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The Sixers Are Mind-Boggling! (PST Episode 545) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know that
• 0:02
  we recorded this podcast on Wednesday, December twentieth, twenty twenty three. By
• 0:07
  the time you hear this, some things may have changed, but we hope
• 0:09
  you enjoy the show. All right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia
• 0:38
  Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the
• 0:42
  world, that's right over ten and a half years strong. Got a great
• 0:46
  discussion coming your way about a lot of stuff going on in the world of
• 0:49
  Philly sports. We've got some listener feedback. We've got some Philadelphia Eagles talk,
• 0:54
  NFL talk, Phillies talk, and we've got some NBA hits and some
• 0:58
  Sixers talk as well. Who were thrown down on the table. A great,
• 1:00
  great interview and discussion about this Philadelphia seventy six ers team. I'm Jeff
• 1:04
  Warren. I'm here at my co host and my good buddy Eric Leonard.
• 1:10
  Man, Eric lean I was on vacation last week. It's good to talk
• 1:12
  to you, my man. But I got to tell you it's great to
• 1:15
  watch the seventy six ers team because they just then in the fourth quarter,
• 1:19
  they really shoved it out the t Wolves ass and it was really nice.
• 1:23
  Yeah, I think the t Wolves had the best record in the NBA going
• 1:26
  into tonight's game. He got a pretty good defense too, and Joel Embiid
• 1:30
  scored what fifty one points on him fifty one points max he put up with
• 1:34
  thirty five. They can put up a combined eighty six Yeah, points out
• 1:38
  of one hundred and twenty one. Just holy shit, man, there's just
• 1:42
  a really good team. And but one thing did strike me, and I
• 1:46
  don't I don't give you know, I don't want to go two down on
• 1:49
  here, but like I feel like they're missing one piece. Yeah, you
• 1:53
  know, they need one more ball handler, defensive guy hit threes. Pat
• 1:56
  bev is not that guy. That was the one that was the one thing
• 2:00
  that was noticeable in that game that they could have really like finished off that
• 2:02
  team. But now, I how can you complain about beating one of the
• 2:07
  best teams in the NBA. They're twenty and five, they're hot as hell
• 2:10
  right now, killing everybody, and we just shut up their ass. We
• 2:14
  beat him by what thirteen fourteen points, and we go over the second half
• 2:17
  and that's kind of where they dominate and their great defensive team and man,
• 2:21
  just great win which was very much needed in light of the Bulls gains days.
• 2:28
  Yeah, and the Eagles and yeah, yeah, that's right, there
• 2:31
  is a football team in the city of Philadelphia, right, Yeah, which
• 2:38
  we're gonna get into the Eagles, of course, but we're thrown down on
• 2:42
  the table, folks. We're gonna get into some more Sixers talk. We've
• 2:45
  got Harrison grim from Libertyballers dot Com. He's gonna be joining us for some
• 2:49
  analysis on you know, not just where the Sixers are at right now in
• 2:52
  this point in the season, but what they may be looking at in terms
• 2:54
  of the trade deadline, what we've been seeing from Joel andb just becoming an
• 2:59
  even better player. As Eric and I were just you know, briefly talking
• 3:01
  about Tyrese Maxey, some of the pieces on the bench. We're gonna be
• 3:05
  getting into that a little bit later. That's our interview this week. And
• 3:09
  really quick though, Eric, before we get into the agenda, I gotta
• 3:14
  say, like I remember a couple of years ago, when Kate Scott took
• 3:16
  over, we did a segment You and I on the show, and it
• 3:21
  was after a couple months of her in the You know in the booth,
• 3:23
  or I shouldn't say in the booth, but her just doing the color commentary,
• 3:28
  and I was like, you know what, I'm just not feeling it.
• 3:30
  I'm just not feeling Kate Scott and what she's bringing to the table.
• 3:34
  And I gotta say this here in December of twenty twenty three, I absolutely
• 3:38
  love her. And I don't know if it's me coming around to the fact
• 3:44
  that it's it's not the woman thing. It's it's not that. I don't
• 3:49
  know if it's me coming around to the fact that it was initially new and
• 3:53
  now there's there's kind of a comfort in a way when I'm hearing her speak.
• 4:00
  Quite frankly, I have really been enjoying what Kate Scott brings to the
• 4:05
  broadcast, what she brings to each and every seventy six ers game. I
• 4:10
  don't know if you've been feeling that at all, buddy, but it's something
• 4:13
  that I've really been kind of like reflecting on, and I'm like, you
• 4:15
  know what, really enjoy Kate Scott doing the color commentary here? Well,
• 4:21
  she doesn't. She does play by play. Oh yeah, when I say
• 4:25
  color commentary, yeah, yeah, she's No, she's really damn good.
• 4:30
  I thought she was shaky first year, which is to be expected that you
• 4:32
  know she was. She was feeling the seat of of zoom one of the
• 4:38
  all time greats. It was there forever. It was like he was there
• 4:42
  almost as long as like Meryl Reese, you know, like thirty some years.
• 4:45
  Yeah, you count back on it and not his beloved, But yeah,
• 4:51
  I remember when he left. My first thought was, well, go
• 4:54
  get go get George, go get mcguinnis the radio guy who's still awesome.
• 5:00
  He does the games by himself, by the way, it's it's insane.
• 5:01
  I don't know how guys do basketball games alone. There's so much action and
• 5:06
  so much to watch on the court away from the ball. But no,
• 5:09
  she's she is really damn good. And the pairing, she actually pairs better
• 5:14
  with al Abdenabi, I'll say that than zoom Off did. Yeah, I
• 5:16
  never felt they clicked. I think these two clicked beautifully, and their voices
• 5:20
  kind of match. If you do any like broadcasting stuff, you know that
• 5:25
  that that they test that kind of stuff. Yeah, and no, they're
• 5:29
  really good, really good tandem. And I think I think Doris Burke helped
• 5:33
  like clear some roads for for the for the Kate Scotts of the world.
• 5:38
  She's she's earned her spots. She's really good. She really is. And
• 5:41
  like I said, there's there's there's a there's a comfort now, you know,
• 5:44
  you know that comfort we get with Meryl Reeves. You know, you
• 5:46
  know, we've had it with other like Harry Callous and stuff. I'm not
• 5:49
  I'm not necessarily putting her up there yet, but there is a comfort now
• 5:53
  that I have when I'm like, all right, I get to hear Kate
• 5:55
  and you know, she's gonna she's gonna tell me what's going on here in
• 5:59
  this game. You know, maybe subconsciously, but I've been enjoying listening to
• 6:01
  her. So I just wanted to throw that out there. I know it's
• 6:03
  a segment we did a couple of years ago at this point, So anyway,
• 6:09
  let's get into this show. We got some listener feedback to get into
• 6:11
  and I waited on this one, Eric, because it was a segment that
• 6:14
  you and I did a few weeks ago with regard to Travis and Jason Kelsey,
• 6:19
  and I asked the question about whether or not the publicity that they were
• 6:24
  getting this entire season would happen if they were black, and we had one
• 6:30
  of our listeners of the pod, Francis wrote in and said, you know,
• 6:36
  he said, Hey, Jens, I'm not surprised at all that there's
• 6:39
  a racial disparity in adoptions. I'd mentioned that I worked for a nonprofit that
• 6:45
  helps foster children. I'm glad you clarify that for me because I couldn't remember
• 6:48
  that part of the conversation. Oh, okay, are we going to go
• 6:51
  into adoption. Yeah, yes, I work for a nonprofit, basically the
• 6:57
  director of communications for a nonprofit that helps foster children, and I talked about
• 7:00
  that during the segment. So he says, again, Hey, Jens,
• 7:02
  I'm not surprised at all that there's racial disparity and adoptions, but it's still
• 7:06
  heartbreaking to hear about. But I disagree with Jeff though about not seeing similar
• 7:13
  exposure and popularity to NFL siblings if they were not white. One thing that
• 7:16
  your discussion left out was the perfect combination of factors that I think really drive
• 7:24
  what we're seeing now and further would result the same result of the NFL twins
• 7:28
  were from a minority race or ethnicity. For example, one two brothers playing
• 7:33
  in the Super Bowl last year. Number two, having the Kelsey documentary already
• 7:38
  in production that prominently showcased the whole family, but I don't believe was picked
• 7:42
  up by Amazon prior to the super Bowl. Number three, the brothers starting
• 7:46
  a podcast last year. Number four, Jason and his teammate's charity Christmas albums
• 7:50
  the past two years. Number five, that both teams are super Bowl contenders
• 7:56
  again this year. Well, I don't know about the Eagles at this point,
• 7:59
  Francis, honest with you, both past recent winners as well, and
• 8:03
  are getting a lot of primetime play this season. Number six. You did
• 8:07
  mention Travis dating the most popular person on the planet. I'm a big swifty
• 8:11
  f yi. So anyway, I Francis, he wrote a little bit more,
• 8:15
  but just to I think he made some really good points too. And
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  again I don't know, maybe it came off initially, uh in not the
• 8:22
  most clear way possible for me, But I was just asking the question,
• 8:26
  you know, if the type of presence within the media, the popularity of
• 8:31
  the Kelsey Brothers would be happening if they were black. You know, you
• 8:35
  remember the conversation Eric, and you made really good points about black Twitter and
• 8:39
  that specific sphere within within Twitter and within within the Internet, and there are
• 8:46
  other there are other avenues for folks to go down as well. So anyway,
• 8:50
  I thought it was interesting what Francis had to say, and I think
• 8:52
  he made some really good points too. I look, I'm not sitting here
• 8:56
  saying, you know this, this wouldn't be happening if they were black,
• 9:00
  blah blah blah. But we were just raising some questions, interesting conversation,
• 9:05
  and I think he had some interesting feedback for us. Yeah, I think
• 9:09
  I looked at it like I saw it on the agenda and I know you,
• 9:15
  and I was like, it's a slow week, here's a topic that
• 9:20
  will kick off some discussion. I thought I thought it was a fun mental
• 9:22
  exercise, just give just given the NFL's history and who who they promote and
• 9:28
  who they don't promote, and I just thought it just the the proliferate.
• 9:35
  They always promote the white quarter. That's that's just kind of how it is,
• 9:39
  right, That's just kind of way the NFL has been for a long
• 9:41
  time. We talked about the Manning brothers, and we talked about previous examples
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  of brothers being promoting the NFL, and you know, the Barber won you
• 9:52
  know, the Barbers was one of them, and I think I think we
• 9:58
  also we did point out some of the things that made the Kelsey thing different.
• 10:01
  But I think my main point was, like, is that it actually
• 10:05
  would work with if they were African American and it was kind of a different
• 10:11
  just know, it's just a different, different setup right now. Whereas I
• 10:16
  think with the I made up I created Jalen Hurts his twin brother, I
• 10:20
  believe, yes one of them was dating and I spy whatever it was.
• 10:22
  But yes, yeah, it was just I really appreciate the feedback. But
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  and I'm actually happy that that it actually kind of worked that someone actually sat
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  down and listened with oh yeah, you know what, good point. Let
• 10:35
  me think about this good after the good to have those mental exercises, you
• 10:39
  know, especially when we're talking sports, because like it or not, folks,
• 10:41
  you know, Eric, you and I have talked about this off quote
• 10:45
  off the air, but like it or not, you know, societal issues
• 10:50
  transcend into sports. You know, you've talked a number of times with me
• 10:54
  about you know, your dad, whether or not he's going to watch football
• 10:56
  or not. Because of the Colin Kaepernick situation. Even to this day,
• 11:00
  I'm sorry. I don't need to bring up like your dad. I'm sorry
• 11:01
  for doing that, but just that, but just in the context of this
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  conversation here, you know, it's like it or not, folks. You
• 11:16
  know, societal based issues, they transcend sports, and we're going to talk
• 11:20
  about them here on the show. We're going to continue talking about them,
• 11:22
  you know, in twenty twenty four and and and beyond. So but I
• 11:28
  don't I don't mean, I don't mean to harp on the Colin Kaepernick thing.
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  I don't even know what shape he's in right now. Did you watch
• 11:33
  football this past Sunday? I did. I saw some of the quarterback play.
• 11:37
  I did the fact that he couldn't be a backup Somewhere exactly at this
• 11:43
  point, there was some guy named Easton Stick or some shit played for the
• 11:48
  Chargers, Like, is there not a D one graduate quarterback that could fill
• 11:54
  in that spot that like in Alabama along or something like. I just can't
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  believe that is some guy named Easton Ball, whatever the hell's name was.
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  I'm just like, Easton Ball, is that all we got? Y NFL
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  has? Like what is going on? We're gonna keep talking these issues,
• 12:13
  folks, and hope you stick around for them in the I'll be honest with
• 12:18
  you, I don't even know. I really don't keep talking. I'm gonna
• 12:20
  look it up. Okay, look it up. Look it up, because
• 12:22
  we are going to be getting into some football talk, some Eagles talk,
• 12:26
  and some quick NFL storyline hits before we get into our first break. So
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  Eric, Philadelphia Eagles. Wow, three complete stinkers in a row. This
• 12:39
  past week was just absolutely egregious for a multitude of reasons. I was very,
• 12:46
  very honored and privileged to be on our friend Matt Rodgers, who does
• 12:48
  our Eagles postgame podcast shows with us every now and again. He invited me
• 12:52
  on his Honorable Mention podcast today and we talked about just what is it the
• 12:58
  core and what is it the found day of where this Eagles team is at
• 13:01
  right now. And I think, you know, when you're ten and one
• 13:05
  and you have all these weapons, you have, all this talent, all
• 13:09
  of this personnel, start to get the ego, and the ego gets big,
• 13:11
  and it gets a lot bigger over the course of weeks, to the
• 13:16
  point where I think this team needed to be brought back down to some sort
• 13:20
  of reality that maybe they just aren't as good, or that their arrogance was
• 13:24
  getting way too out of control, and I think that has been what has
• 13:30
  happened in these past three weeks. Look, the forty nine ers are a
• 13:33
  damn good team. I didn't see the Dallas game. I'm glad I did
• 13:35
  and I was on vacation. I was getting updates on my phone. I
• 13:39
  was like, my gosh, I'm glad I'm with my family right now and
• 13:41
  not watching this anybody. It is almost impossible, seriously to win down in
• 13:48
  Dallas, in that state, in AT and T Stadium. Really, the
• 13:52
  Dallas Cowboys are just so damn good in their home field. It's really incredible.
• 13:56
  And then with the Seattle Seahawks, the Eagles just blew. They just
• 14:00
  gave the game away. And it really leads me to believe. And I'm
• 14:03
  serious when I say that, coming off this dumpster fire loss, it makes
• 14:07
  me wonder and I'm being serious when I say this, if they can beat
• 14:11
  the New York Giants at this point, because they're continuing to beat themselves down
• 14:16
  the stretch here, I think they can. I actually think they can win
• 14:22
  these next three games. If from a psychological and sports mental health perspective,
• 14:28
  they can get it together, and I think they can because they have in
• 14:31
  the past. This team has in the past during the season been able to
• 14:35
  keep it all together. I think arrogance and ego have really gotten in the
• 14:39
  way. The blame game has really gotten in the way as well. I
• 14:43
  think the Eagles can get it back together and do something in the playoffs,
• 14:50
  but they really need from a sports psychology perspective, to get it all together.
• 14:54
  So I don't know, man, what are you thinking at this point?
• 14:56
  And especially after this past Monday night game out in Seattle. Uh I
• 15:03
  watched I watched a bit of the Seattle game. I watched the Dallas game,
• 15:07
  and man, I just had that awful feeling of you know when you
• 15:09
  know when the Phillies were really bad before Heart, before the last two year
• 15:13
  runs. Yeah, where that when you have a bad bullpen, no bats
• 15:18
  and your team is old. Like, that's kind of where the Eagles fel
• 15:22
  like. I know, I don't know, they're not old, but they're
• 15:24
  definitely old at spots they don't want to be old, right, Like,
• 15:28
  Like the defense, our defensive ends are just there's just nothing happening. There's
• 15:33
  nothing. There's no pass rush, yeah, none and for all the great
• 15:35
  defensive tackles or all the you know, the great talk of Jalen Carter and
• 15:41
  you know and everyone, it's a great position. We're well stocked, but
• 15:43
  we get no pressure on the quarterback whatsoever. The edge rushers are just not
• 15:46
  there. We have no secondary, no linebackers, and the defense just gets
• 15:52
  walloped every every week. They didn't get they didn't get wallowed by the Seahawks.
• 15:56
  But to give up that last touchdown like thirty seconds slept, you gotta
• 15:58
  be kidding me. And that's that's just unaccepted. I can't believe Matt Patricia
• 16:03
  let that happen. Yeah, no one, no one will be able to
• 16:08
  explain that move to me. Ever, I can't. I can't fathom it.
• 16:11
  But the offensive, the offense just looks pitiful, like I don't know
• 16:15
  what happened. Offense looks much worse than than the defense. Actually well,
• 16:21
  and and let's just say it, Jalen hurts his regress this year. He's
• 16:23
  not He's not what he was last year. He's just not. And his
• 16:27
  his poor decision making on some of these throws are just he throws, he
• 16:32
  throws intercept he throws like uh, Derek Carr type interceptions like the last few
• 16:37
  weeks. I mean, they're really bad passes, That's what I mean.
• 16:41
  That first tie. He's hurt, but I don't know, I don't know
• 16:45
  if I want to I don't know if I want to hear that if he's
• 16:47
  hurt. To be honest with you, I agree, yeah, yeah,
• 16:48
  because like if you're out there, you're out there. You know, if
• 16:52
  you're sick and you had the flu, you know what that then then let
• 16:57
  Marcus Mariota start that. That's why you have the quote decent backup quarterback.
• 17:03
  You know that. That's why you don't have somebody you know, sticks malloy
• 17:07
  or whatever whatever. These guys n he's stick. Yes, if he's sick,
• 17:18
  if he's injured, then you know what, we gotta let the guy
• 17:19
  heel up because he has a damn good quarterback. He's one of the top
• 17:22
  five in this league. But he hasn't been acting like it because he's trying
• 17:26
  to play hero ball. He's trying to play hero ball. He's trying to
• 17:30
  force shit that doesn't need to happen. On that last interception, Kenny Gainwell
• 17:37
  was open on the left side. The Eagles would have been in field goal
• 17:41
  position. Have Kenny gain Well been able to get another fifteen yards, which
• 17:45
  if you look at the play, he absolutely would have been able to get
• 17:48
  fifteen yards, if not twenty or more. So it's hero ball again.
• 17:52
  It comes down to the psychology, the sports psychology of what's going on with
• 17:56
  this team, and it's affecting Jalen Hurts big time. Eric. Yeah,
• 18:02
  and I can accept as a fan if you tell me Jalen Hurts was at
• 18:04
  fifty percent, you know, and he was sick, and they put Mariotte
• 18:07
  out there and they lose in they lose that same game with Marriotte out there,
• 18:11
  I feel a little better about it. Yeah, at least like you
• 18:15
  gave the team a chance to win because Hurts didn't look like he was ready
• 18:18
  to play. If he's coming in on a separate plane, you've already you've
• 18:22
  already told me everything you need to know. And who should start with a
• 18:26
  mask on? Yeah, exactly, ridiculous, it doesn't make sense. I
• 18:30
  don't know, and just a lot of stuff. It's you know that when
• 18:33
  a team gets trounced twice and loses a bad game, you start you start
• 18:37
  looking at things that are kind of obvious, but you don't want to admit
• 18:41
  when the team's ten and one. Yeah, like Nick Sirianni as a coach,
• 18:45
  I don't know, man, I'm not a better coach. Probably wins
• 18:49
  that Seattle game. That just my opinion. I know Hurts was hurt,
• 18:53
  but he calls a really bad game now and again, like when they rush
• 18:59
  only like twenty two times, and he needs to be reminded by the fans.
• 19:03
  And I love the pomp and circumstance of him before and after games,
• 19:07
  and he's really into it. But as a game day coach, you know,
• 19:11
  Pete Carroll probably like walloped him, right, but in those last three
• 19:15
  losses, you start to look him like maybe, you know, maybe he's
• 19:18
  not the guy to get us over the hump. And Jalen Hurts was sick,
• 19:23
  but also before that he wasn't. He's with ten interceptions this year eleven
• 19:27
  something like that. Yeah, he is the most turnovers vane quarterback in the
• 19:30
  NFL. Yeah, terrible, And he was like second in the MVP race
• 19:34
  in terms of gambling odds not too long ago. Just just like I said,
• 19:40
  when when they when your team starts losing, you do start to notice
• 19:41
  the thing and that was one big one was like branding, I love Brandon
• 19:45
  Graham. We haven't we haven't drafted a good edge rusher and how long?
• 19:49
  Now? I mean, I guess what do you call it? Reddick?
• 19:55
  Reddick kind of counts as an edge rusher, but he's still a linebacker.
• 19:57
  Yeah, we didn't even draft him. He was free agent pick up.
• 20:00
  That's what I'm saying. They haven't drafted a good edge rusher and how long?
• 20:03
  Yeah, they got to nail that spot eventually because they look they just
• 20:06
  look old and dead. There's just no pressure at all. Josh Sweat hasn't
• 20:08
  been Josh Wett got that contract extension and he's been getting a lot of penalties,
• 20:15
  you know, over these past few weeks. But you know, it
• 20:17
  hasn't been a one tackle for a loss in the game with Seattle, and
• 20:21
  that was It was impressive, but that was it. That was it against
• 20:23
  the third worst offensive line in the NFL. It's absolutely pathetic. But like
• 20:29
  I said, I think they can right this ship. I do think so,
• 20:32
  Eric, I really do believe they can. Do you think they can
• 20:33
  get it together over these next three weeks here when they're playing the Giants twice
• 20:37
  in the Cardinals as well. I do, But my fear is that they're
• 20:41
  going to beat up on the Giants and the Cardinals and they're gonna they're gonna
• 20:45
  lure everyone back in like see, yeah, we're just we've had it of
• 20:49
  a few weeks in my mind, and be like, you lost to the
• 20:52
  two better teams in the NFC. You haven't proven a damn thing to me.
• 20:56
  You got to get a buy in the first round you got. You
• 21:00
  gotta win the NFCS and get one of those buys because if not, I
• 21:04
  like, I'm not sure what's going to happen. They're not gonna play I
• 21:07
  mean, who would they play? What are the I honestly don't know what
• 21:11
  this particularly neither What if you play Seattle again? I mean, good god,
• 21:15
  I seriously, they could beat us again. I wasn't. I wasn't
• 21:19
  like overly impressed with our with our effort. I believe me, but I
• 21:26
  don't know, Like I said, my fear, as they win those three,
• 21:29
  everyone's like, yeah, we're back, baby, and it's like are
• 21:32
  we back? Yeah, Like I know what you mean? You know what
• 21:34
  I mean? I think it could be good for their sports psychology again,
• 21:37
  because that's what I think is going on here. Like, I don't want
• 21:38
  to get into like the what A. J. Brown said and what this
• 21:41
  person said, blah blah blah. I don't get into that nonsense stuff.
• 21:45
  But like it all comes down to the sports psychology for me. So as
• 21:48
  we're moving along here, we want to get some NFL storyline hits, some
• 21:52
  real quick hits here. We got some quick hits also with regard to some
• 21:56
  NBA and Sixers talk a little later on here in the show, but Eric
• 22:00
  wanted to get your thoughts on are we actually seeing the end of the Bill
• 22:04
  Belichick area area area? What the fuck the Bill Belichick era in the NFL?
• 22:11
  I mean, after this Patriots season where they are absolutely horrendous. I
• 22:15
  mean we're talking horrendous. I think it's gonna be it for him. I
• 22:21
  think this is gonna be the end of Bill Belichick's season. I think it's
• 22:26
  probably a ninety percent foregone conclusion that he is going to be gone. He
• 22:30
  may want to still keep coaching, which means there may be an opening and
• 22:34
  I don't know, Chicago, maybe Washington. But I thought I didn't think
• 22:40
  this team was gonna be good by any stretch of the imagination. I thought
• 22:41
  they'd probably be under five hundred this year. But I didn't think this team
• 22:45
  would be this bad. I figured they'd be a boring team, have a
• 22:48
  decent defense because of Bill Belichick, and a slightly below average offense that maybe
• 22:55
  would have won seven or eight games because of Bill Belichick. But holy wow,
• 23:00
  that has not happened. It has been dismal in New England, and
• 23:03
  I just think it's the end of the era. They need new direction.
• 23:07
  I think Bill Belichick's going to be gone after this season. What are you
• 23:11
  thinking. I think there's two options on the table, and neither of which
• 23:15
  leave him jobless. I think I think one option is he'll stay with the
• 23:19
  Patriots be the coach, but they're going to hire a GM finally, because
• 23:25
  I think he's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you know, in
• 23:26
  his seventies, he can't he can't run the whole thing anymore. Drafted players.
• 23:32
  I doubt he's running. He's running through tape. You know, at
• 23:36
  ten o'clock at night, he's like, what's seventies? Like my dad's age,
• 23:40
  right, Dad passed out on the chair like nine o'clock watching Dragnet.
• 23:42
  Forgot Bill Pelichick's not crunching tape. I think that's one option. I think
• 23:47
  the other option is he winds up going to the Patriots, work a trade
• 23:53
  and trade him to another team to coach, and I mean the Chargers reek
• 23:59
  of something like that. They'd probably be a good spot for him. He
• 24:03
  could like go to La retire, you know, you know, the warm
• 24:06
  weather get out of New England, have a have kind of a great project
• 24:11
  in Justin Herbert. You know, he had a quarterback in a couple of
• 24:14
  years now. I can't see him going to Chicago, but I think those
• 24:18
  are the two I think he's going to be coaching next year. I just
• 24:19
  don't think it's going to be he just won't be the GM and coach of
• 24:23
  the Patriots, or he'll be the head coach of someone like the Chargers.
• 24:26
  Yeah, all right, very good. Next quick hit that we have here,
• 24:32
  Roger Goodell is now saying that the brother Le Shove the Tush push may
• 24:37
  not be banned this off season after reports came out saying that he was in
• 24:41
  favor of it. So apparently apparently what he's been saying is that and this
• 24:48
  is a quote from him, he said a lot of coaches talked last year
• 24:52
  about innovation that would come off of that play, and I'd like to take
• 24:56
  a look back at that. Has that really occurred, I think in anything,
• 25:00
  I think with anything, it's important to hear the different perspectives. Let
• 25:04
  the committee do their work and I'll be able to participate in that, and
• 25:07
  I'm sure we'll have a position by March. So he's not He's not coming
• 25:11
  out right now and saying that this particular perfected play by the Philadelphia Eagles is
• 25:17
  going to be banned, which I think is good news. Quite frankly,
• 25:19
  I think it's good news for the play. It started to sound like the
• 25:25
  tush push was going to be gone, but it's kind of sounded like it
• 25:27
  won't be banned after all based on those particular comments. Right, what do
• 25:33
  you think of, Buddy, I mean, this has got to be one
• 25:34
  of the most annoying stories of the year. I mean, it's a single
• 25:38
  play, and if it didn't affect the Eagles, you wouldn't give a rats
• 25:42
  ass exactly, Like, literally, we only talk about it. This is
• 25:47
  the only city in the country that talks about this stupid thing. And it's
• 25:51
  a legal plays, It's football. I don't understand any any of the debate.
• 25:56
  It's stupid and like like I've said a hundred times in the show,
• 26:00
  it reminds me of like nineteen forties football, like this is this shouldn't this
• 26:03
  be part of the NFL? Like we don't we love our history in the
• 26:07
  NFL, And this is a legal play. Just let it go right,
• 26:10
  absolutely all right? And before we head to our first break. The one
• 26:15
  NFL team Eric that is most intriguing to us at this point in the season,
• 26:21
  and I can tell you right now for me, believe it or not,
• 26:22
  it is the Detroit Lions. I am, especially after this week when
• 26:27
  Jared Goff kind of getting back on his feet in terms of his quarterback play,
• 26:32
  because you know, he was turning the ball over a bit in the
• 26:34
  weeks leading up to this past Week fifteen matchup. And I just the Detroit
• 26:41
  Lions have just never had an identity, and their identity this year has actually
• 26:47
  been a fun football team to follow, at least in my opinion. You
• 26:51
  have an offense that's actually doing some good stuff. They have Jamiir Gibbs coming
• 26:56
  out of the backfield, and again, Jared Goff not the greatest quarter back
• 27:00
  in the world. I'd say he's a top ten quarterback this week heading into
• 27:03
  Week sixteen for sure. And what he has been able to do with his
• 27:08
  career after leaving Los Angeles I think speaks very highly for the type of quarterback
• 27:15
  that he is. Again, he's certainly not a Peyton Manning. He's certainly
• 27:19
  not one of the top quarterbacks to ever play the game. But he's getting
• 27:23
  the job done, and when he's being protected by the offensive line, he's
• 27:26
  doing some really good stuff. And the defense has been fun too. I
• 27:32
  love the Detroit Lions and what they're doing. I think they're really intriguing.
• 27:36
  What's that intriguing team for you at this point? And do you have any
• 27:40
  comments about the Detroit Lions. I was laughing because you said he's certainly not
• 27:45
  I think Peyton Manning exactly. Yes, I I just thought of you.
• 27:49
  You love saying this. You ain't just whistling Dixie, Joe. Oh,
• 27:52
  you just whistling Dixie with the car before the horse through the trees. Yeah,
• 28:03
  yeah, I've done that one in a while. I like that one.
• 28:07
  Yeah. My favorite one is I went through out of bed freeing crackers.
• 28:10
  That's the best one, exactly if there's if there's a nice looking lady,
• 28:14
  you know, it's like I wouldn't throw out of bed freeting crackers.
• 28:22
  My team is not the Lions, but I I'm super duper intrigued by the
• 28:27
  Buffalo Bills right now. Yeah. Just they just crushed the Cowboys up there
• 28:33
  in Buffalo. The weather's getting shitty. I think they have two more home
• 28:37
  games, and they are. They're two games behind the Dolphins. But if
• 28:42
  you look at the record or look at the rest of their schedule, the
• 28:45
  Bills play uh. Let me see, They're at the Chargers and then home
• 28:51
  for the Patriots, and then then they're down in in uh in Miami and
• 28:56
  in the Dolphins. On the other hand, they got the Cowboys, Ravens
• 29:00
  and then the Bills. That's a that's a rough end of their schedule.
• 29:04
  And if the Bills went out and that last game means something, I think
• 29:08
  the Bills. I think the Bills win and maybe they get a two seed,
• 29:12
  maybe even one. The Raves like at the one seed, but they'll
• 29:15
  get a two seed to buy. They fired their offensive coordinator they kindly had,
• 29:19
  They kindly kind of have a offensive identity now with Jared Cook and and
• 29:26
  oh god, what's the quarterbacks name? I'm not sorry, Josh Allen.
• 29:30
  Yeah, just just this two headed running monster. And I just like the
• 29:34
  way they're playing and with the weather being crappy, if they get home field,
• 29:37
  they could easily make a run to the super Bowl. I actually looked
• 29:41
  at the odds for Bills Niners super Bowl. I think it's like twelve to
• 29:45
  one. Is it really okay? And it's pretty good, pretty good odds.
• 29:48
  Actually, I think the Bills could really make a run. I think
• 29:49
  that's interesting. For sure. They're they're a great team to watch. They've
• 29:52
  been fun. I mean that Eagles Bills game was actually a fun game.
• 29:56
  You know, take away the Eagles fandom and any objectivity you know here,
• 30:00
  it's like it's it was a fun, fun game to watch. They're a
• 30:03
  fun team for sure, and they could have won. They could have won
• 30:06
  like that. That was my takeaway watching that Bill's Eagles game, Like,
• 30:10
  man, we got lucky because Josh Allen was a monster. He was the
• 30:12
  best player on the field. Oh your game? Yeah yeah, absolutely all
• 30:15
  right. Well, if you like what you're hearing here at the PST Podcast
• 30:18
  Show, subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're on. Follow us on Apple Podcasts.
• 30:22
  We'd appreciate a rate and review as well. If anything happens to your
• 30:26
  podcast feed, you can head on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com and
• 30:29
  get all of our shows over there. And we'd love to hear from you
• 30:33
  too, Just like we did with Francis, we read his email at the
• 30:37
  top of the show. Shoot us off an email Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail
• 30:41
  dot com. Read your email here in the show, respond to it anything
• 30:44
  in the world of Philly sports, the sports world in general. Again,
• 30:47
  we'd love to hear from you and Eric. I'm not gonna be promoting any
• 30:52
  any Twitter stuff here. I'm gonna let folks know that we are on threads.
• 30:56
  Yes, at Philadelphia Sports Table. I'm at mister Jeff Warren, and
• 31:00
  I'm doing the threads thing now, and it's it's a different experience, and
• 31:06
  I'm i am taking twenty twenty four in terms of online presence with a grain
• 31:11
  of salt. That is what I am doing, whether it's with the podcast
• 31:15
  or whether it's you know, with my personal life and professional life as well.
• 31:19
  I'm taking it with a grain of salt because of how social media is
• 31:22
  really changing and has changed a lot in twenty twenty three that that Twitter platform
• 31:27
  has just become awful in so many ways, and just it's so disappointing anymore.
• 31:33
  So, I think I'm gonna be promoting threads to be perfectly honest with
• 31:37
  you on this show, and I might not even do it all the time.
• 31:38
  I don't know, is that okay with you? I didn't even mention
• 31:41
  this to you before I said it. I don't care. I'm on Threads
• 31:45
  too. What am I? What's what's my handle? I don't even know
• 31:49
  how to well, it's it's at what would it be at Slen ten twenty
• 31:53
  three, ten twenty three? Okay, at Slend ten twenty three. There
• 31:56
  we go, folks, follow Eric Threads at Slen ten twenty three. Great,
• 32:01
  now, I gotta remember the ten twenty three. I had no idea.
• 32:06
  Yeah, Yeslen ten twenty three. All right, very good. All
• 32:08
  right, we're gonna take a break. We will be back in a bit.
• 32:10
  We're gonna be getting into the Philadelphia Phillies seventy six ers. Got a
• 32:15
  lot coming your way. Stick around, we'll be right back. All right,
• 32:20
  we are back, Eric, Let's get into this Philadelphia Phillies team.
• 32:23
  Yes, it's the off season, and one of the most predominant storylines right
• 32:28
  now, not just with Phillies but within Major League Baseball is whether or not
• 32:31
  Yamamoto is gonna be coming here to the United States and what team that he
• 32:36
  may be signing with. And I think conventional wisdom is saying it's probably gonna
• 32:40
  be the Yankees or the Dodgers. But the fact of the matter is is
• 32:45
  that the Phillies and he and his his team basically you know, met with
• 32:50
  They had a meeting, you know, and it was interesting how our friend
• 32:54
  our friends over at the goodfight dot com, there's an article written about this
• 33:00
  recently about what the Phillies meeting with Yamamoto actually means, like what does it
• 33:05
  mean? And there is importance about this meeting even if he does not become
• 33:10
  a Philadelphia Philly. And I think, you know, what we could take
• 33:14
  away from not just the article, but what this actually means is the fact
• 33:16
  that and it was mentioned in the article how Dave Dombrowski when he took over
• 33:24
  he said that one of the first things he noticed when he took over baseball
• 33:28
  operations for the Phillies was their lack of information on players from Japan. And
• 33:32
  Korea, so he wanted to rectify this situation in recent years, and they've
• 33:37
  increased their scouting efforts and their presence in Asia. So I guess it's no
• 33:42
  coincidence that the Phillies are kind of, you know, quote in the mix
• 33:45
  for Yamamoto. But I think the fact that they are agreeing to meet,
• 33:52
  and you know, even though we aren't going to really probably know what that
• 33:54
  meeting is about, it means and you Moto is obviously going to be taking
• 34:00
  the meeting to leverage against the other teams to maybe scare them into offering him
• 34:05
  more money. But I think it means that the Phillies are gonna be serious
• 34:09
  about looking at future Japanese stars coming to make the transition to the United States,
• 34:15
  and that means this organization is continuing to grow, and it's that's a
• 34:20
  good thing, I think for the Philadelphia Phillies, and I think that's one
• 34:22
  thing that we're gonna be able to take away from this offseason and specifically with
• 34:25
  the Yamamoto storyline here. Eric, I don't know what were your thoughts,
• 34:30
  you know, with regard to the article and just what's happening here with Yamamoto
• 34:34
  and the fact that the Phillies are quote you know in the conversation, Well,
• 34:38
  I'm happy that they're even part of the conversation because I mean, how
• 34:42
  many years were we not part of any conversation period, especially when it came
• 34:45
  to foreign players, especially like the big time ones that we're gonna like come
• 34:50
  in and be immediate impactful stars. I think I think you have to look
• 34:54
  at this through the lens of Otani and what happened with the Dodgers and how
• 35:00
  he's the deferred payments on his contract and he's basically making all the money back
• 35:06
  on advertisement or you know, like like you know, personal stuff, right,
• 35:10
  Uh, the endorsements and endorsements. Yeah, and God knows how much
• 35:15
  he makes. I think that's just like us money lord knows how much he
• 35:19
  makes in the Asian community, like the Asian marketplace, right Ye. And
• 35:25
  I'm assuming this also allows the Dodgers and other teams that are going to follow
• 35:30
  suit with this be able to we'll be able to like go and sign guys
• 35:34
  like Yamamoto. So I I if he signs with the Dodgers, I wouldn't
• 35:38
  be surprised at all. It makes a lot of sense. He could maybe
• 35:42
  do the deferment thing and make plenty of money on the side. I think
• 35:46
  that's how big that Otani story is. I don't think I was actually talked
• 35:49
  enough about in sport in the sports world, like what a game changer that
• 35:53
  could be, Like will that? Will that infiltrate other sports? I have
• 35:57
  no idea Baseball contracts are different, but it could. I have no idea
• 36:00
  how that would work. But as far as a Phillies perspective, I just
• 36:06
  can't believe if you told me six seven years ago that we would have got
• 36:10
  the top Japanese picture and it could be a superstar right away age twenty five,
• 36:15
  he's really young. That he would even set foot in Philadelphia and talk
• 36:19
  to us is insane. Yeah, Like we were so off the map in
• 36:23
  terms of popularity, in terms of any sort of cachet with free agent stars,
• 36:30
  especially foreign you know, especially a Japanese picture coming in. Like what
• 36:35
  it's New York or LA, Right, why would you even set foot,
• 36:37
  Like I said, said foot in Philadelphia. But he talked to us,
• 36:42
  and we have the kind of money to offer to make an offer of a
• 36:45
  contract. But it does show me, like how far this this team has
• 36:50
  come in just two short years since making the World Series. Absolutely, I
• 36:53
  think this meeting with the Amamoto and just what is happening in terms of the
• 36:58
  concentration at this Philadelphia Phillies organization has now on Asia. I think it's gonna
• 37:04
  pay dividends down the road as Japan continues to emerge as a pre eminent scouting
• 37:10
  location, just completely rich with elite talent. So it'll be interesting to see
• 37:15
  what happens. And we'd love to hear from you on how this Phillies Hot
• 37:19
  Stove season is going thus far. Yes, it's been a little slow.
• 37:22
  Of course, Aaron Nola signed and that was the major major issue that needed
• 37:28
  to be addressed in terms of starting pitching. But where do you think the
• 37:30
  Phillies need to go from here? Philadelphia Sports Table dot Com love to read
• 37:34
  your email here on the show and respond to it. So before we get
• 37:37
  into our interview Eric, and before I let you go, Buddy, we
• 37:40
  wanted to get into some quick NBA hits and some Sixers talk as well.
• 37:45
  I was really surprised with Actually I don't know why I was surprised. I
• 37:50
  should not have been surprised. When I was on vacation and I got this
• 37:52
  notification that came up that said Draymond Green is indefinitely suspended in the NBA,
• 37:58
  and I was like, what the what the hell happened? You know,
• 38:00
  And I should not have been surprised because we know his history, of course,
• 38:06
  and then when I saw it, I was like, Oh my god.
• 38:07
  I'm like, I'm like, this guy has problems. He has professional
• 38:12
  problems here. They need to be addressed. I don't know what were your
• 38:15
  thoughts with regard to this indefinite suspension of Draymond Green. I was really taken.
• 38:22
  I was really taken with what Steve Kerr said after it happened, where
• 38:27
  he he didn't talk about uh like he did talk about the suspension or basketball.
• 38:32
  He kind of just talked about how Draymond he really hoped Draymond gets help.
• 38:37
  Yeah, And there was no talk of sports or athletics or bad like
• 38:38
  and none of that stuff or even legacy, or he actually did mention legacy.
• 38:44
  So I think Steve cris been around the league so long and he's played
• 38:47
  with the true lunatics of NBA history, like head cases. Yes, Oh
• 38:53
  my god. He played with Dennis Rodman for the Bulls. Yep, he
• 38:57
  played I mean he was on that. He was on that drill trail Blazer,
• 39:00
  the jail Blazers team. Yeah, two whatever year was, he was
• 39:04
  on that disaster of a team. He's played with a lot of lunatics,
• 39:07
  and even he is like, holy shit, this guy's out of his mind
• 39:10
  and that I'm not sure did you see the play? Eventually I did.
• 39:15
  Yes, he just basically punched in their kitchen in the face. It was
• 39:20
  and that, and it was only what a month ago he was literally choking
• 39:24
  Rudy Gobert on the court, Like, no, I'm not surprised by it.
• 39:32
  I was what it was really surprised by. Where we're like, how
• 39:35
  many people like on twitter's assessable, I get it, but how many people
• 39:38
  are like free dramon exactly guys like it's finally crossed the line, Like he's
• 39:44
  no longer like even a valuable basketball player. The team sucks. He brings
• 39:49
  nothing to the table basketball wise, unless he's like truly playing hard and just
• 39:52
  playing basketball and not like the nonsense. But the nonsense is so prevalent now
• 39:57
  that he can't even be a valid basketball player. So I was with Steve
• 40:00
  Currows, like, man, he's an all timer he's got how many rings
• 40:05
  with the NBA, the Hall of Fame, the way that that works,
• 40:07
  he was gonna make the Hall of Fame. And I do actually hope he
• 40:10
  gets to the help he needs because it would be cool to have someone like
• 40:15
  Kim like. He's also like the perfect post career media guy. Yeah,
• 40:21
  he talks shit, he says whatever the hell he wants, but he might
• 40:23
  be so far gone that T and T or whatever like wouldn't even touch him
• 40:30
  because it's just like what he might say or do. I would love for
• 40:32
  him to get it together so that he could be the poster guy for you
• 40:37
  know what, I was going through some problems. I was going through mental
• 40:40
  health issues. I got help, and look where I am today. Yes,
• 40:45
  I was a successful basketball player for years, I won championships, but
• 40:51
  regardless of that, I had a lot of mental health problems and I got
• 40:54
  help and I'm in a good stable place today. That's what I hope happens
• 40:59
  for him, and I hope that the story turns out to be positive.
• 41:02
  I'm not gonna I'm not gonna hold my breath at all, but that's what
• 41:06
  I hope for sure. And I also hope as we're moving along here with
• 41:09
  the agenda, Eric, I do hope at some point I actually do that
• 41:14
  the Pistons can actually just get something together. God, what an awful product
• 41:19
  to watch on. There are times when the Pistons have been on and I'm
• 41:22
  like, I'm gonna I just want to see how poorly they're gonna play.
• 41:25
  My God, they are just a terrible product to watch. And look it's
• 41:30
  because, of course, you know, they sign old superstars and a lot
• 41:35
  of these guys are immediately getting hurt, and those guys have huge contracts.
• 41:37
  They eat up some cap room, and I mean they just keep churning the
• 41:40
  roster, replacing players willy nilly. There's no team chemistry at all. They've
• 41:46
  got one good veteran on their team, you know, a bunch of younger
• 41:50
  types who do have some promise. But it's, man, it is a
• 41:53
  tough tough watch when the Detroit Pistons are on. It's one of the worst
• 41:59
  basketball teams I think I've ever seen. I mean, they're atrocious. They're
• 42:06
  they're like, they're like the twenty thirteen six ers who decided to tank,
• 42:10
  but they're not really tanking yet, right Like. And the sad thing about
• 42:15
  the Pistons is there's like there's like no hope, right, Like, Kay
• 42:20
  Cunningham is a nice player, but I wouldn't I wouldn't call him like a
• 42:24
  like a franchise builder. You know. He's he's a he's a solid player.
• 42:29
  He gets hurt a bunch, but he's he's not a guy you'd be
• 42:32
  extraordinarily excited about, like, Okay, we'll lose this year. Next year,
• 42:36
  we'll draft really well and we got this thing. It's like, no,
• 42:38
  you guys are just horrible. Yeah. And they've been drafting kind of
• 42:44
  poorly for for quite some time now. And like I said, I'm looking
• 42:47
  at their I'm looking at their roster now and this is this is one of
• 42:51
  the most telling things. Is like I look at this from a sixer's perspective,
• 42:57
  like who could we rip off, you know, from this team,
• 43:00
  Like who could we take from this team? Yeah, to help us,
• 43:02
  because they've got to be dying to trade people. I don't see anybody I
• 43:07
  would want. I mean it's really bad. Maybe Bogdanovich for a small forward,
• 43:13
  three point shooter. I mean, does that excite you, Oh,
• 43:19
  Kevin Knox, like Kevin knocks, Yeah, it's unbelievable. How bad the
• 43:23
  roster is. Killian Hayes. They drafted three years ago or two years ago,
• 43:28
  he was supposed to be like really really damn good, Jay n Iby.
• 43:30
  I just they've they've drafted so poorly and just and it's just that bad
• 43:36
  combination of like you don't have a superstar. You're not you're not trying to
• 43:39
  tank. You're just that bad. But you don't even have a roster to
• 43:43
  build upon, Like you don't even have that guy to build upon, like
• 43:45
  you know, and b didn't play this first year, but as a Gilby
• 43:49
  back, he's going to be a cornerstone eventually. They don't have that.
• 43:51
  And it's how many they lost? What twenty how many in a rownow twenty
• 43:54
  two? Twenty two? I think at this point, Yeah, yeah,
• 43:58
  unbelievable. It's actually harder to lose twenty two games than it is to win
• 44:01
  twenty two in my opinion, Yeah, he did it in uh what was
• 44:06
  the two thousand, I forget what year when they all they had the Super
• 44:08
  three there. I think it's actually harder to lose twenty two games because you're
• 44:13
  gonna have teams come through in Detroit. That just don't feel like playing because
• 44:17
  you suck and you're just gonna You're gonna win by accident, right like right,
• 44:22
  like a really damn good team like the justs not motivated. Like like
• 44:25
  say the Lakers come through and they it's just they're an older team. You
• 44:30
  can catch an older team like the Lakers on a bad night and win like
• 44:34
  ninety six to ninety, right, but they're not even fucking winning those games
• 44:37
  like that. That's I honestly think it's harder to lose twenty two in a
• 44:40
  road than win twenty two. It's really interesting, Like how how bad that?
• 44:45
  It's tough to be that bad? Like what you're saying, I think
• 44:49
  it's really interesting. But then we have on the flip side, the Philadelphia
• 44:52
  seventy six ers, as we're talking about this team at the top of the
• 44:55
  show, and just how in the fourth quarter again where according to this on
• 45:00
  December twentieth Wednesday, here they just a fourth quarter. They just shoved it
• 45:05
  right up the t wolves ass, and it was really wonderful to watch.
• 45:07
  An interesting stat is coming into this game, the Sixers averaged twenty seven point
• 45:14
  seven free throw attempts per game, the best in the NBA. It's something
• 45:19
  that they're doing consistently and averaging these free throw attempts and making sure that Embiid
• 45:25
  is getting to the rim and also just continuing to grow. And we're gonna
• 45:30
  be talking about this with Harrison Graham a little bit more, but the fact
• 45:35
  that Joel Embiid is actually becoming a better player eric is absolutely stunning in so
• 45:42
  many ways, the fact that he is continuing to polish his game, and
• 45:50
  a lot of that is because James Harden isn't here. A lot of that
• 45:52
  is because Ben Simmons isn't here. This is a really, really good team.
• 45:58
  It's a really good team, and it's a strategic team too. And
• 46:04
  I think during Doc's tenure with this team, I don't necessarily think we could
• 46:07
  say there was a lot of strategic based basketball. I mean, yes there
• 46:12
  was, but we're talking about utilizing strengths and and building upon a foundation of
• 46:17
  something that has been here with certain players and it is. It is just
• 46:22
  so fun to watch this team, man, I love it. Yeah,
• 46:27
  And I mean you got to give Nick Nurse a shit ton of credit.
• 46:31
  I mean he's, yeah, he coaches this team exactly how a superstar would
• 46:37
  want to be coach, like he lets him be do his thing, but
• 46:42
  also like forces him to pass the ball. You got to you got to
• 46:45
  involve Maxi because Maxie is that good. He's just gonna make you that much
• 46:46
  better to be. They have phenomenal I know, when Doc left and they
• 46:52
  lost some of their assistant coaches. Dude, they got Bobby Jackson, Doug
• 46:57
  West, Kobe Carr, al Rico Hines, Like they've awesome, awesome assistant
• 47:00
  coaches who I see interviewed all the time, and I'm like, they just
• 47:06
  really good. Like Bobby Jackson was an awesome basketball player, so it was
• 47:08
  Doug West, like they knew how to play the game. Yeah, and
• 47:13
  the I mean the key obviously is in beats happy, like he was not
• 47:17
  gonna be happy this season as long as the hardened thing got drug out and
• 47:22
  he is paired with the absolute perfect sidekick in Maxi right now, who doesn't
• 47:28
  mind being the sidekick. He could go to Detroit or Houston and be the
• 47:31
  man and put up thirty a game. I don't think it's in his blood.
• 47:35
  I think he likes winning and I think he gets his shots and because
• 47:40
  of what you have, Like it's really nice as the GM now because you
• 47:44
  can like narrow down or narrow in on like what this team actually needs.
• 47:49
  You don't need another ball dominic guard. You don't need a big man who
• 47:53
  needs the ball all the time, like you just need a ball handler,
• 47:57
  defensive guard who can shoot three pointers. Like, now you know exactly what
• 48:00
  you need because of these two superstars and what the way the rest of the
• 48:04
  team is playing. I mean I I and you're absolutely right, and B
• 48:08
  he's actually getting better. Yeah. I honestly think we all thought he was
• 48:12
  going to start to get hurt and his game was going to kind of start
• 48:15
  to degrade a little bit and maybe by the next next two years he'd be
• 48:19
  on the Knicks or some shit. Exactly how often do we talk about that
• 48:21
  over the summer. We're like, we're just gonna you know what, Yeah,
• 48:23
  you know, we'll see what this year brings. You know, seriously,
• 48:25
  we're downtrodden about it. Oh, we're gonna see what happens here.
• 48:29
  You know, he's probably he may throw out some things on Twitter about you
• 48:32
  know, maybe not being in Philly anymore in the future. And and now
• 48:36
  it's like it's it's a complete one eighty of that he's It just goes to
• 48:42
  show that James Harden is just what a piece of shit? Just a toxic
• 48:46
  asshole. Yeah, God, Like, can you imagine in your friend group
• 48:51
  like just this, this guy's an overalls and he's being an idiot and like
• 48:55
  no, sorry, what do you mean? What? Well? Huh what
• 49:00
  what you mean? But I mean, can you imagine like being a GM
• 49:06
  or coach trying to deal with his bullshit, trying to coach a team and
• 49:08
  keep it, keep a team going and like build team culture and he comes
• 49:12
  in with his furry pants and he hasn't he obviously hasn't worked out in four
• 49:17
  months, just like I got a deal this shithead, Like my job's hard
• 49:21
  enough, you imagine, Like ugh, And kudos to getting him the fuck
• 49:25
  out of town when they did, because it saved the whole season. Yeah.
• 49:29
  Like, and Bead has obviously worked on his game in the off season,
• 49:31
  but he is so fluid now. He hits every fuck, hits every
• 49:36
  jumper that's insane, Like he hits every twenty footer, hits every elbow jumper.
• 49:40
  And honestly, because he's he's open, like no one double teams m
• 49:44
  anymore because maxic go right by you right double him, Like it's such a
• 49:49
  great setup and like, man, I again, awesome the two of them
• 49:52
  together afterging sixty one points combined Maxine and b But Nick Nurse, I think
• 49:58
  is such a huge factor in all that. So it's amazing. They get
• 50:01
  the deal for Harden, they get Harden's ass out of Philadelphia and more,
• 50:07
  he gets a contract extension a couple months later. They're like, oh,
• 50:10
  thank god, you hate that you got it done things even though he's the
• 50:14
  one that traded for him exactly. Yes, it's amazing how it all works.
• 50:19
  So all right, buddy, I'm gonna let you go here. We're
• 50:22
  gonna get to our interview in a bit. Any any last words here for
• 50:25
  twenty twenty three because next week we're gonna we're gonna have an outtake show.
• 50:30
  And uh, I don't I don't know if I'm gonna do I don't know
• 50:34
  if I'm gonna put together a best of I used to do that in years
• 50:37
  past. To be honest with you, folks, it's kind of a pain
• 50:38
  in the ass going back and listening. I got a busy life, I
• 50:43
  really do, so I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to do that,
• 50:45
  but we got some good outtakes. I think that may be interesting for
• 50:47
  some folks. So anything, as we're closing out twenty twenty three hair Eric,
• 50:52
  and as we're looking at twenty twenty four, if there was some way
• 50:57
  he could go back and find the outtake of Lenin and I debating the Zepp's
• 51:00
  versus Hogies. Oh my god, yes, like ten minutes. That should
• 51:04
  be the end of the end of the Years show. That was my favorite
• 51:07
  comery. Yeah. I wonder if I still I have it somewhere. It
• 51:09
  might be all my because I have I have a PST external hard drive where
• 51:15
  I've got every episode on, tons of interviews that we've done over the years,
• 51:20
  and uh, well yeah, and you know what interviews should replay?
• 51:23
  Which one? Oh my god, I know, Yes, that was your
• 51:30
  first interview ever. That was your friend, Okay, take it take it
• 51:35
  back years, folks. I just don't want to say the guy's name,
• 51:38
  because I honestly don't know if he's still doing any writing for a particular website.
• 51:44
  But Eric and I had him on and it was the worst interview that
• 51:46
  we had ever done, and it was Eric, Poor Eric. It was
• 51:51
  his first interview and after that he was like, I don't know if I
• 51:53
  can do this interview stuff anymore. I was like, oh my gosh,
• 51:57
  this is the worst editing that I have ever had to do. It took
• 52:01
  it took like two hours to edit the actual interview because oh my gosh,
• 52:06
  I will never forget that, buddy. I I honestly thought all your interviews
• 52:10
  were like that. And then I was missing something and I was like,
• 52:14
  how do you do this? Like, oh my god. We would ask
• 52:17
  him questions and just he'd be silent for five seconds ago I'm not sure,
• 52:24
  or a sigh, yes, it'd be like it was. It was so
• 52:29
  bad. If a buddy of mine listens to the show, was like,
• 52:32
  was that guy for real? It was like, was he doing a bit
• 52:36
  like my my buddy Goose? He was like, he listens, He was
• 52:38
  just like he thought he was faking. It was like messing with us.
• 52:44
  Oh, that poor guy. I wonder if he's still around. I'm gonna
• 52:46
  have to look him up after this. Actually, if he's still around,
• 52:50
  maybe he's improved. Let's have him back. I hope not. It's a
• 52:55
  great it's a great bit. It's a great it is it is, Yes,
• 53:00
  all right, buddy, Hope you and your family have a great holiday,
• 53:02
  and we are going to take a quick break here, folks. We'll
• 53:06
  be back in just a bit. We got some more Sixers talk. Stick
• 53:07
  with us, all right, we are back. Let's get to what we
• 53:10
  are throwing down on the table this week. Harrison Gram from Libertyballers dot COM's
• 53:15
  jumping on with us here for some more Sixers talk again. It's what we're
• 53:20
  throwing down on the table and now on the table. This Philadelphia seventy six
• 53:27
  Ers team has been fun to watch this season. They have been very entertaining
• 53:32
  and surprising a lot of folks within Sixers Nation. And to talk about this
• 53:37
  team and to really get into what we've been seeing what we may be seeing
• 53:39
  in the future, is one of our favorites. It's been a minute since
• 53:43
  he has been on, but it's so great to have him back from Libertyballers
• 53:47
  dot Com. You can find him on Twitter at Harrison underscore Grim. We've
• 53:52
  got Harrison Grim. How you doing, my man, I'm doing great.
• 53:55
  I really appreciate being back. Gone with you in the six tiers. Most
• 54:00
  have been a lot of fun to watch. Yes, definitely have a lot
• 54:02
  of story allines to touch on. And I don't know if this is a
• 54:07
  festive edition, but happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, that is all the people
• 54:10
  out there as well. Absolutely, yeah, you know, we're we are
• 54:14
  ready. We are ready for some holiday cheer around here. And the Sixers
• 54:20
  certainly give us that. The Philadelphia Eagles certainly have not been giving us that.
• 54:24
  Amazingly enough, I feel like the Flyers kind of have been because they
• 54:28
  have been balls to the wall, absolutely fun to watch as well. And
• 54:30
  the Phillies doing what they've done during the off season, which is signing Aaronola
• 54:37
  that was the biggest off season signing. And I don't know, it seems
• 54:40
  like it seems like the holiday cheers here and it's good. It's good times
• 54:44
  except for the Eagles in the world of Phillies sports. But Harrison, I
• 54:46
  really wanted to talk about, you know, what's gonna be happening, you
• 54:50
  know, with the future of the team, talk about twenty twenty four,
• 54:52
  what to potentially expect from Joe El Embiid, Tyrese Maxi, Nick Nurse and
• 54:58
  company. And as we look to this new year, you know, we
• 55:01
  had some things in the back of our mind that we're really hoping to see
• 55:05
  from this team. So I'm wondering, what are three things the Sixers as
• 55:09
  a team should have on their twenty twenty four New Year's wish list? Well,
• 55:15
  do you have three things for us to share? Buddy? Yeah,
• 55:17
  I do, And it was tough when you first gave me this question.
• 55:22
  I was thinking about it. It was honestly kind of hard to think of
• 55:25
  three things because I think the team is just really deep right now. You're
• 55:30
  seeing that they're mostly playing really really good basketball, So it's kind of hard
• 55:36
  to pick out three things. And you know, that's a good issue to
• 55:38
  have. But the first thing on my wish list would be kind of rejuvenated
• 55:44
  Tobias Harris and we'll talk about more about him later. Yes, but he's
• 55:50
  usage has kind of been falling down. He's kind of looking like a bystander
• 55:53
  a little bit on offense, so we want to see more of what we
• 55:59
  saw early this season, where he was hyper efficient, finishing around the basket
• 56:04
  a lot, heading those mid range post fadeaways. So that would be at
• 56:10
  the top of my list, and I think that's currently the biggest thing,
• 56:14
  and I got two others, but there's a big gap between that and the
• 56:17
  two others. Okay, well, what are those two others? Because I
• 56:20
  love what you had to say about Tobias Harris there, I really do,
• 56:22
  because, like you and I think everybody else, you know, we've been
• 56:25
  seeing basically less and less of him necessarily being utilized on the court, and
• 56:31
  I kind of wonder because that I kind of wonder where he's going to be
• 56:36
  fitting in down the road, because he has been a steady presence with regard
• 56:40
  to this personnel for for years now. And yes, he's had he's certainly
• 56:45
  laid up some stinkers, as we have known Tobias to do in the past,
• 56:51
  but you know, he's been a very reliable shooter for this team for
• 56:54
  some time. You talked about earlier this year as well. We're gonna get
• 56:57
  into Tobias later. What's your other two? Your other two things that the
• 57:01
  Sixers should have on their wish list for twenty twenty four. Yeah, So
• 57:07
  the second thing, and this is kind of like a personal narrative type of
• 57:10
  thing, but I would love to see Tyrese Maxey as a starter in this
• 57:15
  coming All Star game. I think that a lot of Sixers fans should have
• 57:20
  that circle because his voting actually just opened up, and if you look at
• 57:24
  the Eastern Conference, I think Halliburn's probably a guaranteed to get that starting backhorse
• 57:30
  spot. He's been incredible. And then it gets a little bit interesting.
• 57:35
  Beyond that, you got Maxi. Damian Lillard will probably also be in the
• 57:39
  conversation. But I think what we've seen from Tyrese Maxi at his age is
• 57:45
  just so special. And if the Sixers keep winning games, I think he
• 57:50
  has a seriously compelling argument. So not just a Tyrese Maxi All Star appearance,
• 57:55
  but a starting appearance at that. Yeah, I love that. I
• 58:00
  would love to see that. How entertaining would that be in the All Star
• 58:04
  Game if he was a star? My gosh, that'd be fantastic. All
• 58:07
  Right, what's number three for you, buddy on the New Year's wish list?
• 58:10
  Yeah? So number three. And this is kind of gonna overshadow some
• 58:15
  of our talk here in a bit, but in terms of an on court
• 58:20
  actual need that I think that they should look to address. I think it's
• 58:24
  just a ball handler, or an additional ball handler at that. And notice
• 58:29
  how I don't necessarily box it in as like a point guard per Se Christ
• 58:34
  There are guys out there like Joe Ingles or Kyle Anderson in Minnesota. I'm
• 58:39
  not saying they'll be available, but potentially those are the guys that could really
• 58:45
  help out the Sixers. We've seen it first hand with Nick Batoon kind of
• 58:49
  being a second or third initiator, and it just kind of feels like they
• 58:52
  need another guy like that. Yeah, I really like that. I do.
• 58:59
  The one thing that I would look the Sixers perimeter defense is not awful
• 59:04
  by any stretch of the imagination. We're certainly going to talk about potential trade
• 59:08
  deadline acquisitions in a little bit, you know, obviously that's the hottest story
• 59:13
  is we're heading into twenty twenty four. You know, maybe aside from the
• 59:16
  All Star Game and you know whether or not Tyres MAXI can get there.
• 59:20
  But I think perimeter defense, especially when it comes to playoff time, and
• 59:24
  as we're recording this the Philadelphia seventy six Ers number three in the East,
• 59:29
  safe to say, you know that things are looking pretty good. Never want
• 59:31
  to jinx anything, but from a perimeter defense defense standpoint, Harrison, I
• 59:37
  would like to see a little bit more. That's actually on my wish list
• 59:42
  because how many times have we seen other teams taking advantage of the Sixers because
• 59:46
  they haven't necessarily had the best perimeter defense or even the best perimeter shooting too.
• 59:52
  And I mean there's obviously two different things, of course, but just
• 59:55
  just getting out on that perimeter and in making play and I really would like
• 1:00:01
  to see that in the future. I don't know what are your thoughts.
• 1:00:05
  Yeah, I mean that's an interesting argument because you have Nick Batoum, who
• 1:00:09
  you know, he's up there in age, but he's still a solid defender,
• 1:00:13
  not the quickest guy, but he makes up for it in just IQ.
• 1:00:16
  And then you kind of look behind him and you got the Anthony Melton,
• 1:00:20
  who's a tremendous defender, a little bit undersize, especially with some of
• 1:00:23
  those bigger wings in the Eastern Conference. And then you got Robert Covington,
• 1:00:28
  who thus far has been really good. But how much does Nick Nurse or
• 1:00:32
  the Sixers trust him? You know, that's anyone's guest. Yeah. The
• 1:00:37
  Sixers defensive rating, I know it has picked up. I believe they're fifth
• 1:00:40
  if I'm not mistaken, so really elite teams. They're they're top ten in
• 1:00:45
  both offense and defense. And I think going into the deadline. And this
• 1:00:51
  is just me reading the te leaves of Darryl's media hits. It seems like
• 1:00:55
  he's much more interested in improving the offense. Yeah, it's crazy to say,
• 1:01:00
  because I'm pretty sure they have the best offense now, but we all
• 1:01:06
  know how the postseason works. You need guys that can make buckets, make
• 1:01:09
  plays that you can put the ball in their hands and trust them. Yeah,
• 1:01:14
  and I think Darryl's going to be really aggressive in trying to address that
• 1:01:19
  and then just bank on the defense being passable, and thus far it's been
• 1:01:23
  better than passable. And credit to Joel Embiid, who's kind of making an
• 1:01:30
  early entry into the defensive Player of the Year race, Like incredible, he
• 1:01:34
  can really anchor things on that end. Yeah. Absolutely, a great segue
• 1:01:37
  there, Harrison, because it is hard to believe that Joel Embiid actually looks
• 1:01:44
  like he's just getting better as a player this season. In the games that
• 1:01:47
  have been watching, I sit back on my couch and I'm thinking, my
• 1:01:52
  gosh, he's doing some things here that we just really haven't seen, or
• 1:01:55
  he's placing more of an emphasis on aspects of his game that haven't necessarily been
• 1:02:00
  prevalent. I mean, we've heard it from his teammates, We've heard We've
• 1:02:05
  heard Tyrese Maxi a number of times after games, you know, talking about
• 1:02:07
  Joel Embid just being good at basketball, you know, but the eye test
• 1:02:12
  is also telling us this for US fans as well, that Joel Embiid is
• 1:02:16
  actually getting to be a better player in this league. It's so hard to
• 1:02:22
  fathom. What do you think is taking Joel Embiid to that next level this
• 1:02:27
  year? Harrison? What do you think it is? I think you have
• 1:02:30
  to look at Denver's title run last season, because not only did we all
• 1:02:36
  watch a big man lead an NBA team to a title, but we watched
• 1:02:40
  a big man doing it who was essentially their full time point guard in Gookic.
• 1:02:45
  Yeah, and Joel. I'm sure Joel watched that and kind of picked
• 1:02:49
  up I'm not sure what the word is, maybe an enthusiasm for that,
• 1:02:53
  for that style of play, and he really has taken this opportunity by the
• 1:03:00
  by the horn and just I don't want to say it's a carbon copy of
• 1:03:05
  the Denver Nuggets because it's really not right. But there's a lot of aspects
• 1:03:08
  of it that are really similar Nick Nurse's system. There's a lot of off
• 1:03:14
  ball movement, there's cutters, and credit to Joel Embiid for watching that and
• 1:03:20
  embracing it. When last year the Sixers, albeit it was limited success,
• 1:03:23
  had success in kind of an isocentric pick and roll offense. So I think
• 1:03:31
  when it comes down to it is Joelle just really embracing Nick Nurse's system and
• 1:03:37
  truly believing that it's the right way to play, and evidence has shown us
• 1:03:43
  from from last year's Denver run that it can lead to championships. Potentially.
• 1:03:46
  You mentioned Nick Nurse, and I wasn't necessarily going to get into him in
• 1:03:52
  terms of what he's brought to the team, not just from an ex's noan
• 1:03:55
  standpoint, but leadership, and I think allowing Joel Embiid also to be himself.
• 1:04:00
  Of course, the type of what you're talking about, Harrison, the
• 1:04:03
  type of play that Joel Embiid wants to give on the court meshes very nicely
• 1:04:10
  with what Nick Nurse brings to the table in terms of coaching. It's all
• 1:04:15
  meshing together really well. I just never thought that it was going to happen
• 1:04:18
  to this extent. I was happy when Nick Nurse was initially hired, and
• 1:04:24
  of course, you know, at the beginning of the season, we're like,
• 1:04:26
  oh my gosh, this is actually like, this is really fun to
• 1:04:29
  watch, Like having a coach like Nick Nurse out there, this is great.
• 1:04:31
  This is great as a fan, And I just don't think when he
• 1:04:34
  was initially hired, we all thought that to this extent it would be working
• 1:04:40
  out as well as it has. I mean, is it still surprising to
• 1:04:44
  you, because sometimes it's still surprising to me. I think it's somewhat surprising.
• 1:04:48
  And you know, I don't faull to you for being naive to that,
• 1:04:51
  especially watching the Sixers last year and just how drastically different it was.
• 1:04:57
  And even if you go beyond that with Jimmy Butler or with JJ Reddick and
• 1:05:02
  kind of their early era embiid Sixers, like it was a much different style.
• 1:05:09
  But like I said, it's a lot of credit to Joel for seeing
• 1:05:15
  that system, hearing about it, and embracing it. Because there are superstars
• 1:05:19
  out there, one of which you know, the Sixers traded away a little
• 1:05:24
  bit ago, that don't necessarily embrace the system that takes the ball out of
• 1:05:29
  their hands or has them doing stuff off the ball, So credit credit to
• 1:05:33
  Joel Absolutely. You mentioned one Tobias Harris earlier and we kind of got into
• 1:05:40
  him a little bit. Let's get into a little bit more detail just in
• 1:05:43
  terms of how he's been utilized this season and what he has meant to the
• 1:05:46
  team. Earlier on in this season, he was putting up some points and
• 1:05:51
  some numbers and just being a very very effective player, and we've really kind
• 1:05:56
  of just seen that, you know, essentially kind of go down the toilet
• 1:06:00
  to an extent here. So I'm wondering, what are your thoughts on how
• 1:06:01
  Tobias Harris really has been utilized, especially as of late, and you know,
• 1:06:05
  what it's really meant to the team and can things kind of turn around
• 1:06:10
  for him at this point? What are your thoughts? Yeah, I mean,
• 1:06:14
  Tobias is such a tricky player because you know, we're coming off of
• 1:06:18
  the Chicago game where he only had three points, only had three shots.
• 1:06:24
  But also like while he was not great offensively or wasn't engaged whatsoever, he
• 1:06:31
  was also tremendous defensively. And I forget who said this, but it really
• 1:06:35
  is true that it seems like Tobias can only have a good game in like
• 1:06:41
  one area, either he's scoring a bunch and giving up buckets on the other
• 1:06:45
  end, or he's locking down defensively and yep, he's you know, just
• 1:06:47
  kind of floating out there. So in regards to getting him engaged again,
• 1:06:53
  like the Sixers, I'm sure want that early season Tobias, and that early
• 1:06:58
  season Tobias wasn't per Fick, the hyper efficient Tobias Harris, Like, yeah,
• 1:07:02
  his shots were down, Yes, his three point attempts were really down.
• 1:07:08
  But at the same time, with the Sixers offense, they really need
• 1:07:12
  him to kind of be that third guy or step up when Maxi or Joelle
• 1:07:17
  might rest. So I think tonight we're recording this before the Minnesota game,
• 1:07:24
  I think you're really gonna see the Sixers make an effort to get him some
• 1:07:27
  early buckets. He loves that, like mid range fade away. So I
• 1:07:32
  think it's just gonna have to involve stuff like that. And at the same
• 1:07:35
  time, like players are real people too, and we're also approaching the deadline.
• 1:07:42
  We're also approaching a point where Tobias is going to be a free agent
• 1:07:45
  this summer, and you can see players who are in like contract years either
• 1:07:50
  seriously thrive Julius Raindall is an example of that. Or players kind of shrivel
• 1:07:57
  up, or not shrivele up, but struggle, and you're kind of seeing
• 1:08:02
  that with Klay Thompson over in Golden State. So I'm sure that may or
• 1:08:06
  may not be affecting him. So tonight I would like to see the Sixers
• 1:08:11
  get him involved offensively and then hopefully you can kind of progress back to the
• 1:08:16
  point in which he was or even seventy five percent there. All right,
• 1:08:20
  Well, as we're moving along here, I wanted to talk about this,
• 1:08:24
  this Sixers bench in particular. There's a lot of interesting components to the bench,
• 1:08:30
  you know, whether whether we're talking about Patrick Beverley and what he's he's
• 1:08:33
  been able to bring, and just a number of players that have had certain
• 1:08:40
  roles. And it's certainly been up and up and down. But I really
• 1:08:45
  kind of like, what the where the like what the bench has kind of
• 1:08:47
  been. And it's again, it's been kind of entertaining to a certain extent.
• 1:08:53
  So how would you grade if you had to give out a grade here
• 1:08:57
  grading the bench at this point in the season, given what we've seen thus
• 1:09:00
  far in Harrison, That's a great question because a lot of it I feel
• 1:09:05
  like is somewhat incomplete. Marcus Morris was out for a little bit when they
• 1:09:10
  initially traded for him. He's gonna possibly be out for tonight's game dealing with
• 1:09:15
  an illness. Obviously, Kelly Oubray Junior had his accident, so he was
• 1:09:19
  out for a little bit, but when he was with the team, he
• 1:09:23
  was starting. So it seems like they're still kind of molding an identity.
• 1:09:28
  And so the grade that I would pick right now, and this is definitely
• 1:09:33
  subject to change for better or worse, I would say it be minus.
• 1:09:38
  And I think a lot of that has to do with Robert Covington, who
• 1:09:44
  he's definitely a much different player offensively than what we first saw in his first
• 1:09:48
  stint here, but defensively he's still capable of being a tremendous help and off
• 1:09:55
  ball defender. I think he's thrived in that role, and hopefully Nick Nrrise
• 1:09:59
  will keep him in the rotation. He's kind of been flirting in and out.
• 1:10:02
  Patrick Beverly has been better than I expected. I know, it's just
• 1:10:08
  it seems like it seems like it's truly amazing to watch him, Jeff,
• 1:10:13
  because like there's seventy five percent of the time you're just like, what is
• 1:10:15
  this guy doing? Right? And then there's twenty five percent of the time
• 1:10:18
  and it's like the best basketball player you've ever seen. It's like he's unlocking
• 1:10:23
  his game. It's like he's unlocking his offensive game, like right in front
• 1:10:26
  of us. Basically, yeah, and he's not young bye bye by any
• 1:10:31
  measure, right, But it seems like this the Sixers have really relied on
• 1:10:36
  him as kind of like a third ball handler. You can even argue second
• 1:10:41
  ball handler minus d Anthony Mellon, but like I think they it's kind of
• 1:10:48
  scary how much they've relied on him, and he's produced thus far, so
• 1:10:51
  so I credit to Patrick Beverly. Paul Reid has kind of been up and
• 1:10:58
  down. He's had some good moments, have some bad moments. And then
• 1:11:01
  Kelly Ubray obviously he's been solid. But the player that I'm saving for the
• 1:11:06
  last year, and this is a big part of why I'm pretty confident giving
• 1:11:13
  them a B minus. I feel like that's kind of their floor, and
• 1:11:15
  that's Marcus Morris. And listen, early on, it was rough watching this
• 1:11:20
  guy. It was when hit shots was simply lost defensively, but he just
• 1:11:28
  decided not to miss any shots and he's been a tremendous shooter now for multiple
• 1:11:33
  weeks. And that was kind of the missing aspect of the bench, especially
• 1:11:39
  without Kelly Ubray was kind of a guy that could just put up some points.
• 1:11:43
  It's a lot of defensive minded players, so Marcus Morris has been tremendous
• 1:11:47
  in that. And you know, if there's an apology form out there,
• 1:11:53
  I'd sign it because he's really proven me and other doubters wrong too. It's
• 1:11:58
  proven me wrong absolutely again. Folks. Talking to Harrison Grim from Libertyballers dot
• 1:12:04
  Com at Harrison Underscore Graham on Twitter. Give him a follow, He's a
• 1:12:08
  great, great follow And to close us out here, Harrison, you know
• 1:12:12
  we're gonna be talking a lot more about the trade deadline in the coming weeks
• 1:12:16
  and how the Sixers team could potentially get even better, that much more competitive
• 1:12:21
  in the Eastern Conference. Who are some players that you'd really like to see
• 1:12:25
  the Sixers logically target in twenty twenty four? Bring on on this team?
• 1:12:32
  Like this is the million dollar question. Yeah, and it's not an easy
• 1:12:35
  question one because the Sixers have been really good thus far, that there isn't
• 1:12:41
  many holes, so credit to the front office on that, but like on
• 1:12:46
  the other end, like there's not truly a perfect fit out there. So
• 1:12:53
  the closest thing I think to a perfect fit that they could get would probably
• 1:12:59
  be Alex Caruso. And you know you're gonna have ten other plus teams bidding
• 1:13:04
  for him. We just saw like how impactful he is, not just like
• 1:13:09
  as a score, but just by being on the court. His plus minus
• 1:13:13
  was something ridiculous. He had to chase down block on MAXI. He's someone
• 1:13:16
  that's really high on my list, but the Sixers would have to probably overpay
• 1:13:24
  to get him, and I'm not I'm not sure how many people are willing
• 1:13:28
  to spend what will probably be two first round picks. And I don't know,
• 1:13:32
  maybe maybe a solid or a useful player plus on someone who averages like
• 1:13:39
  nine points per game, yeh. But I love his theoretical fit on the
• 1:13:43
  Sixers. I think he's a tremendous defender. I think he's someone that you
• 1:13:46
  can throw at Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum and you know, have them have
• 1:13:51
  him chase them around and feel pretty confident. He's also a decent ball handler.
• 1:13:59
  I think he someone that could relieve the load off of Maxie or Melton.
• 1:14:03
  He's capable of dribbling the basketball, so he just checks a lot of
• 1:14:09
  boxes. And whatever price that he goes for, if he's even made available,
• 1:14:14
  is gonna be high. But he's someone I'm sure the Sixers are going
• 1:14:17
  to be linked to, possibly over the next few months. Another guy who's
• 1:14:24
  a little bit more under the radar, and I'm not entirely sure what's going
• 1:14:29
  on with it is the San Antonio Spurs Keldon Johnson. Mark Spears reported that
• 1:14:35
  he was, you know, just hearing rumors and having his name pop up
• 1:14:39
  and stuff. And he's a really interesting player. I know, not many
• 1:14:45
  people watch the Spurs just because they've been really bad this year. It is,
• 1:14:51
  it is, but Wemby does some amazing stuff even yeah it evens out.
• 1:14:58
  But but like Keldon Johnson's so the quick rundown on him is he's a
• 1:15:01
  six to five wing, maybe more like seven to two with basketball shoes.
• 1:15:09
  He's pretty much good at everything, Like, he's a good finisher, he's
• 1:15:13
  a decent enough three point shooter. He's capable of putting the ball on the
• 1:15:16
  floor and getting a basket. Defensively, he has some warts, especially as
• 1:15:24
  an off ball defender. He's a very poor off ball defender. But as
• 1:15:28
  a point of attack defender, I think he's pretty okay. But he's someone
• 1:15:32
  that's really interesting if he is made available one because you could put in next
• 1:15:38
  to Tyrese Maxi as a large two guard and that's really intriguing if he figures
• 1:15:45
  it out defensively, or you can play him as a smaller three as well.
• 1:15:48
  But his contract situation is also really good. He's making twenty million this
• 1:15:53
  year, and then every year after that the salary actually decreases down from twenty
• 1:15:59
  million, and for a starting level player with the new CBA and TV deal
• 1:16:04
  that are going to come into effect next year, that could be extremely valuable
• 1:16:11
  in the long run. Good. So those are the two names at the
• 1:16:14
  top of my list. I like them. I like them. I think
• 1:16:16
  they're very interesting, and we're gonna be following those names here at the PSD
• 1:16:20
  podcast show for sure in the future again, folks. Harrison Graham from Libertyballers
• 1:16:26
  dot Com Harrison, Man, it was great talking to you again. It
• 1:16:29
  was a it was a minute before you know, we were able to talk,
• 1:16:31
  but man, I love having you on. Come back, join us
• 1:16:33
  down the road. We'll talk more NBA more. Sixers would love to have
• 1:16:36
  you back on the road. We'd love to have you back on the show,
• 1:16:39
  my friend. Absolutely, it's always great talking Sixers with you, man.
• 1:16:43
  Man. Again, hope everybody out there as an extremely happy holiday or
• 1:16:48
  very merry Christmas as well. Thanks great talking to Harrison as always. And
• 1:16:53
  of course there's some options for the Philadelphia seventy six Ers too. Look Daryl
• 1:16:57
  Morey got that contract extension, look at you know, So if this team
• 1:17:00
  just wants to throw around some money, I'm all for it. If it's
• 1:17:01
  gonna bring a championship to Philadelphia, I am absolutely all for it. So
• 1:17:05
  that being said, folks, we hope you have a great, great holiday
• 1:17:10
  and a great Christmas. If you celebrate Christmas with your family. It's a
• 1:17:14
  great time of year usually usually for folks. I know it's for some folks.
• 1:17:17
  May not be the best time of year. If you are an individual
• 1:17:23
  where it's not the best time of year, need somebody to talk to,
• 1:17:25
  seriously, reach out to Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. No,
• 1:17:28
  it may sound a little hokey, but seriously, we all need people in
• 1:17:30
  our lives and for you listeners out there, especially longtime listeners, and even
• 1:17:34
  if you're new to the show as well. We're part of a family here,
• 1:17:38
  you know. We get some listener feedback every now and then. We
• 1:17:41
  interact with some of our listeners you know, throughout the year, and it
• 1:17:44
  really has been a family atmosphere and environment here on this podcast for again,
• 1:17:48
  well over ten ten years. I can't believe over a decade that we have
• 1:17:54
  been doing this. So anyway, nobody's alone out there. We are all
• 1:17:58
  here together, whether you're listening to us because you like what Eric Lennon myself
• 1:18:04
  have to say. And you know, whether you're part of this Philadelphia sports
• 1:18:08
  community or not, I wish you and yours the very best as we're moving
• 1:18:13
  forward and moving through this holiday season, twenty twenty four is going to be
• 1:18:17
  very very interesting. So with that being said, you all take care and
• 1:18:21
  we will catch you next time.