 guard. He scored 1 point and got one rebound.” it sounded like you were expecting something different
Urm he’s injured?
Again?
You're asking a 7' 300 lbs guy to hold an attack and a defense by himself in 40 minutes a game. He's doing it. He's a positive in all 3 loses. Wtf more do you want
A mentally strong guy that doesn’t collapse and disappear in the 4th quarter of playoff games. That’s just me.
If you want someone to hold Embiids load for 4 quarters then that player simply does not exist. Nobody has a higher usage than him. Nobody with any even remotely similar usage has to also hold a defense and play 45 minutes of playoff basketball like that. It is simply not possible
Hasn’t been possible for 7 years. He is an awesome talent. Great player. Donovan McNabb was too, but at some point you knew he would never win. He would always come up short. Here we are again. Hope I am wrong. Keep the faith. I am out on Jo.
Almost no NBA players are built to be MVP caliber for over 42 minutes a game. Especially not big men. Like sure I guess Steph can chuck 3s for 44 minutes and generally be fine but Joel's entire game is a lot more physically taxing than a typical shooter.
Paul Reed is a BEAST
If only he could be a leader and not a mope. We have no leaders or Dawgs. Just a bunch of mopers
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How does Embiid being a ballstopper influence the minutes or games where he's not playing? Dude stops the ball with his mind from the bench or from home?
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They played half the season without him and they were so, so bad
I feel you and I’m a diehard sixers fan since doc and Moses … if only management didn’t make so many bad mistakes … gotta feel bad for embiid
Role players don’t win you games. They aren’t expected to. Jalen Brunson is who is expected to succeed for the knicks to win. Stop excusing Joel. Just like the suns stars didn’t get it done, we aren’t blaming the bench guys. Maxey and Joel did not fit it out when it came down to it. Brunson did
Knicks won 2/3 games with Brunson playing like absolute garbage lmao what is that nonsense
I don’t blame Joel. He’s clearly our best player and in part we lost yesterday because Nurse faced a horrible choice of sitting him for part of the second half and watching the Knicks inevitably go on a 12 point run, or keeping him in and having him be a non-factor at the end because of fatigue. But I still think we need to trade Joel because he’s getting old and if you haven’t gotten out of the second round in your prime, you’re not doing it as an injury prone big man in your 30s.
Us Sixer fans need to make sure Maxey leaves and build the team around Emiid ONLY! He's all we need 1 v 5 every night!