first of all, alliteration! yay! now to business.
I spent parts of the past 24 hours sufing through the Liberty Ballers blog just to get a sense of what the dedicated 6ers fans mindset is following last night's loss. I (for some inexplicable reason) actually expected level headedness. Something along the lines of "what a great season, but man there's a ton to work on to match up w the elites." The first half of that sentiment was definitely prevalent, the latter half - barely existed save for a few guys.
Feeling like Sublime in the song All Mixed Up, it's morning but last night's comment section is on my mind and it's something I need to get off my chest:
What I was genuinely surprised to see over and over again was the shared idea that "Philly is the more talented and deeper group but Boston just outcoached them and was better disciplined."
I understand homerism. And I know that if it's going to be anywhere, it'll be on boards hardcore fans like us and presumably they, post on. But that statement....What?....WHAT?!
Ben Simmons is shot. I made a post about this after Game 3 saying I really felt this was a crossroads moment for his whole career as premature and naieve as that sounds, but I truly in my heart feel that his chance to be a 4th quarter closer or one of the top players in the league has come and gone. And the biggest indicator of that for me was his body language in the biggest moments of games 2, 3, and 5 after things didn't go his/Philly's way.
His body language this whole series when things were going wrong was putrid. I can't for the life of me remember any players that went on to be arguably the best of their era ever having body language so poor even during their rookie (or whatever you want to call it) seasons. Certainly not during their postseason debuts. He almost seems to give up in big moments, especially when he's been struggling all game. I could go on but I already have previously but I have to ask, have LeBron, Steph, Harden, Durant, any of the guys that can be called arguably the best of the era EVER looked so p--- poor in big moments as young players during the outset of their careers, in terms of body language and being into the game at all times? If so I honestly cannot remember.
That's not the look of a leader of a title team, certainly not of a transcendent player that can be the GOAT that all of social media is dying to crown him to be.
And as far as Philly's "superior depth and talent": Embiid is great. Clearly. But I've never seen a 7 footer talk so much trash while shooting around 40% in a series; a series that his team lost especially. Yea the 6ers are fun and nice, but GOOD GOD are they a ways away from being a title contender at any point in the near future. Think about the things they need to go right in the next season or two to enter that pantheon:
-Simmons needs to shoot, just in general he needs to develop some sort of jumper from somewhere on the court (which to my memory again has never taken less than 3-4 years for a player to develop a shot from scratch for one who had little shooting ability to begin with). Without the ability to do anything away from the hoop, Stevens has completely exposed his game and written the book on how to slag off him to help elsewhere w/ his defender;
-Embiid needs to talk less and feast in the post more (which is entirely possible) while also staying healthy enough to get the minutes to play in big games and grow (also possible sure but his track record suggests this stretch of good health was more exception than rule)
- they need a 2nd creator. Fultz needs to give them something bc TJ McConnell is a nice story, but if he's your #2 playmaker, shocking spoiler alert, you aren't winning a title. The Fultz stuff is a bigger deal than I think ppl realize. I've been a patient of that same specialist's in KY for a very similar issue as to the one Fultz suffered. If my rehab is anything similar to Markelle's, he's in a world of trouble. Trust me.
- Covington needs to be either traded or improve drastically as a player in the playoffs; his consistency was off the charts.
- and they need depth. Championship caliber depth. Something so much easier said than done as we've watched Ainge search for this with complete roster overhauls year after year.
The icing on this is how the Philly fans view their upcoming offseason. EVERYBODY and their mother seems to have the genius fix of "now we just need to entice LeBron" "Joel and Ben better be in Paul George's DMs right now." etc. Again, I get excitement for a young core. Especially after a prolonged period of sub-mediocrity. But man it was tough to keep quiet reading comment after comment about how Philly is the superior franchise in every way AND a premium FA destination with the rationale that they're a player or two away from being a championship contender.
Sure.
If that one player is LeBron then yea, everyone is 1 player away I guess. Otherwise, color me in the camp that sees a regression from Philly next year. Not back to the lottery, but they had a ton go right this year to get that 3 seed. It's great for the league, but to me this team has a long long ways to go still. Sorry. Like I said, I had thoughts lol.
Topic: Let's Put the Process in Proper Perspective for Philly (Read 1663 times)