Bryant wrote:

Pretty embarrassing dunk contest today. Can't believe missed dunk got 35 points, that was ridiculous.

Only 1 good dunk from Diallo (the one over Shaq); congrats flobs.

I guess next year will be more hyped with Zion. Hope Terrance Ferguson competes as well.

Cheers buddy. It was quite impressive. The boy has got some hops - he deserved it.

Russ gon be so mad to be on the all star reserves.

arsedoc md wrote:

That Gordon-levine contest may have ruined dunk contests for a long time.

i've watched this after the last 2, now 3 dunk contests.

Hope Zion isn't hurt badly, I've never seen a shoe explode like that. Bad look for Nike.

i've seen it multiple times with Nikes, never caused an injury before though. funniest one was tony wroten when he was with the sixers, one second everything is fine and you blink and he was in his socks.

Not a good look at all. Adidas and other shoe companies are going to be on a full court press trying to get him to leave Nike and sign with them now. He’ll get paid for this. Nike shares dropped 1.5% in pre market trading over this

He's not signed with anyone, Duke is signed to Nike. He's an amateur, only other people are allowed to make money off him.

How is this guy 285 pounds at his height? He looks mobile, but shouldn't he try to lose some of that mass?

i see knee problems in his future. he's too fast and can jump too high at that weight.

flobaba wrote:

Not a good look at all. Adidas and other shoe companies are going to be on a full court press trying to get him to leave Nike and sign with them now. He’ll get paid for this. Nike shares dropped 1.5% in pre market trading over this

finally beat the thunder tonight, even without embiid

tobias harris has fit in better, in like 7 games, than butler, who has been here since november

In hindsight, I think the 6ers would have been better off without the Butler trade. Adding Harris with Saric and Covington still there would make for a stronger and more balanced team.

Celtics beating Golden State by 33 points in Oakland. Their biggest home loss in Steve Kerr era. Hayward with 30 points. Really happy for him.

Man Celtics are such a frustrating team. Hopefully they can get over their problems in time for the playoffs.

Really looking forward to the post-season. A lot of really strong teams in both conferences, even at the lower seeds. Makes for some mouthwatering first round match-ups.

A long long way to go for the Celts; not biting on this win for the team or Hayward. Lets see how the road trip goes. Having said that if the Celts and Warriors reach the final, they produce evenly contested entertaining matches and it would be a good series.

Smart, Irving, and Horford are play-off ready. Everyone else has been lackadaisical, within themselves more often then not.

I think Brown(or Baynes) are ready to be back in the starting line up but not sure about Hayward who's still a bench wildcard. It might turn out to be a good move to give him Rozier's minutes at point guard if he continues to impress. Rozier seems like the first sacrificial lamb for change.

rockets are ramping up at the right time.

est wrote:

In hindsight, I think the 6ers would have been better off without the Butler trade. Adding Harris with Saric and Covington still there would make for a stronger and more balanced team.

ive been thinking more deeply about butler and how he fits in the last 2 weeks, and i think actually im glad he is on this team right now. basically, he has changed his offensive game. for 3 quarters, he plays within the flow of the offense, hes happy to serve as a facilitator and passer and focus on playing defense. in the 4th quarter when the game slows down, the team is running more plays for him (middle pnr, iso) specifically, and hes hitting those shots. last night he said that was his role, and hes happy with it. in the playoffs, when the games get tight, that is the kind of player you want. saric and covington are both very limited players. covington can't dribble with the basketball and attack closeouts. butler is a 1 man offense at times when he needs to be. cov is a slightly better defender, especially off ball, but butler is a great one on one defender. he seems to be playing at 75% right now, conserving his energy, and after what thibs did to him for his pre-sixers career, im fine with that approach. saric would have been targeted heavily in the playoffs because hes a bad athlete and struggles defending consistently without help.

the bigger question is, do you pay someone $35m a year for 5 years as a free agent, as a 29 soon to be 30 year old free agent, when hes at best the 3rd most important part of the team. i was leaning towards no, but the sixers really have limited options. if they wait to sign harris to a max (which i think they will, and he will be okay with it), they can renounce all their FA rights (redick, scott, boban, etc) including butler and they can still sign a 7-9 year FA to a max. however, they'd need to know which guy that should be, and that guy would need to offer more than butler will. of the FA options, really only klay and kawhi fit that mold, and neither of them are coming to philly. so, the question then is, are you better off spending the $35m butler would command on bringing back redick and a few bench guys instead of butler? im less certain that is a good idea. if the owners are willing to pay the luxury tax, then i think you just max out butler and tobias, you pray that butler's lower workloads in philly, where he doesnt have to iso 40 times a game, mean that he will age more gracefully and only the last year of his 5 year deal is problematic. harris, embiid and simmons are all 26 or younger. the core is there. then you use redick's bird rights and give him a reasonable 2 year deal, you bring back mike scott with bird rights, and you have the full mid level exception to bring in one more impactful bench guy who is hopefully willing to take a bit less for a shot at a ring.

this summer is going to be absolutely bonkers with all the moving pieces around the league. durant, kyrie, kawhi, butler. its going to be insane.

josh okogie of the t-wolves had a better one. it's always when the shot clock is running down because he has no choice but to shoot it at that moment. sixers still got that work though.

oh man

How about James Harden yesterday? That was a crazy peformance vs. the Spurs:

mdgoonah41 wrote:

this embiid stuff is infuriating. hes basically been on a vacation while we've struggled in important games that will impact seeding.

have a feeling we're going out in the first round this year no matter who we play, and brett brown is going to get fired. i have no idea who we could even get to replace him

things have improved since the posting of this comment....

Harden looks like he is not even trying.
Also that beard.
...!

mdgoonah41 wrote:

mdgoonah41 wrote:

this embiid stuff is infuriating. hes basically been on a vacation while we've struggled in important games that will impact seeding.

have a feeling we're going out in the first round this year no matter who we play, and brett brown is going to get fired. i have no idea who we could even get to replace him

things have improved since the posting of this comment....

Hope it gets bad again. I love reading your melt downs to be honest.

yeah things are looking good for the 76ers. Saw them play against the Celtics after some time and the balanced looked decent. Harris contributed early, Butler late, Embid with high production throughout.

Celtics still mercurial unfortunately. Bruins might have a better chance of a championship at this point.

Celtics lack the chemistry and togetherness they did last year. I don’t think it will just show up again during the playoffs unfortunately. Houston might be GSW’s biggest threat.

flobaba wrote:

Celtics lack the chemistry and togetherness they did last year. I don’t think it will just show up again during the playoffs unfortunately. Houston might be GSW’s biggest threat.

Yep. Houston is GSW's only threat.

Kerr has to figure out what to do with Cousins come playoff time. Harden and Paul will put him in the pick and roll every time down the court otherwise, and that won't be pretty.

Wow. Just watched extended highlights of the Duke game. That was some thrilling stuff, particularly the ending. Zion is real - loved the drive at the end against the 7’6” Fall and his battle all night with Smith. Thought UCF gave Duke too many open 3s - when you have that many good shooters you need to be much more aggressive on the permiter D.
Where will Zion play in NBA? Can he be Charles Barkley-style undersized power forward with all that mass, or is he going to have to build more of a permiter game and be a small forward? Or is it less important these days?

Claudius wrote:

Wow. Just watched extended highlights of the Duke game. That was some thrilling stuff, particularly the ending. Zion is real - loved the drive at the end against the 7’6” Fall and his battle all night with Smith. Thought UCF gave Duke too many open 3s - when you have that many good shooters you need to be much more aggressive on the permiter D.
Where will Zion play in NBA? Can he be Charles Barkley-style undersized power forward with all that mass, or is he going to have to build more of a permiter game and be a small forward? Or is it less important these days?

i think its less important. its weird to try and project what position he plays. for example, hes 6'7, the same height as draymond, who plays the 4/5, but he weighs like 50 pounds more than draymond already. hes a good athlete, but hes raw defensively, from what little of him ive seen. hes not a rim protector so its unlikely he can play center.

id guess that he'll guard either 3s or 4s, which could be a challenge for him, and he'll operate in the post on offense. his shooting is going to take time to develop

In terms of defense from what I've seen he's got great hops, gets vertical quickly, so could guard most 4s and some 5s. He had a really impressive block on Fall - just a good combination of speed and awareness in the post. Only question I have is given what you say about his weight, would his knees be able to sustain it - I think he weighs as much as Shaq did coming into the league all those years ago, and a bit more than Lebron now. Speaking of Lebron, might as well take the rest of the season off seeing what's at stake...

Good riddance.

Of course he would go public about it before telling the ownership about his decision.

Playoffs time

Embiid is playing today against the Nets. Hope he’s actually fit and good to go. Good luck 6ers fans.

flobaba wrote:

Embiid is playing today against the Nets. Hope he’s actually fit and good to go. Good luck 6ers fans.

Well..he was not.

so many lower seeds won.

Playoffs are wild.

Golden State choking a 31 point lead this time. At home.

est wrote:

Playoffs are wild.

Golden State choking a 31 point lead this time. At home.

And...Lou Williams was eating nachos after the W:

Na-Cho night dubs!  

And....Cousins is out w/ a torn quad. 

since it was a late west coast game i fell asleep when the worriers were up 31 so i didn't see the comeback. just watched where i left off on nba league pass mobile.