1. Don’t fire anyone. This season was derailed mainly by Embiid’s knee, which I blame more on bad luck than bad strategy. I want Morey making the draft picks, and I think Nurse has done well with development, which are the things we need going forward.
Jared McCain: 15 ppg (15.3 last year), 6.5 three-point attempts (5.8), 6 reb% (4.8% last season, 9.3% in college), good enough to start uncomfortable conversations about shouldn’t he be starting
VJ Edgecombe: maintain his place in the starting lineup all year, make first-team all rookie, score 4 ppg in transition (Giannis led the league last year with nearly 8), and average 4 three-point attempts per game (last year Castle took 4.1) at at least 30% (Castle, 28.5%)
Goals for Sixers this year— Tyrese Maxey: set new career high in ppg (>26.3), make the all-star team or an all-NBA team, and get his plus/minus in the positives (regardless of how much he plays with Joel)
#1 on my personal Sixers power rankings. At the blue x white game the other day I think he stayed and signed as many autographs as the rest of the team combined, just an absolute delight to root for.
If VJ is starting and bringing this on defense, I don’t think they can start Kelly, two iffy shooters would bog down the offense and VJ will make Kelly’s guard defense less crucial
Nick Nurse on what's surprised him the post about VJ Edgecombe: "Getting over screens. He does that at an amazing level. You can screen him all day and maybe never get him off his man."
"I've been most impressed by his IQ...He learns something from the film one day and applies it immediately."
As stupid as the whole exercise is, I agonized over dropping Embiid. He’s brought me so much joy over the years and has carried the team. I just find McCain impossible to resist. E.g., for the second year in a row at the blue x white scrimmage he signed for every kid, just a really nice guy.
Oubre and PG were the hardest to rank. I love Oubre’s bits and quotes and hustle but his shooting is heartbreaking. And I would like to like PG’s performance, I just haven’t really gotten a chance yet!
At the very end of the game Maxey fell down & Joel didn’t see him and tripped over him. Joel threw himself through the air, rolled, and landed pretty hard. And then popped right back up. That was also pretty different from how things went last season!
I’m still pretty shocked at how much Embiid played. He was in the 5-on-5 scrimmage at the end of the morning practice and then played in both 10-minute periods of the blue x white game. He did not play at all in last year’s event.
