• March 19, 2024

Sixers Week In Review: Ben Simmons Continues To Shine

Positives

  • The Sixers finally made the right move, and shut down Markelle Fultz. It was painfully obvious that Fultz was laboring through the first three games of the year, and he was no good to them in his current state.
  • Ben Simmons…wow. Simmons has been turning heads left and right through his first six NBA games. Ben started off the week with a 21-point triple-double against the Pistons. He followed that up with solid stat lines in the next two games as well, including a new career-high 23 against the Mavericks. He’s just scratching the surface, folks.
  • Joel Embiid put together some impressive stat lines, dropping 30 against the Pistons, and over 20 against the Rockets and Mavericks. The news wasn’t all good for Embiid this week (see below) but he’s been providing the team with good scoring numbers.
  • T.J. McConnell has probably been this team’s third best player (at times, arguably second) behind Embiid and Simmons. T.J. enters every game off the bench with the mentality to be a pest and create problems for the opposing team. He’s been just that. Against the Rockets, McConnell had six points, nine assists, six steals, and five rebounds. He followed that up with 15 points, eight assists, four boards and a steal against Dallas.
  • Dario Saric has struggled to find his place in the rotation this year, but seemed to start to come out of it a bit on Saturday against the Mavericks, knocking down four three’s as a starter for the first time this season.
  • Timothe Luwawu-Cabbarot struggled over the first week of the season, and lost his place in the rotation to Justin Anderson for a game. But an injury to J.J. Redick opened up minutes for TLC on Saturday, and the second-year man responded with a good showing, knocking down a couple of big three’s in a limited run off of the bench.
  • As a team, two wins in three games makes for a pretty solid week.

Negatives

  • I’m not among the people that are out to pile on Brett Brown, but the one thing I will criticize him for is that McConnell should have been playing above Jerryd Bayless in the final minutes of the Houston game on Wednesday. He more than earned the right to be out there for that stretch, but at least Brown realized the mistake and played McConnell in the critical moments of the Dallas win.
  • Joel Embiid continues to spend too much time camped out at the three-point line. I love Embiid’s three-point ability, but this shouldn’t be the primary focus of his game, not when the Sixers have the other outside threats on this roster. Embiid’s got to spend more time attacking down low and living at the free-throw line.
  • Joel has also been turning the ball over far too much. He’s been averaging just under five per game, he’s got to cut that down.
  • Embiid’s durability only took six games to rear it’s ugly head. He went for an x-ray on his hand after Saturday’s game, though the results fortunately came back negative.
  • Ben Simmons played a little soft at times in the Houston game. He botched several easy layups on plays where he should have been more aggressive. However, Ben corrected this in the Maverick game, hammering down several dunks on the fast break opportunities he had in that game.
  • The Sixers botching the win against the Houston Rockets was painful to watch.

Denny Basens

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eagles0superbowls
eagles0superbowls
October 29, 2017 11:27 pm

Embiid is just an average low post player what makes him special is he is an above average pick and pop player.
Wish Simmons and Embiid knew about the Moses Malone trick. ( purposely miss a shot to get the ball off the back board in a better spot to score than the release point off the first shot.)
Yogi missed the front end of a foul shot trip down by 2 with 2 seconds left to bail Brett Brown out of another embarrassing 2nd half collapse against Dallas for a (2-4 ) record. Still winless at home even though they had Boston without Morris & Smart and Rockets without Paul and Ariza. ( missed opportunities)

eagles0superbowls
eagles0superbowls
October 29, 2017 11:52 pm

Phillies expected to hire Gabe Kaplan as manager. Not interested in the hire. Don’t really want to watch them next season. 100% against Gabe Kaplan. Just as bad as if Ruben Amaro was hired. I know I won’t purchase any tickets not sure if I’ll want to watch them on TV. What a disappointment, just down on the phils now, feels like the strike return year. I just don’t care about them with this hire.

haveacigar
haveacigar
October 30, 2017 10:50 am

Because you know so much about him. You interviewed him and didn’t like his knowledge?
They could have hired Tony Larussa and you’d fucking whine.

eagles0superbowls
eagles0superbowls
October 30, 2017 2:02 pm
Reply to  haveacigar

goodbye Phils. I’ll watch tennis instead.

haveacigar
haveacigar
October 30, 2017 3:30 pm

Great! We can go thru a season without your trolling comments

haveacigar
haveacigar
October 31, 2017 9:08 pm
Reply to  haveacigar

Wry obvious watching the dodgers and astros this is the template phils are following… along with cubs etc. I’m not a huge fan but you can’t argue with success

eagles0superbowls
eagles0superbowls
November 1, 2017 12:18 pm
Reply to  haveacigar

smh, you really wrote that. Comparing Middleton, MacPhail, Klentak, & Kapler with the best in baseball.

haveacigar
haveacigar
November 1, 2017 12:49 pm

I guess we will find out in the next few years–I didn’t compare them at all dummy– I said they are trying to FOLLOW THEIR TEMPLATE– if they follow it and it succeeds you can THEN COMPARE them favorably- if they follow it and it fails you can THEN COMPARE them negatively– nitwit

eagles0superbowls
eagles0superbowls
October 31, 2017 10:20 am

Sixers beat Rockets in Houston. Ben Simmons had 24 points,which is his new personal game high best. He played well hit a couple stop and pop foul line jumpers to help Sixers win 2 in a row & 3 of last 4. Simmons did miss 3 of 4 free throws in last 2 minutes of the game which is a little worrisome but the Sixers still hung on to win. Next game home with Atlanta ( 1-6) Very winnable.

eagles0superbowls
eagles0superbowls
November 1, 2017 12:34 pm

Sixers pick up contract options for next year with Simmons, Saric, Luwawu-Cabarrot, and Anderson but decline to pick up Okafor’s $6 million option. Okafor confirms he requested Sixers buyout his contract for remainder of the year. Wow, I wonder if the Sixers grant Okafor’s request? What it confirms is Okafor has no value if the request is buyout verse trade.

haveacigar
haveacigar
November 2, 2017 11:09 am

as a person who hated the process, actually a person who hates that the nba has turned to a league where most teams are forced to lose on purpose, I have to say Embiid and Simmons appear to be generational players-
simmons appears to be some sort of cross between pippen and james
Embiid is Olajuwan

eagles0superbowls
eagles0superbowls
November 2, 2017 12:25 pm

Sixers won again, wow. 4 wins and 4 losses for the season. Embiid played over 30 minutes against the Atlanta Hawks. No doubt the benching of Markelle Fultz is a major reason for their recent success. He wasn’t NBA ready and giving his minutes to TJ McConnell changed their fortunes. Holmes is due to return Friday. With Embiid going over 30 minutes in last game that leaves 18 minutes of backup center available between Amir & Holmes. I wonder if Holmes gets some of Saric’s minutes?

eagles0superbowls
eagles0superbowls
November 3, 2017 12:54 pm

Indiana tonight at Home. Excited because of Richaun Holmes expected return (left wrist injury). Holmes offers much better rim protection than Amir as backup center. A couple negatives on Holmes is he isn’t a very good rebounder and he misses easy inside points trying for high light reel dunks but I think he speed was missed as Embiid’s backup especially defensively.

haveacigar
haveacigar
November 3, 2017 5:51 pm

Mate McMillan says magic and Lebron are the comparables