Futility Watch: 76ers

[celticsclay]

Last night the 76ers played pretty well, but again just ran out of gas against a team with a lot more talent. They will now have to win one of their next 4 games to avoid the all time worst mark to open a season 0-18. Next 4 games are brooklyn, dallas, san antonio and at minnesota


This had me thinking how many games they may actually win this year. How far will this streak go?

[fairweatherfan]

If they don't get Brooklyn I think they're likely to break the record. 

[D.o.s.]

'played well.' Check the video in this link (it's a webmd so I can't embed)

https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/537280415565090816

[celticsclay]

What is crazy about that video is that they were somehow winning at that point in the game. I think it must be really hard for teams to not take them lightly. The blazers (and other teams) have beat them simply by playing well for one quarter.

[MBunge]

If it were a matter of just Philly's defense being bad, and it is, you'd figure they'll just play hard enough some nights when the other team is off or not taking them seriously and stumble on wins that way.

But Philly's offense is a good deal worse than their terrible defense.  To win, they need a game where they play their butts off on defense, have two or three guys with career highs on offense and still have the other team totally sleepwalk for all four quarters.

It's hard to believe any team could go 0-82 but this is the kind of team it would take to do it.

Mike

[greece66]

10 feels about right. Having said this, I would be more surprised if they made only 5 than if they made say 12. They are not the only tank in town this year, that's for sure.

[Moranis]

A few days ago, ESPN had a funny segment where they asked their experts which team in Philadelphia would win more games, the Sixers or the Eagles?  I didn't see all the responses but well over half of the ones I saw, said the Eagles. 

[celticsclay]

I thought it may be time to bump up this thread as the 76ers will have the opportunity to tie the mark tomorrow against a reeling Minnesota team. This game is in Minnesota and is followed by a game against the suddenly full strength Oklahoma City Thunder. Regardless of the one's views on tanking, I think we can all agree that there are certain negatives that are now following the 76ers around.

They are constantly on the ESPN bottom line ticker for tracking their futility watch. They will undoubtedly have major coverage for their next two games for all the wrong reasons. There are also things happening like public debates over whether the University of Kentucky team could beat them or if the eagles will win more games.

I really think if the team had just kept thaddeus young and maybe signed one average veteran player they would have won 3 games by now like detroit and not be a national laughingstock. Does the gm owe the fans an apology for going to far? Will he sign a player or two if they get to 0-30?

[celticsclay]

10 feels about right. Having said this, I would be more surprised if they made only 5 than if they made say 12. They are not the only tank in town this year, that's for sure.

Them winning 12 games would certainly be far more surprising than them winning 5 right now.  To get to 12 wins they would have to go 12-53 the rest of the season and I don't see how we can assume they may win 1 out of 5 games for the rest of the season. Maybe if Embiid comes back and is a significant player. Aside from that just really ugly.

[Redz]

jason Richardson is sure to be worth a win or two. 
http://mobile.philly.com/blogs/?wss=/philly/blogs/pattisonave/&id=283506511

[hwangjini_1]

'played well.' Check the video in this link (it's a webmd so I can't embed)

https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/537280415565090816

amazing. if you look you can see that philly fails to defend THREE opponents on the same play. any of them could have taken a wide open shot.

[SHAQATTACK]

Nerlins is awful

Unless Embiid plays they will lucky to win a game.....BUT near the end of the season they will play some playoff team ...that will be resting all five starters for,a game that means nothing .

So They may win several games at seasons end against  5-8 seeds conserving players

[celticsclay]

Nerlins is awful

Unless Embiid plays they will lucky to win a game.....BUT near the end of the season they will play some playoff team ...that will be resting all five starters for,a game that means nothing .

So They may win several games at seasons end against  5-8 seeds conserving players

I am not saying I disagree with this, but this may also underestimate how bad they truly are. For example last night the Spurs sat out Parker and Duncan and play Ginobli all of 13 minutes on top of already missing rotation players Patty Mills and Tiago Splitter. So they did really lose to Leonard, Diaw and a bunch of backups. They also have already lost to the decimated pacers team. They may not be able to beat most teams bench units.

[mgent]

I would think they've already clinched us getting 2 2nds instead of a 1st right?

[D.o.s.]

'played well.' Check the video in this link (it's a webmd so I can't embed)

https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/537280415565090816

amazing. if you look you can see that philly fails to defend THREE opponents on the same play. any of them could have taken a wide open shot.

If you look closely you can see the exact moment when Lillard's brain catches up to his reflexes and he realizes that he doesn't have to swing the ball to Matthews in the corner because they're not even trying to defend him, let alone close out.