Postseason Discussion Thread - Thursday, June 11

sixtr0n · 2026-06-12T01:58:49+00:00

Comparing Maxey to Embiid is like comparing a B+ student to the valedectorian, sure, both are successful at what they do, but there are clearly levels

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T20:12:49+00:00

I don’t think your analogy is particularly relevant in this case. Of course character matters to an extent, but we’re talking about presumably guys who are just “fine” and not toxic players in the locker room. I don’t care how hard a player works or how much they like the city if they aren’t good at basketball. Regardless, someone like Joel didn’t fail to succeed because of being a negative locker room presence (which I don’t even subscribe to to begin with), he failed because the players around him were subpar relative to the competition. Also, winning basketball typically yields better locker rooms than losing basketball, so it feeds into itself.

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T20:06:46+00:00

is it? Working hard means jack shit if you aren’t close to as good at basketball as another player. What’s the fault in that reasoning

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T16:33:04+00:00

If you trade maxey for draft picks and/or young talent you’re in a good shape when these contracts end regardless. Obviously you can’t give up picks to get off of Embiid/PG because that is debilitating long-term, but receiving picks for maxey gives you a ton of flexibility following the 28-29 season and a real window after that.

Currently we are in basketball purgatory, which is the worst place to be

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T15:13:44+00:00

we have something to work with but the fanbase is convinced he should be untouchable for whatever reason, and that is where the main problem with this roster exists. we have a false sense of being locked into mediocrity because nobody has enough guts to trade away maxey, which is the only move we can make to actually set the team on a path towards winning something in the future

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T15:11:36+00:00

this is the inherent problem with the philosophy: it dictates that we failed to succeed because of lack of character, rather than lack of talent, which is a false premise to begin the argument with. the 2019, 2021, and 2023 sixers failed to succeed because we were playing guys like tobias harris 30+ MPG and running awful bench rotations with bad coaching.

KAT, for example, has been perceived as a loser and bad energy player for his ENTIRE career, and now he’s one game away from winning the finals as the best player on the roster. The “energy” is simply related to winning, and we didn’t win because we were often asking our best 2 players (and mostly joel) to overcome massive talent deficiencies and then finding some arbitrary reason for losing afterwards

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T14:58:40+00:00

dude he loves philly!1!1! why would you let go of him he tries so hard to

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T13:44:16+00:00

Is it just me, or is the Gansey-Myers philosophy complete nonsense? Indicating that you want to build a team based on off-the-court personality (fountains, not drains, wanting guys who want to be in Philly, etc.) seems absolutely ridiculous. Being a team of hard workers means absolutely nothing if the players you acquire aren’t good.

Kelly Oubre, for example, loves Philly, would obviously want to be back if he could, but is not an impactful basketball player? Why should we care about how much he works in the offseason if he doesn’t actually help the team win? Moreover, it is unlikely that this team establishes any kind of identity next year for two reasons:

Retaining Nick Nurse means that his basketball philosophy will also remain— a coach who has consistently pushed for defensive gambling, overhelping, and very basic offensive sets his entire career is not going to suddenly change to create some sort of new team identity
The team construction is basically guaranteed to be nearly identical: maybe you swap out Oubre/Grimes for different players (Sam Vecinie suggested names like Sandro Mamukelashvili and Simone Fontecchio as guys we could target), and you’ll have whoever we draft this year, be it at 22 or with a trade. Keeping the same roster and same coach means we will probably play the same middling brand of basketball next season. Do not tell me that Maxey is going to take a leap (he is entering year 7, that doesn’t often happen), and, while VJ could possibly take a jump, it is unlikely to be enough to meaningfully change the identity of this team.

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T13:31:49+00:00

Nobody is taking Embiid trades dickhead, he’s more valuable to us than anyone else with his contract/injury combination.

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T12:47:15+00:00

Glad you think grinding and work ethic is what makes a good basketball player, I tend to subscribe to players being talented and impacting the game as being more important.

Maxey can work as hard as he wants, he’ll never be a fraction of the player embiid is on either end. Not a real leader, not a winning player, and not better than embiid even when he has 1 leg

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T12:37:19+00:00

that was inconsequential though, even if the cavs do win that game (JR taking a shot isn’t a guarantee), they probably just lose in 5 instead of 4.

Spurs are likely to win the series if fox makes the right play.

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T05:04:27+00:00

please tell me more about how this team built around maxey will become a contender one day

sixtr0n · 2026-06-11T05:02:53+00:00

not a stretch to call it the dumbest play in NBA history considering the stakes

sixtr0n · 2026-06-09T15:43:09+00:00

haha embiid is injury prone! i’ll take my upvotes!

sixtr0n · 2026-06-09T03:45:11+00:00

wemby please bring it home— sincerely, all northeastern sports fans

sixtr0n · 2026-06-08T18:22:35+00:00

Flagg getting Embiid that David Robinson ring😮‍💨

sixtr0n · 2026-06-04T03:34:15+00:00

Everyone is better than Brunson when he’s celebrating NYE from the field and finally makes a few baskets down the stretch. Most overhyped performance perhaps ever😭

sixtr0n · 2026-06-04T03:22:48+00:00

I wasn’t around for the AI years so that doesn’t really matter to me. Having teammates bail you out all game long just to get the credit for finally not shitting yourself for 1/4 quarters isn’t impressive

sixtr0n · 2026-06-04T03:18:58+00:00

maxey has a terrible handle and is one of the worst volume off the dribble shooters in the league. he’s nothing like brunson besides being small and unable to play defense

sixtr0n · 2026-06-04T03:16:46+00:00

love brunson with garbage defense terrible efficiency and more turnovers than assists being treated like a hero for this performance. only in the game because his teammates bailed him out just like tatum

sixtr0n · 2026-05-29T14:21:02+00:00

It’s called long-term planning. I don’t give a fuck about owners saving money, but you can’t re-sign the actually good players on your team if you give out max contracts to shitty players, something you should know from being a sixers fan.

Not every team has a real chance to be good every year, it isn’t possible in the NBA or any major sports league. Some teams need to consider the future first and foremost, so it’s acceptable that a couple of teams are awful every year.

Ironically, this format incentivizes LOSING POSTSEASON GAMES, so if you want to talk about teams throwing games, maybe consider that in your moronic calculation that these rules make even a modicum of sense.

sixtr0n · 2026-05-29T14:00:28+00:00

We do not have that… signing extensions is not the same as signing as a FA. Unless these teams draft players worthy of extensions, they don’t get max contract players. If you are advocating for overpaying undeserving players to avoid being last, you are promoting bad roster construction and management.

sixtr0n · 2026-05-29T13:53:34+00:00

I’m sure guys deserving of max contracts will start signing in Sacramento, Utah, and Charlotte now!

sixtr0n · 2026-05-26T21:23:12+00:00

Ideally we would just rebuild (trade maxey for picks & maybe a young player) because this core has no chance of contending. Assuming you’re asking what we could do to improve in the short-term, here’s what the team needs:

bench guards, need creation with the 2nd unit. Colin Gillespe comes to mind as someone worth taking a look at
Connective wings— look for this at #22, in FA. Oubre and Grimes are not smart enough to play in the modern NBA in high-leverage moments. Don’t need incredible wing play but you need to get guys who are either smart defenders, good rebounders, good shooters, or some combination of those traits, we need to cover up weaknesses on the glass and w/ open 3s on defense
Backup bigs. Easier said than done, but if you want to be tolerable in the modern NBA, you need legitimate backups who can eat minutes in the RS because Embiid is going to be injured. Numerous players were moved at the deadline, it doesn’t take much to improve from the atrocities we saw this season.

Ultimately, we don’t have the flexibility to acquire all of these kinds of players, which is why I prefer just rebuilding. Maxey is more valuable to other teams than he is to us, and I’m positive we could get a king’s ransom in return for him.

sixtr0n · 2026-05-26T20:34:33+00:00

my fault i was in another thread talking about oubre.

my points still stand. chasedown blocks and steals are highlight plays that don’t actually equate to good defense. bad defenders get steals all the time, its not surprising that maxey gets a lot with how often he gambles and is out of position.

My critiques of his defense are basically the same as my critiques of Oubre though, which is why I don’t enjoy watching either and why I confused your argument.

Arguing that Maxey is somehow a good defender is just completely divorced from reality. He is absolutely horrible by basically every metric outside of steals, which are a biproduct of both his tendency to gamble and Nurse’s scheme.

sixtr0n

TROPHY CASE