Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome to him tonight here at the Volume
Speaker 2: Heavy Friday. Everybody. Hope all of you guys had an
Speaker 2: incredible week to this point. We have a very special
Speaker 2: guest today in lieu of the incredible surprising news that
Speaker 2: Lebron James is joining the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, one
Speaker 2: of the largest voices in Philly sports, Spike Eskin, the
Speaker 2: gentleman I met at Summer League a few years back
Speaker 2: who have been wanting to have on the show for
Speaker 2: a while, and now I can think of no better
Speaker 2: reason than Lebron going to the Sixers than to have
Speaker 2: Spike on. I will say, you know, it's been a
Speaker 2: lot of optimism over the course of the last week,
Speaker 2: since the news are less than a week, and Spike's
Speaker 2: a little bit more of a pessimist when it comes
Speaker 2: to Lebron, so I'm excited to dig into that a
Speaker 2: little bit. But he's also going to give us some
Speaker 2: perspective on some of the Sixers that have been more tenured,
Speaker 2: that have been there over the years and help our
Speaker 2: listeners get ingratiated to this Sixers team. Spike, first of all,
Speaker 2: thanks so much for taking the time. What is this
Speaker 2: last five days been like for you? Or should I
Speaker 2: should clarify? How what has this last month been like
Speaker 2: for you since you found out that Lebron was going
Speaker 2: to be a free agent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the five days has been surreal. The
Speaker 3: month has been more.
Speaker 1: I just never thought it was a realistic possibility that
Speaker 1: the Sixers would get him.
Speaker 3: To me, and this is.
Speaker 1: It from a generally a Lebron's skeptic, not of him
Speaker 1: as a player, but like as a tea leaf reader,
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out what's going on. I find
Speaker 1: that part of all this to be pretty interesting. Why
Speaker 1: is this person saying this?
Speaker 3: Why is it? They always just felt like leverage To me.
Speaker 1: It felt like here is a good team that made
Speaker 1: a big move, and all the teams I want to
Speaker 1: go to, Hey, look at this good team over here,
Speaker 1: and if you don't improve your team, I'm going to
Speaker 1: go to that team. And it like it's gone through
Speaker 1: am I at some point that maybe it was just
Speaker 1: a game of chicken that you know, he was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sign there if you don't train for anything
Speaker 1: of this, and then he just woke up.
Speaker 3: He's like, I guess I gotta do it now.
Speaker 1: So I always thought they were their leverage and even
Speaker 1: deeper tea leaf reading. It was always interesting to me
Speaker 1: that Rich Paul would mention like Cleveland, Miami and the
Speaker 1: Sixers and not mentioned Golden State. And to me, again
Speaker 1: just trying to read the room, I thought to myself,
Speaker 1: is he trying to send a message.
Speaker 3: To them and that you are not in this group?
Speaker 3: You got to get there.
Speaker 1: So even I had some money on both the Sixers
Speaker 1: and the Warriors, I dumped the money out of the Sixers,
Speaker 1: put it into the Warriors, and just repeatedly telling people,
Speaker 1: not only did I completely different issue, not a lebron guy,
Speaker 1: so didn't want them to sign him. Though I understand
Speaker 1: objectively it is the right thing to do. I just
Speaker 1: kept telling people there's no way this is going to happen.
Speaker 3: No way.
Speaker 1: And fast forward to Friday. I actually had a day
Speaker 1: off of work so I host my podcast, but I
Speaker 1: also host the afternoon show at WIP in Philly, and
Speaker 1: I had a day off of work on Friday and
Speaker 1: my phone rings at eleven thirty as my co host
Speaker 1: and producer, and I'm thinking to myself, I wonder what
Speaker 1: he wants. Probably wants some help with the show and.
Speaker 3: I just hearn you got Lebron.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, they didn't. I'm looking at my phone
Speaker 1: right now and he's just scuming. Look at jumps, look
Speaker 1: at chumps, look at jumps.
Speaker 3: And then and then uh and then.
Speaker 1: The last week has been has been pretty surreal, positive
Speaker 1: or negative on it.
Speaker 3: It is objectively.
Speaker 1: Hilarious to say that Lebron James chose to with the
Speaker 1: Sixers for the last year or two of his career.
Speaker 3: It's been there's been a lot to try to think through.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I I think it's actually been really
Speaker 2: funny after the signing has been announced, how many reporters
Speaker 2: have come back in and been like, well, this is
Speaker 2: what happened. And it's like, well, actually, none of you
Speaker 2: guys had any idea what was going on. So it's
Speaker 2: hard for me to believe that now you suddenly know
Speaker 2: what happened because I was, like you, I was high
Speaker 2: on the Warriors simply because I had put together this
Speaker 2: list of reasons why Lebron would pick his next team,
Speaker 2: and it was like, you know, closeness to his family,
Speaker 2: what would it be like to be on a bunch
Speaker 2: of airplanes and back to backs and the hotel room,
Speaker 2: breakfasts and dinners, and you know, like what the personalities
Speaker 2: of the guys would be like on court, fit you know,
Speaker 2: chances to win a championship a combination of all these factors.
Speaker 2: And it turns out there's really only one factor that mattered,
Speaker 2: and it was talent. And you know, I think, honestly,
Speaker 2: as we kind of zoom out, I think we all
Speaker 2: kind of overcomplicated this process from the beginning. Even when
Speaker 2: we think about the trades that he was allegedly pushing
Speaker 2: for behind the scenes, they were all about the accumulation
Speaker 2: of talent. And what you know, what Mike Yanzy and
Speaker 2: Bob Myers had done is they had put together a
Speaker 2: situation where they had an enormous amount of talent with
Speaker 2: a gaping hole at a specific position where Lebron could
Speaker 2: slot right in. And I think it was pretty straightforward
Speaker 2: for him at that point. I think we can dig
Speaker 2: into all these different particulars. Did he want to be
Speaker 2: attached to Steph's legacy, did he want to you know,
Speaker 2: retread old ground in Cleveland or Miami? But I really
Speaker 2: think it was as simple as the talent play. Now,
Speaker 2: before we start digging into the team, I got to
Speaker 2: put you on the spot, so we were I was
Speaker 2: on my I went to my brother's wedding in Houston
Speaker 2: this weekend. Of course, Lebron had to wait until literally
Speaker 2: last Friday, so I had to pack my recording equipment.
Speaker 2: I'm at an aquarium with my brother and my and
Speaker 2: my niece and nephew, and we're just having a moment
Speaker 2: looking at fish. They had a tiger there for some reason,
Speaker 2: no idea why there was a tiger at the aquarium,
Speaker 2: And next thing you next thing you know, the signing
Speaker 2: comes down and I'm in an uber and I'm rushing
Speaker 2: back to the hotel. But on my flight home from
Speaker 2: from Houston, I listened to the Rights of Rice to
Speaker 2: Ricky Sanchez podcast, which, by the way, you guys absolutely
Speaker 2: should check out, especially if you're looking for in depth
Speaker 2: coverage of the Sixers. I just want to make sure
Speaker 2: we get that shout out in there. But you you
Speaker 2: you would expect rus. You're you know, it's no secret
Speaker 2: that you're not a big fan of Lebron James, and
Speaker 2: I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with that. I've
Speaker 2: one of my thinks I'm a big Lebron James fan.
Speaker 2: Who is willing to admit an acknowledge that he is
Speaker 2: a person who behaves in a way that is unlikable
Speaker 2: to many. And I think that, and I want to
Speaker 2: dig into some of those specifics because I think some
Speaker 2: of them are irrelevant here and some of them are
Speaker 2: not when we get to that point. But for the
Speaker 2: most part, even when I talk to my Warriors fans buddies,
Speaker 2: they were like, yeah, I don't like the guy, but
Speaker 2: let's do this. And one of the things you said
Speaker 2: in your potet, I want to give you a chance
Speaker 2: to defend yourself here. Sure you said I would rather
Speaker 2: lose without him than win with him. So can you
Speaker 2: kind of explain where you're, where you're coming from, and
Speaker 2: how you ended up in that frame of mind?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So, no, nowhere is putting me on the spot. That
Speaker 1: has been pretty much my life since last Friday.
Speaker 3: Well, when you.
Speaker 1: Spend three weeks saying you don't want the guy, it's
Speaker 1: been interesting reaction. This isn't answering your question, but it's
Speaker 1: just as I'm thinking about, it's been an interesting reaction
Speaker 1: to my reaction in that anyone who listens to podcast
Speaker 1: knows I haven't been a lebrona I didn't want them
Speaker 1: him in twenty eighteen, like I had the same view,
Speaker 1: same view, so the three weeks leading up to it,
Speaker 1: and even on the radio station. I've only been in
Speaker 1: the air there a couple of years, but everybody knows
Speaker 1: how I feel, saying for.
Speaker 3: Weeks I do not want them, I do not want them,
Speaker 3: I do not want them.
Speaker 1: And then they sign them, and I'm like, I hate this,
Speaker 1: and everyone's mad at me for saying. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: I've been accused of You're just saying that to get
Speaker 1: people mad. I'm like, I'm the only honest person here.
Speaker 1: I am literally the only person said to my detriment
Speaker 1: in some ways saying how I feel. So I used
Speaker 1: to be a Lebron guy, I would say through Miami,
Speaker 1: I was a Lebron guy and a big defender.
Speaker 3: And my co host I Greece. We've known each other
Speaker 3: a long time.
Speaker 1: One of our long standing arguments pre me switching was
Speaker 1: me being a pro Lebron guy and him being an
Speaker 1: anti Lebron guy. It switched when I felt like he
Speaker 1: changed and I found his presence to be.
Speaker 3: Irritating.
Speaker 1: I think is underselling it is like suffocating there's just
Speaker 1: so much, and so much of it feels dishonest and
Speaker 1: distasteful to me and self centered in a way that
Speaker 1: I guess that he has earned the guy. I can't
Speaker 1: deny that. I'm not denying he's obviously a great basketball player,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
Speaker 3: But I find that other part of it to be
Speaker 3: too much for me.
Speaker 1: And when he's not on the Sixers, it's very easy
Speaker 1: for me to mock him and say this is stupid,
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. When he is on
Speaker 1: the Sixers, people have asked me, well, isn't the point
Speaker 1: to win?
Speaker 3: He isn't.
Speaker 1: Isn't that the entire goal? And it's a different coversation
Speaker 1: how close they are to winning. But I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: believe it is just about winning for me, And I'm
Speaker 1: never trying to convince anybody to not like this move,
Speaker 1: But for me, I think the logical extreme of this
Speaker 1: would be, Okay, let's say Lebron gets here, they trade
Speaker 1: Embiid for ad Let's say they trade Edgecombe for some guy, right,
Speaker 1: and then and let's say they win a title?
Speaker 3: Well, what am I even cheering for at that point?
Speaker 1: Right? Like MAXI is still there. Okay, I like Tyrese Maxie,
Speaker 1: but I've never liked Lebron James. I've never had an
Speaker 1: opinion on Anthony Davis, like emotionally one way or the other.
Speaker 1: I guess he would be on the Sixers whoever they
Speaker 1: trade Edgecomb for, unless it happens to be one of
Speaker 1: my favorite players.
Speaker 3: So in that case, I guess it would be nice
Speaker 3: if the Sixers won a championship.
Speaker 1: But the way that I've experienced this team over the
Speaker 1: last fourteen years, as we've done the podcast is I
Speaker 1: think just a little more a new one than whether
Speaker 1: it is objectively it gets them closer to winning a championship,
Speaker 1: I think because and this is just the last part
Speaker 1: of it, and this, if I'm the Sixers, I probably take.
Speaker 3: An opportunity to move Jo and beat if I can.
Speaker 1: Probably, but me as a fan, if they win this
Speaker 1: title without him, I just don't know what that will.
Speaker 3: Mean for me. I'll be happy to see everybody else.
Speaker 1: Happy, but I guess it just would have felt like
Speaker 1: something entirely different than I've experienced over the last thirteen
Speaker 1: or fourteen years. And everything that Lebron touches becomes centered
Speaker 1: around Lebron and I just I've thought even if Joel's
Speaker 1: on the team, and I would feel very good for
Speaker 1: him if they want it just the the like, you know,
Speaker 1: look at what Lebron bar brought us and like the
Speaker 1: like the myth making of Lebron and the it's just
Speaker 1: too much for me. So I think I would enjoy
Speaker 1: the team more, not having a conflict about cheering for
Speaker 1: somebody who I just actively find annoying, which was something
Speaker 1: I had to do with Simmons after a couple of years.
Speaker 1: I don't like this guy, but at least he was ours,
Speaker 1: at least somebody we drafted him. He was our problem.
Speaker 1: Lebron just seems like somebody else's problem problem, for lack
Speaker 1: of a better word, that is on the Sixers now.
Speaker 1: So it's a long way to get to how I feel,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot to it, I think.
Speaker 2: So essentially, if the Sixers were to win for you,
Speaker 2: it would feel like a group of mercenaries wearing Sixers
Speaker 2: jerseys rather than a group of guys that you have
Speaker 2: grown to love over years of rooting for them.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I guess I felt the same way when
Speaker 1: they traded for Jimmy Butler, Now, I did not like
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler, but I really did like Robert Covington and
Speaker 1: Dario Sarich. So you know, I got through it, and
Speaker 1: I can't predict how I'm going to feel in six months.
Speaker 3: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: Maybe watching them all play together will be so much fun,
Speaker 1: and Lebron's like Lebron will take it down a notch.
Speaker 3: Unlikely, but let's say he does, and and and you
Speaker 3: know and the other.
Speaker 1: The only extra clutch guy we have is KCP. We
Speaker 1: haven't done anything and they're playing great, and it's just
Speaker 1: it's undeniable to me. I'm more than willing, like I
Speaker 1: change my mind all the time.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 1: I think there's a difference between being stubborn and knowing
Speaker 1: what you think because you've thought it through. I think
Speaker 1: I know what I think and I know how I feel.
Speaker 1: But I don't think I'm stubborn in that if I
Speaker 1: start to enjoy it, I'm not going to say I
Speaker 1: don't enjoy it, just to stick to whatever guns I
Speaker 1: feel like. So I suppose it could change, But right now, yes,
Speaker 1: if if all the players were swapped out and the
Speaker 1: Sixers happened to win a title, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't think it would be.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't irritate me or anything, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if it would feel as complete as it would if
Speaker 1: it were players that I had grown to really.
Speaker 2: Like, especially since it's almost a certainty that there will
Speaker 2: be substantial turnover after this, like CACP won't be on
Speaker 2: the team, Lebron James won't be on the team, Joel
Speaker 2: Embiid will eventually reach a point where he can't play anymore.
Speaker 2: Like it will be a different team after. It'll feel
Speaker 2: like such a brief, small window. I think the stuff
Speaker 2: you're hitting on is like very valid. I mean, I
Speaker 2: think this is one of the overarching kind of problems
Speaker 2: with the NBA. You juice up player movement. It makes
Speaker 2: for exciting off seasons. We just had an amazing offseason.
Speaker 2: It's fun for content creators, but it lacks that like
Speaker 2: that slow burn and build that you get from like Baseball,
Speaker 2: where fans are like so intimately and like like kind
Speaker 2: of ingratiated with the roster over time. I think, I mean,
Speaker 2: you'll see this, Like I talked to Laker fans who
Speaker 2: still are like, man, I wish we wouldn't have traded
Speaker 2: Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart for Anthony Davis. So it's
Speaker 2: like at a certain point, it's kind of just a
Speaker 2: like you. There's a certain type of fan that definitely
Speaker 2: is is likes the idea of a real homegrown roster,
Speaker 2: which I respect. The two things that I would say
Speaker 2: about the Lebron thing that make that I would just
Speaker 2: pitch to Philly fans that have some concern one his
Speaker 2: off court behavior. What you defined is like kind of
Speaker 2: taking all the air out of the room, which I
Speaker 2: think is a fair characterization, like the stuff with Rich
Speaker 2: Paul and Austin Reeves and the passive aggressiveness and even
Speaker 2: just little comments like him saying on his podcast like oh,
Speaker 2: I'll do this role for now. It's like, what are
Speaker 2: you accomplishing by saying stuff like that, You're you're you're
Speaker 2: taking you You're making a locker room deal with passive
Speaker 2: aggressive behavior, that's all fair. Lebron in general has acted
Speaker 2: out more in that way when he doesn't think his
Speaker 2: team can win. When he has really believed in his
Speaker 2: team's ability to compete for a championship, he's been on
Speaker 2: his best behavior. The way I've described it is like
Speaker 2: Steph Curry is the best leader in the league in
Speaker 2: my opinion, because Rain or Shine's the same dude. Lebron
Speaker 2: is a fair weather leader. When he has a group
Speaker 2: that he really believes in, he's actually the best dude
Speaker 2: in the lead to have, the best dude in the
Speaker 2: league to have leading the team. It's when things aren't
Speaker 2: going good that he can start to get passive aggressive.
Speaker 2: And that's something to keep in mind. If things don't
Speaker 2: go well this year, if Joel Embi gets hurt, if
Speaker 2: there's weird chemistry issues. But there's so much talent on
Speaker 2: this team that I think Lebron truly perceives a legitimate
Speaker 2: shot for him to win his fifth that I actually
Speaker 2: expect him to more or less be on his best behavior. Now,
Speaker 2: the trade stuff, let's set that aside, because I'm not
Speaker 2: even sure I would trade him beat for ad and
Speaker 2: I want to dig into that concept here in a
Speaker 2: few minutes. But the second piece of it is where
Speaker 2: I cannot defend Lebron's off court behavior all the time.
Speaker 2: There is a We've all seen the pictures of him
Speaker 2: reading the first page of every single book, and the
Speaker 2: tweets and the weird press conference moments and the behavior
Speaker 2: of his agent. That stuff, to me is kind of indefensible,
Speaker 2: and the people that don't like him for that, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to argue it. Where I will defend Lebron
Speaker 2: to the bitter end is as a basketball player. He
Speaker 2: is so damn good at basketball, even at his old
Speaker 2: age that, like with all of the stuff that comes
Speaker 2: with it, the reason why the Sixers had to do
Speaker 2: this and the reason why it's worth it is because
Speaker 2: he's just so damn good. And I really do think
Speaker 2: he's going to come in and help this team in
Speaker 2: so many different ways, and I think they're going to
Speaker 2: be a much better basketball team for it. And that's
Speaker 2: the one thing where when some of the Lebron detractors
Speaker 2: come out of the woodwork, I will fight to the
Speaker 2: dirty end to defend him is say what you want
Speaker 2: about the guy, but he can hoop. He can really hoop,
Speaker 2: and I do think that he's going to take this
Speaker 2: team to the next level. So on that note, is
Speaker 2: there any part of you, even as a person who
Speaker 2: doesn't like Lebron, who has allowed yourself over the last
Speaker 2: five days to feel some optimism that this could be fun.
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Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I mean I'm I'm not a nangry person
Speaker 1: like that. I don't maybe I probably I'm forty nine.
Speaker 1: I probably would have characterized myself different in thirty two
Speaker 1: that I would hate watched every Sixers game because I
Speaker 1: can't stand looking at this guy that that isn't.
Speaker 3: How I am.
Speaker 1: So, you know the idea of all of these guys
Speaker 1: on one team, however much they play together, which is
Speaker 1: a different conversation or part of the conversation, but not
Speaker 1: this part.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, it could be fun to watch.
Speaker 1: And I said it before, and I'm actually not minimizing
Speaker 1: this part that I don't think the the objective, like
Speaker 1: the absurdity of him on the Sixers will ever be
Speaker 1: lost on me. This is absurd, not not in a
Speaker 1: bad way, but in a what is he doing on
Speaker 1: the Sixers? And I think I will have plenty of
Speaker 1: moments where they just announced that Lebron's checking in to
Speaker 1: the Sixers?
Speaker 3: How did this happen?
Speaker 1: So so I think I think, yeah, I don't have
Speaker 1: very much optimism for them to win a title. I
Speaker 1: think I'm lower than most probably definitely lower than all
Speaker 1: of Philadelphia. I found that out on the show show
Speaker 1: the other day. Slightly lower than the books. I think
Speaker 1: there are some hurdles that I don't think that people
Speaker 1: have addressed, some really obvious hurdles. But I don't deny
Speaker 1: that he won't make them better. I do not deny
Speaker 1: that it was the right thing for a Ganzy and
Speaker 1: Bob Myers to do. So I'm not there. I'm not
Speaker 1: the sort of Lebron hater unless I'm trying to tweak
Speaker 1: Lebron fans that dismisses how good he is. Like, my
Speaker 1: tweak is he's definitely top ten. I like saying that
Speaker 1: to drive people crazy, but I don't like I know
Speaker 1: how good he is, even at this age.
Speaker 3: I understand how good he is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the simplest way I would describe it
Speaker 2: as someone who's rooted for him obviously and watched him
Speaker 2: and covered him very close over the last ten years,
Speaker 2: is there will be times in the regular season where
Speaker 2: he looks old, and it can come there can be
Speaker 2: a combination of like nights where his body doesn't really
Speaker 2: feel good and where his mind isn't really in it.
Speaker 2: That's the real thing that shows up over the last
Speaker 2: five years is he'll have knights where he's just focused
Speaker 2: and he'll just be sloppy, and that will happen a
Speaker 2: dozen or so times in the regular season where it's
Speaker 2: infuriating to watch. But any big important game, the dude
Speaker 2: is just always locked in and he always does his job,
Speaker 2: and he's just super reliable in that sense. And so
Speaker 2: it's kind of like the trade off. But let's use
Speaker 2: your let's use your stance here as a framework to
Speaker 2: kind of talk about the team for a second. Sure,
Speaker 2: what can you give us the elevator pitch of why
Speaker 2: you don't think this is a championship team. So just
Speaker 2: kind of a quick breakdown of like what your concerns are,
Speaker 2: and then we'll kind of branch out from there to
Speaker 2: talk about the team.
Speaker 1: Sure, I think they're even they're even more general than
Speaker 1: a defense and rebounding and those sorts of basketball things.
Speaker 1: If we say that Joel Embiid plays forty games, Lebron
Speaker 1: plays fifty games, and Jalen Brown plays sixty three games,
Speaker 1: my guess would be that the key figures on this
Speaker 1: basketball team are probably going to.
Speaker 3: Play twenty or twenty five games. Together during the regular season.
Speaker 1: To me, that that is already that already takes their
Speaker 1: title chances down to a fraction.
Speaker 3: Be reps.
Speaker 1: You need reps, and all the teams that you're going against,
Speaker 1: these are not. The irony of this team observe jumping
Speaker 1: around a lot is that this is kind of like
Speaker 1: something that Daryl Morey would do and everybody would go
Speaker 1: old injured.
Speaker 3: No way it's gonna work.
Speaker 1: And so anyway, so let's say they play twenty or
Speaker 1: twenty five games together, you're going against teams that are
Speaker 1: that have been together longer and are also kind of machines.
Speaker 1: At this point, Boston, at least during the regular season
Speaker 1: will be a machine, probably right, the Knicks, probably Cleveland
Speaker 1: knows what they do. Indiana, most of those guys are
Speaker 1: the same guys from before Halliburton got hurt. Atlanta played
Speaker 1: all of last year together. Now they do have some changes,
Speaker 1: but I think the fact that so many of the
Speaker 1: players are new, so many of the high usage players
Speaker 1: are new. Brown is new high usage, Lebron is new
Speaker 1: high usage, and they're not going to play together very much.
Speaker 1: First is that that's the first strike. The second strike
Speaker 1: is Joel Embiid playing every other night in the playoffs
Speaker 1: is just not a reality to me unless it can happen,
Speaker 1: and it is the couch to do that or the
Speaker 1: op the you know. The the other side of that
Speaker 1: is people will go, well, they don't need as much
Speaker 1: from him, and so, but his value is scoring points,
Speaker 1: like his value is when he's on the court.
Speaker 3: He is an offensive player. That's what he's good at.
Speaker 1: So lowering his usage just makes him less valuable because
Speaker 1: he's not really that good a defender anymore, so, I guess,
Speaker 1: and we've seen him going in and out and being
Speaker 1: like the center of everything and then nothing is tough
Speaker 1: for the team to deal with. So we're depending on
Speaker 1: him getting through the playoffs, which he's never done. And
Speaker 1: then we're also depending on Lebron, who is still very
Speaker 1: good obviously, but is older than he was last year
Speaker 1: and will continue to get older than he was the
Speaker 1: year before. And the last time that he lasted four
Speaker 1: playoff rounds was twenty twenty, right, so, which is a
Speaker 1: long time ago. And he had three months off before
Speaker 1: that playoff that playoff run as well, because that was
Speaker 1: in the bubble. So those are just the big picture.
Speaker 1: If you just add those through two things together. What
Speaker 1: are the odds that Joel Embiid gets it through a
Speaker 1: playoffs healthy? I don't know, fifteen percent? And then what
Speaker 1: are the odds that they're able to maximize the talent
Speaker 1: they have even if that happens. Is a third of
Speaker 1: that So that's how I end up on I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe they have a five percent chance of winning everything,
Speaker 1: but seems like everything's going to have to go right.
Speaker 2: So what you broke it down with the Machines, I
Speaker 2: totally agree? Like to me, okay, seeing San Antonio are
Speaker 2: still in a tier by themselves, I think you have
Speaker 2: to at the very minimum p with the Knicks above
Speaker 2: the Sixers because their floor is just so, so so
Speaker 2: much higher. I think they have the highest floor in
Speaker 2: the league. Like they just got to be there and
Speaker 2: they got a great chance to win because they've just
Speaker 2: been playing together for so long. I think from that
Speaker 2: point down the list, I have a hard time arguing
Speaker 2: other teams over Philly just because of the sheer amount
Speaker 2: of talent they have. I think the Embiid injury concerns
Speaker 2: are legitimate. Lebron weirdly has been one of the most
Speaker 2: reliable players in the league, over the last few years,
Speaker 2: Like that Sciatica thing that caused him to miss the
Speaker 2: start of last season really is the only injury he's
Speaker 2: had in the last three years. He played seventy games
Speaker 2: each of the previous two and then when he came
Speaker 2: back from Sciatica this year, he played basically every game
Speaker 2: the rest of the way, finished around sixty and looked
Speaker 2: fantastic in the postseason, like looked athletic, looked, Spry looked great.
Speaker 2: So like, that's not to say that there's not injury
Speaker 2: risk there. There's always injury risk, but I do feel
Speaker 2: a little bit better about him. The Embiid piece is
Speaker 2: completely valid, and it's probably the best case for trading
Speaker 2: him because when I talk about like an Embiid Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis swap, I think about the sixerses and how Brunson
Speaker 2: just annihilated Embiad in pick and roll and in a
Speaker 2: way that was like impossible for them to cover four,
Speaker 2: And I think, well, Anthony Davis is just a much
Speaker 2: better pick and roll defender. But what I keep coming
Speaker 2: back to is Embiid when he's at his best, is
Speaker 2: just quite simply one of the top three or four
Speaker 2: offensive players in the league. And he unlocks so much
Speaker 2: for them in terms of five out spacing, like I
Speaker 2: envision everyone thinks, oh, the twenty twenty four Celtics they
Speaker 2: had five shooters. It's like, well, Jaylen Brown was a
Speaker 2: sketchy shooter, Jewe Holliday was a sketchy shooter. Like what
Speaker 2: it was was five guys who could play on the
Speaker 2: perimeter just all together, and that is something this group
Speaker 2: could unlock a look with Lebron and Jaylen Brown and
Speaker 2: VJ Edgecom and Tyres Max and Joel Embiid. Not to
Speaker 2: mention you have a bad matchup on him. He can
Speaker 2: win a series like he did against the Celtics. You
Speaker 2: don't have a guy who can guard him. He could
Speaker 2: just literally single handedly win a series. I think you
Speaker 2: could try to be a better drop team in terms
Speaker 2: of keeping him be close to the rim on defense
Speaker 2: virtue of having as much athleticism as this team has
Speaker 2: on the perimeter. Not to mention, Lebron is actually a
Speaker 2: very good back line defender, a guy who can cover
Speaker 2: for Embiid when he has to go out to the perimeter.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot that I think works when Embid
Speaker 2: is healthy. But your point about whether or not like, again,
Speaker 2: he has that great first round series and then immediately
Speaker 2: misses a game and is dealing with the hip issue
Speaker 2: and is dealing with the foot issue, and it's like
Speaker 2: if he can't survive. That's just the answer to your
Speaker 2: question as to whether or not you move on from Embiid.
Speaker 2: It just it simply dramatically increases your championship chances, just
Speaker 2: simply because that player can be available and on the court.
Speaker 2: I do think it's worth mentioning that Anthony Davis has
Speaker 2: had similar problems though, Yes, and that's why I have
Speaker 2: a hard time there. So what's your take on the
Speaker 2: flipping Embiid for a d think, Well, I ad.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't be what I would do, right, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: really care that this there is sort of like diminishing returns,
Speaker 1: where your whole starting lineup what their best thing is
Speaker 1: is getting you a bucket. I mean that's four out
Speaker 1: of the five guys in the starting lineup. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that that is the ultimate skill of but that's
Speaker 1: how they think of it. Oh, if you if this
Speaker 1: guy can't score, then this guy's going to score whatever.
Speaker 1: I from a center standpoint, I would just want a
Speaker 1: guy who is a great defensive center who plays every game.
Speaker 1: That's it and maybe can rim run, you know, like
Speaker 1: the the Tyson Chandler, Clint Capella, whatever sort of thing.
Speaker 1: You know, we had talked about Mitchell Robinson. Now he's
Speaker 1: got the same injury issues. You know, in the offseason
Speaker 1: when we were talking about a backup center, we had
Speaker 1: talked about that. You know, ironically it didn't work. But
Speaker 1: the Horford, you know, was when they signed Horford, I
Speaker 1: understood why they did it. It didn't work, and he
Speaker 1: got mad because they signed Horford. But like, you know,
Speaker 1: somebody who can play defense and play every game I
Speaker 1: think would be what they want.
Speaker 3: And I just like AD. I think em beads better
Speaker 3: than AD.
Speaker 1: Now, I think if I had a bet, who has
Speaker 1: a better chance of holding up through the playoffs, even
Speaker 1: though he said injury issues, I would still probably bet
Speaker 1: on a D at this point. But but I don't
Speaker 1: want to trade for a D and give him some
Speaker 1: giant contract extension either, given his health. And it also
Speaker 1: seemed like offensively that the Bubble year, the Bubble playoffs
Speaker 1: out liary. You know, It's just he's a good offensive player,
Speaker 1: but he's not can't shoot really and can't a range.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, it's it's very That's kind of my
Speaker 2: whole The whole thing is, like, I think it'd be
Speaker 2: easier to mimic some of what Ad does defensively by
Speaker 2: committee by bringing in other players. Then it would be
Speaker 2: to in any way, shape or form, bring what Joel
Speaker 2: and Breed brings. Joel Embiid brings offensively to your point
Speaker 2: about the diminishing returns, and I think this is really
Speaker 2: going to be the story of the season because if
Speaker 2: they play your turn, my turn, spread pick and roll,
Speaker 2: whoever doesn't have the ball is standing around on the
Speaker 2: perimeter spotting up that I think will lead to the
Speaker 2: diminishing returns. That's why I actually think the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four Celtics are an interesting kind of comp for this team. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid is not the driving kick player that Al
Speaker 2: Horford was, but he's capable of some of that. We
Speaker 2: saw some of that with Team USA, even particularly I
Speaker 2: think about the Serbia game on the right wing when
Speaker 2: he pump fakes and gets Yokich off his feet and
Speaker 2: drive baseline and dunks on the baseline, I'm like, oh, like,
Speaker 2: that's him playing driving kickball. I envision this team as
Speaker 2: a driving kick team because they have so much slashing talent,
Speaker 2: like Lebron can really slash, VJ can slash, Tyreese can slash,
Speaker 2: Jalen Brown can slash. I envisioned them as a team
Speaker 2: that can stack drives, like multiple attacks on the same possession,
Speaker 2: getting the ball at the floor quickly, making sure that
Speaker 2: everyone is involved by virtue of not getting into late
Speaker 2: clock situations where you're running io and pick and roll,
Speaker 2: and so I think that really is going to be
Speaker 2: the job that Nick Nurse has with this group. For
Speaker 2: our listeners, Can you guys give it? Can you give
Speaker 2: us a rundown of just what having Nick Nurses your
Speaker 2: coach has been like.
Speaker 1: It's underwhelming. I guess the thing that he hasn't been
Speaker 1: dealt a great hand. To be clear, I also don't
Speaker 1: think he's dealt with it well. My perception is that
Speaker 1: he gets gets knocked off track by being irritated about
Speaker 1: the situation. You know, I think the embied thing has
Speaker 1: been irritating for him. That's just my reading the room.
Speaker 1: We did expect this whole you know, he has the
Speaker 1: reputation of you know, mad scientist. We're going to see
Speaker 1: all this weird stuff. We haven't seen very much weird
Speaker 1: of any weird anything. To be honest with you, I
Speaker 1: thought he did his best job his first season with
Speaker 1: the Sixers, and that was when they had to end
Speaker 1: up trading Harden. You know, it was the hard and
Speaker 1: holdout year, and it was a weird year. You know,
Speaker 1: they ended up losing in the first round to the Knicks.
Speaker 1: But I thought that team was way better than I
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be. I thought he was
Speaker 1: a net negative two seasons ago when they ended up
Speaker 1: tanking because Embiid wasn't around. He did not handle that
Speaker 1: well and he certainly didn't bring out the best out
Speaker 1: of anyone. I'm not blaming him for the season, but
Speaker 1: he certainly didn't add very much to it. And I
Speaker 1: thought last year I was frustrated. I was frustrated with
Speaker 1: the Jared McCain thing. I think one thing that became
Speaker 1: a national talking point that wasn't right was that they
Speaker 1: didn't play Jared McCain. They played Jared McCain quite a bit.
Speaker 1: He never seemed to have any purpose out there. He
Speaker 1: was either you know, not trying to not trying to
Speaker 1: not disrupt anything, and then he would just be out
Speaker 1: there for six minutes, or he would realize he's only
Speaker 1: there for six minutes, and he would jack up as
Speaker 1: many shots as possible, and literally, you know, some of
Speaker 1: that was coming back from injury. I certainly can see that.
Speaker 1: But then he goes to Oklahoma City and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: here's what you do with Jared McCain, And I was
Speaker 1: frustrated with him on that. So it seems like offensively,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of creativity there. It is give
Speaker 1: it to your best players and let them play. And
Speaker 1: defensively there's a lot of you know, scrambling trying to
Speaker 1: create turnovers. But they've never really had a roster that
Speaker 1: I fit that, you know totally.
Speaker 3: So I don't know.
Speaker 1: He's a clutch client, so I imagine he will get
Speaker 1: the full year to figure it out. But I think
Speaker 1: he's been underwhelming. I would say, yeah.
Speaker 2: The offense stuff, I think is completely fair because the
Speaker 2: Jared McCain piece, he gets into OKC and then immediately
Speaker 2: he's just coming off of a million dribble handoffs with
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein and he's running around like crazy and the
Speaker 2: offense is kind of built around him as a chaos agent,
Speaker 2: and the only time he's ever really standing is in
Speaker 2: the units with Shae, and he's always on the opposite
Speaker 2: wing because Shay draws so much nail help and he
Speaker 2: gets all these wide open catch and shoot threes off
Speaker 2: of the left wing. They just used him in a
Speaker 2: really smart way, and I think that I I think
Speaker 2: that is an area where I think Lebron can really
Speaker 2: help this team. Frankly, I I believe that more often
Speaker 2: than not, we focus on the coach for offense, which
Speaker 2: I think is fair in a lot of cases, But ultimately,
Speaker 2: the basketball players themselves are the ones that generate the
Speaker 2: flow on the court. Because while there are sets that
Speaker 2: are run, and while there are you know, obviously you know,
Speaker 2: baseline out of bounds or sideline out of bounds opportunities
Speaker 2: for a coach to really get into his bag, so
Speaker 2: to speak, I don't care if you're running horn sets
Speaker 2: or if you're just playing free flow, five out basketball.
Speaker 2: The players on the court being smart and knowing when
Speaker 2: to cut, when to to uh to kick versus you know,
Speaker 2: jack a shot up the shoot pass decision making that
Speaker 2: that kind of read and react basketball is very much
Speaker 2: a product of in my opinion of the cumulative basketball
Speaker 2: skill that's on the floor, and so I think honestly,
Speaker 2: having another guy like Lebron on the floor that can
Speaker 2: kind of be a coach on the floor will go
Speaker 2: a long way towards helping this group. Now, the piece
Speaker 2: that you mentioned that I think is really important is
Speaker 2: Nick Nurse is famous, dating back to the Toronto days
Speaker 2: for being big on defense to transition, big on trying
Speaker 2: to force turnovers. Now, I know Jaylen Brown doesn't have
Speaker 2: a reputation for forcing a ton of turnovers, but I
Speaker 2: do think that's something he's very capable of. And Lebron
Speaker 2: is excellent as a back line turnover forcer. He's great
Speaker 2: at like playing center field when teams are in scramble mode.
Speaker 2: So I actually think this roster has the potential to
Speaker 2: fit Nick Nurse's defensive identity really well in terms of
Speaker 2: Ford aggression. Let's try to force these teams to win
Speaker 2: in four on threes With Lebron playing center field, We're
Speaker 2: going to force a bunch of turnovers and we're going
Speaker 2: to get out and transition off of that where this
Speaker 2: team is gonna be awesome, like's they're gonna be fit
Speaker 2: issues in the half court as they try to figure
Speaker 2: things out. But when this team is in the open floor,
Speaker 2: they're just gonna be huge pain the ass to guard.
Speaker 2: And so I think the defensive what I kind of
Speaker 2: envision is Nick Nurse and his defensive ideologies fitting really
Speaker 2: well with this group. And then you then you count
Speaker 2: on Lebron and just the cumulative talent to kind of
Speaker 2: figure things out on offense, because again, like Nick Nurse
Speaker 2: can put him in position you know, oh, we're gonna
Speaker 2: run horn sets with embiid Jaylen Brown and tyras Maaxy
Speaker 2: or embiid Lebron James and Tyrae s Maxey. But ultimately
Speaker 2: it's on the players on the floor to kind of
Speaker 2: figure out the flow from there. I understand there's this
Speaker 2: idea that a coach can just come in and and
Speaker 2: just draw up a bunch of sets and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, everyone's just gonna have a lot easier time
Speaker 2: on offense. And there's certainly a part of that, but
Speaker 2: I think the players ultimately carry the majority of that burden,
Speaker 2: and that's where I think Lebron's gonna be the biggest help.
Speaker 2: Lebron is just a he greases the wheels of offense
Speaker 2: with everything that he does as a connective passer. I
Speaker 2: heard you guys talking about this in the podcast. Like
Speaker 2: you you have lamented that this team doesn't have a
Speaker 2: lot of passing talent. I think that Lebron comes in
Speaker 2: and immediately brings a great deal of additional passing talent
Speaker 2: to just kind of help make things a lot easier.
Speaker 2: What's your kind of overall impression of what this team's
Speaker 2: going to look like in the half court offensively? Do
Speaker 2: you have any concerns? Let me actually put it to
Speaker 2: you this way. I think Tyrese Maxi might be the
Speaker 2: best offensive player on this team, and I'm, at least
Speaker 2: in the conversation, I'm worried that he is the guy
Speaker 2: that is going to suffer from the amount of air
Speaker 2: in the room that Lebron and Jalen Brown take up.
Speaker 2: Do you have any concern that ty Resee will kind
Speaker 2: of take a back seat to these guys.
Speaker 1: So I think when he's playing and beat is still
Speaker 1: the best offensive player on the team. Okay, but I
Speaker 1: think there's absolutely a fair argument for Maxi. I think
Speaker 1: in the short term we will likely see what you
Speaker 1: have suggested as he I think it might just be
Speaker 1: his personality, though he is getting older and becoming a
Speaker 1: little more you know, forward in what he wants and
Speaker 1: those sorts of things. But like, he is probably the
Speaker 1: one who is most likely to concede to these guys
Speaker 1: to give them the room to figure it out, rather
Speaker 1: than complaining or.
Speaker 3: Going off script or any of those things.
Speaker 1: But I also think he is, of any of those players,
Speaker 1: the most equipped to be a great offensive player with
Speaker 1: ball dominant players on the team.
Speaker 3: His you know, he had a very high usage.
Speaker 1: Rate last year and he was playing point guard. He
Speaker 1: is not a point guard, and he is not like
Speaker 1: he is fine off the dribble, but he's really got
Speaker 1: two moves. He's got a step back and he's got
Speaker 1: to try to blow by you. His handle, it's not
Speaker 1: a loose handle, but he doesn't like he doesn't handle
Speaker 1: the ball like Tim Hardaway or Steph Curry. It's not
Speaker 1: like some creator or even Filon. We're watching LeBaron Filon
Speaker 1: like dribble pass people or even Hardened can dribble pass.
Speaker 3: It's not really what Max he is.
Speaker 1: And he is way better off the ball and him
Speaker 1: sort of flying around and you know, defenders trying to
Speaker 1: chase him around and him coming off of screens. He's
Speaker 1: way better off the catch than he is off the dribble.
Speaker 1: So I think long term, you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: how effective Jalen Brown is going to be off ball.
Speaker 1: I don't know how effective that Lebron's going to be
Speaker 1: off ball. I don't know how effective Joel Embiid can
Speaker 1: be off ball. But I'm pretty confident that Tyrese Maxey
Speaker 1: can can do it and do it to a high level.
Speaker 1: So I think short term we will probably see why
Speaker 1: isn't Tyras Maxey scoring? Why isn't he being more aggressive?
Speaker 1: Long term, if it works, I think he will be
Speaker 1: elevated by this entire thing.
Speaker 2: Did you have any red flags or sirens go off
Speaker 2: in your head when you heard that the plan is
Speaker 2: to use Lebron James as a point guard?
Speaker 3: Well, so.
Speaker 1: I thought it was notable, only because you know, I
Speaker 1: heard Seam say, well, this is the first time since
Speaker 1: twenty twenty that he's been the point guard, and I
Speaker 1: just think to myself, well, I'm still a position guy.
Speaker 1: I'm still a point guard shooting guard. But I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, well, okay, I haven't watched every one of
Speaker 1: Lebron's games but he has the ball most of the time.
Speaker 1: At least until Luca got there, he was a de
Speaker 1: facto point guard, even if he was listed in the
Speaker 1: lineup as a power forward.
Speaker 3: So here's what I think, and maybe this is because
Speaker 3: of a hater and la la la la.
Speaker 1: The first thing I think is it's important that he
Speaker 1: is saying that along with the I think Sham's also
Speaker 1: said the.
Speaker 3: Buzzword is compromise. Is this is his fake compromise.
Speaker 1: This is his Hey, guys, I'm just going to get
Speaker 1: you buckets and I'm going to be the point guard.
Speaker 1: But please understand that the ball is going through me
Speaker 1: every time, every time we come up to the court.
Speaker 1: The other thing that I think is notable is calling
Speaker 1: him a point guard and a point forward. I know,
Speaker 1: in real life shouldn't mean anything, but I start thinking
Speaker 1: about the starting lineup and where they are deficient, and boy,
Speaker 1: if VJ. Edgecomb didn't exist, Dean Wade would be a
Speaker 1: nice player to have on that team. He defends multiple positions,
Speaker 1: he doesn't need the ball, he will shoot when he's open,
Speaker 1: those sorts of things, and I just wonder. I don't
Speaker 1: think it'll start this way, but I wonder if they
Speaker 1: don't come out of a gate super strong. If whether
Speaker 1: there's a conversation about putting Dean Wade in the starting
Speaker 1: lineup and having edgecumb.
Speaker 3: Come off the bench.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I'm curious about that too, because I
Speaker 2: think VJ, you know, you would pitch the idea of,
Speaker 2: like you know, Clutch maybe trying to pressure a trade there.
Speaker 2: I think VJ is going to be one of the
Speaker 2: key players on this team in so many different ways
Speaker 2: because for starters, if Embiid's going to be able to
Speaker 2: stay close to the rim, you need to have someone
Speaker 2: that can get over the top of screens. And I
Speaker 2: actually think in the starting lineup he's their best shot
Speaker 2: there in terms of like a small kind of like
Speaker 2: low center of gravity, get over the top of screens.
Speaker 3: Guy.
Speaker 2: They're gonna need him to guard the other team's best
Speaker 2: guard every single night, and to do that job well
Speaker 2: while also having the offensive responsibility of being a cog
Speaker 2: in that system. I think there's actually a like when
Speaker 2: I actually look at like potential trade options there at
Speaker 2: his salary slot, it's just gonna be hard to find
Speaker 2: a player that brings the combination of athleticism both as
Speaker 2: a perimeter defender, but also as a transition athlete and
Speaker 2: as a slasher in that system. But that also brings
Speaker 2: like he can, Like I thought he showed some you
Speaker 2: guys talked about in the podcast, he was very streaky.
Speaker 2: He definitely had It was like he'd have games where
Speaker 2: he'd hit a bunch of shots, and he'd have games
Speaker 2: where he'd go oh for four to over five. So
Speaker 2: he's definitely streaky. That's a thing he's gonna have to
Speaker 2: fix this year. But in terms of a combination of
Speaker 2: dribbleshoot pass talent plus like defensive versatility at his position,
Speaker 2: I think he's just really important. And I think if
Speaker 2: you go to a Dean Wade, there could be a
Speaker 2: like a foot speed trade off where if you have
Speaker 2: a Dean Wade and a Lebron and an embiid on
Speaker 2: the floor, all of a sudden, it goes from what
Speaker 2: feels like a very fast team to a very slow team.
Speaker 2: That said, I think each of these guys actually is
Speaker 2: going to be very important, and that's what that's actually
Speaker 2: what I want to do right now. We'll do a
Speaker 2: little rapid fire segment and then we'll get you out
Speaker 2: of here for the day. Okay, So I'm going to
Speaker 2: go over a couple of specific Sixers role players and
Speaker 2: I just want you to give your take on what
Speaker 2: you've thought of them in their time on the team.
Speaker 2: So let's start with VJ. What has been your first
Speaker 2: impression of VJ? And how do you think he fits
Speaker 2: in this team?
Speaker 1: Just way better in the first year than I thought
Speaker 1: he was going to be. You know, he was a
Speaker 1: way better offensive player. The shooting, it takes him a
Speaker 1: minute to get the shot up. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's a playoffs three point shot yet or
Speaker 1: a three point shot that's going to scare anyone. But
Speaker 1: love the physical profile, love the guts he showed, Loved
Speaker 1: his attitude and willing to work. And I do think
Speaker 1: in the best case scenario, you know, you're going to
Speaker 1: need somebody in a dirty work person in the starting lineup.
Speaker 3: You know, every team has one of those people.
Speaker 1: And it might not it might not be what we
Speaker 1: projected for him in year two to be, you know,
Speaker 1: the dirty work guy.
Speaker 3: But but I think he could be that.
Speaker 1: And who knows what sort of leap I've been taught
Speaker 1: a lot of the lessons about the leaps that MAXI
Speaker 1: has taken offensively. Not that I'm going to expect that
Speaker 1: out of VJ, but who knows how much better he
Speaker 1: could be in year two than your one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think the potential with him is
Speaker 2: off the charts. It's just so hard to tell this
Speaker 2: early in his career. But I mean, the dirty work.
Speaker 2: He literally has to be the dirty work guy. Like
Speaker 2: It's just it's that simple. They need him and Jalen
Speaker 2: Brown in particular to be like perimeter workhorses defensively so
Speaker 2: that you can take advantage of and beat size at
Speaker 2: the rim. And lebron as like a back line defender.
Speaker 2: But that doesn't work if you're not getting over the
Speaker 2: top of screens. If you're not getting over the top
Speaker 2: of screens, they're dead on arrival. I actually like Tyrese too,
Speaker 2: is like a hedge and recover guy. I think he
Speaker 2: gives a real effort. I think he gives real effort there.
Speaker 2: So let's get into some of the bench guys. Dominic
Speaker 2: Barlow was kind of featured pretty substantially last year, is
Speaker 2: like a small ball five. I think that he's actually
Speaker 2: a little bit more skilled with the ball than he
Speaker 2: gets credit for. Is sometimes he gets lumped in with
Speaker 2: all the other big, skill less forwards, like the Jared
Speaker 2: Vanderbilt types. But I don't see him as that. I
Speaker 2: think he's got a few a little bit more in
Speaker 2: terms of ball skills. But I think we're going to
Speaker 2: see a lot of him this year as like the
Speaker 2: fifth guy alongside the other four perimeter guys in a
Speaker 2: switching Look, what has it been like rooting for Dominic
Speaker 2: Barlow over the last couple years?
Speaker 3: So I like him.
Speaker 1: He was a revelation in the beginning of this season.
Speaker 1: You could tell Nurse really really liked him. He and
Speaker 1: I agree with you about his ball skills. Every once
Speaker 1: in a while, I'll put the ball on the floor,
Speaker 1: dribble to the rim, and oh he can he can
Speaker 1: do this, and I'll throw a nifty little pass or
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 3: He is way more skilled that way. The shot is atrocious.
Speaker 1: Now. He blamed He blamed an elbow injury that he
Speaker 1: had early on in the year. I was told that
Speaker 1: he he worked a lot in his form in the offseason,
Speaker 1: and then when it came when he struggled a little
Speaker 1: bit during the regular season, he went back, I mean
Speaker 1: it looks ugly, it doesn't go in it takes a
Speaker 1: long time to get up. And also the thing that
Speaker 1: you don't really feel when you're watching him, but then
Speaker 1: you look at the box square every time. He's just
Speaker 1: not He was not a good defensive rebounder, defensive rebound
Speaker 1: rate like ten eleven something like that, and when Embiid
Speaker 1: is there, not really.
Speaker 3: A rebounder anymore.
Speaker 1: I guess Barlow just felt like a regular season player
Speaker 1: until he can learn, until he can shoot. If he
Speaker 1: can shoot then and the small ball five, he's just
Speaker 1: like he's pretty, He's like, he's not tall. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's not big. He's not six ten, six eleven, seven feet.
Speaker 1: He is not physically imposing, and I don't know, I
Speaker 1: didn't like, I didn't love the lineups with him as
Speaker 1: a small ball five. So if he can shoot, I
Speaker 1: think he ends up being real important player for them.
Speaker 1: If he can't, he just feels like a regular season
Speaker 1: minutes filler.
Speaker 2: I agree with you in terms of like key core
Speaker 2: lineups and the game stuff. I do think having the
Speaker 2: size profile of Jalen and Lebron makes it a little
Speaker 2: more tenable because then you'd effectively be looking at Lebron
Speaker 2: as the small ball five. Alongside him as the four,
Speaker 2: if you want to to view it that way. But
Speaker 2: I always say that to say, like I think it's
Speaker 2: a look we're going to see a lot this year.
Speaker 2: Like it just simply is Justin Edwards. I actually really
Speaker 2: like Justin so I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 3: I like him a lot too.
Speaker 1: He's this rare player that is somehow better in NBA
Speaker 1: games than he is in Summer league games. You see
Speaker 1: summer league games and you're expecting him to go out
Speaker 1: and cook.
Speaker 3: And it's just not really who he is.
Speaker 1: He almost immediately just right place, right time, pretty decent defender,
Speaker 1: moves his feet well, not great. If you squint a
Speaker 1: little bit, you do see Covington, like you could see
Speaker 1: that few for him. He's I think his best he's
Speaker 1: and he's also a willing shooter. He's not a great shooter,
Speaker 1: but he's a good enough shooter. And he's really like
Speaker 1: him on the wing like that that three point shot
Speaker 1: on the wing was was pretty was pretty money. Toward
Speaker 1: the end of that season. It Nurse always says nice
Speaker 1: things about him. He was in and out of the
Speaker 1: rotation all year. Uh, He'll have a game where you
Speaker 1: wonder why he's why he doesn't play twenty minutes a game,
Speaker 1: and then he'll have a game where you wonder how
Speaker 1: he's even in the NBA. Occasionally, I like him a
Speaker 1: lot and I'm I'm glad he's and they're going to
Speaker 1: need him because they're not they don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of like he's their first wing off the bench. It's
Speaker 1: him and KCP, I guess are the if you consider
Speaker 1: them both wings, sou so them getting something out of
Speaker 1: him would be good.
Speaker 3: This year, Yeah, he was.
Speaker 2: Relatively streaky, but like he was one of those guys
Speaker 2: when I was watching six Ers games last year where
Speaker 2: I'm like, holy shit, he said three threes in the
Speaker 2: last minute and a half, like he would he would
Speaker 2: get he would get hot, all right, last one and
Speaker 2: then we'll get you out of here at den Bona.
Speaker 2: Do you think you if you him as a reliable
Speaker 2: guy who can play some minutes at the center. It
Speaker 2: blocks a lot of shots, athletic kind of helter skelter,
Speaker 2: kind of out of control. What's your take?
Speaker 3: Too small and fouls too much? Love him?
Speaker 1: Great guy, works real hard, probably at his best. If
Speaker 1: he's a forward playing with a center, you know, I
Speaker 1: saw an Instagram video the Love offseason Instagram videos of
Speaker 1: him shooting corner three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't look terrible. And he's a hard worker.
Speaker 1: He is a good athlete. He does block shots, but
Speaker 1: he is a classic backup center that he comes in
Speaker 1: the game and you're like, how does he have three fouls?
Speaker 1: He's only been on the floor for ninety seconds. And
Speaker 1: I think part of it is he he hasn't figured
Speaker 1: out when to try to block a shot and when not.
Speaker 1: But also that issue is he's not He's not that big, right,
Speaker 1: so he's not really center sized. He's like a six' eight,
Speaker 1: guy so like, him but he's he's run into. That
Speaker 1: he's had that same issue since since they drafted.
Speaker 2: Him, yeah and that's WHY i think the center position
Speaker 2: is really the key if they're looking for another. Upgrade
Speaker 2: I've i've talked about how on my, Show, LIKE i
Speaker 2: think they should be Calling charlotte and being, like, hey
Speaker 2: are you sure you want to give a bunch of
Speaker 2: money To Mussa diabat because we'll give you a minimum
Speaker 2: contract and some draft. COMPENSATION i think he'd be the
Speaker 2: perfect guy as like a switchy five to your point from,
Speaker 2: earlier in the show that can play big minutes in that.
Speaker 2: Universe but we got to get you out of, Here So,
Speaker 2: spike can you just really quickly before we head out
Speaker 2: for a, day can you just tell everybody where they
Speaker 2: can find your.
Speaker 1: Work Write Strinkie sanchez podcast and THE Wip Afternoon show with,
Speaker 1: Myself Ike grease And Jack fritz every.
Speaker 2: Day you can both both wherever you get your. Podcasts Thanks,
Speaker 2: mike this was a lot of, fun. MAN i sincerely
Speaker 2: appreciate you for joining us and giving us your time.
Speaker 2: Today that's all we have for today is Always we
Speaker 2: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the.
Speaker 2: Show we hope you all have a wonderful weekend and
Speaker 2: we will see you On monday for our summer player.
Speaker 2: Rankings