Speaker 1: No no, not come home, no no, come home, come home,
Speaker 1: come home.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, it's the seventy
Speaker 2: six ers episode that I need to do. I have
Speaker 2: to do. It's my boo trous to stinks. All the
Speaker 2: Sixers fans hate me. It's okay, Like I get it.
Speaker 2: I've said some mean things. I've neglected talking about you
Speaker 2: guys all season. Forgive me. You guys have been irrelevant.
Speaker 2: Forgive me. What a way though? To start the new
Speaker 2: year off? I said I would be nicer, But sometimes
Speaker 2: kindness it doesn't always feel like will they say? If uh,
Speaker 2: if everything was dripped in gold, baby, how would we
Speaker 2: ever grow? You know what I mean? Like we can't
Speaker 2: just just can't be all peas and cares all the time.
Speaker 2: Sometimes kind comes in the form of a stick stick
Speaker 2: stick stick. That's me, your accountability partner. Sixers fans. Let's
Speaker 2: make a therapy group. Go ahead, Brock, Let's drop the beach.
Speaker 2: Sorry about lake drop. When snow happens in Washington, DC,
Speaker 2: the world loses their minds. I don't think we were
Speaker 2: ready for it, truthfully, like our city was not ready
Speaker 2: for snow. I am. I'm gonna confess something. I thought
Speaker 2: to myself, maybe I wouldn't confess this because it's egregious.
Speaker 2: But I told someone we got two feet of snow,
Speaker 2: and I sent a photo to them. They're from Minnesota.
Speaker 2: It was four inches. I mean, men, man love me, right, man,
Speaker 2: love me only I could confuse four inches for two feet,
Speaker 2: if you know. You know. So that's why we didn't
Speaker 2: record on a Monday, because the world lost their fucking mind,
Speaker 2: because everybody in this city confuses four inches for two feet.
Speaker 2: Like we had people stuck on ninety five still it's
Speaker 2: like literally they're still struggling, you know, like the world
Speaker 2: was not ready for the snowstorm, and like we're gonna
Speaker 2: get to the episode, but listen, it was sixty five
Speaker 2: on New Year's Day. The next day it was twenty
Speaker 2: five and two feet of snow, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I still haven't gotten my car out from the side
Speaker 2: street that it's on, so folks. Anyway, And then on Sunday,
Speaker 2: I did go on a podcast, the Rights to Rickey
Speaker 2: Sanchez and talked about Philly. It's a Philly podcast, probably
Speaker 2: the top Philly podcast in the country, hosted by my Guy,
Speaker 2: The Men and the Myth Philadelphia legend Spike Eskin, the
Speaker 2: son of Howard Eskin, and we went in detail about
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid. We talked about, of course Ben Simmons, the
Speaker 2: future of this team, the future of the franchise. So
Speaker 2: wherever you can find your podcast, go and check that
Speaker 2: episode out. I also talked about why I left Barstool.
Speaker 2: I talked about my origin story. It was not just
Speaker 2: a Philadelphia conversation. It was a life conversation. But the
Speaker 2: prep for that, because you never know what people are
Speaker 2: gonna ask you. The prep for that got me thinking
Speaker 2: about Philly, and it got me interested, got me listen.
Speaker 2: Now you have my full attention, Philly. Yeah. So now
Speaker 2: we decided to turn that prep that I did not
Speaker 2: need into this Sixers episode. Well, I didn't expect it
Speaker 2: to be a personal question, but like here we are.
Speaker 2: So my new year's resolution was to be nicer. So
Speaker 2: let's look first and foremost about what's good about the
Speaker 2: Sixers this year before I get into what the dumpster
Speaker 2: fire of this team has been just this year, but
Speaker 2: for the last eight like this team, the process has
Speaker 2: been a joke. I think you guys know that, Like
Speaker 2: I'm not just trolling, Like the process has been a disappointment.
Speaker 2: So let's go into what you guys are doing well.
Speaker 2: First and foremost. The team is currently twenty and sixteen,
Speaker 2: and the truth is it could be so much worse.
Speaker 2: And Beid has been gone, Your star center has been gone.
Speaker 2: The player that you've built your entire franchise around multiple
Speaker 2: times has been gone with COVID for a solid month.
Speaker 2: Tobias has been garbage. He's been stealing money, and of
Speaker 2: course you've had this drama surrounding Ben Simmons looming over
Speaker 2: this franchise like a gray dark cloud to the point
Speaker 2: where people can't even practice because he's like a distraction.
Speaker 2: There's like news reports all time about this. He's been
Speaker 2: mia outside that one practice. Considering everything, six in the
Speaker 2: East isn't so bad, Cheer up Sixer fans. Like you
Speaker 2: thought you were gonna be the two or three seed
Speaker 2: in the East, which was an un we'll call it
Speaker 2: an unrealistic expectation. Like I said, I called you a
Speaker 2: six seed preseason. That was one of the only right
Speaker 2: things I got correct in the East. Uh, but you
Speaker 2: could be Orlando, Like you could be completely down in
Speaker 2: the dumps when your star center literally thought he might die.
Speaker 2: That's what we said. I thought I might die, so
Speaker 2: less dissect some of the reasons from a basketball perspective
Speaker 2: that this franchise hasn't Turtle Turtle yet. You are a
Speaker 2: decent three point shooting team, even with Tobias having a
Speaker 2: down year. You're third in the league and turnover percentage
Speaker 2: twelve point three times per game, and a lot of
Speaker 2: that is due to your guy Tyree Maxie, who we're
Speaker 2: gonna talk about in this He is literally helping you.
Speaker 2: He's keeping the ball from turning over. Without Maxi on
Speaker 2: the floor, you are twenty seventh in the league at
Speaker 2: turnover percentage. So it's really just him ballin', really just
Speaker 2: him becoming a true point guard, a real facilitator, a
Speaker 2: true floor general. And you're also leading the league in
Speaker 2: free throw percentage eighty plus percent. But mostly the reason
Speaker 2: that you're overperforming, which I think is what you're doing.
Speaker 2: I don't think Philly fans will like me saying that,
Speaker 2: but that's what you're doing. Role players have become stars
Speaker 2: someone and exceeded at the least exceeded expectations at least
Speaker 2: for nearly the first half of the season. So let's
Speaker 2: talk about the number one reason why, which has been
Speaker 2: Tyrese Maxey number one bright spot all year. He's gone
Speaker 2: from six man off the bench to having an all
Speaker 2: star like season. I'm not sure now at this point
Speaker 2: if Rich Paul would want to trade him. Like rich
Speaker 2: Pass said, when when Ben Simmons goes Tyreee, Maxi will
Speaker 2: also go. Those are both Rich Paul clients. It appears
Speaker 2: that this fit is working beautifully. He's averaging almost seventeen
Speaker 2: points per game, three and a half rebounds, four and
Speaker 2: a half assists, and putting up like outside of those numbers,
Speaker 2: he's putting up huge numbers in important games, like he
Speaker 2: did against Brooklyn. You won against Brooklyn with all their
Speaker 2: pieces outside of Kyrie in Brooklyn after just losing to
Speaker 2: them a couple of nights ago. Another thing Maxi has
Speaker 2: improved on, you know, I'd say is underrated is his defense.
Speaker 2: He's no I mean, he's no Drew Holliday, But against Harden,
Speaker 2: you got Harden to turn the ball over six times
Speaker 2: in that game, Like he put up numbers, but he's
Speaker 2: gonna put up numbers on anybody like That's like when
Speaker 2: you guard Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant is gonna put up numbers,
Speaker 2: but his on the ball defense is improved. He's pressing
Speaker 2: the hell lot of guys. He's getting them to commit mistakes,
Speaker 2: and that's important. Offensively, Maxi has been impressive too. I
Speaker 2: had twenty six players who finished with at least two
Speaker 2: hundred possessions as a pick and roll ball handler this season.
Speaker 2: Maxy is where Maxi is fifth in scoring efficiency, behind
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell, Steph Curry, Zach Lavine, and Trey Young. Excuse me, sir, sir,
Speaker 2: that is a fucking baller move. That is according to
Speaker 2: Synergy Sports, he is ahead of Chris Paul DeMar Derozen
Speaker 2: and Jaw. He's ahead of those guys. That is surprising.
Speaker 2: I would say, I don't think people would put Maxie
Speaker 2: in the conversation there in terms of like pick and
Speaker 2: roll ball handler, but Jesus Christ, wow, like that's important.
Speaker 2: He's got wheels, he's got touch around the rim, He's
Speaker 2: potent in a two man game with Joe ellen b
Speaker 2: pick your poison, and he's become a real aggressive scoring threat.
Speaker 2: And I think the thing that people have been knocking
Speaker 2: him on for so long is that Maxi's too hesitant.
Speaker 2: Maxi wants to pass the ball too much. Maxi's not
Speaker 2: a dog. MAXI now is taking important shots in important moments,
Speaker 2: and he knows when to pass and when to fucking shoot,
Speaker 2: and that is what you need. Seth Curry. He's a
Speaker 2: little shrimp, we know that. But the bright span spot
Speaker 2: for Philly two has been him in this two man
Speaker 2: game with Joe LMB. He's a bad defender. We know
Speaker 2: that he's little, he's too little, but and he's a chucker.
Speaker 2: But he is legitimately shooting fifty percent as a pick
Speaker 2: and roll ball handler. And he's a pick and roll
Speaker 2: ballhandled like thirty percent of the time. That's up a
Speaker 2: solid six percent, which is a meaningful number from last year.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about my man, George Yang. This dude is
Speaker 2: I thought it was gorgee. First of all, I just
Speaker 2: want to tell myself again because that's what I do.
Speaker 2: I'm accountable too myself and to the fans. I got
Speaker 2: him confused with gorge y Jang Gorge Yang Like, I okay,
Speaker 2: George Nang, I'm confused. But anyway, he is a dog
Speaker 2: six seven power forward, perfect fit, shooting forty percent from three,
Speaker 2: Like what fours? Do you know? That aren't stars that
Speaker 2: are shooting at this clip, and he's shooting eight per
Speaker 2: thirty six. He's shooting six of them joints a night
Speaker 2: at forty sixty seven. Dog and irritant. He's got the
Speaker 2: aggressive nature of like in terms of being an irritant
Speaker 2: like a Patrick Beverley or Joel Embiid. But he's just
Speaker 2: like making a couple like I don't even know what
Speaker 2: he's making, but it's not law. He could be one
Speaker 2: of the more underrated signings this year for the Sixers,
Speaker 2: and like, you can tell he's good on this team
Speaker 2: because I thought about scenarios where, for example, like someone
Speaker 2: like Boston would want someone to space the floor, which
Speaker 2: is what you need for Joel Embiid, which is what
Speaker 2: you also need for Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and
Speaker 2: Sixer fans in my mentions like, nah, nah, we'll keep
Speaker 2: We'll keep Nang. He's been he's ours, that's how you know.
Speaker 2: And six Ers fans will turn on you if you're
Speaker 2: no good. They're like, no, no, we're keeping Nang. He's
Speaker 2: been a piece, and he's been I would say, the
Speaker 2: only real bright spot as a power forward in this
Speaker 2: role since like Irion Iliasova like since that anyway, Cork
Speaker 2: Boss is always good. He's shooting. His shooting's dipped a
Speaker 2: little bit. He's slid under thirty from three now, but
Speaker 2: he's like he's been good earlier in the season. He's
Speaker 2: been a bright spot, hitting threes in crucial moments. Of course,
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid has been out with covid, so Andre Drummond
Speaker 2: tremendous in his absence, rebounding Shake Milton has missed time,
Speaker 2: but he's been pretty good. Isaiah Joe another little bright spot,
Speaker 2: put up eighteen and twenty one minutes against the Rockets,
Speaker 2: And you know, he's just a little baby. He's just
Speaker 2: still coming along in his own and now it's time
Speaker 2: and now it's time. It's time and time. The bad,
Speaker 2: the ugly. The Ben Simmons situation is not ideal, I
Speaker 2: would say, but but it's not the only problem. Let's
Speaker 2: talk about the bigger issue. The bigger issue is an
Speaker 2: asset on your squad who's a net negative like Ben
Speaker 2: Simmons is a net positive trade asset. It just is
Speaker 2: the case. Unfortunately to me, Like I don't think I mean,
Speaker 2: of course he is, but like he's just toxic, but
Speaker 2: like Tobia's hairs, actually is a net negative. You have
Speaker 2: to package picks with his contract to move him. He's
Speaker 2: stealing money right now. He's stealing. He's making Check's notes
Speaker 2: thirty two point seven four million dollars this year. Is
Speaker 2: he worth that? I'd say no, I'd say sixers. Fans
Speaker 2: would say no as well, Like he's a Doc River,
Speaker 2: a favorite. The only reason that they picked him up
Speaker 2: and kept him and didn't trade him is because of
Speaker 2: I believe his relationship with Doc Rivers, like the fact
Speaker 2: that he's on this team and that him and Ben
Speaker 2: are on this team over Jimmy Butler is just a crime.
Speaker 2: It's a crime to me. And he's the most inefficient
Speaker 2: player on this team. Gross he passes up open threes.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can't have you're one of your highest
Speaker 2: paid guys being an indeficient, like the most inefficient on
Speaker 2: your team. Like, you just can't. It's not fucking Carmelo
Speaker 2: Anthony in two thousand and three. I'm sorry, Like this
Speaker 2: is not the league that we're in anymore. He passes
Speaker 2: up open threes consistently and shoes worst tooths unopen twos.
Speaker 2: We'll call it closed twos, disrupting spacing for Joel, which
Speaker 2: is exactly the opposite of what you need. This isn't
Speaker 2: the LA Lakers here right like this is We're not
Speaker 2: gonna just like do the wrong things consistently around Lebron,
Speaker 2: James and Joel and be like, no, he's not making
Speaker 2: his teammates better, like I said, he's stealing money, like
Speaker 2: forty percent from three last year and below thirty percent
Speaker 2: from three this year. Why is that is? Because he
Speaker 2: doesn't get a bunch of open looks because of Ben Simmons.
Speaker 2: He's not just standing there in the corner when people
Speaker 2: collapse on Ben going to the rack and like passing out,
Speaker 2: kicking out, like he's just who's doing that for him?
Speaker 2: No one, not Tyree Maxey. Tyree Maxey apparently doesn't love
Speaker 2: Tobias Harris getting he's not getting open looks. The team
Speaker 2: defense of this team is atrocious. They are twentieth in
Speaker 2: the defensive rating and last year they were in number
Speaker 2: two in defensive rating. Yes, a lot of that has
Speaker 2: to do with Ben, but you also do have Clamps
Speaker 2: and matist Saibel, who you know isn't that much. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's worse, but he's not that much worse to go
Speaker 2: from second to twentieth. They're dead last in the league
Speaker 2: in rebounds. They are getting absolutely, they're dead last in
Speaker 2: the league in rebounds, dead last, dead last. That's below Portland,
Speaker 2: that's below Portland. I'm just saying this multiple times. You're
Speaker 2: your podcast isn't skipping. I'm telling you this for effect.
Speaker 2: That's disgusting. That's disgusting. You're getting destroyed. And you have
Speaker 2: Andre Drummond. So I don't know, I don't know. This
Speaker 2: is why this team is twenty seventh in second second
Speaker 2: chance points, just behind the Hornets, Kings and Raptors. Like
Speaker 2: you are allowing teams to feast in second chance points.
Speaker 2: Putback's galore. Uh, the three point shooting is bad, Like
Speaker 2: this is the whole entire game plan for surrounding Joel embiid. Shooters, shooters, shooters.
Speaker 2: That's the reason the Ben's not working. Shooter shooters. At
Speaker 2: the moment, the Sixers are twenty seventh in the league
Speaker 2: in three point attempts thirty one and a half per game.
Speaker 2: That's not ideal. Fourteenth in percentage at thirty five point one.
Speaker 2: So too often the Sixers, like I've said, Tobias Harris,
Speaker 2: like they're just turning down open looks from deep and
Speaker 2: then they just take tougher shots for less points. Tell
Speaker 2: me why that's a good idea. Philadelphia needs to start
Speaker 2: firing away like their name is the Boston Celtics, like
Speaker 2: where you shoot fifty of them a game. Like you
Speaker 2: have shooters, like I just said George nang Let him
Speaker 2: shoot ten of those joints tonight. Don't act like you
Speaker 2: don't know who George Nang is. Don't do that. Don't
Speaker 2: do that. Google him, don't do that. Also, passing the
Speaker 2: ball is really not great either. The team is twenty
Speaker 2: fifth and assists per game n Ia and g Yeah,
Speaker 2: twenty fifth and assists per game. You've seen him before,
Speaker 2: which reflects a young point guard who isn't getting and
Speaker 2: beat the ball. And there's no swing swing swing, it's
Speaker 2: two man game. Brick or make right Maxi for all
Speaker 2: his positives averages less than five assists a game. You
Speaker 2: should probably get five assists just throwing the ball to
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid in the blocks early in the shot clock.
Speaker 2: That's what you need to do, and that's why this
Speaker 2: team is in the middle of the road. Thirteenth in pace.
Speaker 2: Scoring is down from last year. They've gone from one
Speaker 2: hundred and thirteen points per game last year to one
Speaker 2: hundred and six per game. I know you have nine
Speaker 2: games without Joel Embiid, However it's not ideal, it's not great.
Speaker 2: And then, of course the drama surrounding the team with
Speaker 2: Ben Simmons. We don't need to get into the background
Speaker 2: of that. We've already done it so many other times
Speaker 2: and other people have as well. But what we will
Speaker 2: look to do is look at the fallout from this.
Speaker 2: There are two ask questions, two questions that we should
Speaker 2: be asking now. Should Doc Rivers be on the hot
Speaker 2: seat and should Darrol Morey be on the hot seat?
Speaker 2: The Sixers just beat the Nets in Brooklyn without Doc Rivers.
Speaker 2: Doc Rivers, you can't ask Doc. If you're Doc Rivers
Speaker 2: and you blew the game as usually as your coach,
Speaker 2: and they ask you whether Ben Simmons is the is
Speaker 2: the point guard on a championship roster? You should say,
Speaker 2: can I phone a front like I need to ask
Speaker 2: my g what he thinks? Because I need to ask
Speaker 2: our ownership group what they think I should say, because
Speaker 2: or say yes, just lie you lie all the time.
Speaker 2: These coaches lie every day. It's ingrained in their DNA.
Speaker 2: When you are on the back end of a disappointing
Speaker 2: loss to the Atlanta Hawks, which you didn't think was
Speaker 2: gonna happen, and they ask you these questions, you just
Speaker 2: lie because if you want to move him. We've talked
Speaker 2: about this before. If you want to move someone, you
Speaker 2: don't decrease their value. If you're, you know, a stockholder
Speaker 2: of would just say Pfizer. You don't say like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: COVID's going away. You know, COVID doesn't exist anymore, or
Speaker 2: you know, if you're that's a bad example. But you
Speaker 2: know what I'm trying to say, you just can't artificially.
Speaker 2: It's like Elon Musk consistently says things to bring down Tesla.
Speaker 2: I don't know why, but he does. He just does.
Speaker 2: That's like basically what Doc Rivers did. And this guy
Speaker 2: Dan Burke who's taking over for Doc when Doc has COVID.
Speaker 2: When Doc has COVID, he actually calls plays, he calls timeouts,
Speaker 2: And that was the game that they ended up winning
Speaker 2: against Brooklyn. Doc wasn't coaching that game. Folks, Like this
Speaker 2: is like when very similar to like when Lloyd Pierce,
Speaker 2: head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, went on paternity leave
Speaker 2: and the trash ass Atlanta Hawks went on a tear
Speaker 2: and you're like, hmm, maybe just maybe the roster's better
Speaker 2: than we think it is, and maybe this coach has
Speaker 2: got to go, and he did go, and then all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, the Atlanta Hawks ended up in the
Speaker 2: Eastern Conference Finals. The mismanaging of the rotation really is
Speaker 2: a symptom of the problem plaguing Doc Rivers, which is
Speaker 2: just he's stubborn and he lacks creativity, and he's resting
Speaker 2: on one championship largely created by Tom Tippodau just truth,
Speaker 2: just the truth bomb, and like it comes from it
Speaker 2: comes out in late in games when he just doesn't
Speaker 2: draw up place, just doesn't come up with ways to
Speaker 2: get players and stagger their minutes, and guys like Joel
Speaker 2: Embiid are ending up being gassed. And the elephant in
Speaker 2: the room, of course is Ben Simmons. But rather then
Speaker 2: to recap the drama, and also Daryl Moury can't be
Speaker 2: asking for the moon, for Darryl, for everybody, for Ben Simmons,
Speaker 2: Like you can't be like I want a top top
Speaker 2: twenty five player and also five draft picks. You are
Speaker 2: you were delusional and I think, like I said before,
Speaker 2: if you can't move Ben with Daryl Moury at the Helm,
Speaker 2: then Daryl Moury shouldn't be at the Helm. Ben. There's
Speaker 2: some trade ideas floated around here. They are a lot
Speaker 2: of These are just a few that are just coming
Speaker 2: out over the weekend. Philadelphia seventy six ers receive Evan
Speaker 2: four Cambell Walker, Obi toppin New York Knick's twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two first round pick unprotected, which is probably gonna be
Speaker 2: tasty because they are looking not good twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: first round pick. Maybe a swap more favorable to Philly
Speaker 2: New York knicks twenty twenty four first round pick top
Speaker 2: ten protected or the twenty twenty five first round pick
Speaker 2: unprotected if they end up getting a top ten pick
Speaker 2: New York Knicks twenty twenty six first round pick swap.
Speaker 2: So that's one deal. I don't hate that deal. I
Speaker 2: don't love that deal either. I don't think they need
Speaker 2: Kemba Walker Listen four first rounders Fournier net negative, Kemba
Speaker 2: Walker net negative, Obie Topping nice young piece. Don't think Evan.
Speaker 2: I don't think my man Darryl Moorey is gonna go
Speaker 2: for that one. Here's another deal. Sixers get Carris Lavert
Speaker 2: Norm is a three team deal. Sixers get Carris Lavert, Norm, Powell,
Speaker 2: Larry Nas Junior Pacers get c J. McCollum, Nicer, Little
Speaker 2: Cody Zeller, Portland's twenty twenty four first round pick, lottery
Speaker 2: protected twenty twenty second twenty twenty two second round pick
Speaker 2: from Portland Trailbaz get Ben Simmons, Miles Turner, Danny Green.
Speaker 2: Do not hate that whatsoever. But with the Sixers in
Speaker 2: sixth place currently, let's just be real. They're ceiling's probably
Speaker 2: fourth ceiling, absolute ceiling, and they're not a real contender.
Speaker 2: And I think they know that, which means another year
Speaker 2: wasted of Joel Embiid's prime. And the man has a
Speaker 2: million injury, million injuries and a history as long as
Speaker 2: a CBS receipt and like so long, and like truthfully,
Speaker 2: I ask Spike on this podcast and I was like, Yo,
Speaker 2: what do you think is the future? And he goes,
Speaker 2: if they can't get a real player for Ben, there's
Speaker 2: a real chance a non zero, and it's actually a
Speaker 2: likelihood that Joel mb will not be on the team
Speaker 2: in two years from now. He will be somewhere else.
Speaker 2: That is the man who's grown up in Philly with
Speaker 2: a father, who's been talking about Philly for a fuck
Speaker 2: load of time, like many many years, tapped into what's happening,
Speaker 2: and he believes there is a real scenario where Joe
Speaker 2: l Embiid will not be in Philadelphia, which means that
Speaker 2: the process starts again, folks, And that means this franchise
Speaker 2: is at a crossroads. Gotta be tough for Sixers fans.
Speaker 2: Couldn't happen to a nicer fan base, a more humble
Speaker 2: fan base, a sweeter fan base. So yeah, I hate
Speaker 2: to say it, but there's more Sixers uh pain to come,
Speaker 2: more Sixers drama to come. This is just the dude,
Speaker 2: But I couldn't hear at a Wayne first class just
Speaker 2: a good light, my whole night long look back on
Speaker 2: my life and my life gone. Where did I go wrong?
Speaker 2: Where did I go wrong? Where did I go wrong?
Speaker 2: Speaking of systemic failures, where did we go wrong? And
Speaker 2: the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. I don't know that there's
Speaker 2: anything more exemplary of this issue than my man, Mark
Speaker 2: hel Foltz. Yeah, do you remember Mark kel Foltz If
Speaker 2: you're a Sixers fans, for sure, the rest of NBA,
Speaker 2: especially casual fans, he was a blip in the radar.
Speaker 2: He was a quick little number one overall consensus piece.
Speaker 2: Was he consensus because the Boston Celtics didn't think so?
Speaker 2: And he got lost in the shuffle, which is wild
Speaker 2: considering number one pick in the twenty twenty seventeen draft.
Speaker 2: And that was the guy the key cogged, the piece
Speaker 2: that the Sixers were waiting for in the process to
Speaker 2: put it all together this we need a point guard.
Speaker 2: They can score, they can be the floor general, like
Speaker 2: a lesser version of Damian Lillard, some taller but just lesser.
Speaker 2: He could shoot at the time, he could distribute at
Speaker 2: the time, and he was the man, what do I
Speaker 2: need Jason Tatum for? They already have a wing, right,
Speaker 2: they already have wings. They need a point guard. And
Speaker 2: that was Mark kel Folds. And that seems pretty insane
Speaker 2: to say in hindsight, because he entered the NBA with
Speaker 2: a decent shot and then all of a sudden, maybe
Speaker 2: it's broke as hell. Maybe it really smells broken jumper.
Speaker 2: Broken jumper. He went from being able to shoot well,
Speaker 2: Like if you look at his YouTube film which I
Speaker 2: did at Washington, you dubbed Huk the Fuskies as an
Speaker 2: organ duc fan. That's a non sequitur. But all of
Speaker 2: a sudden it just busted, just gone, just not being
Speaker 2: able to shoot at all, like just to push shot.
Speaker 2: It was like his elbow was broken. And then being
Speaker 2: the number one pick, it was under a microscope. What's
Speaker 2: wrong with markkel Fultz? What's happening with the shot? Nobody
Speaker 2: that I remember has had their jump shot dissected more
Speaker 2: by people have never played basketball in their life more
Speaker 2: than markkel Folts. Like, we're all just like, maybe it's
Speaker 2: the elbow, Maybe he shoots with the wrong hand. What's
Speaker 2: going on? Is there something wrong with his shoulder? And
Speaker 2: there's like hundreds and hundreds of articles about this, and
Speaker 2: the Sixers are scrambling now. They're hiring coaches and developers
Speaker 2: and scientists and like algorithms specialists just to fix markel
Speaker 2: Foltz's jump shot. Yeah, interior designers, literally everyone under the
Speaker 2: sun who has any bit of creativity to be able
Speaker 2: to fix him and it was how ugly did it get?
Speaker 2: You might ask, well, it got the ugliest. The lowest
Speaker 2: it got was when he double clutched a free throw
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen. It was like, it was like when
Speaker 2: your your your PlayStation or your Nintendo freezes like and
Speaker 2: then it jumps forward again. That was him, and it
Speaker 2: led to many articles everywhere about like he has broken, broken,
Speaker 2: broken es be Nation wrote this, mark al Foltz's broken
Speaker 2: jump shot hitting all time low when he double clutched
Speaker 2: a free throw that you guessed it didn't go in
Speaker 2: the way he catapult pullted the ball off of an
Speaker 2: extended pause, resembled a player who grew eighteen inches overnight
Speaker 2: and is just figuring out how to play basketball in
Speaker 2: a new body. And then, of course social media took hold,
Speaker 2: caught flame hoops hype. Alex Kennedy reported within minutes of
Speaker 2: that free throw that trainer Drew Hanlin and Folts were
Speaker 2: current not on speaking terms, and we're no longer yeah
Speaker 2: working together. Handling then denied the report, which, let's be honest,
Speaker 2: was a lie. After the game, then Folts gave his
Speaker 2: own breakdown of what was happening. Hey, I mean the
Speaker 2: ball just lies slipped out of my hand, he said,
Speaker 2: the ball just slipped out of my hand. No, biggie,
Speaker 2: I just had to do what I had to do
Speaker 2: to regather the ball. And I'm not really worried about it.
Speaker 2: I work on my game. The ball just happened to slip,
Speaker 2: That's what happened. Yeah, it didn't. It didn't slip. It
Speaker 2: didn't look like it slipped. Because people were zooming in
Speaker 2: and rewinding and like keeping it everywhere in sight. You
Speaker 2: got to see every angle, and you know what sucks
Speaker 2: that every bit of your shot all of a sudden
Speaker 2: being critiqued, analyzed, and numerous conspiracy theories developed about how
Speaker 2: you went from this yes to that boo. That's what
Speaker 2: it was, is like, get this guy the fuck out here.
Speaker 2: The Sixers then, because they're a trash franchise. Truthfully, in
Speaker 2: many ways, that's the hedge in many ways, got tired
Speaker 2: of trying to fix them, and as a final gesture
Speaker 2: of surrender, they shipped them off to Orlando for my
Speaker 2: man Jonathan Simmons and a bag of chips. And the
Speaker 2: chips were probably the more valuable part of that trade.
Speaker 2: They were salt and vinegar. If you're wondering what kind
Speaker 2: of chips they traded Jonathan Simmons, Like Jonathan Simmons for
Speaker 2: the number one player in the draft at age twenty one,
Speaker 2: that's how old he was. They got rid of him
Speaker 2: in two years for a guy who's now in China
Speaker 2: playing for the Shang He looms, sir, sir, you made
Speaker 2: that trade, sir, And then two things happened since that
Speaker 2: trade that I personally find fascinating. First of all, as
Speaker 2: it turns out, Markel Foltz was not as broken as
Speaker 2: everyone on the earth thought he was. His first year
Speaker 2: in Orlando, double clutch free throw guy, same guy shot
Speaker 2: forty seven percent from the floor, averaging twelve three and
Speaker 2: five and twenty seven minutes. And at the start of
Speaker 2: last year, before he got his ACL tear, he led
Speaker 2: the Magic to a six and two start on thirteen
Speaker 2: three and five. Shot looked nice again. Then I mention,
Speaker 2: by the way, sir, he's only twenty three years old.
Speaker 2: Right now, he's old at this very second, I'm speaking
Speaker 2: about it. In twenty twenty two, he is twenty three
Speaker 2: years old. Is anyone else fascinated about how they discarded
Speaker 2: him so quickly, like a little piece of trash that
Speaker 2: you didn't spend anything on. You spent the number one
Speaker 2: pick on Marco Folts, and you just got rid of
Speaker 2: him for a guy that's on the shan he loongs,
Speaker 2: loongs Nobody. To me is a bigger symbol of the
Speaker 2: Sixers ineptitude than folks, and it has way less to
Speaker 2: do with him than it does about the Philly brass.
Speaker 2: They are terrible decision maker, so they moved up to
Speaker 2: get him, and they discarded him after thirty three games.
Speaker 2: He was twenty when they traded him, twenty. He couldn't
Speaker 2: even when they traded this guy, they made up their
Speaker 2: mind he's unfixable. And you know how the Sixers fan
Speaker 2: base be when they decide, When they decide to be patient,
Speaker 2: they're patient. They weren't even patient with Joe el Embiid.
Speaker 2: They're like, why isn't this fucking guy playing? Get this
Speaker 2: fucking guy out of here, Joe l Embiid, Come on now,
Speaker 2: an organization that has poor decision making quality to begin with,
Speaker 2: because it wasn't the right pick, like you should not
Speaker 2: have picked Markel Foltz. Do your own research. Don't just
Speaker 2: wait for Bleacher Report to tell you who the number
Speaker 2: one pick is. You know, sometimes I feel that that's
Speaker 2: what's happening these owners. These owners they're they're literally just
Speaker 2: hanging out drinking OJ with the kids and and they
Speaker 2: don't know shit, and they're hanging out with the kids,
Speaker 2: and the kids like, Daddy, are you gonna draft Markel Faults?
Speaker 2: And it's like who's that? And then they read bleach
Speaker 2: your poor and then they talk to their scouts and
Speaker 2: like the GM they're like, I want Faults and they're like, sir, MARKL. Folts,
Speaker 2: isn't the I want MARKL. Folts Because my son today
Speaker 2: on his oculus was telling me about Markel Fulton how
Speaker 2: good he is, and you don't even know, Like that's
Speaker 2: the process that we're talking about. So poor decision making,
Speaker 2: quality ownership that's probably involved way too much a bump
Speaker 2: or two in the road. You start to question your
Speaker 2: own scouting because it wasn't really your scouting. Maybe your
Speaker 2: training department isn't great because you've got injury after injury
Speaker 2: after injury, and that's how you end up with Jonathan
Speaker 2: Simmons who ends up on the Shanghy looms and a bag,
Speaker 2: a small bag of salt and vinegar chips, Jonathan Simmons
Speaker 2: put up sixteen points for the Shanghy Looms. You maybe
Speaker 2: you should should bring him back on a COVID hardship.
Speaker 2: Listen against the Gualong Tigers. What are we talking about here?
Speaker 2: Think about all of this mistakes. There's not just one,
Speaker 2: there's so many. Come on, come on, Jalio okafor you
Speaker 2: trade it away. Mical Bridges on draft night and his
Speaker 2: mom works for the Sixers. This man went to school
Speaker 2: at Villanova, is from Philly. You draft him and then
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes later you trade him back to Markel Fults.
Speaker 2: Apparently it wasn't that Falts's shot was even broken. It's
Speaker 2: that Falts his entire body was broken, as in, his
Speaker 2: shoulder was actually broken and they didn't see it. This
Speaker 2: is the kind of shit. I have things to say
Speaker 2: about CG. McCollum, but it'll come out another time. But
Speaker 2: just know that they didn't diagnose his lung until it
Speaker 2: was almost too late. These people, it's just tremendous the
Speaker 2: level of We're in an elite sport here and the
Speaker 2: things that are happening are not elite, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying? Like feeling the pressure of number one going
Speaker 2: number one. Mark kel Folts tried to play through a
Speaker 2: broken scapular a scapular muscle and balance is what they
Speaker 2: called it. This is what he said. You know, people
Speaker 2: just don't know my love for the game. Growing up
Speaker 2: in the area you grow I grew up in. You
Speaker 2: have bumps and bruises, and that's where it becomes a
Speaker 2: business taking care of your body and me being who
Speaker 2: I am, loving the game so much. I feel like
Speaker 2: although my shoulder was messed up, I can hit. My
Speaker 2: shoulder was messed up. I told no one. I told
Speaker 2: no one when they were clowning me. I didn't even say, hey,
Speaker 2: there's something going on on my shoulder. I'm playing through injury.
Speaker 2: That's the kind of baller he is. This is what
Speaker 2: he said. I felt like I can contribute to the
Speaker 2: game and help my team win. So I wanted to
Speaker 2: go out there and just compete and have fun with
Speaker 2: the game. Did you have fun, Mark hel Foltz, Was
Speaker 2: that fun for you? Also? It was my first year,
Speaker 2: and I think I did a poor job of communicating
Speaker 2: to my agent and to my family what I was feeling.
Speaker 2: And instead of just going out there and trying to
Speaker 2: compete without expressing what I was feeling, and all I
Speaker 2: was doing was making it worse. Hell yeah, you were
Speaker 2: literally every thought. Everybody thought you were just a bum?
Speaker 2: Now a bum? How long was this injury a problem,
Speaker 2: you might ask? Turns out pretty much the entire time
Speaker 2: he was in Philly, literally before he even arrived, actually started.
Speaker 2: My shoulder started hurting before training camp my rookie year.
Speaker 2: But I just thought it was for how much work
Speaker 2: I was putting in all those shots, me from shooting
Speaker 2: so much that my shoulder was just sore. Pause, excuse me?
Speaker 2: Where was the training staff in all of this? Sixers?
Speaker 2: They had to have known that something was wrong. You
Speaker 2: saw what his shot looked like. You're watching him like,
Speaker 2: mmm mm mmm, sim's not right here? Mm mmm. I
Speaker 2: can see when my co hosts haven't slept one last
Speaker 2: hour the night before. If Mark l faults my number
Speaker 2: one pick was in the gym and I'm watching, I'm like, hey,
Speaker 2: uh you good cause uh you're a little twist it
Speaker 2: up right now. But no, they tried to force him
Speaker 2: to change his shots in a way that put more
Speaker 2: pressure on his fucking shoulder. Are you kidding me? I've
Speaker 2: been waiting to do this segment for probably two months now.
Speaker 2: I'm incensed. Faults concluded. I tried to work through it.
Speaker 2: I'm in the gym shooting thousands of shots on a broken,
Speaker 2: broken shoulder. I'm trying to shoot through it, and the
Speaker 2: whole time I just made it worse. Is this not heartbreaking?
Speaker 2: But again, the mindset that I had, I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to grind. I'm trying to continue to work through these issues,
Speaker 2: not knowing I'm making it worse. Pause again, training staff,
Speaker 2: that's your job, not his job, to diagnose and put
Speaker 2: together a plan of Hey, don't shoot thousands of these shots.
Speaker 2: Maybe get yourself into a sling. Oh maybe just me again,
Speaker 2: I'm just young, being selfish. I guess I would call
Speaker 2: it in a sense not understanding my body. And I
Speaker 2: think that was a big part of it. And once again,
Speaker 2: once I communicated, yeah, Mark, I'll pause. You shouldn't have
Speaker 2: to say a word. You can see it in his
Speaker 2: broken fucking jumper, his body. You saw it. He looked,
Speaker 2: he looked, his shoulder was twisted. Turns out he had
Speaker 2: thorscic outlet syndrome. Another thing people don't know. Thoracic outlet
Speaker 2: syndrome is not diagnosed through an MRI or a cat skin.
Speaker 2: It's very hard to diagnose, and it's a big part
Speaker 2: of why in the beginning, he says, I kind of
Speaker 2: thought nothing was going on, and I just thought with
Speaker 2: my shoulder because when I got scans and MRIs, they
Speaker 2: didn't see anything. But I had to just keep going,
Speaker 2: had to just keep shooting. I went from shooting forty
Speaker 2: percent in college to coming into the NBA and now
Speaker 2: I don't know, becoming a meme, becoming a meme. The
Speaker 2: final really good news is that Folts is very close
Speaker 2: to returning from his left knee ACL injury, which is
Speaker 2: what we would call full circle, a moment for us
Speaker 2: to then watch them in his glory and make fun
Speaker 2: of the Sixers once again. Uh. Now that his shoulder
Speaker 2: is one hundred percent, he's feeling good and he's ready
Speaker 2: to get back out of the court. This is what
Speaker 2: he said. I took a big step in this summer.
Speaker 2: We were watching film, understanding the game. It's slowing down
Speaker 2: for me even more. And the latest news is that
Speaker 2: he should make his season debut sometime in January. This month,
Speaker 2: he was cleared to practice on December tenth. You're adding
Speaker 2: Folts to Cole Anthony and Jalen Suggs, all of them
Speaker 2: twenty three years you old or younger, Dinamic. You know
Speaker 2: who could use a dynamic young playmaker on their roster
Speaker 2: right now? My man. The Philadelphia seventy sixers could use one.
Speaker 2: The Boston Celtics, of course, could use one. But all
Speaker 2: of this to say that the dysfunction in Philly has
Speaker 2: been around for so long now, and it's time, baby, increase,
Speaker 2: increase my volume on this. This is me rubbing my
Speaker 2: hands together. Time to clean house. Spike Eskin of Ricky
Speaker 2: of the rights to Ricky Sanchez said on his pod
Speaker 2: that he thinks and bead might go. Before I pulled
Speaker 2: that trigger, I would make sure Daryl Moury and Doc
Speaker 2: God theirs that they got the click click boom. For
Speaker 2: those of you deep in the weeds, remember what Jimmy
Speaker 2: told Nucky on Borderwalk Empire HBO show. You can't be
Speaker 2: a half of a gangster, and you can't do a
Speaker 2: half of a rebuild. You're either all in or you're
Speaker 2: all out. There are no half measures in war, and
Speaker 2: there are no half measures in basketball, which is why
Speaker 2: my Portland Trailblazers will continue to suffer. And all of
Speaker 2: this means will the Philly fans have to trust the
Speaker 2: process all over again? We'll have to see the process
Speaker 2: started in twenty thirteen and being on life support the
Speaker 2: previous two years, sank to the bottom of the deep
Speaker 2: blue sea in Game seven of the Hawks last year
Speaker 2: when Ben Pott passed up and open dunk, choking on
Speaker 2: his meat. And guess what. The team is exactly where
Speaker 2: it was in twenty twelve when the process first began,
Speaker 2: a massively disappointing second round exit. All of that tanking,
Speaker 2: all those high draft picks, that money spent time is
Speaker 2: a flat circle, never getting beyond the second round. The process, folks,
Speaker 2: is dead. I have to say, long live though the
Speaker 2: sequel process Dua duo too and Dose Dua lipa Yes.
Speaker 2: Sequel begins in twenty twenty two, and the big question
Speaker 2: is who on the Sixers team will be around when
Speaker 2: it's over. I'm betting no one unless the entire culture
Speaker 2: change is implemented. Remember this team has really really bad culture.
Speaker 2: That's all the time that we have for the heat check.
Speaker 2: We'll be back Friday morning, early squirrely with a new episode.
Speaker 2: Do not forget to download, subscribe, Tell all your friends
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