Speaker 1: We know the seventy Sixers infused the roster without this summer,
Speaker 1: but how much I personally find the Sixers always to
Speaker 1: be a really fascinating team just by the nature of
Speaker 1: the personnel that they put on the floor. And you
Speaker 1: know this year especially so. Each of the Sixers five
Speaker 1: projected starters landed on the annual Sports Illustrated Top one
Speaker 1: hundred list, Top five or top six in rotation. They're
Speaker 1: really about a solid as via teams come. That is
Speaker 1: Rob Mahoney. He compiled all the rankings and he talks
Speaker 1: about them on this episode of the broadcast. Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: we are getting that much closer to the start of
Speaker 1: seeing and watching and observing some tangible basketball developments for
Speaker 1: two nineteen two twenty with the Philadelphia seventy Sixers. How
Speaker 1: you doing out there, seventy six Ers pod people, I'm
Speaker 1: Brian Seltzer. Yes, the start of training camp on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: October first is less than a week away. Cannot wait.
Speaker 1: Media Days on Monday, and then things get rolling. In
Speaker 1: recent days and weeks, lots of media outlets out there
Speaker 1: have been pushing out and publishing their lists of player
Speaker 1: rankings for the season ahead and in the opinion of yours. Truly,
Speaker 1: there's none better than the one compiled by Rob Mahoney,
Speaker 1: our man from Sports Illustrated. It's a yearly thing that
Speaker 1: he and I have done going back a few seasons now,
Speaker 1: talking about the SI Top one hundred and the seventy
Speaker 1: sixers who appear on that list this year. For twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty Josh Richardson, Tobias Harris, Ben Simmons, Al Horford,
Speaker 1: and Joel Embiid, all of whom could very likely be
Speaker 1: the starting five for the seventy sixers, made it to
Speaker 1: the list, and we're going to dissect the rankings and
Speaker 1: what went into them with Rob in a moment. First,
Speaker 1: a reminder that to subscribe to the podcast, you can
Speaker 1: go to just about any one of your favorite podcasting platforms.
Speaker 1: Type in Sixers podcast Network. You will then find our feed, subscribe, follow,
Speaker 1: do whatever you gotta do. In the offseason, we've had
Speaker 1: a new episode about once every week to ten days.
Speaker 1: Once training camp starts, we're gonna be hitting you weekly
Speaker 1: at the latest with new, fresh episodes of the podcast,
Speaker 1: so do not miss out. Rob Mahoney, he's our guy
Speaker 1: from Sports Illustrated and for the first time. Ever, he
Speaker 1: did single handedly the SI Top one hundred. We talk
Speaker 1: about it right now, Rob mahoney. We have established over
Speaker 1: time that the SI Top one hundred is a very
Speaker 1: comprehensive and lengthy exercise. But do you ever get to
Speaker 1: a point where you're sick of talking about it or
Speaker 1: hearing about it, discussing it, debating it. There are certainly
Speaker 1: times in the process of making it or I'm a
Speaker 1: little tired of thinking about it. I mean, you go
Speaker 1: back and forth with the same players over and over.
Speaker 1: There's kind of only so much deliberation you can do
Speaker 1: before your mind threatens to kind of ooze out your ears.
Speaker 1: So but I've had some time to recover from that.
Speaker 1: I'm fully prepared and ready to talk about it as
Speaker 1: much as you'd like. Because Goliver bailed on you this year,
Speaker 1: did you have to talk to yourself more like who
Speaker 1: did you have the internal debates with when you're trying
Speaker 1: to sort the list down? Yeah? Yeah, without without Ben
Speaker 1: this year, the entire ranking process, in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: kind of final cut as it were, was on my shoulders.
Speaker 1: So it was a lot more arguing with myself and
Speaker 1: then still stink feedback from the rest of our staff
Speaker 1: at Sports Illustrated too. They were really great in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, checking biases, checking perceptions, bringing information on the
Speaker 1: table that you know, when you're thinking about this volume
Speaker 1: of players, there's inevitably some piece of information that slips
Speaker 1: through the cracks, and so making sure we're being as
Speaker 1: honest and consistent as possible in this ranking. It really
Speaker 1: really wouldn't have been possible without them as well. How
Speaker 1: often would you get to point the list where you
Speaker 1: were surprised with where a player ended up or did
Speaker 1: you have a pretty general idea going into it of
Speaker 1: who would fall on what type of range. I think
Speaker 1: it depends on the ranges. I mean, I think the
Speaker 1: top ten was more or less kind of what I
Speaker 1: thought it would be, and then things started getting a
Speaker 1: little strange from maybe fifteen to thirty or so, because
Speaker 1: I think this is a year in which a lot
Speaker 1: of the players who have been kind of established commodities
Speaker 1: in that range are starting to age out, or they're
Speaker 1: starting to get more injured or transitioned in a different
Speaker 1: stage of their career, and so there's a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's younger guys, whether it's players who
Speaker 1: have you know, noticeable holes in their game or something
Speaker 1: to prove. Guys are kind of jumping into that grouping,
Speaker 1: and so I think that Eric had a little a
Speaker 1: little more unpredictable than maybe in previous years. And of
Speaker 1: course later in the ranking too, there's there's obviously some
Speaker 1: spots where you know, whether it's kind of classic top
Speaker 1: one hundred favorites end up further down the list than
Speaker 1: you may think, or some new players who are kind
Speaker 1: of jumping into the list for the first time end
Speaker 1: up higher on the list than you might expect. This
Speaker 1: has become a most looked forward to a preseason right
Speaker 1: of passage the last couple of years for us here
Speaker 1: at the podcast in seventy six ers Land. But as
Speaker 1: a refresher, if there's anyone new out there listening who
Speaker 1: has not heard our conversations the past couple of years,
Speaker 1: could you give us a refresher the rundown of how
Speaker 1: you formulate your rankings and things you look at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, I mean, so we're looking at solely the
Speaker 1: upcoming season, who are going to be the most valuable
Speaker 1: players within that parameter only, and within that we're trying
Speaker 1: to look at players in a vacuum, So we don't
Speaker 1: want to hold it against somebody if they play for
Speaker 1: a bad team. We don't want to boost somebody just
Speaker 1: because they play for a playoff team or a championship
Speaker 1: caliber team. We're looking at conceptually, what does it mean
Speaker 1: to have LaMarcus Aldridge or Jimmy Butler or Lebron James
Speaker 1: on your team? What does that do for you from
Speaker 1: a team building standpoint? What does that open up for
Speaker 1: your team? What does it take away? And so we're
Speaker 1: trying to account for health. You know, if a player
Speaker 1: has an established injury, we're trying to account for the
Speaker 1: fact that they're going to miss a month or two
Speaker 1: months or six months of the season, if they have
Speaker 1: an injury history, we're trying to kind of hedge in
Speaker 1: that regard. And also if they're a younger player or
Speaker 1: an older player, we're trying to kind of project a
Speaker 1: little bit in terms of where they might be by
Speaker 1: the end of the season. So we're looking at the
Speaker 1: regular season, the playoffs both combined in terms of what
Speaker 1: could a player give you over the course of the
Speaker 1: upcoming year. Unfortunately, you could fill a portion of an
Speaker 1: all star roster with some guys who would probably project
Speaker 1: with him the top fifteen to the top ten. Was
Speaker 1: this year more than previous ones more tricky with the
Speaker 1: impact of injuries in creating the list. I think that's
Speaker 1: always the hardest part of our list. And oh, I
Speaker 1: should have clarified as well. We don't include any rookies
Speaker 1: in our ranking as well, so you know, Zion Williams
Speaker 1: and not in the top one hundred, even though you
Speaker 1: may think of him as a top one hundred player.
Speaker 1: But as far as the injury piece goes, I mean
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is the hardest one because he's expected to
Speaker 1: miss the entirety of the season with his achilles injury.
Speaker 1: And I think I was, you know, kind of in
Speaker 1: the mind for him going into this before his injury.
Speaker 1: You know, over the course of the season, I'm constantly
Speaker 1: making notes about where guys might be adjusted or you know,
Speaker 1: how to consider some guys in the ranking, and all
Speaker 1: of my notes pointed to Kevin duran being the number
Speaker 1: one player in the league this season. And so for
Speaker 1: him to be out not only is obviously that devastating
Speaker 1: for him personally, and it's something he's gonna have to
Speaker 1: work through and get back, you know, into playing shape
Speaker 1: and playing form, and I'm eager to see him do that,
Speaker 1: but particularly tough given that, you know, Lebron James has
Speaker 1: had such a stranglehold on the top spot in our
Speaker 1: ranking for so long, and this really was Katie's first
Speaker 1: best shot at taking that away. The seventy Sixers were
Speaker 1: in pretty rare company in having five players within the
Speaker 1: top seventy five of the list. You can correct me
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong. I think only one other team had
Speaker 1: five guys inside the top seventy five. I tried to
Speaker 1: audit that as best I could, but before we zero
Speaker 1: in on the five particular players who cracked that portion
Speaker 1: of the list, what are your general thoughts, Robin, where
Speaker 1: the seventy Sixers are as they head into a season
Speaker 1: with lots of expectations amidst the change landscape, especially in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference. I mean, I personally find the Sixers
Speaker 1: always to be a really fascinating team just by the
Speaker 1: nature of the personnel that they put on the floor.
Speaker 1: And you know, this year, especially so with the you
Speaker 1: know edition about Horford, with you know, all the trades
Speaker 1: they made over the course of the last year, and
Speaker 1: you know, losing Jimmy Butler now, but giving to Bias
Speaker 1: a chance to really settle in and find his legs
Speaker 1: with the organization. What his new role is going to
Speaker 1: be in terms of, you know, where their talent matches
Speaker 1: up with the league. I think we see something kind
Speaker 1: of consistent with the sixers teams passed in the sense
Speaker 1: that the top five itself is going to be very strong.
Speaker 1: The questions are going to be, you know, moving into
Speaker 1: the bench, moving deeper into the rotation, are they going
Speaker 1: to be able to get enough from those guys, because
Speaker 1: I think, you know, top five or top six in
Speaker 1: the rotation, they're really about as solid as VA teams come.
Speaker 1: I'm going to bounce around a little bit and not
Speaker 1: go totally in sequential numerical order, either ascending or descending,
Speaker 1: but I will start with the highest rated seventy sixer
Speaker 1: on your list, Joel Embid number seven. He was number
Speaker 1: nine this time last year. When you're a top ten
Speaker 1: player on the top of one hundred, what does that
Speaker 1: generally say about you, especially given as you explained a
Speaker 1: few minutes ago, how you do the rankings looking at
Speaker 1: players within a vacuum and somewhat within isolation. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it depends on where you want to mark
Speaker 1: kind of the tiers of the league in terms of
Speaker 1: who is really in that elite class of player. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, Joel's maybe just outside of it. When you're
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, really the cream of the crowd
Speaker 1: being that top maybe five or so from Jannis and
Speaker 1: Kauai and Lebron, Steph Curry and James Harden. Those guys
Speaker 1: are really in kind of a class by themselves, and
Speaker 1: that next group maybe six to ten, six to eleven
Speaker 1: or twelve, depending on how you want to define it.
Speaker 1: Those are the players who you know, may have a
Speaker 1: case to move up in the right circumstances, may be
Speaker 1: able to, you know, in Joel's case, to develop, you know,
Speaker 1: whether it's his game or you know, getting an even
Speaker 1: better condition, showing that he can stay healthy for you know,
Speaker 1: even longer stretches of time. So we can kind of
Speaker 1: put some of that stuff to rest, have a case
Speaker 1: to move up into that group and are really kind
Speaker 1: of knocking on the door of it. And so I
Speaker 1: think that's a really exciting place to be. I think
Speaker 1: by being in the top ten, you're kind of saying
Speaker 1: about a player this could be you know, the best
Speaker 1: player on a championship level team or at least a
Speaker 1: high level contending team, and that's, you know, exactly where
Speaker 1: the Sixers want to be. Obviously, taking a look at
Speaker 1: his three seasons worth of work in the NBA, where
Speaker 1: would you say at this point Joel is impacting the
Speaker 1: game the most when he's on the floor. It's a
Speaker 1: it's a tough question, just because you know, with him,
Speaker 1: even more so than other players in the top ten,
Speaker 1: you're talking about a guy who could be the defensive
Speaker 1: player of the year on pretty much an annual basis,
Speaker 1: and also just has the capacity to absorb so much
Speaker 1: offensive attention. I think his offense as a whole could
Speaker 1: use even a little bit more improvement if he could
Speaker 1: stand to be a little bit more efficient. The jumper
Speaker 1: is obviously still a work in progress, and shot selection
Speaker 1: kind of tied into that in terms of when to
Speaker 1: take those threes, when to take the long face up twos.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously he's still kind of trying to curtail
Speaker 1: his turnovers, which, as I noted in writing about him,
Speaker 1: is really kind of a product of his ambition. You know,
Speaker 1: Joel is a guy who will try all kinds of
Speaker 1: moves that makes him such an exciting player to watch
Speaker 1: and such a difficult one to defend. But in some cases,
Speaker 1: you know, he lets his foot work get away from him,
Speaker 1: or he picks up, you know, his pivot and commits
Speaker 1: to a move before it's really there. So if he
Speaker 1: can bring down on those turnovers and some of those
Speaker 1: aspects of this game, clean up a couple of the mistakes,
Speaker 1: we're talking about what could be one of the most
Speaker 1: impactful offensive players in the game, just because not only
Speaker 1: is he incredibly productive as a score as we saw
Speaker 1: last season, but he's a guy who just demands a
Speaker 1: lot of your attention. From a game planning perspective, if
Speaker 1: Joel is on the floor, he all but demands a
Speaker 1: certain level of big in order to come back him,
Speaker 1: a certain level of strength and size that opponents have
Speaker 1: to commit to, which takes them further and further away from,
Speaker 1: you know, if they want to play small ball, if
Speaker 1: they want to play whatever their best lineups are, now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they have to tweak their rotation
Speaker 1: to deal with him specifically. And so I think he's
Speaker 1: a very difficult guy to stay in terms of which
Speaker 1: side is you know, his bigger asset at this point,
Speaker 1: the bigger, bigger contribution to the game, just because he
Speaker 1: does have that that incredible balance. Thinking back to this
Speaker 1: time last year, I think my excitement for the seventy
Speaker 1: six or season was based upon that. The previous year.
Speaker 1: Talking about twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, they finally broke through.
Speaker 1: They got to the playoffs, made a great run of
Speaker 1: the second round. They were limited by the Celtics. They
Speaker 1: took a lot of the same core going into eighteen nineteen.
Speaker 1: They reached the seventh game of the second round. Obviously
Speaker 1: they lost the Raptors. But this year the team's going
Speaker 1: to look different. There's more veterans on the bench. Obviously
Speaker 1: the projected starting five could look different. And that's where
Speaker 1: I want to move to the next guy who I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bring up with you, Al Horford, who is number
Speaker 1: eighteen on your list this year, expected to see a
Speaker 1: lot of time alongside Joel Embiid. Al Horford at this
Speaker 1: stage of his career, where do you see him at?
Speaker 1: I think he's still a pretty incredible player. And some
Speaker 1: of it, you know, in making the top one hundred,
Speaker 1: we're looking at, as I mentioned, kind of the flexibility
Speaker 1: and the malleability of these particular talents. And so in Horford,
Speaker 1: you have not only one of the best centers in
Speaker 1: the league, but a center who you can now transpose
Speaker 1: to the sixers and him be one of the best
Speaker 1: power forwards in the league. And then you move into
Speaker 1: that backup center spot, you know, conceivably behind Joel and
Speaker 1: really help stop that gap there, which is always a
Speaker 1: problem when you're talking about how do you replace the
Speaker 1: minutes when you're superstar isn't on the floor. Horford, I think,
Speaker 1: is a guy who he makes your defense kind of
Speaker 1: holistically better, great communicator, great in rotation, really preemptive, and
Speaker 1: you know, for the Philadelphia in particular, a team that
Speaker 1: already defends at a really high level already has so
Speaker 1: many varied, inversatile pieces to move around the board to
Speaker 1: help control matchups. I think Horford is just an incredible
Speaker 1: piece to have in that equation. And so you have that,
Speaker 1: and then as well, you have a great playmaking big,
Speaker 1: a guy who can stretch the floor but also who
Speaker 1: can take some bigs off the dribble, as we've seen
Speaker 1: him do against Joel for example, in previous playoffs. So
Speaker 1: you know, Horford is a guy who I think is
Speaker 1: tricky for fans who are looking for a very particular
Speaker 1: kind of dominance. If you're looking for a guy who's
Speaker 1: going to you know, powerpost like Joel does, who's going
Speaker 1: to fill up the box score like some other bigs do,
Speaker 1: who's going to be just demonstratively dominant on every possession,
Speaker 1: he's not that guy. But he's the kind of player
Speaker 1: who when you watch him as a member of your
Speaker 1: team over the course of a season, you start to
Speaker 1: notice and all these little accumulations of these things he's
Speaker 1: contributing to the game, not to mention the fact that
Speaker 1: he's just a beloved teammate around the league, a guy
Speaker 1: that you know, players respect and listened to a lot,
Speaker 1: which I think, as we talked about for the Sixers,
Speaker 1: could go a long way as well. How curious are
Speaker 1: you to see how Horford and Joel are used on
Speaker 1: the defense end of the floor. We saw times last
Speaker 1: year in the postseason. Think of when Joel covered Pascal Siakam,
Speaker 1: he was more up against a four. Obviously, Al Horford
Speaker 1: can take on both positions as well. What do you
Speaker 1: envision happening there is as far as how they split
Speaker 1: reps between those two spots. I think it's really fun
Speaker 1: because when you're talking about playoff matchups in particular, you know,
Speaker 1: you're really getting into the micro level detail of an opponent,
Speaker 1: is you know, singling out almost a very specific kind
Speaker 1: of pick and roll matchup for example, to attack, you know,
Speaker 1: whether they want to go at Joel or away from
Speaker 1: Joel or whatever it is. And so having you know,
Speaker 1: two bigs who are really you know, all League caliper defenders,
Speaker 1: it really leaves you no quarter, you know, as an
Speaker 1: opponent in terms of who you're going to go at,
Speaker 1: who you're going to engage, which then forces you into
Speaker 1: all kinds of other action. Then you're really kind of
Speaker 1: dwelling on the perimeter a little bit more. You're getting
Speaker 1: out of your comfort zone as a team when you
Speaker 1: take away you know, even basic pick and roll stuff.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I like that flexibility in terms
Speaker 1: of if you have a guy like Siakam or you know,
Speaker 1: someone who really is oriented towards attacking the basket, then
Speaker 1: you could put Joel in front of them and really
Speaker 1: use his link to that kind of great advantage. And
Speaker 1: if you're looking to defend in space as the Sixers.
Speaker 1: Now you have Forford, who really does that about as
Speaker 1: well as anyone in the league in terms of reading
Speaker 1: those situations and understanding kind of where to take the step,
Speaker 1: how to cut off the angle, all these things that
Speaker 1: kind of go into the microprocessing of managing a possession
Speaker 1: at the NBA level, and so there really aren't many
Speaker 1: teams that have that flexibility. I'm sure there will be
Speaker 1: tradeoffs to playing as big as the Sixers do, but defensively,
Speaker 1: in terms of managing those kinds of matchups and those
Speaker 1: kinds of situations, I think they're in a really unique
Speaker 1: and powerful position. Were you surprised that he signed with
Speaker 1: the Sixers? Very just because I didn't know. You know,
Speaker 1: with al there's always the question of do you want
Speaker 1: to be playing center? You know? And how much is
Speaker 1: that important to him? Because in some ways I think
Speaker 1: it is probably his best position, just because you can
Speaker 1: leverage the unique things that he does more effectively. There
Speaker 1: but the idea that, for one, I didn't know how
Speaker 1: the Sixers were going to make the math work. There's
Speaker 1: already the question of you know, Jimmy and Tobias, you know,
Speaker 1: what are they going to offer these guys? Are they
Speaker 1: going to be able to bring them both back then
Speaker 1: obviously with the situation with Jimmy and moving on from
Speaker 1: that and being able to flip effectively him into both
Speaker 1: al and also bringing in Josh Richardson as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a very delicate line to walk from a salary
Speaker 1: cap standpoint that I honestly just didn't know that they
Speaker 1: had the room for. I was in the camp that
Speaker 1: figured that, you know, Horford would end up kind of
Speaker 1: resigning with the Celtics, maybe just on a one year
Speaker 1: deal or opting in for you know, for his contract,
Speaker 1: but I kind of figured he would end up staying there.
Speaker 1: So to see him in Philadelphia is a nice surprise,
Speaker 1: just from the perspective of seeing new and fun things
Speaker 1: in the league. A domino that definitely dropped in terms
Speaker 1: of that whole equation was Jimmy Butler ending up with
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat Josh Richardson coming to the seventy sixers
Speaker 1: in the sign and trade. He was number seventy one
Speaker 1: going into last season, on the top one hundred, number
Speaker 1: seventy one again this year. Defensively, he's got a lot
Speaker 1: of things to be excited about. Offensively, it seems like
Speaker 1: he can do a couple different things, play at two
Speaker 1: different spots. So versatility is that one of the more
Speaker 1: prominent themes that stands out to you, Robin when talking
Speaker 1: about Josh Richardson. I think so. And that's really a
Speaker 1: credit to the work he and the Miami Heats developmental
Speaker 1: staff have done over the last two years in particular
Speaker 1: where they really needed a lot of ball handling help.
Speaker 1: And so part of that experiment was, you know, with
Speaker 1: both him and Justice Winslow, kind of stretching out how
Speaker 1: much those guys can contribute from a ball handling and
Speaker 1: creative perspective. And so we saw, you know, Josh Richardson
Speaker 1: do a lot more coming off of curls into a
Speaker 1: pick and roll kind of similar actions in a way
Speaker 1: to I think what Sixers fans would be familiar with
Speaker 1: what JJ Redick has done and some of the same implementations.
Speaker 1: He's not the same shooter, but he's a guy who
Speaker 1: maybe is even more comfortable in terms of putting the
Speaker 1: ball on the floor and making that next move, whether
Speaker 1: it's a pass to the corner, whether it's pulling up
Speaker 1: for a mid range jumper, whether it's going all the
Speaker 1: way to the basket. I think he has a little
Speaker 1: bit more flexibility to that part of his game. So
Speaker 1: when you're talking about his offense, obviously he's going to
Speaker 1: be a spot up option in certain scenarios. You know,
Speaker 1: you have a postal player like Joel Empide, you want
Speaker 1: to make sure that the floor is spread. But with
Speaker 1: Josh Richardson, I think he gives you some variability in
Speaker 1: terms of how possessions unfold from beginning to end, a
Speaker 1: little bit more unpredictability in kind of navigating a defense
Speaker 1: and what they're throwing at you. And then defensively, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, I think it's just a great pressure defender
Speaker 1: can really get up and into people in a way
Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense, combining with kind of
Speaker 1: the catch all defensive guys like Embid and Horford. Where
Speaker 1: do you see his ceiling being at. I don't know
Speaker 1: that he has a big step left to take. I
Speaker 1: think he's kind of where in the general range of
Speaker 1: where he's going to be, just because unless there's some
Speaker 1: just dramatic change in terms of the burst off the
Speaker 1: first step or his jumper, those are kind of the
Speaker 1: two areas where you would you would look for him
Speaker 1: to improve because He's already a guy who is kind
Speaker 1: of maxing out from an effort standpoint, He's really dialed
Speaker 1: into every possession he's on the floor. He's already a
Speaker 1: very good defensive player. You know, a guy that I've
Speaker 1: voted for All NBA Second Team in the past, and
Speaker 1: it is kind of in that group with all those
Speaker 1: great perimeter defenders. And so then it's question of where
Speaker 1: does this guy take a step And it's kind of
Speaker 1: the hardest area in a sense in terms of being
Speaker 1: more efficient as a creator, being more efficient while putting
Speaker 1: up more volume. You know, that's a big hurdle to
Speaker 1: jump as a wing guy in the NBA, And it
Speaker 1: really is what separates guys like Josh Richardson from that
Speaker 1: next class of player, whether you know, maybe a class
Speaker 1: where you might consider to bias to be in that
Speaker 1: group or even higher in terms of guys who can
Speaker 1: really create a bit more for themselves without a lot
Speaker 1: of help. Where Josh, I think, is kind of been
Speaker 1: a range where he needs a little bit more screening action,
Speaker 1: a little bit more offball stuff, just to free him
Speaker 1: up a little bit more because off the dribble, he's
Speaker 1: not necessarily you know, he doesn't have the most shake
Speaker 1: to his game, I'll put it that way. So along
Speaker 1: those lines, is it simply plug him into the system
Speaker 1: the seventy Sixers had been running the last two years
Speaker 1: since they got the full compliment of their core and
Speaker 1: started to go on these postseason runs, or do you
Speaker 1: envisioned things being tweaked a little bit? Perhaps? I think
Speaker 1: they'll have to be tweaked, just because the threat of
Speaker 1: Josh Richardson's shot is not the same as the threat
Speaker 1: of JJ Reddick shot. And you know, those handoffs between
Speaker 1: him and Ebide, for example, were just such an important
Speaker 1: part of what the Sixers were running pretty much all
Speaker 1: the time. So when you have the calculus of that changed,
Speaker 1: and then of course you're bringing in a very new
Speaker 1: and different piece and a guy like Horford, I think
Speaker 1: it not only kind of opens up the playbook in
Speaker 1: a sense because you have another playmaking big on the
Speaker 1: floor or another connector who can get you kind of
Speaker 1: from one side to the other, from one action to
Speaker 1: the next, but you're also gonna have to deal with
Speaker 1: some of the things you're giving up, whether that's JJ shooting,
Speaker 1: whether that's what Jimmy was giving you, you know, as
Speaker 1: an isolation and as a pick role player, there are
Speaker 1: some things to offset here, and so I think the
Speaker 1: Sixers are you know, they're They're always kind of one
Speaker 1: of the more unique offenses in the league in terms
Speaker 1: of how they run, and I think they're in a
Speaker 1: position to kind of take some some even more some
Speaker 1: some even more unique steps in different steps going forward,
Speaker 1: just in terms of no no team has personnel like this,
Speaker 1: and that, you know, really opens up the door for
Speaker 1: a lot of creativity, for a lot of ingenuity on
Speaker 1: the part of Brett Brown and his staff, which is
Speaker 1: a big part of the reason why I'm eager to
Speaker 1: see how this works. That segues nicely into the themes
Speaker 1: surrounding Tobias Harris for this year, who before even getting
Speaker 1: into his role with the Sixers this season, and how
Speaker 1: it might be different from what we saw last year.
Speaker 1: For a guy to jump, I'm gonna do quick math
Speaker 1: because I'm terrible at It's sixteen spots on your list.
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris was sixty five going into last year and
Speaker 1: he's now number forty nine going into this season. Is
Speaker 1: that a pretty substantial jump. It's definitely a substantial jump,
Speaker 1: and I think you could even argue within that jump
Speaker 1: that you know, with the sorts in particular, I think
Speaker 1: Tobias was asked to give up a lot of what
Speaker 1: he does well, especially in terms of running kind of
Speaker 1: both sides of the pick and roll game. Really great
Speaker 1: complete pick and roll player, whether he's initiating and or screening.
Speaker 1: And the Sixers just don't run a lot of pick
Speaker 1: and roll in a traditional sense, and so Tobias was
Speaker 1: so often kind of a guy on the week side
Speaker 1: of the floor, balancing things. He was involved in different capacities.
Speaker 1: But I think certainly a player who could do more
Speaker 1: in a post Jimmy Butler era, and as you know,
Speaker 1: the Sixers look to get even more, to get even
Speaker 1: weirder in a sense of the stuff that they're willing
Speaker 1: to run. I think he could be the beneficiary of
Speaker 1: that a lot. But just you know, top to bottom,
Speaker 1: even with all of that understood, just a very impressive
Speaker 1: season from Tobias in terms of his three point shooting,
Speaker 1: you know, his complete scoring game, and also kind of
Speaker 1: finding his way a little bit as a team defender.
Speaker 1: I think he still has some room to grow in
Speaker 1: that regard and settle in to really be a you know,
Speaker 1: an even more solid team guy on that side of
Speaker 1: the ball. But I think he has a chance to
Speaker 1: be to be pretty reliable from what you've observed, from
Speaker 1: you've heard from other people. What do you things allowed
Speaker 1: him to continue to develop his game, It seems like
Speaker 1: in a pretty linear fashion over the course of his
Speaker 1: career in the league. I think some of it is
Speaker 1: just that he's been given such different opportunities even from
Speaker 1: year to year. He's been on a lot of, you know,
Speaker 1: very differently shaped teams and of course bouncing around through
Speaker 1: a lot of different franchises, and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: it's curious kind of the way that no team has
Speaker 1: really been able to commit to him until now in
Speaker 1: terms of your guy we really want to feature within
Speaker 1: our team that we want to build around, that we
Speaker 1: want to cultivate even more. But that has put a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on him to really take steps every year.
Speaker 1: There's never really been a position where he could be comfortable.
Speaker 1: And so some guys, I think, whither in that kind
Speaker 1: of environment and they fall out of the league or
Speaker 1: they followed the rotation, and Tobias has really kind of
Speaker 1: taken the opposite tact where I think it's encouraged him
Speaker 1: to add little things to his game, to you to
Speaker 1: tweak his game even a little bit. Not to mention
Speaker 1: the fact that I think that you know, the the
Speaker 1: you know, the tenor of the modern game suits him
Speaker 1: very well in terms of of a big who can
Speaker 1: put the ball on the floor, or wing however you
Speaker 1: want to classify him, but a bigger wing certainly put
Speaker 1: the ball on the floor, create for himself a little bit,
Speaker 1: makes them plays, has a nice kind of in between
Speaker 1: game that can work through the seams of a defense.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of exactly what teams need right now,
Speaker 1: because you know, India defenses, professional defenses are so sophisticated.
Speaker 1: You really need guys who can kind of find their way,
Speaker 1: and Tobias is so good at that and really has
Speaker 1: developed that part of his game in particular, you know,
Speaker 1: since leaving you know, the Orlando Magic or so over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. We'll wrap things up with
Speaker 1: number twenty three on the list. Up three spots from
Speaker 1: this time of year ago. That would be Ben Simmons.
Speaker 1: What growth areas did you see from Ben in your
Speaker 1: number two in the NBA? Well, I mean, obviously there's
Speaker 1: the question moving forward of you know, his shot and
Speaker 1: how that plays into, you know, the future of his game.
Speaker 1: But in terms of the rest of it, I think
Speaker 1: there's there's just so much to like. You know, you're
Speaker 1: talking about a player who's you know, probably the most
Speaker 1: versatile point guard defender in the league in terms of
Speaker 1: a guy who you can throw just at normal point
Speaker 1: guards and live with that matchup on most nights, He's
Speaker 1: not going to get beat by most opponents. He's so big,
Speaker 1: he can take away a lot of things in terms
Speaker 1: of driving angles and shooting angles that other guards rely on.
Speaker 1: Great rebrounder obviously for his position, really really interesting and
Speaker 1: creative playmaker in terms of the things that he sees
Speaker 1: and finds on the floor, and a pace Accelleran, a
Speaker 1: guy who's going to get you easy you know, a
Speaker 1: lot more easy shots just by being on the floor,
Speaker 1: because when he gets that board, he's going to go.
Speaker 1: And so when you have already that kind of foundation,
Speaker 1: already a pretty well versus well balanced game, who can
Speaker 1: work some dribble handoffs, who can do, you know, just
Speaker 1: like to buy us both sides of a pick and
Speaker 1: roll game if he needs to, Who can be more
Speaker 1: of a facilitator and a connector. I think he's such
Speaker 1: an interesting player from a team building standpoint because he
Speaker 1: allows you to go in so many different directions. Whether
Speaker 1: that means you want to play him as a kind
Speaker 1: of traditional buy the book point guard, whether that means
Speaker 1: you want to work him into a different kind of
Speaker 1: role depending on your lineup. He just allows you to
Speaker 1: experiment with so much. And I think that's kind of
Speaker 1: the strength of Ben's game is the idea, if you
Speaker 1: have a Jimmy Butler on your team, or to Bias
Speaker 1: Harris on your team, we're now at all Horford on
Speaker 1: your team, that you can lean into those players' strengths
Speaker 1: and still find things for Ben to do that are
Speaker 1: really effective and really important on the floor. A lot
Speaker 1: of the talk around here after the playoffs last year
Speaker 1: was the job that Ben did, specifically on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor in the opening round series against
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets and Angel Russell, and then doing as
Speaker 1: much as he could against Kawhi Leonard for the bulk
Speaker 1: of the Toronto series. Did you like what you saw
Speaker 1: out of him defensively? Did he show you something a
Speaker 1: little bit more? I think a little bit more, But
Speaker 1: he was already a pretty impressive defender to begin with.
Speaker 1: I think he was already working from a pretty high bar,
Speaker 1: high bar, excuse me, And so there were some added
Speaker 1: challenges in terms of the you know, the personnel that
Speaker 1: you're describing, really kind of handling those matchups is a
Speaker 1: different level of scrutiny, requires a different level of attention
Speaker 1: than what he's been asked to do previously. But he's
Speaker 1: always been very impressive and dependable already on that end.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, just in terms of the versatility of that,
Speaker 1: the idea that your point guard could be the guy
Speaker 1: you throw at Kawhi Leonard, Andy Angelo Russell, there just
Speaker 1: aren't many players who can handle, you know, that breadth
Speaker 1: of assignment, and so that that piece of it is
Speaker 1: very impressive and certainly allows the Sixers to do a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting things with how they juggle their matchups.
Speaker 1: As you put a bow on all this zooming back
Speaker 1: up to around thirty thousand feet, it sounds like for
Speaker 1: a team that's been pretty steady defensively the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, would you think the Sixers have a chance
Speaker 1: to take their team collective defense to another level this year?
Speaker 1: I think so. I mean just you know, even in
Speaker 1: you know, having Jimmy Butler for part of the season,
Speaker 1: and Jimmy is you know, really an impressive on ball
Speaker 1: defender in particular. But when you're looking at how do
Speaker 1: you replace a player like that or move on from
Speaker 1: a player like that, you know, Josh Richardson is certainly
Speaker 1: a great start in terms of replicating a lot of
Speaker 1: what he's doing what Jimmy was doing defensively and maybe
Speaker 1: you can even be more dedicated on that because he
Speaker 1: won't be called to do so much offensively. And then
Speaker 1: Al Horford just in terms of kind of your your
Speaker 1: defensive brain trust, having another guy who's thinking the game
Speaker 1: at that level on the floor and helping to run
Speaker 1: things can only be a boon for your defense. So
Speaker 1: you know, you have the standout defensive talents in both
Speaker 1: Joel and Bid and Ben Simmons, two young players who
Speaker 1: you know really could only take another step defensively as
Speaker 1: they keep maturing and keep growing. You have, you know,
Speaker 1: this defensive type captain in terms of All Horford and
Speaker 1: a new guy in Josh Richardson and Tobias who you know,
Speaker 1: at the very least as a big body and a
Speaker 1: guy who can move around to a lot of different matchups.
Speaker 1: There's there's again, just so much to work with there.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the consistent theme with the Sixers
Speaker 1: and what makes them, you know, in some ways difficult
Speaker 1: because this is not a buy the book team, this
Speaker 1: is not a traditional team. There when you have all
Speaker 1: these options on the table, it can be a little
Speaker 1: bit exhausting, I imagine to try to find, you know,
Speaker 1: the best avenue to deploy all of these different weapons.
Speaker 1: But that's exactly the kind of problem of coaching staff
Speaker 1: wants to have, wellne with this. The third week of
Speaker 1: May has been the crossroads point for the seventy sixers
Speaker 1: in two eighteen and twenty nineteen, where they run in
Speaker 1: the postseason has come to an end. Do you think
Speaker 1: there'll be more seventy six of stuff on the court
Speaker 1: to talk about beyond that date come May twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: I definitely do. I mean, I think that this is
Speaker 1: a team that just has an incredible amount of potential
Speaker 1: in terms of the upward mobility, and some of that
Speaker 1: is Joel you know where you know, as we're talking
Speaker 1: about the top ten guys, the top fifteen guys in
Speaker 1: the league's he's one of the few players who I
Speaker 1: think in the near term future, whether that's the next
Speaker 1: two or three years or so, you could really be
Speaker 1: talking about him as is he you know, in the
Speaker 1: conversation of is he the best player in the league?
Speaker 1: Does he's that kind of a growth arc that he
Speaker 1: could take to his game. He has that kind of
Speaker 1: foundation already, and so when you're working from from that
Speaker 1: place to begin with and adding all of this, you know,
Speaker 1: this talent and repositioning this talent in an Eastern conference
Speaker 1: that I think, other than the Bucks, doesn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of teams that I think are credible challengers to
Speaker 1: the six She's in it. From a talent standpoint, I
Speaker 1: think this is a really great opportunity for them this year.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot to figure out, but there's
Speaker 1: there's really a nice window here for them to do
Speaker 1: something important. Awesome, great stuff is always Rob Mahoney, the
Speaker 1: man from Sports Illustrated. Thanks so much, as always for
Speaker 1: the time and excellent to get the wisdom and insights.
Speaker 1: Of course, thanks Rattingie. Before we part ways on this
Speaker 1: episode of the podcast, I want to leave you with
Speaker 1: a piece of sound from Brett Brown's annual media lunching
Speaker 1: with reporters that was held this past week on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: September twenty fifth in Center City. He talks about what
Speaker 1: to expect from the seventy sixers in this season ahead,
Speaker 1: and I thought that by playing it into this episode
Speaker 1: that could whet the appetite for some of the storylines
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to see coming out of training camp
Speaker 1: starting next week. So here's Bretton at his media lunching.
Speaker 1: I know we're going to play defense. That still is
Speaker 1: real my day. It's where my head is scented as
Speaker 1: our starting point. You git me talk about Philly edge
Speaker 1: hard and real. It's true in the city. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna say. And so I feel comfortable that
Speaker 1: we're going to defend because we can, and it's how
Speaker 1: I see the world. I think that we're going to
Speaker 1: score because we have options. I believe we have a
Speaker 1: championship Calibertina. It is just about upon us training camp
Speaker 1: and the preseason. We're going to dig into it that
Speaker 1: much more next time on the broadcast to see it