This doesn't have to be the end of the Sixers as we know them
Philadelphia's chances were crushed by mistakes and a mismatched roster. It can be undone.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino, J.M.W. Turner
The Sixers fired Brett Brown on Monday in a rather expected move after Philadelphia got sweep by the Celtics. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski also reports that there will be some restructuring in the Philly front office, though Elton Brand will remain in control of basketball operations, as he has been for the past two … eventful seasons. Front office structures and whatnot matter, but if Brand is the person making final decisions, and he made the final decisions on the previous few transaction windows, well, that’s not much of a material change, is it?
Anyways, Woj also reports that Tyronn Lue is a top target for the Sixers (you can tell the Sixers front office isn’t going to really be restructured too much if there’s already a coaching target within hours of firing the old one). This tells me that the Sixers are not looking at trading either Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons. If you’re going to reset partially or in whole, you don’t target the coach every other team is targeting, driving up his price and expectations. You focus in on a first-time NBA head coach or someone else undervalued. Of course, given the peculiarities of this particular roster, city and these stars, there are a lot of ways to go wrong. Embiid seemed to love Brett Brown. I don’t know that Simmons was on the same page. It doesn’t appear Tobias Harris or Al Horford were particularly thrilled with Brown by the end of this season. Jimmy Butler’s exit was linked to Brown in some way.
Horford is a great person and a quality basketball player, still. His contract is an anvil. Philadelphia could still theoretically unload it by taking on a similarly tough contract at a position of higher need. (Horford for Andrew Wiggins? Reunite the 2014-15 Kansas Jayhawks! What’s Tarik Black’s Maccabi Tel Aviv buyout look like?) The same applies for Harris, who has the advantage of being younger and a more prolific scorer. Teams could use a Tobias Harris. (Would the Hornets flip Nicolas Batum’s expiring contract for Harris? How big of a sweetener would Philly require?)
What I’m saying is that these acquisitions were, in retrospect, serious mistakes. Replacing Butler’s salary slot with Horford is an awful trade-off when you have Joel Embiid and no shooting and a lack of shot creation on the roster. The contract Philly gave Harris was fine and necessary; the trade to acquire him (two firsts and two seconds) as a rental who would need to be paid that contract over the summer was too aggressive. Another complicating factor: Philadelphia could have potentially, perhaps won the championship last season, thanks in part to that move … if not for Kawhi Leonard’s bounces.
The 76ers have not exhausted the limits of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. A new coach is one piece of Take Two. Rebuilding the roster will be difficult, but it’s possible. That’s another piece. No contract in the NBA is untradeable. In fact, the real gnarly contracts are necessary for healthy movement in the league — most teams have at least one dicey contract, everyone who doesn’t win the championship has needs (and they do too, usually) and not every franchise will be looking to slice salary in the new post-COVID world order. I’m not saying if going to be easy to trade Horford and/or Harris, or that simply moving off that money fixes anything. It doesn’t. But options exist. And so long as options exist to “fix” the Sixers without touching the two stars, you focus on those.
Or you just bite the bullet and trade one of them before they ask out or suffer a serious injury. I mean, if you’re trying to look for hope in Philadelphia you might have to travel back in time and ask What Would Hinkie Do? He would probably not tinker around the edges, would he?
Scores
Bucks 121, Magic 106 (MIL leads 3-1) — Orlando was in this game until early in the fourth quarter, and Nikola Vucevic had another strong game against Brook Lopez. But Giannis Antetokounmpo is so, so good. 31-15-8 shooting 67 percent in 33 minutes.
Rockets 114, Thunder 117 (Series tied 2-2) — Brilliant contest, tons of shotmaking (and shot bricking to be honest), back and forth battle at the end with real and clear stakes. Houston hit its first eight threes of the second half to open up a big lead, but then went ice cold — OKC was down by just one by the end of the third. Dennis Schroder torched Houston. Chris Paul hit the go-ahead pull-up long two. Good game, good series.
Pacers 87, Heat 99 (MIA wins 4-0) — Another strong effort from Indiana, another disappointing result. It’s not always pretty, but Miami is locked in. Kendrick Nunn played for the first time in the playoffs, Jimmy Butler played just limited minutes due to a shoulder injury. Goran Dragic’s offense and defense from a cast led by Bam Adebayo led the way for the Heat. They will not be a pushover against Milwaukee, at minimum. Butler has a few days to heal up now.
Lakers 135, Blazers 115 (LAL leads 3-1) — L.A. destroyed them from the jump. LeBron, Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all shot 50% or better from three. Must be a full moon. Also, Damian Lillard hurt his knee.
Schedule
Just two evening NBA playoff games on Tuesday. Well, evening if you’re on the East Coast. All times Eastern.
Jazz vs. Nuggets, 6:30 p.m., TNT, UTA leads 3-1
Mavericks vs. Clippers, 9 p.m., TNT, Series tied 2-2
And here’s the WNBA line-up.
Liberty vs. Sky, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network
Aces vs. Wings, 9 p.m., CBS Sports Network
Fever vs. Storm, 10 p.m., ESPN2, REVENGE GAME
Links
David Thorpe in TrueHoop on the coaching issues in Mavs-Clippers Game 3 and how Luka Doncic erased them. ($)
Yaron Weitzman, who literally wrote the book on The Process, on Philadelphia’s wasted potential.
For B/R Mag, Mirin Fader talked to athletes who opted out of sports amid the social justice movement and the pandemic, including Natasha Cloud and Wilson Chandler. Coincidentally, Jackie MacMullan watched a Lakers-Blazers game with Trevor Ariza to talk to him about his decision to stay home.
In somewhat related news, amid protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin after police shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back in front of his children, George Hill of the Bucks renewed questions about why the NBA even resumed action. Other players talked about Jacob Blake, too.
Additional thoughts from LeBron in this piece.
Speaking of B/R Mag, I’m really said to hear Bleacher Report is closing down the effort. They employed some really talented NBA reporters and writers, including Howard Beck, Mirin, Jonathan Abrams and Yaron Weitzman. The media industry: pretty broken!
Matt Ellentuck on the Storm’s vulnerability.
Kevin O’Connor on Jeff Green’s ninth life.
The Athletic reports that Glen Taylor is in discussions to sell the Timberwolves to a former minority Grizzlies partner (not the one who was previously linked to a Wolves sale!). ($)
If you’re at all interested in the Tour de France, I recommend a subscribe for Louis Bien’s new Tour newsletter.
The Life Breonna Taylor Lived, In The Words Of Her Mother.
Black Lives Matter.
Be excellent to each other.