Game 11: Celtics @ Sixers 11/15 @ 7:30 pm ET ESPN Thread

[FireMorey]

They need to construct their roster and approach trading for players as if Embiid is going to be useless in critical moments. This way you don't have to rely on him in those situations and can let Maxey and whatever player you acquire shoulder the load. And then if Embiid does come through in those moments, it's a bonus. The narrative that because through barely 10 games because Maxey looked great, the Sixers no longer need another ball dominant player was way too premature. It's still their biggest need. Someone who can get buckets on their own in big moments. The more of those, the better, even if it takes some shots away from Maxey.

[Ferry Avenue]

Next time Nurse sees that from Embiid he should burn a timeout and hand him a Snickers bar.

The other issue you have here is that there is now no PJ Tucker or the equivalent who can get in Embiid's face when he's playing that way like he did last year in the playoffs. You have to sit him down. One close game where he's a healthy scratch for the final five minutes would be a wake up call for everybody.

[Bum Adebayo]

We can have an elite scorer though, we have the assets for it. So it depends on what route we want to take, but the possibliity is there, either get an elite scorer and ballhandler by trading Embiid, or go get a role player without touching the Maxey-Embiid duo.

[youngcrev]

Next time Nurse sees that from Embiid he should burn a timeout and hand him a Snickers bar.

The other issue you have here is that there is now no PJ Tucker or the equivalent who can get in Embiid's face when he's playing that way like he did last year in the playoffs. You have to sit him down. One close game where he's a healthy scratch for the final five minutes would be a wake up call for everybody.

Maybe that works, or maybe you just end up alienating your best player and pissing him off.

I don't imagine that's a risk they'd be willing to take.

[Bum Adebayo]

Next time Nurse sees that from Embiid he should burn a timeout and hand him a Snickers bar.

The other issue you have here is that there is now no PJ Tucker or the equivalent who can get in Embiid's face when he's playing that way like he did last year in the playoffs. You have to sit him down. One close game where he's a healthy scratch for the final five minutes would be a wake up call for everybody.

Maybe that works, or maybe you just end up alienating your best player and pissing him off.

I don't imagine that's a risk they'd be willing to take.

It has to be done though, team over players always.

[youngcrev]

The other issue you have here is that there is now no PJ Tucker or the equivalent who can get in Embiid's face when he's playing that way like he did last year in the playoffs. You have to sit him down. One close game where he's a healthy scratch for the final five minutes would be a wake up call for everybody.

Maybe that works, or maybe you just end up alienating your best player and pissing him off.

I don't imagine that's a risk they'd be willing to take.

It has to be done though, team over players always.

The success of the team greatly rides on that player, so I don't think that logic makes much sense (unsurprisingly)

[Ferry Avenue]

Next time Nurse sees that from Embiid he should burn a timeout and hand him a Snickers bar.

The other issue you have here is that there is now no PJ Tucker or the equivalent who can get in Embiid's face when he's playing that way like he did last year in the playoffs. You have to sit him down. One close game where he's a healthy scratch for the final five minutes would be a wake up call for everybody.

Maybe that works, or maybe you just end up alienating your best player and pissing him off.

I don't imagine that's a risk they'd be willing to take.

That's precisely the emotion he needs to start playing with.

[Jailblazers7]

They need to construct their roster and approach trading for players as if Embiid is going to be useless in critical moments. This way you don't have to rely on him in those situations and can let Maxey and whatever player you acquire shoulder the load. And then if Embiid does come through in those moments, it's a bonus. The narrative that because through barely 10 games because Maxey looked great, the Sixers no longer need another ball dominant player was way too premature. It's still their biggest need. Someone who can get buckets on their own in big moments. The more of those, the better, even if it takes some shots away from Maxey.

It’s kinda hard to construct a good roster if we need to assume our perennial MVP candidate & supermax cap slot player is functionally useless. I don’t necessarily agree but it’s a nearly impossible task.

I think the formula is clearly going to be putting as much length & athleticism at the wings next to Tyrese & Joel. That’s basically all you can do & hope for the best.

[mjkvol]

They need to construct their roster and approach trading for players as if Embiid is going to be useless in critical moments. This way you don't have to rely on him in those situations and can let Maxey and whatever player you acquire shoulder the load. And then if Embiid does come through in those moments, it's a bonus. The narrative that because through barely 10 games because Maxey looked great, the Sixers no longer need another ball dominant player was way too premature. It's still their biggest need. Someone who can get buckets on their own in big moments. The more of those, the better, even if it takes some shots away from Maxey.

It’s kinda hard to construct a good roster if we need to assume our perennial MVP candidate & supermax cap slot player is functionally useless. I don’t necessarily agree but it’s a nearly impossible task.

I think the formula is clearly going to be putting as much length & athleticism at the wings next to Tyrese & Joel. That’s basically all you can do & hope for the best.

I'm willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt for last night. Second night of a BtB, with the first being a track meet. Quite frankly, Joel should have sat last night, as he always should on the back end of a BtB.

One thing we've learned for sure this year (and something we all suspected) is that the importance of having athletic wings cannot be overstated. The other is how desperately we needed a coaching change.

[FireMorey]

They need to construct their roster and approach trading for players as if Embiid is going to be useless in critical moments. This way you don't have to rely on him in those situations and can let Maxey and whatever player you acquire shoulder the load. And then if Embiid does come through in those moments, it's a bonus. The narrative that because through barely 10 games because Maxey looked great, the Sixers no longer need another ball dominant player was way too premature. It's still their biggest need. Someone who can get buckets on their own in big moments. The more of those, the better, even if it takes some shots away from Maxey.

It’s kinda hard to construct a good roster if we need to assume our perennial MVP candidate & supermax cap slot player is functionally useless. I don’t necessarily agree but it’s a nearly impossible task.

I think the formula is clearly going to be putting as much length & athleticism at the wings next to Tyrese & Joel. That’s basically all you can do & hope for the best.

I don't think it's as difficult if you only need to assume that at the ends of 4th quarters. He will still be effective through most of the game, but the reality is he too often falls to pieces in critical spots. I just don't think he processes the game fast enough or is prone to getting flustered or frustrated.

[Bum Adebayo]

Maybe that works, or maybe you just end up alienating your best player and pissing him off.

I don't imagine that's a risk they'd be willing to take.

It has to be done though, team over players always.

The success of the team greatly rides on that player, so I don't think that logic makes much sense (unsurprisingly)

Yes it does, the team is always more important than any individual. Besides, it's not like Embiid is this insane player that just dominates and wins games alone.

[the_process]

Next time Nurse sees that from Embiid he should burn a timeout and hand him a Snickers bar.

The other issue you have here is that there is now no PJ Tucker or the equivalent who can get in Embiid's face when he's playing that way like he did last year in the playoffs. You have to sit him down. One close game where he's a healthy scratch for the final five minutes would be a wake up call for everybody.

Maybe that works, or maybe you just end up alienating your best player and pissing him off.

I don't imagine that's a risk they'd be willing to take.

Maybe Joel needs to get pissed off?

[Mik317]

again thats exactly what they did with Giannis. Jrue was the set up guy, Middleton was the deep threat closer, Giannis was the play finisher. Dame is their closer now. That doesn't make Giannis any lesser of a player , person, man or whatever macho bravado wip **** people be on.

Having your 7'2 300lb behemoth create from the 3pt line in situations in which teams know they must lock in is a recipe for disaster...especially when said behemoth is probably tired and already has a slower than youd like processing speed. That is the bulk of the problem most of the time. Right now its fine because unlike last year in which, the solution was to just go to the Harden/Biid PNR everytime and because teams weren't locked in...it worked. Now he has time to **** up and either learn from it or realize that we have to try something else and we hopefully now have a coach willing to do so (The Morris minutes really felt Doc-ish man)...its not the end of the world to me IMO. Like I don't think Oubre could keep it up and Batum has one foot out the door but just having dudes willing to chuck off the catch opened up so much and the moment we lost those guys things got ugly should be proof enough that its not time to think about world altering trades, benching or trading Biid or more armchair psychology.

Perhaps at the end of it all, it is just that Biid cannot win due to some dark curse lol but I feel for right now the answer is a lot more simple that and has a much easier solution than the constant agnst of starting over..or at the very least its waaaay too early to get there. We were under .500 this time last year with losses to bottom 5 teams...our 3 losses this year were winnable against playoff teams and unlike last year we have assets to make moves to fix the flaws

[Embiid P]

We can talk about how unclutch Embiid is until we're blue in the face, but it doesn't help that he's forced to carry the load himself when he's playing with a lineup of Morris, Beverley, Springer, and Covington. Naturally a healthy Oubre and Batum would help take the scoring load off him when Maxey and Harris are sitting. A good bench unit with a secondary ball handler who isn't washed would allow Embiid to conserve his energy for crunch time.

Bench scoring has always been a bugaboo for the Sixers (at least during the Doc era if not the BB era) and has unsurprisingly coincided with Embiid's poor 4th quarter performances vs. elite teams. It's a bigger but more easily correctible issue than most think.

[youngcrev]

It has to be done though, team over players always.

The success of the team greatly rides on that player, so I don't think that logic makes much sense (unsurprisingly)

Yes it does, the team is always more important than any individual. Besides, it's not like Embiid is this insane player that just dominates and wins games alone.

Framing that way in the first place is the part that makes no sense.

Maybe Embiid would respond well, maybe he wouldn't. In the event that he doesn't, I fail to see how that helps the team.

A negative outcome for your team's best player is not a positive outcome for the team. That's where the logic makes no sense.

[Dnt hate]

Ive seen enough, not a hot take: with Batum and Oubre we have a chance to beat Celtics in a 7 game series. Morey absolutely needs to bring them both back on 2 to 3 year contracts

[Mik317]

Batum is going to retire and Oubre may be too pricey so yeah I doubt ;p

[youngcrev]

Ive seen enough, not a hot take: with Batum and Oubre we have a chance to beat Celtics in a 7 game series. Morey absolutely needs to bring them both back on 2 to 3 year contracts

Maybe this season reinvigorates him, but Batum is supposedly retiring after this year.

[Jailblazers7]

My big takeaway from the last week is that I want no part of Indiana in a playoff series. They will run Embiid ragged by the end of a best of 7.

[youngcrev]

My big takeaway from the last week is that I want no part of Indiana in a playoff series. They will run Embiid ragged by the end of a best of 7.

True, but they might be the first good team he puts up dominant numbers against (if they still have a good enough record at the end of the year to be considered good)