Speaker 1: In a word, Ben simmons defense halfway through the regular
Speaker 1: season has been sensational. Simmons steals the inbound, goes in
Speaker 1: and puts it up and good Ben Simmons with back
Speaker 1: to back baskets. Yes, he's among the NBA leaders in
Speaker 1: several key statistical categories, but what he's been doing defensively
Speaker 1: he goes well beyond that. I think we don't give
Speaker 1: versatility like kind of Simmons has, maybe because it's so
Speaker 1: rare and we don't encounter it very often the credit
Speaker 1: it deserves, because I think it really does help an
Speaker 1: entire team become more cohesive when you have a player
Speaker 1: like that. The Ringers Rob Mahoney returns to talk about
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons and defense on this episode of the broadcast.
Speaker 1: How you do it out there, seventy six Ers pod people,
Speaker 1: Brian Seltzer, hope you are great, very much. Appreciate you
Speaker 1: coming back for another episode of the broadcast or giving
Speaker 1: it a listen for the first time. Rob Mahoney is
Speaker 1: back for another appearance. Can't wait to chat with him
Speaker 1: about a recent article he wrote about Ben Simmons being
Speaker 1: a hell of a defensive player. As it was put
Speaker 1: in the article's title that ran on The Ringer earlier
Speaker 1: this week, so we'll get into that in a moment.
Speaker 1: I want to remind you that to subscribe to the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can essentially go anywhere you get your pods search
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Speaker 1: to subscribe. Let's go back to mid September, before we
Speaker 1: started seeing evidence on a regular basis of Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: being one of the elite defenders in the entire NBA.
Speaker 1: It was a couple of weeks before training camps assembled,
Speaker 1: and in another life at another media outlet, The Ringers,
Speaker 1: Rob Mahoney released his annual NBA Top one hundred list.
Speaker 1: Rob had Ben Simmons number twenty three on that list,
Speaker 1: and one of the why Rob cited simmons defensive versatility.
Speaker 1: I'm Simmons to struggle back and intercept it. Don't ask
Speaker 1: me how he did it. Simmons directing traffic the law
Speaker 1: vobless two way, playing a boy, Ben Simmons. It is
Speaker 1: great to have Rob back on the broadcast. Rob, why
Speaker 1: don't we start here before the game has even began?
Speaker 1: Back in October this year? What did you expect to
Speaker 1: see from Ben Simmons defensively this season? Well, I think
Speaker 1: what we had seen in seasons past is just that
Speaker 1: ability for his team, you know, for you know, in
Speaker 1: top one hundred, we're talking about kind of a generic
Speaker 1: team context obviously in real life time about the Sixers,
Speaker 1: to move him all around the floor to help dictate matchups,
Speaker 1: help control things for his teammates. And it's such a
Speaker 1: valuable thing from a team building standpoint, because you know,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, you're you're protecting JJ Reddick in
Speaker 1: seasons past, or you know, maybe with this year's team,
Speaker 1: you're just trying to find tune your matchups to make
Speaker 1: sure you're getting Simmons on the perfect guy to really
Speaker 1: kind of smother them and use his physicality to your advantage.
Speaker 1: That really gives a lot of power to a coach.
Speaker 1: It helps you build lineups more effectively, it helps you
Speaker 1: maintain your bench even more effectively. And so you know,
Speaker 1: that's one area where I think we don't give versatility
Speaker 1: like the kinds like the kind of Simmons has, maybe
Speaker 1: because it's so rare and we don't encounter it very often,
Speaker 1: but we don't quite given the credit it deserves, because
Speaker 1: I think it really does help an entire team become
Speaker 1: more cohesive when you have a player like that. Your
Speaker 1: vantage point as you cover the NBA is an intriguing
Speaker 1: one because there's so many storylines that you have to
Speaker 1: follow for obviously all thirty teams in the league. Was
Speaker 1: there a matchup earlier on this season, a game, a play,
Speaker 1: a moment when you were watching the seventy six ers
Speaker 1: saw Hilo to Ben Simmons playing defensively, and you were like, hey,
Speaker 1: there's something happening here. There's I mean with him, it's
Speaker 1: almost just kind of an accumulation where you see him
Speaker 1: chasing over screens against so many of these smaller guards
Speaker 1: and doing and just doing an incredible job for a
Speaker 1: player his size. And that's one area where you know,
Speaker 1: especially if you watch the Warriors a lot over the
Speaker 1: last few years, or any of these teams that have
Speaker 1: really good off ball movers and then encourage opponents to switch.
Speaker 1: You know, watching a guy, you know, a big switched
Speaker 1: on Steph Currier, Clay Thompson try to chase them over
Speaker 1: a screen. It's impossible, Like biggs just are not prepared
Speaker 1: to do something like that, they don't have the practice
Speaker 1: doing it. And so that's what always stuck out to
Speaker 1: me with Simmons was this idea that the NBA is
Speaker 1: more you know, three point driven off ball screen driven.
Speaker 1: Uh and certainly you know, your ability to get over
Speaker 1: the screen as a defender, it's never been more valuable
Speaker 1: than it is now. And he's you know, a guard
Speaker 1: in the modern context who can do that. He just
Speaker 1: happens to be you know, six ten, and that's it's
Speaker 1: such a strange combination of size and skill in that way.
Speaker 1: And so I think that's what jumped out to me
Speaker 1: more than anything. And you know, we've seen it recently,
Speaker 1: particularly in the first half of that game against Dallas,
Speaker 1: when he was guarding Luca don Chiz and just hounding
Speaker 1: him over these screens. You know, guard you know, really
Speaker 1: taking away not only he's driving lanes, but you know
Speaker 1: the passing angles that you know, really getting directly in
Speaker 1: the way of whatever donche was trying to accomplish. I
Speaker 1: think that's what we've seen from Simmons time and time
Speaker 1: again over the course this year against some of the
Speaker 1: higher profile guards in the league. Speaking of high profile guard,
Speaker 1: Simmons certainly had to go up against a few of
Speaker 1: them in the postseason. Last year. In the opening round,
Speaker 1: he spent a lot of time on Daniel Russell, who
Speaker 1: was then with the Brooklyn Nets. Russell around on the
Speaker 1: screen again, bot down Undernead Bett. Simmons the defensively for Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and then of course in the second round he was
Speaker 1: the seventy Sixers primary man marking Kawhi land Runner one
Speaker 1: on one with Simmons. Leonard Pluck high Simmons on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and even for everything that Kawhi did, such a herculean
Speaker 1: effort he made, the seventy Sixers felt talking about Brett
Speaker 1: Brown and Elton Brand that Ben Simmons, for as much
Speaker 1: as he could, acquitted himself and made like difficult on Kawai.
Speaker 1: Simmons now is in rob his third year. Can you
Speaker 1: comp his progress to jump It seems like he's making
Speaker 1: defensively to anyone else that you've seen before. At this
Speaker 1: day of Ben's career, I don't think there are a
Speaker 1: lot of comps for him specifically just because, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, the the uniqueness of his skill set you
Speaker 1: really don't see, you know, in an everyday context even
Speaker 1: you know, I wouldn't even know who to compare him too.
Speaker 1: Do you compare him to other bigs, other you know,
Speaker 1: do you comparement his wings, other guards, just because he
Speaker 1: has a little bit of all of that. And it's
Speaker 1: you know, that ability to to guard Kawai, but also
Speaker 1: to guard James Harden and also to guard you know,
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam if you want him to. And so that
Speaker 1: combination I think is what's so tricky with him and
Speaker 1: puts him in such a unique space. I think developmentally speaking,
Speaker 1: a lot of players, you know, within their specific defensive lanes,
Speaker 1: you'll see things start to click for them, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe three or four or five years into the league.
Speaker 1: Ben I think was a really strong defender right out
Speaker 1: of the gate. That was you know, part of what
Speaker 1: kind of separated him, and that his Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year race to start was the fact that he was
Speaker 1: coming out, you know, into the league a pretty complete product,
Speaker 1: you know, jumper aside, you know, he was doing all
Speaker 1: these other things at such a high level, and that
Speaker 1: was really hard to argue with, you know, in the
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year race, and then when you look
Speaker 1: at how he's grown since then, I think he's learned
Speaker 1: to use as about his body and his strength even
Speaker 1: more effectively he was. He always had the instincts in
Speaker 1: terms of, you know, picking off passes that were just
Speaker 1: kind of hanging in the passing lanes a little too long.
Speaker 1: You know, really has a good sense of where the
Speaker 1: ball is going to be and how to position his body.
Speaker 1: But then it comes down to, you know, how do
Speaker 1: you how do you compete against some of the best
Speaker 1: athletes in the world, some of the biggest and strongest
Speaker 1: athletes in the world, and how do you how do
Speaker 1: you kind of maneuver yourself to take advantage of whatever
Speaker 1: you know, skills and advantages you have. And I think
Speaker 1: that's where we've seen him kind of grow over the
Speaker 1: course these last couple of years, is really using that
Speaker 1: length to its fullest extent. You mentioned rob guys like
Speaker 1: Luca don Chich and James Harden. Looking back over the
Speaker 1: last couple weeks, who Ben Simmons has had to go
Speaker 1: up against, but there's also been Bradley Beale, Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: at times, Pascal Siakam Jimmy Butler for the bulk of
Speaker 1: the seventy six or three games against the Miami Heat.
Speaker 1: So far that Ben has had to deal with any
Speaker 1: they're individual matchups that he's been featured in that have
Speaker 1: really intrigued you. I think it's mostly on that end
Speaker 1: of the spectrum where just given a player of you know,
Speaker 1: of his size and clearly of his talents, you would
Speaker 1: expect him to, you know, if you need him to
Speaker 1: guard a pick and roll big, he can do that
Speaker 1: for you. If you need him to, you know, step
Speaker 1: in and be a small ball center. And we started,
Speaker 1: you know, guarding in his cancer a little bit when
Speaker 1: they played the Celtics with Joel out. Then he can
Speaker 1: do that, like that's just something a player his size
Speaker 1: should be able to do. But the more miraculous thing
Speaker 1: are those matchups. It's, you know, it's guarding Bradley Beal.
Speaker 1: It's you know, a guy who covers more ground over
Speaker 1: the course of an NBA game than almost anybody else.
Speaker 1: And so it's those kinds of tireless assignments that I
Speaker 1: think maybe he doesn't even get enough credit for. Within
Speaker 1: this conversation where there's guarding elite guards, and then there's guarding,
Speaker 1: you know, really trying to check guards who are going
Speaker 1: to run you ragged over the course of a game.
Speaker 1: And Simmons is a guy who I think, you know, offensively,
Speaker 1: you could certainly critique his energy level. You know, you
Speaker 1: want to see it be more aggressive at times, you
Speaker 1: want to see him attack the basket more directly at times. Defensively,
Speaker 1: he kind of always brings it. And he's a guy
Speaker 1: who looks like he's flat footed a lot of the time.
Speaker 1: He looks like he might just be kind of chilling.
Speaker 1: But that's exactly at the moment when you know, the
Speaker 1: opponent tries to throw a pass out to reset the offense,
Speaker 1: and he just rips it and goes to the other
Speaker 1: side for a dunk. Nice defense on Rockmen, take it
Speaker 1: away by Simmons, who leads the NBA and steals all
Speaker 1: the way in and he slams for two what a half.
Speaker 1: There's always this conversation about there being perhaps a blueprint
Speaker 1: on how to defend Ben Simmons in terms of his
Speaker 1: offensive skill set. But what type of things do coaches
Speaker 1: and opposing players have to think about? Given all that
Speaker 1: Ben is able to do on the opposite end of
Speaker 1: the court with his defense. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 1: to reckon with for sure, And I think some of
Speaker 1: that speaks to the Sixers more broadly, where you could
Speaker 1: go into a game against Philadelphia when fully healthy and
Speaker 1: just not have a good sense of who is going
Speaker 1: to end up guarding your best player. I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of where where the Sixers have the greatest potential
Speaker 1: when you're looking at who they could be in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and you know, especially if you're looking down the line
Speaker 1: and you know, who are the teams that could best
Speaker 1: match up with the honest at a Dakumpo and the
Speaker 1: Bucks and some of these other, you know, really good
Speaker 1: teams in the Eastern Conference. Just the idea that, oh,
Speaker 1: we could put Simmons on a guy like Janis, or
Speaker 1: we could put Joel as we saw in the Christmas
Speaker 1: Day game, or we could put out Horford as we've
Speaker 1: seen periodically over the course of his recent career. Having
Speaker 1: that variability as really is, you know, it really adds
Speaker 1: a level of complexity to those matchups that makes them
Speaker 1: so much harder to predict for opponents, so much harder
Speaker 1: to game plan for, and that's not even getting into
Speaker 1: you know, whether they want to talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: Matis Stable or Josh Richardson, who are you know, really
Speaker 1: strong defenders in their own right guarding Maybe a slightly
Speaker 1: different variation of a player than Ben maybe on some nights,
Speaker 1: but all those pieces kind of interlocking. It is so
Speaker 1: hard to reckon with Simmons. The strip of ald Rage
Speaker 1: and other steel for bend first time open he slams
Speaker 1: for two. That was a year I haven't seen before
Speaker 1: in front of Matis style, able to split two defenders.
Speaker 1: But how about that handoff for Ben? A lot of
Speaker 1: what we've talked about so far with Ben has been
Speaker 1: kind of I guess holistic I test related stuff. When
Speaker 1: you review some of the numbers defensively that Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: has been putting up first in the league and steals third,
Speaker 1: deflections first, and loose balls recovered, those stand out too.
Speaker 1: What do you make of those stats? How do you
Speaker 1: reconcile them with what Ben's would do them? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think especially when you're talking about the kind of
Speaker 1: on ball recovering, you know, where there's steals and deflections
Speaker 1: things like that, I think that speaks more to a
Speaker 1: sense of timing than anything else, and his kind of
Speaker 1: understanding of the geometry of the floor. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you want to really break down basketball, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of kind of if then action. You know, if an
Speaker 1: offensive player drives in this particular way, where is he
Speaker 1: most likely going to kick out the ball? Who is
Speaker 1: he going to be looking for? What are the reads
Speaker 1: that are going to be available to him? And I
Speaker 1: think Simmons, again, at a very young age coming into
Speaker 1: the league, already had kind of an inherent sense of
Speaker 1: how those things work. And maybe there's an interplay there
Speaker 1: in terms of being a playmaker himself and kind of
Speaker 1: realizing what he would see on a potential d and
Speaker 1: what that means for the opponent, you know, the opposing
Speaker 1: point guard, and how he wants to play that in
Speaker 1: terms of, you know, where he might dig in to
Speaker 1: try to disrupt their dribble, how he might try to
Speaker 1: anticipate their passes and things like that. There's there's just
Speaker 1: a level of kind of basketball literacy with Ben that
Speaker 1: is really impressive on an III basis. And again, the
Speaker 1: conversation around him gets so much bigger when you start
Speaker 1: talking about his offense and his jump shot and all
Speaker 1: the things you know he can't do, which are really
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things, are pretty limited when
Speaker 1: really we're talking about a player with a pretty high
Speaker 1: basketball IQ. And I think that's what's what sings out
Speaker 1: of those stats most consistently for me at the moment.
Speaker 1: Of course, the seventy Sixers rob missing Joel Embid due
Speaker 1: to injury, How does that change what the team needs
Speaker 1: from Ben on defense? I mean it changes a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, and some of it, you know, if you
Speaker 1: really want to dig into the data around the Sixers
Speaker 1: in terms of, you know, which lineups are most effective defensively,
Speaker 1: which players have the best kinds of on off splits
Speaker 1: and things like that, a lot of it comes down
Speaker 1: to who's playing with Joel the most, because he's just
Speaker 1: a completely transformational defensive player, a guy who you know,
Speaker 1: you could stick on some of the best bigs in
Speaker 1: the league. But more importantly, it's just going to be
Speaker 1: such a such an asset and help. And you know,
Speaker 1: having Al Horford is a luxury there. I think we've
Speaker 1: seen over the course of this year that just just
Speaker 1: having him, you're seeing the drop off from Joel to
Speaker 1: you know, the second unit. Biggs has been much less
Speaker 1: severe has even swung the sixers way in some occasions,
Speaker 1: so that's nice. But I think, especially with without and
Speaker 1: Beat in the lineup, the rest of this team is
Speaker 1: still kind of figuring out what they are defensively as
Speaker 1: a team. There are a lot of really strong individual pieces,
Speaker 1: guys who either have been, you know, on excellent defensive
Speaker 1: teams and anchored excellent defensive teams in the past, or
Speaker 1: have shown kind of really strong individual defensive effort and talent.
Speaker 1: The question is how does all that fit together when
Speaker 1: you're taking out the you know, really the best and
Speaker 1: kind of the landmark defender at the bunch, And I
Speaker 1: think they're still kind of fine tuning that. Whether it's
Speaker 1: you know, how exactly how Al Horford is positioning himself
Speaker 1: defensively in kind of a drop coverage, whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: the angles that Ben is taking, you know, the the
Speaker 1: rotations particularly you know when you're talking about Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: or players like that. There's still a lot to work out,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what sort of seen kind of
Speaker 1: some of the unevenness and the sloppiness in some of
Speaker 1: these games. But I think the talent overall, the credibility,
Speaker 1: and the credentials there is kind of unimpeachable, and so
Speaker 1: it's really I think more of a matter of when
Speaker 1: the niff for the Sixers. But obviously there's the question of,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're getting Joel back into this lineup
Speaker 1: and whether they'll really have time to kind of form
Speaker 1: their own defensive identity without him. The seventy Sixers still
Speaker 1: have about half the season to go to fine tune
Speaker 1: some things, work on things. But going back to when
Speaker 1: they first got together, they've been talking about having championship aspirations.
Speaker 1: We know the seventy Sixers want to make a deep
Speaker 1: run in the playoffs. When it comes to Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: and the defense he's playing, how much do you see
Speaker 1: that translating from what he's been doing so far in
Speaker 1: the regular season to the playoffs when it matters the most.
Speaker 1: I don't see too much of a distinction in his case,
Speaker 1: and some of that is again because there's such a
Speaker 1: wide arrange of what he could offer you where you know,
Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of really great players
Speaker 1: in the league who you put them in a playoff
Speaker 1: setting and you ask them to guard an opposing superstar
Speaker 1: who might struggle just given the particulars of that superstar
Speaker 1: skill set. You know, maybe they do they attack in
Speaker 1: a specific way that this defender might be vulnerable too.
Speaker 1: Within that's not really as much of an issue because
Speaker 1: even if he does struggle in a particular matchup, you
Speaker 1: could move him to other ones in which he could
Speaker 1: still have a huge impact. And so I think with
Speaker 1: his game, it really is just a matter of moving
Speaker 1: the chess pieces around, which is exactly where you want
Speaker 1: to be in terms of planning a long term, in
Speaker 1: terms of looking forward to the postseason, I think he
Speaker 1: gives you a lot of variability. Ben was build all
Speaker 1: over the importsimilar he seemed like chess pie. The plays
Speaker 1: that he can make from an athletic stampoint, the plays
Speaker 1: that he makes from a physical stampoint is just elague.
Speaker 1: You know, you hear me sort of cheer lead the
Speaker 1: cause of him being on an NBA All Defensive team,
Speaker 1: And it's examples like that to me make it a
Speaker 1: no brainer. Rap From what you've been able to gather
Speaker 1: in terms of following the league and doing some reporting,
Speaker 1: what does the rest of the league say about Ben's defense?
Speaker 1: I feel like the media narrative has been pretty favorable
Speaker 1: and praiseworthy of his defensive impact this year. Are players
Speaker 1: coaches seeing similar things? I think they are, And you know,
Speaker 1: some of it again is within the broader tapestry of
Speaker 1: the Sixers in general not being a particularly fun team
Speaker 1: to play against. I think, you know, just their sheer
Speaker 1: size throws a lot of teams for a loop, and
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of know going into those games
Speaker 1: what you're going to be in for from that perspective,
Speaker 1: you know, just in terms of size and physicality. As
Speaker 1: far as Ben's defense specifically, you do hear some praise
Speaker 1: around the league. I think it's starting to get a
Speaker 1: little bit louder, but these reputations do take a little
Speaker 1: bit of time to catch up sometimes. So you know,
Speaker 1: if you ask people who are the best defensive guards
Speaker 1: in the league, I don't think Ben Simmons is going
Speaker 1: to be the first name out of their mouth, in
Speaker 1: part because they may not even think of him as
Speaker 1: a guard. So you know, you may jump to Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley first, so you may jump to you know, whoever.
Speaker 1: You know, if you want to think about some wings
Speaker 1: as guards, then that conversation gets broader. I think Ben,
Speaker 1: you know, given the players, you know, I think he's
Speaker 1: clearly a point guard functionally for their offense. I think
Speaker 1: he guards ends up guarding a lot of point guards defensively, because,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about, that ability to maneuver around screens,
Speaker 1: to stay in front of action, to keep involved makes
Speaker 1: him really well suited to do that. Whether you know,
Speaker 1: Josh Richardson or him or whoever ends up guarding a
Speaker 1: point guard in a given night is more of a
Speaker 1: coach's decision than anything else. So I think you know,
Speaker 1: when you when you really barrel down into that conversation
Speaker 1: about who are the best defensive guards in the league,
Speaker 1: Ben is at or you know, at or near the
Speaker 1: top of that list. Whether the player base in the
Speaker 1: league fully acknowledges that or not, just from perspective of positionality,
Speaker 1: I think it is a different question. Brett Brown has
Speaker 1: referred to Ben Simmons already in the conversation of all
Speaker 1: League defensive candidate, potential defensive Player of the Year candidate.
Speaker 1: Do you think he has a shot any of those
Speaker 1: lofty honors? I mean, I think he certainly looks like
Speaker 1: a first team defender to me, given what he's done
Speaker 1: so far, And you know, we're again, we're only halfway
Speaker 1: through the season. Things can change, whether because of injury,
Speaker 1: because of guys force into different roles, or sometimes players
Speaker 1: will just shine over the back half of the year.
Speaker 1: So there's definitely a race to be run. But in
Speaker 1: terms of what he gives you, I just see something
Speaker 1: completely different than any other guards skill set in the league,
Speaker 1: something so much more broad or so much more important.
Speaker 1: You know, point guard defense historically has been kind of
Speaker 1: a thorny conversation because, you know, as we kind of
Speaker 1: alluded to and talking about, Joel, Biggs can just have
Speaker 1: such a different impact in terms of the way they help.
Speaker 1: You know, it's really valuable to have a guy who
Speaker 1: can lock in on one opponent, who can be a
Speaker 1: stopper on the perimeter, who can get them out of
Speaker 1: their first move. That's an important thing to have. But
Speaker 1: when you look at kind of defensive data that's available,
Speaker 1: a lot of it points to the idea that having
Speaker 1: that high level secondary defender, the shot block or the
Speaker 1: rim protector, or the guy who's covering space like Draymond
Speaker 1: Green who can cover angle and things like that, that
Speaker 1: that's even more important. And I think Ben kind of
Speaker 1: bridges that divide in a way that no other guard does,
Speaker 1: where he's giving you some of the stopper potential that
Speaker 1: some of the best perimeter defenders in the league have,
Speaker 1: and also some of that rotation and help and just
Speaker 1: the ability that you know, even if he's guarding on
Speaker 1: the perimeter off the ball and you need someone to
Speaker 1: kind of help in against a pick and roll, that
Speaker 1: guy is, you know, a six ten player with great
Speaker 1: instincts who's going to time that pretty well for letting
Speaker 1: you go. Rob. We've talked exclusively about Ben Simmons any
Speaker 1: other seventy sixers impressions at the midway point of the season,
Speaker 1: Thoughts on how things could ultimately shake out as the
Speaker 1: year moves along. I mean, there's there's so many thoughts
Speaker 1: with this team, to be honest with you, It's been
Speaker 1: such a strange season for them overall, and you know,
Speaker 1: they feel so much like a team that is struggling
Speaker 1: to kind of define itself to you, to figure out
Speaker 1: not not what kind of team they want to be,
Speaker 1: but how they want to go about specific actions, how
Speaker 1: they want to manage and balance things between this line
Speaker 1: that I think, you know, especially going into the season
Speaker 1: for people in our profession is just dizzying to think
Speaker 1: about all the potential of having this much size and
Speaker 1: skill pulled together in one roster. The possibilities of that
Speaker 1: are really fascinating. I don't think we've seen them quite
Speaker 1: make good on that yet over any extended period of time.
Speaker 1: You see it for a quarter, you see it for
Speaker 1: a half, you see it for you know, maybe a
Speaker 1: particular statement game where they really get up for their opponent.
Speaker 1: The question with them is really can they sustain that?
Speaker 1: And because I think when you talk to the other teams,
Speaker 1: especially in the East, there's a lot of respect for
Speaker 1: what the Sixers could be, and so the question is
Speaker 1: whether whether Philly can make good on that at a
Speaker 1: level where they're playing championship level of basketball every game.
Speaker 1: It's a tough thing, you know, it's a tough thing
Speaker 1: to get up for mentally, it's a tough thing to
Speaker 1: sustain emotionally over the course of an eighty two game
Speaker 1: season and then some. But I don't think there's any
Speaker 1: question that the Sixers have the ability to do that.
Speaker 1: I think that's what puts them in such an interesting
Speaker 1: space going into the back half of the year. Always
Speaker 1: a great an even better conversation Rob Mahoney from The Ringer.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much man. Thanks. You can follow Rob on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Rob Mahoney if you're not yet doing so
Speaker 1: already certainly highly recommended you doing so. And a reminder
Speaker 1: that the morning after every seventy six Ers game this season,
Speaker 1: a fresh, brand new episode of our Rewind series appears
Speaker 1: in your feed. You can get some game highlights from
Speaker 1: the outstanding Tom McGuinness here, portions of Brett Brown's postgame
Speaker 1: press conference, and some additional commentary from myself and Tom
Speaker 1: about what we just saw. It's Rewind and it comes
Speaker 1: you away the morning after every seventy Sixers game from
Speaker 1: us here at the Sixers Podcast Network. That's all I got.
Speaker 1: Talked to you next time right here on the broadcast
Speaker 1: see it