Hashtag Sixers Mailbag
Hashtag Sixers Mailbag
Written by Jordan Christmas (@SlyHooperX) on 18 December 2017
Written by Jordan Christmas
(@SlyHooperX) on 18 December 2017
Time to try out this mailbag thing.
Time to try out this mailbag thing.
Coming off a crazy loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a game which featured three overtime periods, players logging a lot of minutes and tons, and tons of trash talking by my 7'2, 275 pound child, I think it's time for a Sixers mailbag, this is my first time trying this out, so I appreciate the questions. Let's get it.
Naturally, this is a tricky question to answer because there are still a lot of moving parts with this team. Health for the teams' three core players --Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz-- is important, especially the health of JoJo and they also need to realize a good chunk of their potential down the road. The Sixers have exceeded expectations so far despite having the league's toughest schedule to start the season, so the timeline for possible title contention might be sped up. No one expected Embiid to play this many games and this many minutes, Simmons has unexpectedly played like he'll be on an Eastern Conference all-star team this year, and Covington is having a career year shooting despite slumping the last few weeks. The roster construction of this team is still incomplete, the objective for this year is really just to make the playoffs and get those playoff reps.
I think two things are going to be important after this season. Free agency, and how General Manager Bryan Colangelo handles the remaining assets that were left to him.
The Sixers really have the 2018 and 2019 summer to land a big free agent before its hands start getting tied up in contract extensions to Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz (assuming Fultz pans out, which I'm still 100% confident he will). Many teams, of course, will be trying to take part in the LeBron sweepstakes, and the Sixers are one of few teams with the cap room to pull that move off, even though there is exactly a 0.5% chance of that happening. With the cap projected at $102 million dollars, the Sixers would have at least 23 million dollars in cap space when expiring contracts come off the books and if they keep their pick and the 2018 Lakers pick doesn't convey to the Celtics. So they have some maneuvering to do if they want to have enough room for the 35% max free agent.
If the Sixers don't get LeBron, which I fully expect, they can look to sign Avery Bradley, who would be a perfect fit for the roster. Bradley is a great defensive player --I don't give a damn what the metrics say-- and a great 3 point shooter who can handle some of the ball-handling duties. That would be my number 1 target. How creative Bryan Colangelo gets to free up cap room will be something to track. They could also punt this summer and try again in 2019, which is the last realistic chance the team can sign a big fish free agent.
The other important factor is how Colangelo spends his remaining assets. The Sixers still have an abundance of 2nd round picks, and either this year's Lakers first round pick OR The Kings 2019 first round pick. When an NBA team begins to lose its cap flexibility it becomes very important to draft well and turn over every stone when it comes to scouting. I really detested how Colangelo sort of decided to punt the 2nd round of this past draft, and spent the 25th pick on a draft and stash player. This might be the most productive rookie class I've seen and there are a ton of 2nd rounders contributing to their teams, given how thin this roster is, especially when injuries happen, it has really exposed the lack of seriousness in how the team approached the draft outside of trading up for Fultz. I understand wanting to keep cap space open but Colangelo slightly cut corners here and it makes me wonder how they will approach drafts in the future now that the team has their potential core set. Will the front office settle?
So in short, I'd probably say the team is 3 seasons away from realistically being a perennial title contending team.
The Sixers play the Raptors in Philly on Thursday, and last time the Raptors played there, the Sixers probably had what was my favorite win out of all 28 wins last season.
Now that I'm done reliving that moment, let's answer your question.
The Sixers started the season hot from beyond the arc, but have really crashed back down to earth. Beyond Redick and Covington the Sixers really don't have other reliable shooters, Bayless has shot 35% from three since coming back from his wrist injury, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot can't throw a rock into the ocean, and while TJ McConnell is shooting 56% from three it's only on 0.7 attempts and he only shoots them when the closest defender is basically in the parking lot of the Wells Fargo Center.
In one sense taking out, Redick and Covington would make it tough for Simmons and Embiid because they need space to perform at their best, on the other hand, it's the Young Duo's gravity that gives space for RoCo and JJ. Even when those two are taken out, Brett Brown likes to stagger the minutes of Embiid and Simmons. When the Sixers have won games, it's usually on the backs of those two, and then, as a result, opens up Covington and Redick.
The Raptors should very much still focus on Embiid and Simmons, because they are the engines of the offense and that opens up the shooting. The shooting hasn't been as good and it is only effective when one of those two are on the court.
I wouldn't trade Dario yet for a few reasons.
1. He was originally suppose to be coming off the bench, but with Dario starting off poorly the first seven games, and Fultz's weird injury saga, he was inserted into the starting lineup. The production of a Dario/Simmons/Embiid/Covington/Redick lineup has still maintained a 14 net rating despite tailing off a bit in production the last few weeks, but I would still like to see Dario with a healthy Fultz back. In the current starting lineup, Dario has been pigeonholed as a shooter to space the floor primarily due to the overlap with Simmons like you mentioned. But if he came off the bench, which was the original plan, he would be able to utilize more of his diverse skill set like passing, rebounding and bringing the ball up the floor. Brett Brown would also have more flexibility with his rotations and would probably overlap some of Dario's minutes with Fultz's minutes. That is something I am very interested in seeing, considering Dario would have the ball in his hands more. Not to mention in a pinch, Brown knows that a Dario/Simmons/Embiid lineup would work if he needed to throw a monkey wrench into the game. That lineup has tangible merits as it does flaws.
2. Dario is still on a cheap contract through the 2019-20 season, and as mentioned above, when this team starts to get more expensive, I typically would lean towards keeping cheap contracts of young players like Dario for as long as possible. Not only that he, would be a crucial part of this team going forward.
If Dario was thrown in as part of a package to land someone like...say..Klay Thompson, my thought process would change of course, but I don't see an offer like that coming.
Before I answer this question, let me say that we have too many damn bigs and not only that, bigs who can't shoot.
Now that we got that out of the way, I want to say that Amir Johnson has been fine. I think he has been unfairly and overly criticized, what did we honestly expect? He has been a fine defender and has good positional defense. If Richaun Holmes had even a quarter of the Amir's defensive IQ, he would be the clear-cut backup. Holmes' defense has been really overrated because people see the empathetic shot blocking followed by a bellowing scream to pump up the crowd. This year he has certainly been better in the minutes he's gotten, but I don't blame Brett Brown one bit for going with a veteran who knows how to play defense.
With that said, I would like to see Holmes get more minutes than what he has seen. He does bring energy off the bench, and has real benefits on offense. I would like to see 15 to 20 minutes from Holmes especially in certain match-ups where his athleticism and quickness can change the pace of a game. He is 23 and he would be better served developing through playing, but if he keeps getting lost on defense like his first two seasons expect Brown to have him on a short leash now that he is expected to start winning some games. He is now officially towing the line of development vs starting to win games. I don't think we should be at that point, but thats the reality with this unexpected start.
Once this roster is healthy, I'd like to see more Justin Anderson as the backup small forward, TLC isn't strong enough to play small forward and needs to be seeing more time as a guard. Once Fultz comes back to the starting lineup that should make things fall into place more, and Dario should have the chunk of the backup power forward minutes. While new Sixer Trevor Booker has provided more hustle, defense, and rebounding than Jahlil Okafor ever has in 2 and a half seasons, he really shouldn't be seeing time when this roster is fully back healthy.
Side note, I'd like to see more of Covington at the 4.
It's pretty dope that TJ has improved so much that this is a legitimate question.
I think TJ fits well with this team in his current role right now, which is one of the best backup point guards in the NBA. Unfortunately, how long he'll stay with this team depends on how much it will cost to keep him.
Looking at backup point guards across the league who have gotten paid in the last few years, the contracts vary, but they usually make about $6 to $7 million a year. Matthew Dellavedova is the one exception making close to $10 million a year (yowza). McConnell is going to be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019 coming off of a very cheap contract that usually comes with being an undrafted rookie. He will certainly want a bigger payday, but how much money will the organization want to commit to McConnell? That depends on how they want to spend their money this upcoming summer during free agency and in the summer of 2019. The Sixers will have McConnell's bird rights after this year, but it's fair to wonder if the team would want to dip into the luxury tax to retain McConnell.
If Fultz and Simmons, and whoever the Sixers bring in free agency are going to be the primary ball handlers then it also brings up the question if a contract valued at $6 million per year for McConnell is an effective way of allocating financial resources if he is only getting whatever scrap minutes are left. It might be tough for Sixer fans --mainly process truther sixer fans-- to face, but we might have to face the reality that there is a real possibility that McConnell won't be here beyond the 2018-19 season. I certainly hope he stays though.
I was originally going to pick Henry Sims over Jahlil Okafor, but looking deeper into the stats --why did you make me do this?-- It seriously might be Jahlil Okafor, just because the team performed so much worse when he was on the court vs when he was off the court and the worse part was he actually needed the ball to be effective. Sims had a better rebounding percentage during his season and a half with Philly than Okafor did in two seasons (LOL) and Sims had slightly better metrics in general.
By the way, Okafor had a very Okafor game in his debut with the Nets against the Raptors. After not playing the first two games after the trade happened, he played on Friday and had 10 points on 11 shots, and was a -21 on the court. Oh, and he did his usual BS defending the pick and roll, where he stands 5000 feet under the pick to let dudes take warm-up jumpers in an actual game...
Nets fans and PrOkafors can continue to tell us how "wrong" we were about Jah. If it means he isn't in a Sixers uniform anymore then I'll take that trade-off.
Coming off a crazy loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a game which featured three overtime periods, players logging a lot of minutes and tons, and tons of trash talking by my 7'2, 275 pound child, I think it's time for a Sixers mailbag, this is my first time trying this out, so I appreciate the questions. Let's get it.
Naturally, this is a tricky question to answer because there are still a lot of moving parts with this team. Health for the teams' three core players --Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz-- is important, especially the health of JoJo and they also need to realize a good chunk of their potential down the road. The Sixers have exceeded expectations so far despite having the league's toughest schedule to start the season, so the timeline for possible title contention might be sped up. No one expected Embiid to play this many games and this many minutes, Simmons has unexpectedly played like he'll be on an Eastern Conference all-star team this year, and Covington is having a career year shooting despite slumping the last few weeks. The roster construction of this team is still incomplete, the objective for this year is really just to make the playoffs and get those playoff reps.
I think two things are going to be important after this season. Free agency, and how General Manager Bryan Colangelo handles the remaining assets that were left to him.
The Sixers really have the 2018 and 2019 summer to land a big free agent before its hands start getting tied up in contract extensions to Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz (assuming Fultz pans out, which I'm still 100% confident he will). Many teams, of course, will be trying to take part in the LeBron sweepstakes, and the Sixers are one of few teams with the cap room to pull that move off, even though there is exactly a 0.5% chance of that happening. With the cap projected at $102 million dollars, the Sixers would have at least 23 million dollars in cap space when expiring contracts come off the books and if they keep their pick and the 2018 Lakers pick doesn't convey to the Celtics. So they have some maneuvering to do if they want to have enough room for the 35% max free agent.
If the Sixers don't get LeBron, which I fully expect, they can look to sign Avery Bradley, who would be a perfect fit for the roster. Bradley is a great defensive player --I don't give a damn what the metrics say-- and a great 3 point shooter who can handle some of the ball-handling duties. That would be my number 1 target. How creative Bryan Colangelo gets to free up cap room will be something to track. They could also punt this summer and try again in 2019, which is the last realistic chance the team can sign a big fish free agent.
The other important factor is how Colangelo spends his remaining assets. The Sixers still have an abundance of 2nd round picks, and either this year's Lakers first round pick OR The Kings 2019 first round pick. When an NBA team begins to lose its cap flexibility it becomes very important to draft well and turn over every stone when it comes to scouting. I really detested how Colangelo sort of decided to punt the 2nd round of this past draft, and spent the 25th pick on a draft and stash player. This might be the most productive rookie class I've seen and there are a ton of 2nd rounders contributing to their teams, given how thin this roster is, especially when injuries happen, it has really exposed the lack of seriousness in how the team approached the draft outside of trading up for Fultz. I understand wanting to keep cap space open but Colangelo slightly cut corners here and it makes me wonder how they will approach drafts in the future now that the team has their potential core set. Will the front office settle?
So in short, I'd probably say the team is 3 seasons away from realistically being a perennial title contending team.
The Sixers play the Raptors in Philly on Thursday, and last time the Raptors played there, the Sixers probably had what was my favorite win out of all 28 wins last season.
Now that I'm done reliving that moment, let's answer your question.
The Sixers started the season hot from beyond the arc, but have really crashed back down to earth. Beyond Redick and Covington the Sixers really don't have other reliable shooters, Bayless has shot 35% from three since coming back from his wrist injury, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot can't throw a rock into the ocean, and while TJ McConnell is shooting 56% from three it's only on 0.7 attempts and he only shoots them when the closest defender is basically in the parking lot of the Wells Fargo Center.
In one sense taking out, Redick and Covington would make it tough for Simmons and Embiid because they need space to perform at their best, on the other hand, it's the Young Duo's gravity that gives space for RoCo and JJ. Even when those two are taken out, Brett Brown likes to stagger the minutes of Embiid and Simmons. When the Sixers have won games, it's usually on the backs of those two, and then, as a result, opens up Covington and Redick.
The Raptors should very much still focus on Embiid and Simmons, because they are the engines of the offense and that opens up the shooting. The shooting hasn't been as good and it is only effective when one of those two are on the court.
I wouldn't trade Dario yet for a few reasons.
1. He was originally suppose to be coming off the bench, but with Dario starting off poorly the first seven games, and Fultz's weird injury saga, he was inserted into the starting lineup. The production of a Dario/Simmons/Embiid/Covington/Redick lineup has still maintained a 14 net rating despite tailing off a bit in production the last few weeks, but I would still like to see Dario with a healthy Fultz back. In the current starting lineup, Dario has been pigeonholed as a shooter to space the floor primarily due to the overlap with Simmons like you mentioned. But if he came off the bench, which was the original plan, he would be able to utilize more of his diverse skill set like passing, rebounding and bringing the ball up the floor. Brett Brown would also have more flexibility with his rotations and would probably overlap some of Dario's minutes with Fultz's minutes. That is something I am very interested in seeing, considering Dario would have the ball in his hands more. Not to mention in a pinch, Brown knows that a Dario/Simmons/Embiid lineup would work if he needed to throw a monkey wrench into the game. That lineup has tangible merits as it does flaws.
2. Dario is still on a cheap contract through the 2019-20 season, and as mentioned above, when this team starts to get more expensive, I typically would lean towards keeping cheap contracts of young players like Dario for as long as possible. Not only that he, would be a crucial part of this team going forward.
If Dario was thrown in as part of a package to land someone like...say..Klay Thompson, my thought process would change of course, but I don't see an offer like that coming.
Before I answer this question, let me say that we have too many damn bigs and not only that, bigs who can't shoot.
Now that we got that out of the way, I want to say that Amir Johnson has been fine. I think he has been unfairly and overly criticized, what did we honestly expect? He has been a fine defender and has good positional defense. If Richaun Holmes had even a quarter of the Amir's defensive IQ, he would be the clear-cut backup. Holmes' defense has been really overrated because people see the empathetic shot blocking followed by a bellowing scream to pump up the crowd. This year he has certainly been better in the minutes he's gotten, but I don't blame Brett Brown one bit for going with a veteran who knows how to play defense.
With that said, I would like to see Holmes get more minutes than what he has seen. He does bring energy off the bench, and has real benefits on offense. I would like to see 15 to 20 minutes from Holmes especially in certain match-ups where his athleticism and quickness can change the pace of a game. He is 23 and he would be better served developing through playing, but if he keeps getting lost on defense like his first two seasons expect Brown to have him on a short leash now that he is expected to start winning some games. He is now officially towing the line of development vs starting to win games. I don't think we should be at that point, but thats the reality with this unexpected start.
Once this roster is healthy, I'd like to see more Justin Anderson as the backup small forward, TLC isn't strong enough to play small forward and needs to be seeing more time as a guard. Once Fultz comes back to the starting lineup that should make things fall into place more, and Dario should have the chunk of the backup power forward minutes. While new Sixer Trevor Booker has provided more hustle, defense, and rebounding than Jahlil Okafor ever has in 2 and a half seasons, he really shouldn't be seeing time when this roster is fully back healthy.
Side note, I'd like to see more of Covington at the 4.
It's pretty dope that TJ has improved so much that this is a legitimate question.
I think TJ fits well with this team in his current role right now, which is one of the best backup point guards in the NBA. Unfortunately, how long he'll stay with this team depends on how much it will cost to keep him.
Looking at backup point guards across the league who have gotten paid in the last few years, the contracts vary, but they usually make about $6 to $7 million a year. Matthew Dellavedova is the one exception making close to $10 million a year (yowza). McConnell is going to be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019 coming off of a very cheap contract that usually comes with being an undrafted rookie. He will certainly want a bigger payday, but how much money will the organization want to commit to McConnell? That depends on how they want to spend their money this upcoming summer during free agency and in the summer of 2019. The Sixers will have McConnell's bird rights after this year, but it's fair to wonder if the team would want to dip into the luxury tax to retain McConnell.
If Fultz and Simmons, and whoever the Sixers bring in free agency are going to be the primary ball handlers then it also brings up the question if a contract valued at $6 million per year for McConnell is an effective way of allocating financial resources if he is only getting whatever scrap minutes are left. It might be tough for Sixer fans --mainly process truther sixer fans-- to face, but we might have to face the reality that there is a real possibility that McConnell won't be here beyond the 2018-19 season. I certainly hope he stays though.
I was originally going to pick Henry Sims over Jahlil Okafor, but looking deeper into the stats --why did you make me do this?-- It seriously might be Jahlil Okafor, just because the team performed so much worse when he was on the court vs when he was off the court and the worse part was he actually needed the ball to be effective. Sims had a better rebounding percentage during his season and a half with Philly than Okafor did in two seasons (LOL) and Sims had slightly better metrics in general.
By the way, Okafor had a very Okafor game in his debut with the Nets against the Raptors. After not playing the first two games after the trade happened, he played on Friday and had 10 points on 11 shots, and was a -21 on the court. Oh, and he did his usual BS defending the pick and roll, where he stands 5000 feet under the pick to let dudes take warm-up jumpers in an actual game...
Nets fans and PrOkafors can continue to tell us how "wrong" we were about Jah. If it means he isn't in a Sixers uniform anymore then I'll take that trade-off.