Speaker 1: Episode of My geat Check. It's the Eastern Conference preview time. Baby,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be looking at the audi of the divisions,
Speaker 1: the Atlantic. We're gonna be looking at Toronto, which is,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, the worst of them all, Philadelphia, Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtis. That's five playoff
Speaker 1: or playing teams of one division, folks, everybody be eaten
Speaker 1: in the Atlantic. Let's get a move roam and drop
Speaker 1: that generic gas beat that should be Rihanna's break was
Speaker 1: breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines. So the heat Check.
Speaker 1: The heat Check was just as the best podcast covering
Speaker 1: all the drama around the association. All right, so we
Speaker 1: got to finish our NBA season previews. I realized that
Speaker 1: a conference previews, they're kind of a but we are
Speaker 1: going to give our first stop. I know it's a
Speaker 1: lot in the Atlantic Division where most of the Eastern
Speaker 1: best teams are located. Let's start with are they though
Speaker 1: I don't actually know if that's true. I just know
Speaker 1: that it's like a pretty loaded division in general. There's
Speaker 1: no like besides Toronto. There's no bottom feeders here. Let's
Speaker 1: start with the Philadelphia seventy six Ers that finished fifty
Speaker 1: four and twenty eight last year, which is good for
Speaker 1: third place. Key additions, Pat Beverley, that's really a key addition.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Kelly Oubrace Tsunami Poppy, and of course
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse Key, we'll call it subtractions, key losses. George
Speaker 1: Nang he goes to Cleveland. I always think his name
Speaker 1: is Georgie Yang because there's another Georgi. Gorgi Jang is too.
Speaker 1: It's too confusing. And then Doc Rivers, of course, the
Speaker 1: players coach that nobody actually liked playing for. And ever
Speaker 1: since he's left, and now Nick Nurse is there, everybody's
Speaker 1: starting to like spill the tea about how Iso heavy
Speaker 1: dog Rivers style was like, oh yeah, I'm Joel and
Speaker 1: Beads being like, oh yeah, I never really wanted to
Speaker 1: be an ISO player. I never really wanted to just
Speaker 1: be in the block. I like ball movement. Anyway, we
Speaker 1: move on. The Sixers begin the off season by firing
Speaker 1: that guy, Doc Rivers, and shit has been a little
Speaker 1: haywire since then. I don't know if anyone has had
Speaker 1: a worse off season in the NBA than the Sixers.
Speaker 1: Probably the Toronto Raptors because they're getting sued by another
Speaker 1: team in their own division. The next maybe the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat who lost out on Dave. There's a few down
Speaker 1: bad teams, let's be honest. But short of those, the
Speaker 1: Sixers are in rough shape at the start of the season.
Speaker 1: Once again, of course, it's about disgruntled former All Star
Speaker 1: James Harden, who would rather sink his own damn career
Speaker 1: and play in China than never be seen in the
Speaker 1: Sixers uniform. Again, very stubborn man, James Harden, extremely stubborn man.
Speaker 1: Of course, this has been the story that's been looming
Speaker 1: the entire summer. He hijacked my entire offseason, wondering is
Speaker 1: it gonna happen, When is it gonna happen, what's he
Speaker 1: gonna say next? But the long story short is he
Speaker 1: ain't coming home. He ain't coming home. There's no there's
Speaker 1: no way to cajole or finesse or tell him, Hey,
Speaker 1: if you play eight games like he did for the Rockets,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get traded soon, it'll happily promise. No, he
Speaker 1: knows he's dealing with Daryl Morey and Daryl Moorey is
Speaker 1: gonna do whatever he can to extract the greatest set
Speaker 1: of assets for him as he can, and that's just
Speaker 1: not gonna be working for James. James is not going
Speaker 1: to play for anyone else but the Clippers, and the
Speaker 1: Clippers apparently don't want to get rid of now new
Speaker 1: starting I don't even know what position Terrence Man plays
Speaker 1: for the Clippers because they don't fucking know, But anyway,
Speaker 1: he's in the starting lineup now. Finally, Terrence Man. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned last week, Terrence Man apparently is the second
Speaker 1: coming of Michael Jordan as it relates to the LA Clippers,
Speaker 1: and he's holding up the entire trade. Lawrence Frank believes
Speaker 1: Terrence Man is untouchable. Let's be real, though, the lackluster
Speaker 1: years for Terrence Man, I think that the Clippers fault. Honestly,
Speaker 1: they played him twenty three minutes a game. They moved
Speaker 1: him in and out of the rotation. You're here, you're there.
Speaker 1: Is he getting minutes? Is he not getting minutes? Where's
Speaker 1: he at in the playoffs? So it's been a little
Speaker 1: like touch and go with Terrence Man's development. He averaged
Speaker 1: nine points last season, but remember he had this incredible
Speaker 1: game in the playoffs where he put up almost forty.
Speaker 1: It's just very weird. The whole thing is very weird.
Speaker 1: Back to the Sixers, here's what they gained. Patrick Beverly,
Speaker 1: who's an absolute past great culture guy, gonna fit on
Speaker 1: this team absolutely. Tsunami Poppy, who is reckless, plays with
Speaker 1: a level of I don't give a fuck that only
Speaker 1: a man beloved and lusted at if they're by other
Speaker 1: men that claim to be heterosexual could have. Right Like
Speaker 1: when you know you can turn I hate to say this,
Speaker 1: when you're a guy who knows that you can turn
Speaker 1: any anyone in your favor despite their proclivities, I guess
Speaker 1: that's confidence right there. That's the type of confidence that
Speaker 1: Kelly Ubre plays with. I will shoot this ball whenever
Speaker 1: I want, despite whether I'm open or not, and that's
Speaker 1: the way it goes. So Kelly Uber. He's in addition,
Speaker 1: he's going to be the three point shooting that they
Speaker 1: lost from Nang, which I think he's probably a little
Speaker 1: better than George Nang. You have Nick Nurse with a
Speaker 1: new system from Toronto. He's going to implement this new
Speaker 1: system with this without a point guard. I think that's
Speaker 1: going to be Tyresse MAXI that will be very interesting
Speaker 1: to see how it works. But the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is that the Sixers are going to, like always
Speaker 1: trust the process, fail or succeed this season based on
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid's health. The team with the healthy Embiid is
Speaker 1: a problem, especially when you have PJ. Tucker, Tobias Harris,
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubray, and yes, even Pat Beverley. And
Speaker 1: by the way, if you haven't seen Joel Embiid at
Speaker 1: media Day or during his press availability, he looks fucking ripped.
Speaker 1: This is the most in shape I think I've ever
Speaker 1: seen Joel Embiid. So we can say things are looking up.
Speaker 1: They always have Daniel House the Anthony Mountain. I think
Speaker 1: the upside for the Sixers is actually pretty good, but
Speaker 1: they haven't really solved their biggest issue yet, which is
Speaker 1: a roster that is constructed not to win in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: constructed this way where teams can throw high quality defenders
Speaker 1: at Joel Embiid, who may or may not be healthy
Speaker 1: at that point because his uses radued through the roof
Speaker 1: and he's been injured every playoffs for the last four years.
Speaker 1: So the Sixers are in flux. And the funny thing is,
Speaker 1: no matter if James Harden's playing for this team or not.
Speaker 1: And also Terrence Man, if he plays on this team
Speaker 1: or not, not gonna save him.