Yikes. The Philadelphia 76ers have been eliminated in 7 games by the Atlanta Hawks. 49 wins, the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference, and yet again they could not get to the conference finals. 3 second round exists in 4 years (along a first round sweep in the bubble), 2 game 7 losses, it is not good enough. Everyone is pointing fingers today, at Doc Rivers and Ben Simmons, primarily. The easy thing to talk about is a Simmons trade, and we definitely will. The roster around Joel Embiid simply was not good enough, have you heard that one before? Also, Doc Rivers lost yet another playoff series he should have won. There are a lot of questions Daryl Morrey and Elton Brand must answer.
The first person that needs to be questioned is Doc Rivers. I think he will return but should he? A lack of willingness to adjust, he played Dwight Howard in a game 7 (that in itself is fireable), and he loses every year in the playoffs. Look at the Clippers and Ty Lue, he adjusts throughout the entire series, and they are in the West Finals, something Rivers never did in his 7 seasons in Los Angeles. The lack of adjustments every year is concerning, and the fact that in his first season as head coach of the Clippers Ty Lue had comeback from multiple 2-0 deficits, when Rivers was blowing these leads every year is a real thing. Again, he has a big contract so I think he returns but that might not be a great idea.
Ben Simmons needs to be traded. Did you hear what Joel Emiid said in his post game press conference after the loss “I mean, I'll be honest. I thought the turning point was when we — I don't know how to say it — but I thought the turning point was just we had an open shot and we made one free throw...” (quote via Rich Hofmann). That was Embiid referring to when Simmons was standing under the basket wide open for a dunk, and because he did not want to go to the foul line or was scared to shoot, he passed to Matisse Thybulle who was fouled and went 1-2 from the line, in what was disastrous play. Simmons took 3 shots in the fourth quarter in all 7 games, and 2 of those shots came in game one. That is your starting point guard, no sorry, your max contract point guard taking just 3 shots in the final quarter over a 7 game playoff series, and 1 shot in the final 6 games. Again, yikes. So we can talk about a Simmons trade, but that might not be very simple.
Let us go back to January, the Houston Rockets were trading James Harden, and their 2 options were the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers. Philly’s offer was Ben Simmons and other things, while Brooklyn offered every pick they owned along with Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen (both players would be sent somewhere else by Houston), the Rockets chose the picks. People wondered if you would rather Simmons, he was someone you could build around and was seen as a star player. He did not look any bit of a star player in the Atlanta series. He was horrific. Ben Simmons is a very good, if not a great, player as he made all defensive 1st team and is an elite transition ball hander. However, he is owed 4yrs/$140 million, simply cannot shoot the basketball, is scared to shoot the basketball, and is a liability in the half court offense. We can talk about a C.J. McCollum for Simmons swap because both teams desperately need changes and that could be it. But the Bulls should not trade Zach LaVine for him and I am not even going to entertain Bradley Beal or Damian Lillard (it feels disrespectful to even mention those names). De’Aaron Fox is an interesting name, and would help fill the point guard role, but putting Tyrese Maxey in a deal feels silly especially including Ben Simmons. Fox is owed $163 million over the next 5 seasons and I just do not think he is that good, so a one for one swap is interesting for both sides as well. The Sixers also have other players, so let’s look at them.
The 76ers should re-sign Danny Green, they really missed him late in the series after he was injured. Seth Curry was awesome and was a great acquisition at the draft. Tobais Harris is too pricey to get real value out of so he will return to the team. Joel Embiid is the best player on the team and should not go anywhere, and might even sign a super-max contract extension. Dwight Howard was a fine player during the regular season but was so bad in the playoffs. Shake Milton is a solid ball handler and shooter. Tyrese Maxey looks like he has a future on the roster. Matisse Thybulle is one of the best on ball defenders in all of basketball but is not very good at offense. We talked about the Simmons disaster. Furkan Korkmaz is a sharpshooter but plays zero defense. George Hill is a whatever backup point guard. The roster is not good enough, the coaches are not good enough, none of it is good enough and that was proven yet again on Sunday night.
If I had one word to choose when asked about the Sixers game 7 loss, I would choose disastrous. That was a disastrous loss, to a team you should have taken care off. The Hawks are a very good team and deserve to be in the Eastern Conference Finals, but Philly is the story. They blow it yet again, just like they always seem too. Sam Hinkie began the Process in 2013, he died for this (he didn’t actually die, he was just run out of the NBA), this team was supposed to win championships, and yet here we are discussing yet another Philadelphia disappointment.
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