This is DISRESPECTFUL…

This is DISRESPECTFUL…

The disrespect has gotten out of control surrounding the Philadelphia 76ers. Yes, the franchise has one of the more unclear outlooks as we head into next season with Joel Embiid’s health as well as the status of co-star Paul George as a driving reason for this, but I think plenty people have forgotten the rest of the roster and the talent that still exists leading the charge with guys like Tyrese Maxi, Jared McCain, and VJ Edgecom himself. I do want to dive into exactly why I’m fired up, why the six are not giving a chance, and why I think people are still underlooking the rest of the roster surrounded by those huge question marks at the top. So, to get right into it here, I do want to start out with a couple 2K ratings that did come out that I did think were interesting for here. For starters, Joel Embiid dropping to a 93 overall. I’m not going to have a gripe about that. I get the the unclear status and frankly, he did not look like a 93 overall player even when he was on the floor last year with we know the injuries being a driving reason why. Tyrese Maxi at 87. I think it’s a little low, but I won’t be up in arms about this one. The guy that raised my attention the most was Paul George dropping to an 81 overall. Now, I get it. It was a bad season by Paul George last year by every single standard that you do want to throw it. But this has been a guy who’s been one of the better players of the NBA the entire time that he has been in it here. And to directly contrast this, I did want to pull up our good friends of the New York Knicks and look at their 81 overall in Josh Hart. Are you seriously telling me right now that Paul George is the same quality basketball player as Josh Hart? Because I frankly think that’s insane right now. Even this version of Paul George in his full entirety here would sleepwalk past Josh Hart in just about any single basketball skills competition. The only angle that you’re going to get me with is like the grunt, hustle, rebounds. And I get it, that’s Josh Hart things that he does those. He still can defend at a high level. Josh Hart is not a bad basketball player by any means, but he’s not Paul George. And that is my overall point here. Now, a couple other that I do think are worth highlighting here that we did see Quinton Grimes still listed on the Sixers roster, which I think is noteworthy and acceptable there. At one point or another, he will agree to a contract with the Sixers. We will just see the terms, conditions, the length, and what exactly he’s getting paid. Kelly Ubay at 80. I know a lot of people will be up in arms to this for the opposite opposite reason here. I get the argument that maybe he should be a little bit lower there. The three-point rating better be pretty low on these, but I like Kelly. I think he gets a worse rep than he ultimately deserves. I think it’s fair to assess that he’s been in too large of a role for stretches here in Philadelphia, but he brings it every single night, he competes and he has his flaws as a basketball player, but I respect in a season like last year in which everything went off the rails that he just kept the professional approach in a way that I really appreciate it there. Jared McCain 80 overall, I do believe that number will skyrocket as the season continues. I think we get up to like an 85ish in just next season. Let’s not forget how good this guy was just looking at last year. And you can see down the list here, Andre Drummond 78, Dembona 77. I think that is going to be a more interesting uh battle to watch than I ultimately initially expected to be the case. And shout out to Justin Edwards getting a little love at 77 overall. Trendan Watford also filling it at 76. So Justin Edwards certainly did his part in increasing his 2K market with the extended opportunity last year, but it is not exclusive to just the video game world as we have real deal NBA reporters still discounting the Sixers team. And when I say this, I’m not here making the case that I am certain the Sixers will win a championship next year or get past the second round. But what I do know is they’re better than the 23rd team in the NBA as Bleacher Report currently listed them. That in their Bleacher Report power rankings that came out, the top five, the Thunder, the Nuggets, the Rockets, the Clippers, and Cavaliers. These Sixers come in at 23rd. And it explains the reasoning saying, “Recent reporting suggests Joel Embiid’s knee may not be ready for the start of training camp. For someone with his injury history, that’s alarming. And if he and 35-year-old Paul George are in and out of the lineup uh in much the same way as they were in 24-25, there’s a good chance the Philadelphia 76ers could be in for another losing season. With Tyrese Maxi, Jared McCain, and VJ Edgecom all on the team, there’s plenty of reason for optimism, but the two highest paid players may push that optimism down the road a little bit. And the article that writes this up notes, “The excerpt, the excerpt hits uh the same notes as what we read on ESPN, but 23rd for the Sixers feels a little too low. Portland is one spot above them. Really, the Kings are an absolute mess right now. Chicago is maybe a safer bet to make the play tournament, but there’s absolutely no upside in the Windy City and could not agree any any more than I currently do with that little excerpt there.” And as I mentioned with the ESPN ranking, it’s got the Sixers at 18th in the NBA here. And their write up states, “The 76ers have done some nice things on the margins, including landing Jabari Walker on a two-way deal and snagging VJ Edgecom and Janai Broom in last month’s NBA draft.” As usual though, the biggest news of the offseason was injury related. Paul George underwent a knee procedure that will be re-evaluated before the start of training camp in September. And Joel Embiid declared there is no timeline for his return. And just for good measure did want to pull up the NBA rankings which only kept it exclusive to the conferences and list the Sixers as seventh in the Eastern Conference here. And their write up states last year and by the way I wanted to note this that they’re apparently doing these weekly. I don’t know why but they jumped from 13th last week which I did note and wanted to have as evidence here put them up to seventh this week. I’m not sure what changed because not much has in the world of the Sixers here outside of whatever the opinion of the the art author writing this is. But the whole write up that now has the mid7th puts last year’s record at 24 and 58. Offensive rating they ranked 23rd. Defensive rating they ranked 26. Net rating they ranked 25th. Their key additions VJ Edgecom with the number three overall pick. Trendan Watford the key departures. Garshan Yabuselli with Quinton Grimes the key outstanding free agent. And the numbers to know that NBA.com writes up is the Sixers were the only team without a lineup that played at least 100 minutes last season with their most used fiveman group playing just 72 total minutes over eight games. Tyrese Maxi, Paul George, and Joel Embiid played just 294 total minutes over 15 games together. And the Sixers were outscored by.5 points per 100 possessions in those minutes. They saw the league’s second biggest drop off from 23-24 in regard to both winning percentage and point differential per 100 possessions. They saw the biggest drop in rebounding percentage from 49.3, which was 22nd in 23-24 to 47.1% last season. They ranked 26 defensively and last in shot quality defense according to second spectrum t uh tracking. But their zone defense.96 points per allowed per chance ranked seventh among the 22 teams that played at least 100 possessions of zone according to synergy tracking. Only the Heat played more zone than the Sixers. Now the point that I want to make clear is we have to absolutely scrap up and throw out any metrics that were holding regarding last season and particularly the second half of last season. It should be made clear that this team was trying to lose for the entire second of a half of last season. that once we got past the trade deadline and there was the nice Daryl my if you squint you can still see a contender quote that uh should continue to be held over his head here everything went off the table that when Jared McCain got hurt that to me felt like the sticking point of yep this season is over and that’s exactly how they operated that the Sixers were in a unique position last year with that protected draft pick once again the reminder that you had to get a top draft pick for the Sixers to ultimately be able to keep it which they achieved by getting VJ Edgecomb here that should be looked at as the long-term victor three here. That was a success by being bad enough and getting the luck in the lottery to get VJ Edgecom. They had a 64% chance of doing that going into into the lottery there. It worked out and they got the third overall pick here. That was the goal for the second half of the season. That when Joel Embiid was shut down for the season when Paul George was eventually shut down for the season here, all plans were maximize our chances of keeping this draft pick, even if that means putting us in a worse position in the short term. That meaning the lineups they were choosing, the guys they were trying out that the goals for the the second half of last year was simply tryyouts to round out this roster. Let’s see what Justin Edwards can do. Let’s see what Quinton Grimes can do when he’s asked to be the primary score. And there will be some long-term takeaways from that. That Quinton Grimes likely changed his NBA market possibly forever. Now granted, we’re at a sticking point in those negotiations, so we’ll see how things settle. But I think it’s incredibly unfair to hold against the Sixers team what went down in the second half of last season. Everyone knew the situation and the Sixers were well a well aware of this. It is a clean slate. We hope for a better bill of health, but Jad McCain is coming back. Tyrese Maxi will be back, has been in the lap. VJ Edgecom is going to be an impact addition to the Sixers team. I’m not here to talk yourselves into a championship parade and start making those plans. But what I am here to do is say this Sixers team has a chance. Look around the Eastern Conference. Who scares you? The Boston Celtics? No. Jason Tatum. The Indiana Pacers. No Tyrese Halburn. Do the Knicks scare you? Absolutely not. They shouldn’t. The Cleveland Cavaliers, do they scare you? We’ve seen them fall apart in the postseason for two consecutive seasons in disastrous ways. If Yiannis Kumbo gets hurts, the Bucks are going to struggle to win five games collectively as a team. That’s how bad the rest of that roster is. But Orlando Magic, give me a break here. France Vagner, Paulo Vancero, Desmond Bane, that’s who’s striking fear into your hearts there. My point here is the Eastern Conference is wide open and the Sixers have as good a chance of anyone. This is a team that is still very theoretical. We have to see it on the floor. But there is talent here. There is guys that are going to compete and I think we should welcome the chance that next season should not have expectations. But this is going to be a young group that is hungry, competes hard in a way that we have not seen for a Sixers team in several years to this point. We will see how that ultimately goes down, but I don’t think this Sixers team should be written off nearly to the extent of the way that is currently being done. Let me know if you guys are rocking with me with that same premise in the comments there. Appreciate each and you guys for tuning into this video. As always, I know it is the dead time of the off season, but we’re going to continue plugging along right here on Sixers Digest. So, appreciate you guys tuning into this video here. I’ll be back talking with you next time.

This is DISRESPECTFUL…

Expectations are seemingly at an all-time low for the Philadelphia 76ers and Sean Barnard has had enough of it. He sounds off on recent 2K ratings and where the Sixers are stacking up in power rankings around the NBA media.

#nba #sixers #philadelphia76ers

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