Speaker 1: It's time to talk Sixers, Simmons, off Balance and an
Speaker 1: incredible bank shot is good. Here on the broadcast, the
Speaker 1: official podcast of Sixers dot com. If drive Domina, he
Speaker 1: goes in head slabs and oh man, what a play
Speaker 1: by it be. Now here's today's episode. A be elated
Speaker 1: happy holidays, a happy new Year in advance, and thanks
Speaker 1: so much for making the broadcast a part of your
Speaker 1: holiday week. Hopefully you are enjoying it with a lot
Speaker 1: of rest relaxation, some seventy sixers basketball. Brian Seltzer bidding
Speaker 1: you hello once again and thanks as always for it
Speaker 1: checking out the podcast. And on this edition we're going
Speaker 1: to speak with our good old buddy who is now
Speaker 1: of the transplant variety, John Gonzalez of The Ringer. Stay
Speaker 1: tuned for that conversation in a moment before we get started.
Speaker 1: Reminders that to subscribe to the podcast, you can do
Speaker 1: a couple of things. You can head to either iTunes,
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Speaker 1: Tough One for the seventy Sixers On Thursday night, indeed
Speaker 1: one fourteen one ten loss to the Portland Trailblazers. Things
Speaker 1: were looking great midway through the third quarter, and then
Speaker 1: all the mojo, all the momentum, evaporated down the stretch
Speaker 1: as Portland came back to win it. And also difficult
Speaker 1: for the Sixers that they were not able to build
Speaker 1: upon at least on Thursday, the momentum that they generated
Speaker 1: back up in Monday's Christmas Day win against the New
Speaker 1: York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. A man who knows
Speaker 1: his seventy Sixers is John Gonzalez. He was in the area,
Speaker 1: of course, for a while at the Inquirer NBC Sports Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and now he is back on the NBA scene at
Speaker 1: the Ringer. So let's fire up the good old Skype
Speaker 1: machine and go back to a conversation recorded Thursday morning
Speaker 1: before the Sixers played the Portland Trailblazers with John Gonzalez. Yeah,
Speaker 1: John Gonzales, first and foremost, we need you for those
Speaker 1: of us back here in the del Or Valley too.
Speaker 1: Please transport us in our minds from frigid Philadelphia to
Speaker 1: the southern shores the Pacific. It's got to be nice.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful body. How's things with you there? Are you? Like?
Speaker 1: Do you have little heaters for your sweatshirt and your
Speaker 1: shoes and stuff? You get those little heating packets at CBS.
Speaker 1: What's going on over there? I'm trying to think of
Speaker 1: what would be the analogous situation in southern California. Maybe
Speaker 1: you have some rooms in your place that are cooler
Speaker 1: than others when the weather gets hot. Here in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: it's like, we have some rooms that are just like sweltering,
Speaker 1: disgustingly warm when we ramp up the heat, and that
Speaker 1: others that are like an ice box. We can't regulate
Speaker 1: the climate in the selter house. Ushold. It's a challenge. No,
Speaker 1: it's bad news. I don't miss any of that at all.
Speaker 1: I have We have my lovely wife, and I have
Speaker 1: two dogs, and much to my consternation, they still require
Speaker 1: me to take them out every single day, several times
Speaker 1: a day. And here in southern California not nearly as
Speaker 1: bad as you know. January February March in Philadelphia, this
Speaker 1: would be the tough time for sure. Back I go
Speaker 1: back there, I assume that you'll walk them for me,
Speaker 1: of course, only if you're north of Spring Garden Street
Speaker 1: and south of Gerard those would be bad conditions. I
Speaker 1: can't believe that you just gave your location on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Now you're gonna have a bunch of fans outside your
Speaker 1: doors seeking autographs. Well, I was hoping that without constricting
Speaker 1: myself to eastern and western boundaries, that would create maybe
Speaker 1: a forty block radius That would require some extra work.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I guess if people went north south they
Speaker 1: could begin to pinpoint things. There's no stopping the Seltzer
Speaker 1: fan base. It's if we counted among the parental units
Speaker 1: and the and the wife, then you may be right, Yes,
Speaker 1: you might be correct. How are you doing? This has
Speaker 1: got to be fun for you. I would think if
Speaker 1: the good old ringer a lot of NBA focal points
Speaker 1: that you get to zero in on now, especially this
Speaker 1: time of year, things on the professional front enjoyable, I
Speaker 1: would assume, Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think for anybody
Speaker 1: that's a basketball fan, this is a great time. The
Speaker 1: league is as healthy and fun as it's been in
Speaker 1: you know, a long time. You're notwithstanding the fact that
Speaker 1: we know that we're battling towards you know, the Warriors
Speaker 1: and probably the Calves yet again, who knows, might be
Speaker 1: Warriors in Celtics Ers if we get really lucky, the
Speaker 1: Warriors and the Sixers. Who knows but the Warriors and somebody.
Speaker 1: But that aside the rest of the league. I really
Speaker 1: enjoy basketball at large, and there's a lot of fun
Speaker 1: storylines and yeah, and the Ringer blessed the Ringer's heart. Man.
Speaker 1: They that whole site is NBA focus, So we get
Speaker 1: quite a lot of conversations and it's wonderful. Do want
Speaker 1: to ask you about some NBA stuff before we're done,
Speaker 1: But of course we'll zero in on the good old
Speaker 1: seventy Sixers. And we've actually had the great pleasure of
Speaker 1: seeing you around, not only in Philadelphia, but also in
Speaker 1: the Sixers were out on the West Coast for the
Speaker 1: first time. All things considered, as we veered towards twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: things right now right around where they should be. What
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on where the Sixers are at this point? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think for on the whole, you know, maybe slightly
Speaker 1: slightly off from from what we thought. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: they obviously had, you know, a recent stretch there that
Speaker 1: wasn't what anybody probably hoped. What two and eight in
Speaker 1: the last ten. That was a little bit of a
Speaker 1: tough stretch there where they sort of fell out of
Speaker 1: the current playoff picture. But that said, I think some
Speaker 1: things to be hopeful about, right, I mean, Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: has looked absolutely amazing. When Joel is out there, he's
Speaker 1: looked fantastic, And those two guys together are the future
Speaker 1: and we're seeing that that right now in real time.
Speaker 1: So while they had you know, a couple of stumbles
Speaker 1: here and there, you know, building around those two guys,
Speaker 1: there's so much to be hopeful about. I guess it
Speaker 1: is hard at times, and you can probably say this
Speaker 1: about any NBA team or any team in professional sports
Speaker 1: to separate what you're seeing when you don't have a
Speaker 1: fully healthy squad versus what you're seeing when all the
Speaker 1: pieces are there. Because that game Monday at Madison Square
Speaker 1: Garden on Christmas, it's just like, Okay, you know, you
Speaker 1: throw Joel and b jj Reddick back out there, right boom,
Speaker 1: nearly half the points the team scored and a lot
Speaker 1: of other great things they do, and it makes quite
Speaker 1: the difference. Yeah. No, I mean that's true for any team, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, like when the sixers are healthy. Of course
Speaker 1: they're better, you know, and hopefully you get markul Foltz
Speaker 1: back out there and your shoulder is better and he's
Speaker 1: working on a shot, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know, you're starting to see things come together and click.
Speaker 1: But look at the grizzly Is. I mean, Mike Conley
Speaker 1: goes down and the whole thing craters, right, I mean
Speaker 1: it's Porzingis goes down for a little while, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden the Knicks stumble. It's true really of
Speaker 1: any team, like you lose one or two of your
Speaker 1: best players and then all of a sudden things get difficult.
Speaker 1: And Seltzer, let's not forget either. Like I think that
Speaker 1: the expectations got really ramped up this year because you know,
Speaker 1: we were going to have Simmons out on the court,
Speaker 1: and we get to watch him, and you know, ostensibly
Speaker 1: unbeat is healthy and he'll be out there and you've
Speaker 1: got faults. But these are guys who haven't played professional
Speaker 1: basketball together. It takes time, no question about it. Yet
Speaker 1: there they were in the midst of the Ringers top
Speaker 1: twenty five through twenty five games ish, both of them
Speaker 1: right there. I think what was what was Simmons he
Speaker 1: was top fifteen and Bead was ten. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: right around there. I don't have it, And this is,
Speaker 1: you know, to my great this is a great failing
Speaker 1: of mine. I have not kid admitted the list of memory.
Speaker 1: When they find out, they'll probably fire me, and they
Speaker 1: should anyway. But yeah, they had two guys on there
Speaker 1: that was you know, you probably know this, certainly anybody
Speaker 1: who reads the Ringer knows this. We have a ton
Speaker 1: of Sixers fans on our staff. So the Simmons and
Speaker 1: mb both landed in the top fifteen, not a surprise.
Speaker 1: Does that create for any tensions or hostilities at time?
Speaker 1: We're just good office banter. Given the level of interest
Speaker 1: in the Sixers, that's there, a little bit of a
Speaker 1: little bit of b I would say, like it feels
Speaker 1: at times like eighty percent of our conversations in NBA
Speaker 1: Ringer Slack are about either the Sixers or the Celtics.
Speaker 1: The Celtics for obvious reasons, and the Sixers because we'll
Speaker 1: just keep hiring Philadelphians. But also it can be a
Speaker 1: little trolley sometimes seltzer, like when Mark hell Foltz stuff happens.
Speaker 1: The non Sixers fans get into NBA Slack and you know,
Speaker 1: get after us a little bit and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Chris Ryan and I, the executive editor for The Ringer,
Speaker 1: have talked about starting a Philadelphian's Only Sixers slack as
Speaker 1: an offshoot where we can just go. It would be
Speaker 1: like our safe space. That's awesome, man, it's great. I mean,
Speaker 1: it really is hard to have a conversation as easy
Speaker 1: as it may seem, about the Sixers without really spending
Speaker 1: a good deal time on Joel and Benn and what
Speaker 1: they've done so far. What do you think we've learned
Speaker 1: through two and a half months about each guy at
Speaker 1: this point. Well, I mean let's start. I mean you
Speaker 1: start with Simmons. He's the runaway Rookie of the year favorite.
Speaker 1: He's been fantastic for as good as Donovan Mitchell has been.
Speaker 1: And I know this gets me in a lot of
Speaker 1: trouble with Sixers Twitter, but Jason Tatum is fantastic and
Speaker 1: anybody who's honest with themselves about his ability would admit that.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, if you took your Sixers fandom hat
Speaker 1: off and just watch that guy play basketball, you would
Speaker 1: say he's been fantastic. Now, all of that aside, Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons is the guy, and he's the guy even without
Speaker 1: a jump shot, and if he can eventually add that,
Speaker 1: and you know, there's been a lot of talk about
Speaker 1: his hand, which should be shooting with God, the sky's
Speaker 1: the limit for that guy. But even without it, right now,
Speaker 1: we see how talented he is. I mean, how he
Speaker 1: can get into the paint at will, and he can
Speaker 1: do so many things when he gets there. And then
Speaker 1: beyond that, his court vision, his ability on the break,
Speaker 1: his rebounding, you know, his size relative to other guys
Speaker 1: who are trying to defend him, even when you know
Speaker 1: they'll switch on to bigger guys. Were you convinced Gonzo
Speaker 1: or sold initially on the idea of Simmons as the
Speaker 1: true point man for the Sixers? Oh? I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I love the idea of him running the point because
Speaker 1: he creates so many matchup problems and like you see,
Speaker 1: you see, like you know, no matter who they switch
Speaker 1: onto him, either the bigs aren't quick enough to stick
Speaker 1: with him, or the traditional point guards aren't big enough
Speaker 1: really to handle you know, the sorts of things he
Speaker 1: can do once he gets into the lane. So I
Speaker 1: love it. I mean, he's fantastic. His court vision when
Speaker 1: he's running the break is just fascinating, and you know,
Speaker 1: and it opens up the foreign ways that you wouldn't expect.
Speaker 1: Even though that he even though he does sort of
Speaker 1: have things that he still has to work on with
Speaker 1: his shot. This may not be a popular view to take,
Speaker 1: but for me, just stepping back and observing his evolution,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be neat to see how
Speaker 1: he adjusts to teams adjusting to him as the season
Speaker 1: goes along, because it seemed like, you know, first month
Speaker 1: the season, driving lanes might have been a little bit
Speaker 1: more open than what we've seen as of late, and
Speaker 1: that's it's going to be a big part of it.
Speaker 1: Seeing how he can counter too when the opposition counters
Speaker 1: on him. Yeah, I mean there's stuff that he has
Speaker 1: to he has to still figure out, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: like you said, there's going to be Look, the NBA
Speaker 1: is a really not surprising development. It's a smart league, right,
Speaker 1: Like coaches adjust, they see what guys can do. The
Speaker 1: second time you see a player or a team is
Speaker 1: different than the first time, and it's different, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're on the in the same conference the third
Speaker 1: and fourth time, Like they adjust and they and they
Speaker 1: create problems, and so you know, can Simmons figure that
Speaker 1: stuff out? And a lot of that is going to
Speaker 1: have to do with in the offseason when he's working
Speaker 1: on his jumper, right, I mean, like if he can
Speaker 1: add and slowly start to move farther and farther from
Speaker 1: the basket, the guy's going to be a monster. He
Speaker 1: already is a monster even without that. So I think
Speaker 1: he's going to continue continue to figure it out and
Speaker 1: he's going to be more of a problem for opposing
Speaker 1: teams and the other way around. We've seen the Twitter
Speaker 1: sphere populated with stumping for All Star candidacy for Simmons
Speaker 1: and Embiid. Simmons a little bit less at least time
Speaker 1: overall in the league, and you know that might be
Speaker 1: a slight uphill client for him. Do you think embiad
Speaker 1: has a shot? Yeah? I do. I do. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think like when you look at the Bigs in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference. You know, Al Horford has been really
Speaker 1: good for the Celtics. You know, Andre Drummond we've seen
Speaker 1: with the Pistons, But but Embiid put it on him
Speaker 1: when they played. Um, you know, Miles Turner has been good,
Speaker 1: but Oladipo has really been the guy there. So I
Speaker 1: think like part of the problem is going to be that,
Speaker 1: you know, you're voting front court spots rather than traditional centers,
Speaker 1: because once you get into front court spots then it
Speaker 1: becomes a little trickier. You know, you've got Janius and
Speaker 1: Lebron as starters immediately and then what right? So, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I do I think I think embiad has a good shot.
Speaker 1: We of course, are waiting and eagerly anticipating to see
Speaker 1: what the next step is for markl Foltz, at least
Speaker 1: in these parts of the NBA world. What do you
Speaker 1: think we might be saying about Markel comes season's end.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to say that he got out there,
Speaker 1: he worked on his game a little bit. Maybe it
Speaker 1: wasn't the rookie season that we had expected or wanted
Speaker 1: for the first overall pick. But let's not forget he's what,
Speaker 1: he's still nineteen, right, Saltzer, isn't he? Isn't he still nineteen?
Speaker 1: Or is did he turn twenty already? Let's go to
Speaker 1: the tape. Let's go to the tape. He's right. He's young,
Speaker 1: is what we need to know. Just can't give any
Speaker 1: false nineteen nineteen nailed it all right, he's nineteen years old,
Speaker 1: and I think, like, you know, we see first overall
Speaker 1: Peck and then immediately we go, well, you know, he's
Speaker 1: got to be amazing, and he's got to be amazing
Speaker 1: right out of the gate. And I think sometimes we
Speaker 1: forget that they're kids and it takes time to ackle me.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the season, if we can
Speaker 1: say that he was part of the group, he was
Speaker 1: out there consistently, he was healthy, and he was learning.
Speaker 1: Given how the season started, I think that'd be a win.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be interesting to see where the Sixers are
Speaker 1: at when he comes back, because you almost get the vibe,
Speaker 1: based upon how Brett Brown has discussed his impending return
Speaker 1: at some point that when he's out there, the tone
Speaker 1: in some ways is almost out of necessity going to
Speaker 1: have to change a bit to being a little bit
Speaker 1: more patient, letting him work through some things. Whereas now,
Speaker 1: given on who's available, there's some veteran guys that if
Speaker 1: you need death in the backcourt, you go to to
Speaker 1: try and win games immediately. But it does seem like
Speaker 1: there's a realistic outlook for what might be the dynamic
Speaker 1: once Faults comes back. Yeah, I mean that's something that
Speaker 1: fit is a thing. It's a thing that you have
Speaker 1: to think about it. It's a thing that you have
Speaker 1: to consider, and it was a thing before they drafted Faults,
Speaker 1: and it was certainly a thing at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the year because people wanted to know, well, who's going
Speaker 1: to be the point garden? As we mentioned, Simmons looks
Speaker 1: really good, as you know, the point forward, the point big.
Speaker 1: Now what happens now? What happens with a guy who
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully is healthy when he returns, but also
Speaker 1: had some questions about like how he was playing, So
Speaker 1: how do they deploy him? Where does he go? Can
Speaker 1: he shoot the three when he returns, because it's really
Speaker 1: I think it would be really tough to play them
Speaker 1: side by. It would be next to impossible to play
Speaker 1: them together. If neither one of them is shooting at
Speaker 1: three and we know Simmons isn't going too so then
Speaker 1: you have to stagger their minutes and then who starts
Speaker 1: and who doesn't. So all this is a lot for
Speaker 1: Brett Brown to consider. But as problems go. I think
Speaker 1: this is sort of like a pleasant problem to have
Speaker 1: because you get your number one overall picked back, as
Speaker 1: opposed to just having him on the shelf and him
Speaker 1: convalescing like you'd much rather have him out on the floor. Indeed,
Speaker 1: something on the horizon for the head coast to consider
Speaker 1: in addition to early morning cold walks with the Gonzales dog.
Speaker 1: Do you miss Brett Brown? I feel like you two
Speaker 1: have a very nice rapport When you two are around
Speaker 1: each other, good vibes always seem to be there, and
Speaker 1: more than that, just a nice healthy respect between John
Speaker 1: Gonzales and Brett Brown. Yeah. I mean I wrote twenty
Speaker 1: five hundred three thousand words about Brett Brown. I saw
Speaker 1: you guys and you in Sacramento when you guys are
Speaker 1: in Sacramento, and then we all came back to La
Speaker 1: together and we hung around here Santa Monica High School
Speaker 1: and they were working. And like I've said this to Brett,
Speaker 1: I said it in the piece. I'm sure i've said
Speaker 1: it to you previously. I know I've said it to
Speaker 1: zoom Off. Like I've covered a lot of people, not
Speaker 1: just in the NBA, but throughout my career in like
Speaker 1: you know, major League Baseball or the NFL. And the
Speaker 1: thing that I don't need you to like me. I
Speaker 1: just need you to be professional. Right. Can we have
Speaker 1: a conversation? Can we be adults? And sometimes like us
Speaker 1: doing our job and them doing their job gets in
Speaker 1: the way of that, right, Like it becomes like some
Speaker 1: sort of formulaic and there's not just like an actual conversation,
Speaker 1: like when you and I see each other, when we
Speaker 1: catch up and how are thingk. Bret's like that, And
Speaker 1: that's why I like Brett. He doesn't always have to
Speaker 1: give you what you want. Sometimes I'll tell you, like
Speaker 1: I've asked him questions and he's been like, you know, God,
Speaker 1: so you sound like an idiot. But at least it's
Speaker 1: a conversation and we treat each other like humans. And
Speaker 1: that's why I really like Brett. And that's why I
Speaker 1: think his players like them, because you can have a
Speaker 1: conversation with him and you know, it's an adult discourse.
Speaker 1: The article is great if anyone has not read it.
Speaker 1: The process is Longe Survivor about a month and a
Speaker 1: half ago on the head coach of the Sixers. What
Speaker 1: do you think is the I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: the biggest symbol or a testament or first thing that
Speaker 1: comes to your mind when you think about the job
Speaker 1: Brett's done, how he's handled the last four plus years.
Speaker 1: I mean, how hard that had have been for Brett Brown.
Speaker 1: I think it is like pretty obvious. And I was
Speaker 1: worried that we know how fickle the NBA, the NFL,
Speaker 1: major League Baseball, hockey, whatever sport you're in, it's a
Speaker 1: fickle business, right like, if you're not winning right now,
Speaker 1: there's a ton of turnover. And that's true for the
Speaker 1: front office, and it's true for the team with the players,
Speaker 1: and it's true for coaches especially, And I was worried
Speaker 1: that maybe he wouldn't get time to prove himself with
Speaker 1: an actual team. And now we're starting to see, you know,
Speaker 1: what he can do. And for everybody, like I think
Speaker 1: six or Twitter loses its mind after a loss and
Speaker 1: throws it at the coach. And that's not surprising giving like,
Speaker 1: you know, I am a Philadelphia and I understand how
Speaker 1: it works. This is the job. Brett Brown gets it too.
Speaker 1: But as I said earlier, these are guys who have
Speaker 1: not played basketball together. They are young, they are nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty you know, in Mbiad's case, twenty three years old
Speaker 1: hasn't played a full season yet. They have to figure
Speaker 1: it out. Similarly, while Brett Brown is you know, his
Speaker 1: coaching pedigree is long and impressive, he's working with a
Speaker 1: new unit, like a functionally new unit. Give the guy
Speaker 1: and give the team some time before we all decide
Speaker 1: to pass judgment on what it is or isn't. It's
Speaker 1: easy for the Sixers dot Com digital reporters say, but
Speaker 1: it'd be like, all right, I'm just removed the delete
Speaker 1: key on the board for a second, and then, oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, the cursor only works sporadically too, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, you might have all the thoughts in your
Speaker 1: head to put out there and write, but you can
Speaker 1: only do so much when you're not at full strength.
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, absolutely, the delete key is the
Speaker 1: perfect analogy. I am a big fan of that key.
Speaker 1: It's my favorite. If it wasn't for that key, I
Speaker 1: would be doing something else. But it certainly isn't what
Speaker 1: I do now. Yeah, Brett Brown doesn't have that luxury.
Speaker 1: Neither did the players. They're young. It's a young team.
Speaker 1: Let's give it a second before we freak out. We
Speaker 1: waited this long, right, can wait a little longer, very quickly.
Speaker 1: Before we wrap this up, just some brief global NBA
Speaker 1: things I wanted to bring up with you. He had
Speaker 1: something about the Eastern Conference young stars on the rise.
Speaker 1: What do you think we're seeing in the East at
Speaker 1: the current moment? I love it as somebody who spent
Speaker 1: most of his formative years on the East Coast, grew
Speaker 1: up in Philadelphia, went to school in Philadelphia. I saw
Speaker 1: a house in Philly, and then I lived in Boston
Speaker 1: for four years. You know, the Eastern Conference was on
Speaker 1: hard times for a decade. And now it's not just
Speaker 1: the Sixers. I mean, we see what we see with
Speaker 1: the Sixers and their young you're with their young core
Speaker 1: is fantastic, but there are other teams trying to do
Speaker 1: sort of the same thing. You know, You've got the
Speaker 1: Box in Jannis, and you saw Oladipo and Turner in Indiana.
Speaker 1: The Pistons has some nice young pieces. The Knicks have
Speaker 1: Christaps for Zingis. The Brooklyn Nuts are sort of like
Speaker 1: the the Island of Miss Vaitoys in the NBA. But
Speaker 1: they're interesting, and that's right. Like at the very least
Speaker 1: the NBA, you know, I'm not sure how competitive it
Speaker 1: would be relative to like if you just put it
Speaker 1: in the head to head every time with the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: but at least in terms of narratives and storyline, Celts
Speaker 1: are like every night, I'm going, oh right, this team
Speaker 1: in the East is young and fun. I'm going to
Speaker 1: watch them. Along those lines, Brett Brown had this take
Speaker 1: last week. He feels we are not talking about the
Speaker 1: Toronto Raptors enough. Would you agree the Raptors are fine? Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, No, that's fair. I think that's fairs. This
Speaker 1: could just be one of the ebbs and flows of
Speaker 1: the season where you know things are going well and
Speaker 1: then you know it's still you gotta wait, I guess
Speaker 1: till April and May. I look, every year I like
Speaker 1: the Raptors, and every year I am reminded that they
Speaker 1: are not the Calves. Right, so they're not the Calves,
Speaker 1: and you know what, like they're not the Celtic. Probably
Speaker 1: aren't to say yeah, yeah, yeah, they're fine. They're good.
Speaker 1: They're good basketball team, and they're a professional professional basketball team.
Speaker 1: They hang around. We can at least say that, um,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City top four team in the Western Conference when
Speaker 1: it's all said and done, at the end of the
Speaker 1: regular season, I think, oh god, that's kind of crazy,
Speaker 1: isn't it. But yeah, because right now they're they're five
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference. They've they've gone eight and two
Speaker 1: over their last ten, they've won six in a row.
Speaker 1: They're killing it. The thing that's interesting to me about
Speaker 1: that soundser is that their defense has been good all
Speaker 1: year long. Yeah, that has been the problem there. They've
Speaker 1: been a top five defensive unit all all season long.
Speaker 1: The problem has been consistently their offense. Their offense is
Speaker 1: starting to climb there. I think they're fifteenth now and
Speaker 1: in uh in offensive raiding per one hundred prossessions. But
Speaker 1: like that three, that group of three, you would think
Speaker 1: would go, oh right, they should be a much better
Speaker 1: offensive team. So maybe they's I mean that's where I
Speaker 1: said about the sixers, like you got to give a time.
Speaker 1: They've they've never played together, foard. They have to figure
Speaker 1: out where to go on the floor and what to
Speaker 1: do before we can go. Yeah, this is or is
Speaker 1: a market. So yeah, I think probably top four. What
Speaker 1: do you think I would say? Top four? I feel
Speaker 1: like the other teams either directly above them or behind
Speaker 1: them might be a little too not quite as experienced yet.
Speaker 1: I think there's and also there's the town factor too.
Speaker 1: I just feel like that will ultimately maybe get okay
Speaker 1: seen in the top four. Although Minnesota intriguing. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like Minnesota, But if I had a pick between those two,
Speaker 1: i'd probably because I'm looking I mean, like, for sure,
Speaker 1: I still like the Warriors, Rockets, and Spurs better. But
Speaker 1: just to me on paper, if you look like I
Speaker 1: probably like the thunder better than the Timberwolves, just because
Speaker 1: they're so young. Agreed lastly on April twelfth, finished the
Speaker 1: phrase on April twelfth, the seventy six ers will on
Speaker 1: April twelfth, as I assume that's the day the season ends. Yes,
Speaker 1: really try to get real with the phrasing of that question.
Speaker 1: How to get me on the on the NBA calendar.
Speaker 1: In my head, I think they're going to go to
Speaker 1: the playoffs. I do. I think they're going to figure
Speaker 1: I mean the Eastern Conference when we look at it,
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna be prepping for the playoffs. I'm
Speaker 1: still I know the Pistons are you know, considerably ahead
Speaker 1: of the Sixers, what four games something like that? Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm still not sold on them. The Wizards, it's all
Speaker 1: about health. The Pacers. Fine, I like the Bucks quite
Speaker 1: a bit, but that a spot is wide open between
Speaker 1: the Heat, the Knicks, and the Sixers. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: think they're going to be in. I do all right, Gonzo.
Speaker 1: This has been enjoyable, very much appreciative. You got to
Speaker 1: finish the sentence. Good. We gotta share here. It's quid
Speaker 1: pro quo. What do you think right the Sixers dot
Speaker 1: com guy is going to say anything other than on
Speaker 1: April that's twelve, the seventy Sixers will be in the playoffs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know what, It's interesting, So just looking
Speaker 1: at some of the Knicks stuff going into that game
Speaker 1: on Monday, they have not played a a lot of
Speaker 1: road games, and b have not been very good at
Speaker 1: all on the road. So just I don't know, you
Speaker 1: just I guess because you followed enough, you've become familiar
Speaker 1: with things like just how often the Sixers have played
Speaker 1: on the road. They've not only been on the road
Speaker 1: a lot, They're going to finish their Western Conference obligations
Speaker 1: by the turn of the calendar year, so I think
Speaker 1: that stuff like that bodes in their favor. You know,
Speaker 1: the worm has to come around every now and then
Speaker 1: it does. Indeed, well, a happy new year to you,
Speaker 1: m Man, to the rest of the household, Colleen and
Speaker 1: the pooches, and enjoy a great start to twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Thanks brother, this was fun. Happy new year, indeed, thanks man.
Speaker 1: All right. If we can't see guns in person on
Speaker 1: a regular basis, at least very nice to be able
Speaker 1: to hear him and of course read them at the Ringer.
Speaker 1: Thanks to John for taking a few minutes to chat.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you for listening. We'll have a rewind edition
Speaker 1: of the podcast coming up on Sunday morning after the
Speaker 1: seventy six ers came against the Denver Nuggets nine o'clock
Speaker 1: on Saturday night as they looked to bounce back from
Speaker 1: Thursday's defeat at Portland. Until then, enjoy the rest of
Speaker 1: the good old Holley week see him