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Embiid's best skills are his quickness and athleticism, not his strength, he's not Shaq, he's much more comfortable facing up than being in the post.Comment -
Not that I care your takes on Embiid are as dumb as your takes in general, and my NBA record is documented, it shits on yours.Comment -
so the consensus is everyone is l burning money on sixers?Comment -
Drummond is one of the worst 1 on 1 defenders in the league. Easily. I know cause I watch him often, live, in person. He can't guard big centers, he can't guard small ones, he can't guard fast ones, he can't guard slow ones, can't guard weak ones, can't guard strong ones. The only thing Drummond is good at is team defense.Cause Sleep is the Cousin of DeathComment -
Every outcome is certainly possible, no teams left are bad. Your explanation above is certainly a lot more than "I have serious doubts they can get past Boston". I expect Bucks to win, and expect every game to be close. When they last played, neither hit 100. Maybe Bucks implode like the Sixers last year and get a beating. Maybe not. I just find it hard to have faith in Boston after what they've shown so far.Comment -
Drummond is a great rebounder and his blocks have gone up this year. But goat is dead on, he is one of the worst 1v1 defenders I've ever seen. He's not just physically slow but I think his basketball IQ is really low, he's just really slow to interpret what's going on in the game and making a decision.Comment -
Lowry, VanVleet, Ibaka, Powell, Siakam were all in the rotation both last year and this. I did say the personnel change from last year to this was much bigger than the one from the year before to last year. My entire point isn't "same old Raptors". I've made plenty of other points. But yes I do believe over half your rotation being the same players means your losing habits don't just disappear completely. It only has to pop up once to cost you a series like the one that's coming up.
They dominated and took care of business because they played an absolute dumpster fire of an opponent. Every year previous, the team they got in the 1st round was much tougher. 2014 Nets were underachievers who had much more experience and the series was expected to be close, many picking the Nets to win. 2015 Wizards was a 4/5 matchup where many picked the Raptors only because the Wizards had faltered down the stretch. Before that season some were even picking the Wizards to win the East. 2016 Pacers had a superstar in Paul George who surprised everyone with his early season play and nobody expected them to fall all the way down to 7. 2017 Bucks are the only one you could compare to the 2019 Magic but they had Giannis and weren't nearly as big of an underdog as the Magic were. 2018 Wizards were underachievers and on talent considered to be pretty well matched with the Raptors. The 2019 Magic are the same guys who were winning 25 or 30 games every year with a better coach and Vucevic having a career year. Ultimately still a garbage roster.Comment -
I'd say you could make an argument for some of those guys over FVV but if you only have him starting over guys who stink I don't take much of an issue with that.
Not too sure about the whole better chemistry thing. They have played more minutes with all their guys but between Lowry's injuries and Kawhi's load management days not a whole lot more. I don't think the attitude of a guy like Jimmy Butler will cause a problem in a series that's going to be a war like this one. I think it helps you. He does need to be more aggressive in this series and I expect he will be, he tends to pick his spots. He knows he can drop 25 5 and 5 whenever he needs to.Comment -
But do his teammates know that Jimmy should be taking 15 shots a game? I truly don't think they do. I think Simmons and Tobias and obviously Embiid and maybe even Reddick all believe they should get DD shot attempts. Sometimes Butler goes and drops 30, and the next game he has 7 shot attempts while Tobias Harris chucks up 15. It makes no sense to me.
The point I'm trying to make is there isn't a clear pecking order. After Embiid, it's a toss up.
We've seen teams like this before who don't have defined roles/pecking orders and it usually doesn't work out.
But if it weren't for that, I'd take Philly to win the East. They have the most talented starting 5 as long as Embiid is healthy.Cause Sleep is the Cousin of DeathComment -
That's a legitimate question. I look at last year where Butler through the first month and a half of the season was hardly taking any shots then when he felt it was time to take over started getting huge numbers and some people were saying he should get some dark horse MVP talk. But it does have to come from the other guys too, you're right. I think they'll figure it out on the fly. Generally like my chances picking talent.
I'm not by any means trying to say this series will be easy btw, just that I like Philly to win it. All the 2nd round series should be pretty close and competitive, unless the Warriors decide they don't want theirs to be.Comment -
Brown is a factor I'm slightly worried about. He makes stupid rotation decisions sometimes and sits guys at the weirdest times, takes too long to bring them back etc. Sometimes you look up and there's 7 minutes left in the game, it's tied and he has TJ McConnell, James Ennis and Jonah Bolden in the game and you just scratch your head.Comment -
Mcconell and Bolden are mostly out of the rotation, Butler doesn't get a lot of shots because he's not a good 3 point shooter, he needs the ball to be effective and he has to play off the ball with Simmons and Embiid, which is why I think he leaves in free agency this year.Comment -
Again, a smaller quicker center like Gasol is having an great night against Embiid. Its the more mobile undersized centers like Horford and Gasol who give Embiid trouble, not the big slow guys like Adams and Drummond. Gasol's defense has been great.Comment -
Leonard just too good
1 vs 5Comment -
What's going on with series line?
Pinnacle
Philly-109
Tor-107Comment
