clenz wrote: ↑Mon Jun 21, 2021 12:19 pm
GannonFan wrote:
The Process already worked - you're posting about the Sixers right after they got bounced from the playoffs. No one was posting about the Sixers 10 years ago.
As for the future, SImmons has to go. His issues have just gotten worse, and last night he was gutless. You can't be gutless and play a leading role on an NBA team. Both Embiid and Doc Rivers called him out last night after the game. There's always the chance that he could work hard on his game, learn to shoot free throws and be aggressive offensively, but he's had that chance for 2-3 years now with no signs of improvement. Even worse, he folds up and hides when the playoffs happen and in big moments. He's got to be traded and Morey will have to earn his paycheck to make sure to get something decent back for him. Big questions about Tobias as well - although he wasn't gutless, he wasn't very good. Never felt like any of his shots were going to fall last night. Embiid is a stud and potential MVP, so it's not his fault. Get rid of Simmons and put someone else around Embiid and you don't lose to a team you're better than like they did last night. Lots of things to be happy about with the Sixers, but something has to be done about Simmons and to a lesser degree Harris.
10 years ago the sixers also lost in the conference semis. Then it was decided the processes needed to happen so the franchise was intentionally driven into the ground for years to get right back to where they were a decade ago needing a new excuse and scare goat year after year as for how the process is working “if X moves and X draft pick works out” even though at this point the X that needs to go is the guys drafted as part of the process to be the savior to bring the process to greatness.
The best record since the process came under the coach you fired and replaced with a guy that has one title that was won by creating the first version of “big 3” and was never able to replicate the success. Flamed out with the clippers year after year, now look who is in the western finals.
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Well, you're all over the place on this one. First of all, you're making the mistake in thinking that the Sixers, 10 years ago, were right where they are today just because they lost in the conference semis. That would mean you think finishing 8th in the conference that year equates with finishing 1st in the conference this year. Furthermore, that would mean that you completely disregarded the Bulls, the team the Sixers beat in the first round back in 2012, being a weakened opponent as they lost reigning MVP Derrick Rose in that 2012 playoff series right at the end of their game 1 win to a season ending knee injury. Heck, Jaokim Noah got hurt in game 3 of that series and missed games 4 and 5 as well. The Sixers got bounced in the next round when they faced a non-injured Celtics team (who would in turn lose to the Heat in the round after that). And to sum up the progress they had, they finished 9th in the conference the following year and didn't even make the playoffs.
So, in 2011-12, the Sixers were a team going nowhere. The last playoff round win, with Iverson, was back in 2002-03 (lost in conference semis that year). The Sixers would then, prior to the Process, finish in the conference: 11th, 7th, 9th, 9th, 7th, 6th, 13th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. Their best record over that time was 4 games over .500.
The Process is always overplayed, like the Sixers lost games on purpose for a generation. It's a myth that gets bigger every year. They only lost games on purpose for 3 years - starting in 2013-14 and ending in 2015-16. The NBA hoisted the Colangelo's on the Sixers in 2015 and Hinkie, the Process architect, resigned in April of 2016, thus ending the losing on purpose. In the 5 years since then, they only missed the playoffs once, that being in 2016-17, and in the 4 years they made the playoffs they finished 3rd, 3rd, 6th, and 1st in the conference, winning 3 playoff series. How is that not substantially better than the 10 years after Iverson where the Sixers were pretty much either out of the playoffs or just barely in, and only lucky to win one series because the best player on the other team blew out his knee in Game 1 of that series?
The Sixers were in limbo with no way out. They lose on purpose for three years, pull in Embiid and Simmons and the parts that let them trade for everyone else they have today, and now they're a team that's not living up to expectations rather than a team with no expectations. No one was talking about the Sixers post-Iverson, now random people on a football board post often about them.
The Process worked. Since then, there's been the disaster of the Colangelo years (he did draft Simmons for what it's worth, and then got bamboozled and passed on Tatum to draft Fultz, all before getting caught with multiple burner accounts and being let go), and then the ineptness of the Brand years (had Mikael Bridges and traded him for Zhaire Smith who is now out of basketball, drafted no one in the 2019 draft who's still in the league, and decided that Simmons and Harris were better than keeping Jimmy Butler). We've had more years of bad GM's and bad decisions than we actually had of the Process. That's how you know the Process worked - the Sixers are still more than relevant now than they ever were post-Iverson and that's even with franchise shattering decisions in the front office. A normal team would've collapsed by now with that many major mistakes.
Like I said, Simmons is done in this city and as a teammate for Embiid - how could you trust that Simmons wouldn't turn gutless again next year in the playoffs? Cut him loose, get what you can in return, and run it back with that and most everything else in place. Plenty of more years of relevance left thanks to the Process and the players that led to.
Although, I do agree that they may not have the coach. Brown had to go, he was a disaster at the end. But Rivers didn't shine this year in the playoffs either, and he does have a checkered history. We'll see how he does next year post-Simmons.