76ers (0-0) at Celtics (0-0) Round 1 Game 1 8/17/20

[blink]

For a guy who's team built their franchise around him, is young, and had all the time in the world to prepare for these playoffs, Embiid looks totally out of shape and unprepared. If I were a Sixers fan I'd be completely p---ed off with him right now. He's a front-running fraud. He's got a ton of talent, talks a lot, but doesn't put the work in to back any of it up.

Yeah I just don't get Embiid.  He could be dominating the league.  He needs to get his body into the best shape possible, or he is going to shorten his career.  Carrying too much weight I think will eventually not be good for him.  He is one of the most naturally talented players in the game, but he doesn't have the desire to improve that we have already seen in Brown and Tatum.

[KGs Knee]

Tatum ain't going anywhere.  Ainge will give him max dollars.

[blink]

Tatum ain't going anywhere.  Ainge will give him max dollars.

Yeah, Tatum and Brown and Kemba are all here for the long haul, probably Smart too...

[hpantazo]

For a guy who's team built their franchise around him, is young, and had all the time in the world to prepare for these playoffs, Embiid looks totally out of shape and unprepared. If I were a Sixers fan I'd be completely p---ed off with him right now. He's a front-running fraud. He's got a ton of talent, talks a lot, but doesn't put the work in to back any of it up.

Yeah I just don't get Embiid.  He could be dominating the league.  He needs to get his body into the best shape possible, or he is going to shorten his career.  Carrying too much weight I think will eventually not be good for him.  He is one of the most naturally talented players in the game, but he doesn't have the desire to improve that we have already seen in Brown and Tatum.

Exactly. If the Sixers are wondering which one of Simmons and Embiid to trade, you get rid of the guy who's perennially out of shape and shows no desire to work hard. I'm sure he plays hard in the games, but thats where it begins and ends for him.

[jpotter33]

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1295531111351758848?s=20

Boston's Gordon Hayward will undergo an MRI on his sprained right ankle tonight, sources tell
@malika_andrews
 and me. He left the Game 1 victory over Philadelphia limping in the fourth quarter.

Ugh.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I came in to say OH YES!

What a win. The team made it close but they never let up in the 4th.

[Atzar]

He also had 5 turnovers, had 5 fouls, spent way too much time on the 3pt line, and allowed Theiss to be wide open for three all night long. 

As dominant as Embiid is as a talent his terrible decision making, oversized ego, lazy work ethic and complete lack of basketball IQ hold him back from achieving his potential.  He had 26 and 16 tonight against us.  If he had the intangibles to match his talent he could have had 40. 

He was incredibly lucky that Theis (as a career 34% 3PT shooter) went 1-4 from three today.

I think Embiid might seriously have the lowest intangibles-to-talent ratio of any player in the NBA right now.

In fairness, the way he guarded Theis was a scheme, not a flaw.  Philly clearly preferred to let Theis shoot threes instead of giving any of our other guys lanes to the rim. 

It's a good idea, honestly.  Theis only really takes those as an escape valve, and he only made three threes in a game once all season. 

[blink]

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1295531111351758848?s=20

Boston's Gordon Hayward will undergo an MRI on his sprained right ankle tonight, sources tell
@malika_andrews
 and me. He left the Game 1 victory over Philadelphia limping in the fourth quarter.

Ugh.

I was just going to post this too....uggg is right.  cmon Gordon get some treatment and hopefully the ankle responds quickly.

[Muzzy66]

I can't wait to throw in all my "process" jokes when the 76ers get bounced.

But it might now go to 7 games with Hayward out for extended time. The 76ers just proved they can hang around without Ben Simmons...now it's an evenly matched team.

I'll make those jokes when we can beat the 76ers with both Embiid and Simmons.

Mike

I'll happily make the "process" jokes right now.

Truth is, the 76ers as a team are good but not great.  Given the (IMO unethical) way that they went about rebuilding - by making their fans suffer through multiple years of intentional tanking in an attempt to cheat their way into drafting multiple future stars - I would consider anything less then multiple finals runs to be a major disappointment. 

It's almost like using cheat codes in a video game and still not being able to get past the 3rd stage.  It's an embarrassment in my eyes. 

- They already gave up on two of their prized lottery picks (Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor) who both proved to be historic dissapointments. 
- They gave up on Saric, who has been solid but nowhere near as good as they seemed to have thought he would be. 
- They effectively traded Jayson Tatum (who may become better then any current 76ers player) to Boston for Fultz who has been terrible
- Embiid has major health issues and struggles to stay on the court
- Simmons is a great talent but they may well have to trade him if they want successful, since he seems incapable of working with Embiid

The irony to me is that the furthest this Sixers team have gotten (and possibly ever will get) was last season, and that run almost certainly wouldn't have happened without Jimmy Butler and JJ Reddick, who are guys that didn't come to the team through "the process" at all.  In fact I would argue that Jimmy Butler is the closest thing to a leader and franchise player that this Sixers team has had. 

So based on all of that, I already feel pretty comfortable declaring "the process" an absolute epic failure.

[mef730]

Could we get #inducerobyn trending?

Mike

[CelticSooner]

We just can’t have a season anymore without injuries. Zaps all my energy right out.

[Muzzy66]

He also had 5 turnovers, had 5 fouls, spent way too much time on the 3pt line, and allowed Theiss to be wide open for three all night long. 

As dominant as Embiid is as a talent his terrible decision making, oversized ego, lazy work ethic and complete lack of basketball IQ hold him back from achieving his potential.  He had 26 and 16 tonight against us.  If he had the intangibles to match his talent he could have had 40. 

He was incredibly lucky that Theis (as a career 34% 3PT shooter) went 1-4 from three today.

I think Embiid might seriously have the lowest intangibles-to-talent ratio of any player in the NBA right now.

In fairness, the way he guarded Theis was a scheme, not a flaw.  Philly clearly preferred to let Theis shoot threes instead of giving any of our other guys lanes to the rim. 

It's a good idea, honestly.  Theis only really takes those as an escape valve, and he only made three threes in a game once all season.

I would argue otherwise.  I mean, it may well be their strategy - but even if it wasn't, I doubt Embiid would have defended him any different.

Embiid guarded guys like Horford, Tatum and Marcus Morris the same way in past seasons and they all made him pay for it.  The guy is completely and utterly incapable of defending anything outside of the paint to the point where 90% of the time he doesn't even bother trying. 

[Phantom255x]

Had to leave for a bit but followed along this thread + gamecast.

UGH that absolutely sucks about Hayward. Praying for the best. We really do need him if we want to go on a deep playoff run. We might get by this series without him for much of the remaining games, but against the Raptors? Doubt it.

Anyways, that was far from pretty. But we squeaked it out. Phenomenal games by Tatum and Brown. Brown in particular hit some absolutely clutch shots throughout the 4th to end any Sixers' momentum, and to also get us to the finish line. Kemba also did well in the 4th on both ends.

I'm still encouraged. Despite all that, we dug deep and won. PHI played tough but we countered.

I thought it would be a series that goes 6 games but I don't think PHI has the horses to win it. Embiid playing 38+ minutes a game and staying fresh doesn't seem possible.

[Ogaju]

For a guy who's team built their franchise around him, is young, and had all the time in the world to prepare for these playoffs, Embiid looks totally out of shape and unprepared. If I were a Sixers fan I'd be completely p---ed off with him right now. He's a front-running fraud. He's got a ton of talent, talks a lot, but doesn't put the work in to back any of it up.

Yeah I just don't get Embiid.  He could be dominating the league.  He needs to get his body into the best shape possible, or he is going to shorten his career.  Carrying too much weight I think will eventually not be good for him.  He is one of the most naturally talented players in the game, but he doesn't have the desire to improve that we have already seen in Brown and Tatum.

It is not that easy for big men to get in shape. Easy to rag on Embiid but that is a lot of size he is carrying. Size, not weight. So it takes a little more for him to get in shape than for JB and JT.

[chicagoceltic]

I can't wait to throw in all my "process" jokes when the 76ers get bounced.

But it might now go to 7 games with Hayward out for extended time. The 76ers just proved they can hang around without Ben Simmons...now it's an evenly matched team.

I'll make those jokes when we can beat the 76ers with both Embiid and Simmons.

Mike

I'll happily make the "process" jokes right now.

Truth is, the 76ers as a team are good but not great.  Given the (IMO unethical) way that they went about rebuilding - by making their fans suffer through multiple years of intentional tanking in an attempt to cheat their way into drafting multiple future stars - I would consider anything less then multiple finals runs to be a major disappointment. 

It's almost like using cheat codes in a video game and still not being able to get past the 3rd stage.  It's an embarrassment in my eyes. 

- They already gave up on two of their prized lottery picks (Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor) who both proved to be historic dissapointments. 
- They gave up on Saric, who has been solid but nowhere near as good as they seemed to have thought he would be. 
- They effectively traded Jayson Tatum (who may become better then any current 76ers player) to Boston for Fultz who has been terrible
- Embiid has major health issues and struggles to stay on the court
- Simmons is a great talent but they may well have to trade him if they want successful, since he seems incapable of working with Embiid

The irony to me is that the furthest this Sixers team have gotten (and possibly ever will get) was last season, and that run almost certainly wouldn't have happened without Jimmy Butler and JJ Reddick, who are guys that didn't come to the team through "the process" at all.  In fact I would argue that Jimmy Butler is the closest thing to a leader and franchise player that this Sixers team has had. 

So based on all of that, I already feel pretty comfortable declaring "the process" an absolute epic failure.

Don't forget about Markelle Fultz and the fact that they could have had Tatum!