So glad to see we have our resident Philly stanner back to complement our resident Cleveland stanner.
Vegas has the 76ers as 6/5 favorites to win the East. Boston at 18/1 has the worst odds of the 4 remaining teams.
Most are expecting Philly to dismiss us easily in 5 or 6 games.
Good time for the Phillastans of the world. I guess tanking pays off.
Or just not having two all stars and a starter injured. We would be overwhelming favorites to win the east with homecourt advantage and our full team healthy. Really frustrating.
I agree it's frustrating. You take the two best players off every other playoff team and it's doubtful any of them could hang with this injury-riddled Boston team.
Cleveland without LeBron and Love is garbage
Philly without Embiid and Simmons is garbage
Utah without Mitchell and Gobert is garbage
Houston without Harden and Paul is garbage
New Orleans without Davis and Holiday is garbage
Toronto without Lowry and Derozan is garbage
The only team that might still be decent without their two best players is the historically stacked Golden State Globetrotter squad. Even without Durant and Curry, they'd probably be pretty decent with just Klay and Draymond.
So credit to Boston for even winning a playoff series without Kyrie and Hayward. It's a shame, because the East is wide open and we could realistically threaten for a trip to the Finals with those guys healthy.
I still think Philly would be a problem, regardless. That team is super talented and playing incredible basketball together right now. Superstar talent gonna superstar.
I'd like to say that next year, if healthy, we'll be the favorites again... but I'm not so sure. Philly's options this SUmmer still terrify me.
I think Philly doing better than expected this year and benefiting from all our injuries this series have decreased the chances of Lebron going there dramatically (not that I ever thought they were high). Lebron really cares about his image and if he goes to a team that makes the conference finals or finals already he is going to get skewered even more than Durant did and discounted from any GOAT discussion because he will look like a mercenary at the end of his career.
With respect to us next year, I think we will be absolutely dominant. Brown has made a huge leap this year. Tatum is only going to get better. Hayward! Irving! it is an embarrassment of riches.
I don't think Golden State would be that great without Durant and Curry by the way. We would have a good matchup with them if we were only down Irving and Hayward.
I don't know how realistic it actually is that LeBron goes to Philly, but it's hard to imagine him going West while the Golden State Globetrotters are still around. What would be the point of that... so he can lose in the conference finals every year instead of the Finals?
Philly might very well make it out of the East, but it's hard to imagine any team really making a dent on Golden State. They are historically stacked.
So, I wouldn't totally rule out Bron joining Philly in the Summer. I agree it's a bit of an awkward fit with Simmons controlling the ball, but it could happen.
I could also still see him going to the Lakers depending on who else is joining him, but even a team of LeBron, Paul George and Kawhi would struggle to mesh as well as a team built around the ridiculous ball movement and shooting of Klay, Steph and Durant.
Part of me just thinks it would be funny if Bron joined the Warriors for the vet minimum.
Do you feel like we tanked even harder than they did?
Both teams set out to tank hard in 2013-14. Marcus Smart was our prize. Embiid was their prize.
We both set out to tank again in 2014-15. Conventional wisdom said that moving all our vets like Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green for long-term assets was a clear attempt to bottom out a second time. Ainge didn't include Brad Stevens into his calculations, though. Ainge also saw an opportunity to snatch Isaiah Thomas for essentially nothing. Much to his chagrin, his scrappy group of role players actually made the playoffs with a losing record. Our starting line-up in the playoffs that season was Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Evan Turner, Brandon Bass and Tyler Zeller.
Woof.
Clearly Ainge has done a phenomenal job keeping this team relevant over the past few years. Cashing in on our hall-of-fame talent for long-term picks has worked better than anyone could have possibly imagined.
Meanwhile, Philly went 2 out of 3 on their tank job prizes. Okafor is a bust, but SImmons and Embiid made the whole exercise worth it.
Both of our teams looked very different last year. Despite the success we had over the years with our temporary roster, we're basically starting from scratch this year with a whole new group. Philly is finally healthy and as predicted filled out their roster with vets.
In-fact, just two years ago I had the following to say:
The team was dedicated to the idea that you need a superstar to contend in this league (fact) and they needed to do everything possible to maximize their chances at getting one. So for 3 years they avoided doing anything (like sign the Amir johnsons and Brandon basses of the world) to maximize their chance of getting stars via the draft. They decided free agency wasn't a viable option for them (at the time they were over the cap) and they didn't have the assets to trade for one.
Now, when the dust settles on this, one of their 6+ seeds might actually end up growing into a superstar... Beyond that they now have 80 mil in cap space so they can at least go after big name free agents.... Lastly, they can probably add about 15-20 wins just by opening their pockets for some veteran role players. Even if the Durants of the world are unlikely, I guarantee you the Amir johnsons and Brandon basses of the world will be happy to take Philly's money when offered.
Hilariously, Amir Johnson is literally one of the players that Philly ended up signing. As expected, vets were willing to take their money when they were ready to offer it. Hence JJ Reddick getting a fat contract. Hence them being able to sign vets like Bellinelli and Illasova to come off their bench. Once you have the superstars in place, the rest is cake. That's why I had been saying for years that basically any competent GM could turn them into a winning franchise given the assets they had.
Fwiw, I actually think the Lakers' tankjob was even more shameful than Philly's. Whereas Philly just depleted their roster of talent and acquired injured players making it impossible to win - the Lakers purposely coached themselves into losing games in an effort to keep their picks. Philly at the very least had a coach and (garbage) players TRYING to win. Lakers flat out decided to let some 37 year old scrub 35%/28% shooter jack up 17 shots a night for them in an effort to stay at the bottom.