Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / TABLE TALK: The New Sixers Era Starts Soon!

Transcript

TABLE TALK: The New Sixers Era Starts Soon! · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. I wanted to let you know that
0:02
we recorded this podcast episode on Monday, June seventeenth, twenty twenty four.
0:07
By the time you hear this, some things may have changed here or there,
0:10
but we hope you enjoy the show. All right, everybody, welcome
0:32
to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running
0:36
weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. That's right eleven years strong.
0:40
We've got a great discussion coming away this week about this Philadelphia seventy six Ers
0:44
team. Where they will be going in free agency. Of course, the
0:48
storylines about Paul George and whether or not he's going to be coming here to
0:51
Philadelphia, but what's going to be happening with this team not only in free
0:55
agency, but within the NBA Draft as well. What does the new air
1:00
of the Philadelphia seventy six ers really look like. We're gonna be getting into
1:03
that during our Table Talk interview discussion this week. We got a great guest,
1:07
Let's get right to it, joining us this week from Pickswap Media.
1:11
I love listening to that podcast on Apple podcast. And if you're into the
1:15
Philadelphia seventy six ers, and all the news and storylines surrounding this team.
1:19
You'll definitely want to subscribe to the Pickswap Media podcast. We've got our good
1:23
friend from that great podcast, mister Sean Bernard. How you doing, buddy,
1:27
Yeah, doing well, Jeff. I appreciate you having me back on.
1:30
And it does feel like things are heating up in the NBA and sing
1:34
well, and I do think that six You're gonna be at the forefront for
1:36
a lot of these news So it's an exciting time to be a Sixers fan
1:38
again, which feels like it's been a little bit since we've said that.
1:42
Absolutely, and I gotta tell you too, you're a great follow on the
1:44
Twitter slash x. Where can folks find you out there, Sean? Yeah,
1:48
you guys can follow me on Twitter or x at Shawn Underscore Bernard one
1:51
USO on Pickswap Media, cross just about every social media platform TikTok TikTok,
1:56
Instagram, Twitter, anything else there, and then doing some stuff for on
1:59
YouTube for Sixers digest a ton as well lately. All right, very good,
2:02
Well, let's get into Let's get into this Sixers team with a team
2:07
where the organization itself will be going in the foreseeable future, you know,
2:10
short term, long term Sean. In one of your recent podcasts over at
2:15
Pickswap Media, you guys talked about, you know, what the what the
2:20
ideal tactics of heading into this next Sixers era is actually gonna look like for
2:24
this team and for this organization here. So I guess to start us off
2:29
here from a philosophical perspective, just pure again purely philosophical, what direction should
2:35
this team really be heading in here? In the summer of twenty twenty four.
2:38
Again, I know you and your co host you talked about it on
2:40
Pickswap Media. We kind of wanted to get that conversation started here at the
2:45
PSD podcast show as well. Again, philosophical perspective, what direction should this
2:50
Sixers team and organization be heading. Yeah, it's interesting because the NBA is
2:53
such a copycat league that when you see a team have success and seemingly have
2:58
the blueprint for their success, everyone to replicate that. And we've seen that
3:00
kind of through the Big three eras. I think there's been kind of a
3:04
swing back lately in recent years where there's been more of an emphasis on having
3:07
the complimentary pieces and the right role players around it. To put it short,
3:10
I think there's ways to succeed in both of those directions and ways to
3:14
fail in it, and we see the pros and cons of each those.
3:16
Like a team that the Big Three is clearly failing right now is out there
3:20
and looking at the Phoenix Suns and seeing how they're shortcoming. But at the
3:23
other hand, like if you don't have the right role players, you invest
3:25
highly in those guys, then you get to the playoffs and then all of
3:29
a sudden they're not ready to log. Yeah, twenty five to thirty minutes.
3:31
That doesn't make it work either. Now, inherently from Darryl Mory the
3:36
mold that he's been cut, he's certainly a superstar guy that he wants to
3:38
bring in the big fish, and I do think that is the direction the
3:40
Sixers are heading. That they do have a full max contract slot available to
3:45
offer and have been seemingly attached to just about every big name free agent that
3:49
has popped up, whether it be Paul George Lebron, James og Nanobi,
3:52
anyone else you want to throw out there. So I think there's gonna be
3:54
a lot more than that. I do think the Sixers are leaning into that
3:57
philosophy to bring in a third star with Tyrese Maxi and Joel Embiid, and
4:01
ultimately that there's plenty more rostered around out is. There's not a lot of
4:04
guys under contract at this kind of time, so you got to bring in
4:06
the right role players as well. But I think that's the philosophy here,
4:10
is they're swinging for the fences and bringing in a big fish. I wonder
4:13
if it's really going to, at the end of the day, be that
4:16
avenue that this team needs to travel in. I really do, because the
4:19
NBA it's not as conventional maybe as maybe the past I don't know, maybe
4:25
six, seven, eight years or so. I mean, who would have
4:28
thought that there were certain teams within the playoffs this past year that would have
4:30
gotten as far as they did, Like the Indiana Pacers. Yeah, of
4:33
course they didn't get to the finals, but I would not have thought in
4:36
a million years they would have got as far as they did. Quite frankly,
4:40
we're just seeing we're seeing new team construction here and there, and like
4:46
I do wonder at times, Sean if the superstar avenue that Daryl Morey consistently
4:50
wants to go down. If that really is the right direction, I don't
4:53
know. Do you have thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean there's certainly
4:56
shortcomings to it. Like in this specific example, if you're handing a max
4:59
contract to Paul George or whoever the guy is here, you leave yourself pretty
5:03
shorthanded for the other options that can bring in, and then you're not investing
5:06
in like these Kentavious Calwell, Pope Arch type of players, with the Bruce
5:10
Browns of the world and guys like that, which can make or break championship
5:13
team soon extent. So you got to make sure you get it right.
5:15
I think, like in a lot of ways, we still don't talk about
5:18
enough how hard it was to vote a roster with that Tobias Harris contract.
5:21
Yes, and like single handedly, if you just replace Paul George or whoever
5:27
the star example you want to bring up with Tobias Harris, we probably are
5:30
talking about the Sixers team in a different tune right now, Like we're not
5:32
talking about Paul George making much more than Tobias Harris in the grand scheme of
5:36
things, So I think that goes under talked about. But yeah, there's
5:41
absolutely shortcomings to the Superstar plan as well. Yeah, well, just this
5:45
past week, I guess we got we gotta start talking about Paul George here,
5:47
because just this past week, you know, Joe l Embiid was sitting
5:49
right next to Paul George during the NBA Finals and essentially said with a huge
5:55
grand and smile on his face that you know, he's, you know,
5:58
confident that the Sixers front office would quote adds some pieces this offseason, again
6:02
with a big smile on his face, a more than subtle pitch. I
6:08
guess to the front office, Sean, I mean, this is gonna happen
6:12
here at this point, right, isn't it? Paul George is gonna be
6:14
on the Philadelphia seventy six Ers? Am I correct? About this year?
6:16
If Paul George actually wants to leave Los Angeles, He's coming to Philadelphia.
6:20
I feel very confident in that that. Like, so what's very cool about
6:25
that story to me? In particular with Joel Embid And first off, I
6:28
think it's great when he gets some TV time that in general, Joel kind
6:30
of keeps to himself, staying his own lane, and so I think we
6:32
forget, like this guy's got such a unique, cool personality, Like,
6:35
he's not a weirdo that lives in isolation. He's a normal, cool dude.
6:40
So it's kind of cool to see him step into the forefront and everyone
6:43
get a chance to see that. And how that all came together. As
6:46
Joel was in the building to watch the NBA Finals game, heard Paul George
6:48
was gonna be on the pregame show and said, mind if I do it
6:51
too, and then things came together. So I think that's a little telling
6:55
as well. Yeah, I mean, the short answer is Paul George is
6:58
absolutely option A for the Sixers. He's at the top of their wish list
7:00
and the biggest driving force to that number one, Like you can see the
7:03
fit stylistically being the truest wing that we've had in the Joel Embiid era and
7:08
really that linking piece between Maxi and Embiid and the other part of it is
7:11
he can just straight up be a free agent, so you're signing him without
7:14
giving up any draft picks, without digging into your pile of assets or anything
7:17
like that. So Paul George absolutely the top of the list. Kind of
7:20
my hesitancy is he's certainly either using the Sixers as leverage or having genuine interest.
7:26
I do think like he planned on retiring and spending the rest of his
7:30
career in Los Angeles when he signed there. It's going to be interesting that
7:32
he's going to have to make that decision for is the money worth it?
7:35
And do I want to step into the pressure cooker of Philadelphia, yeah,
7:38
or do I just kind of want to chill out here in Los Angeles.
7:41
That's kind of the decision Paul George is making. The Sixers are going to
7:44
offer more money and certainly going to do everything to recruit him. I'm pretty
7:47
optimistic. I would put it probably a coin flip right now, but that's
7:50
certainly the top option for the Sixers. I mean, Sean, we've talked
7:54
about this before and you kind of just, you know, subtly alluded to
7:58
it as well. You know what, I'd like to the biggest fans in
8:01
the world of this possible transaction, you know, bringing Paul George onto the
8:05
team. I'm just not one hundred percent sure it gives the Sixers the juice
8:09
really to get to that next level. Again, you and I have talked
8:11
about it, We've talked about it on this podcast platform. I know you've
8:13
talked about it over at Pickswap Media as well. I mean, maybe Joel
8:18
Embiid, you know, the expert on the court, sees things a little
8:20
differently than I do here, and I'm wondering if there's something that I'm missing
8:24
where Paul George really can be the guy to get the team to the next
8:28
level, not just during the regular season, but during the playoffs as well.
8:33
I wonder if those of us that are hesitant about this, I wonder
8:35
if we're kind of missing something here, because when joe El Embiid is going
8:39
on television and again making that pitch basically to the front office, wanting to
8:43
get in on that TV interview, He's seeing something. There's something within him
8:48
that says, I want this to happen, and I'm gonna try to pressure
8:50
the front office to make sure that it happens. I do wonder if there's
8:54
something that I'm missing here with regard to this. I don't know what are
8:56
your thoughts here? Yeah, I mean, Paul George is in perfect.
9:00
He has his flaws as a basketball player, the injury concerns, the age,
9:03
and he has some playoff demons as well that he hasn't been perfect and
9:07
just about a lot of playoff fronts if he's had his shortcomings there, the
9:09
basketball selling point is like number one, that he is that clear link as
9:13
a wing between Tyrese Maxi and Joell Embiid, that you now have three really
9:16
good players like Paul George, even for his concerns, still a top thirty
9:20
NBA player pretty much no doubt in my mind in that conversation, which is
9:24
really good to be adding, and from like a fit perspective, he's a
9:26
high volume three point shooter who can do more. So he's a legitimate forty
9:31
percent three point shooter on like eight three point attempts per game. You have
9:33
seven point nine this year to add that next to Dwell Embiid, and then
9:37
also have a guy that can do more than that. So there will be
9:39
the situations where Paul George is just a floor spacer just ready for catching shoot
9:43
three pointers, and there will be situations where you're asking him to create offense
9:46
and generate in a way that he can at a higher level than any guy
9:50
that we've really had paired with Maxi and Embiid for sure, even guys like
9:54
Jimmy like Paul George, much higher volume shooter, much more efficient shooter,
9:58
and like defensively, he's not what he once was, but you can still
10:01
look at it and think that it's there. And a lot of his supplementary
10:03
skills, like the defense, like a little bit of the playmaking. Those
10:07
are things that I think can be looked at better when there's a little bit
10:09
less on his plate, which would still be the case here in Philadelphia.
10:13
So he has his flaws, but no player is perfect, and if they
10:16
were, they wouldn't be available in free agency. It's a good point.
10:18
I mean, it's a really good point too. And I'm thinking in the
10:20
back of my mind too, if this is something that Joel Embiid really does
10:24
want, because we know that over the years he has had influence with the
10:26
front office in terms of various free agents that have been brought in. We
10:31
know that, you know, he has a say based on who he is
10:33
within the team and just within the NBA itself. So I do wonder if
10:37
this is something to keep Joel Embiid here long term as we do enter this
10:43
new Sixers era. I wonder if in that regard it is a good thing.
10:46
I don't know, have you thought about it in terms of that context,
10:50
Yeah, it definitely matters that keeping your start happy is the name of
10:54
the game in the NBA, and that's how you keep yourself on tracks.
10:56
So I think that there's some pretty fluid conversations between Joel and being Darryl Moray
11:00
throughout this offseason. I do think that they're on the same page and it
11:03
does matter to what Joel wants to an extent. So you gotta get it
11:05
right. And you also, like, can't be looking this as a one
11:09
year window. You gotta be looking as this is your final couple chances at
11:11
an actual championship with Joel Embiid. So if that means giving Paul George a
11:16
four year contract and that's really the all in push is during the course of
11:20
that contract, that's what we're looking at. So that seems like a pretty
11:22
likely world to me. You definitely gotta listen when you started talking to you
11:26
like that again, folks, talking to Sean Bernard from Pickswap Media. I
11:28
subscribe on Apple podcasts and but highly recommend if you're a Sixers fan to subscribe
11:33
again to pick Swap Media. They do great, great work over there and
11:39
this Sixers team as we are moving forward, here during this offseason, this
11:43
team is gonna look a lot different before we know. And I think you
11:46
know there's new talent that's going to be joining this team sooner rather than later.
11:50
Sean and Daryl Morey. He's gonna be given out those contracts soon enough
11:54
here. So I'm wondering, who are some of the free agents that you
11:56
would really want on this team as it pertains to that new Sixers era that
12:01
we were just talking about a few minutes ago. Do you have some guys
12:03
in mind, maybe some under the radar guys who who you'd really like to
12:07
see joining the Sixers team. Yeah, I think that, to be honest,
12:11
the roster is gonna look more similar than people expect. And that's funny
12:13
to say, because when you look at the current roster, it's officially just
12:18
Joel Embiid under contract right right now that he is the fifty one million dollars
12:22
cap hit. Then there's Paul Reid on a non guaranteed deal, which seems
12:24
pretty likely the Sixers are gonna move on from him one way or another.
12:28
I do think Darryl Morey is probably gonna use this to advantage where because it's
12:31
a non guaranteed, you can trade the contract and that team cuts them,
12:35
which essentially is just free cap relief. So I think the sixer we'll try
12:37
and add a draft pick through something like that. They also got Ricky Counsel
12:41
the fourth on a non guarantee or on a team option, Jeff Dobton on
12:45
an option, so those are both non guaranteed as well, not officially around
12:48
then they have like all their lists of guys. I do think it's pretty
12:50
likely that Kelly Oubre is back. That's very price dependent there. I do
12:54
think it's likely that Nico Batoomb's backed. He's very much soften on his stance
12:58
of retiring another guy that you well, embiid likes quite a bit, Buddy
13:01
Heal, has expressed his desire to be back. It wouldn't shock me if
13:05
this is something Darryl Moriyve used as an opportunity to get him on a cheaper
13:07
deal, and then his value is truly worth. And the other point here
13:11
is like if they miss out on kind of these big free agents, I
13:15
think that they're going to overpay for a lot of the key role players,
13:16
kind of like Klay Thompson type players. Wouldn't shock me if he gets like
13:20
sort of what was done with Bruce Brown, who's making twenty five million this
13:24
year, which is crazy for Bruce Brown, it is, but it's because
13:26
he's that high level role player. Alex Cruzo is a guy that jumps out
13:30
to me that I do think could potentially be flipped for a draft pick on
13:33
Draft Day, that sixteenth pick. I know we're going to talk about in
13:35
a second, but it does seem pretty likely that they're looking to shop that.
13:39
Nikkeil Alexander Walker is another guy that I could see brought in. Minnesota
13:43
is going to be a team looking to shed some tax, So bringing a
13:45
guy on his contract guys like that is where I'm really think more he's going
13:48
to be shopping. I think a lot of the guys are going to be
13:50
coming back from next year, more so than people expect. I think that's
13:52
going to be interesting to see how that all plays out, because what does
13:56
that do then to the psyche of the fan base. If you're seeing a
13:58
lot of the same guys coming back, it's gonna be like, well,
14:01
what the hell, what are we running this back without Tobias Harris. Basically,
14:05
what that does to the psyche of the fan base and how that translates
14:09
to how much energy the fans are gonna put into this team. I think
14:13
I think it could be a little dangerous to do that. And quite frankly,
14:18
I'm not saying that like this is this is very plausible you're saying,
14:22
and I think it could be very dangerous for the fan base. Yeah,
14:24
I think that's fair. I mean it all changes. Like once again,
14:26
if you just take Tobias Harris off and put Paul George on this team everyone
14:31
else, that's a little different. Yeah. So, like, think about
14:33
this team just lost to the Knicks in Round two in Game six, and
14:37
Tobias Harris scored zero points in that game, and we know the story of
14:39
him throughout his tenure here in Philadelphia. Like, I think people are a
14:43
scarred from that. Just that change in itself totally upgrades the ceiling of this
14:46
team, and then all the other guys around it get their roles a little
14:50
bit reduced as well, like Danthony Maultain, who's a guy that I think
14:54
will not be back next year. I think he's gonna be priced out of
14:56
a contract. But think about if you're looking at Kelly Eubres like a a
15:00
fourth option instead of a guy who really was the third best player for a
15:03
good portion of it. And everybody moves a little bit, So as much
15:05
as it may like aesthetically look a little bit a little bit the same,
15:09
it's gonna be a different identity as a team. All right, Very good.
15:13
Well to close us out here. At the end of our conversation,
15:16
Sean on the Pickswap Media podcast, you guys recently talked about some NBA draft
15:20
risers and fallers. I was hoping maybe you can get into perhaps three guys
15:26
here who you think are in that risers category and possibly a nice con who
15:30
might be nice complimentary pieces for the Sixers as we're learning more and more about
15:35
the talent that'll be available during this upcoming draft here. So let's get into
15:39
like three guys here who you like, who you believe are risers in this
15:43
draft that the Sixers may want to look at. Yeah. Absolutely, And
15:46
I'll preface it by saying I actually like this draft a lot more than I
15:48
think the perception of it is. Yeah, it's late on like the superstars
15:52
or the big time names, but there's a lot of guys that I think
15:54
are just gonna be really good role players in the NBA for a long time,
15:56
and that's a successful draft if you can hit on some of the those
16:00
guys. So as far as kind of in the range the six Ers are
16:03
targeting, they have the sixteenth pick in the first round. The first guy
16:04
I'll bring up, which is my personal pick, is Tristan da Silva out
16:07
of Colorado. He's a guy that I just very clearly think is gonna be
16:11
like a ten year NBA player as a consistent like fifth starter or rotational guy.
16:15
Again, that's not the highest swing there, but he's just a very
16:18
smart player, a good cutter, thirty nine point seven percent three point shooter.
16:22
He makes the right pass, makes the right play. He's a little
16:25
bit cut from like the Nico bitum mold. And he's also entering the NBA
16:29
at age twenty three. There's a lot of these guys that to me,
16:32
a lot of times I was looked at as a negative. I look at
16:33
that as a positive. It is from day one he's gonna be ready to
16:36
mean the NBA rotation player. So that is my number one answer for sixteen
16:40
there or for the Sixers. I'll give a shout out to Devin Carter who
16:44
probably is my number one six Ers pick. He's certainly been a riser in
16:47
the pre draft process, probably the number one beneficiary of that. He seems
16:51
like he's gonna be off the board by the time the Sixers pick. But
16:52
a guy that's very much cut from the Josh Hart type. Cloth He only
16:56
measured in at six foot three, but averaged over eight rebounds per game this
17:00
year at Providence, can shoot the ball from deep. He's probably a better
17:03
shooter from Josh Hart right now. He's a guy that you'll just feel his
17:07
presence throughout a game. He's a defensive nightmare. He's always getting in passing
17:10
lanes, poking him, prouded at the ball. So Devin Carter is guy
17:12
that I like quite quite a bit. Another guy i'll throw is he's been
17:17
very recently a high riser, and that's Bob Carrington out of Pittsburgh. An
17:21
interesting little player there. He's very much cut from like the hooper or a
17:25
guy that's a bucket and a problem tech player. He ran more picking rolls
17:27
than just about everybody in college this year twelve point six per game, and
17:32
had some really high efficiency numbers close to the ninetieth percentile. That he generated
17:34
offense, that his playmaking is what has changed my mind on him. He
17:38
does still measureing at six foot five. He's just eighteen years old, so
17:41
he's on the other end of the spectrum of you're drafting him for what he
17:45
could be, not what he is right now. But he's kind of climbed
17:47
for a guy that was looked at as a fringe first round pick that's now
17:49
getting borderline lottery buzz. So he's certainly been a climber. I don't think
17:53
that strikes me as a Sixers pick. I think they probably lean like,
17:56
for example, Isaiah Collier is a guy that's been more on the phone that
18:00
feels like a Mory pick to me, that he's a guy that was talks
18:03
about his potential top five pick really did not live up the expectations in a
18:07
one and done. He's kind of in that zone as a guy that is
18:08
a combo guard. He's a little more ball dom it than I would like
18:11
for the Sixers pick, But that seems to be more of what the direction
18:15
Mary would go is look more towards some of these guys that fall rather than
18:18
the guys that are building up these hype. But I think, as you
18:19
said in our previous question and topic, you don't think the Sixers maybe making
18:26
that sixteenth pick, do you? Yeah? I do not, And there's
18:29
a couple of different reasons in general. Like an example, what Moury did
18:33
quite well was looking back at the d Anthony Mountain trade, which they traded
18:36
the twenty third overall pick and Danny Green to add Anthony Moultain. It's a
18:38
more sure bet as you're bringing in these guys, the Alex Caruso's, Nikhaiel,
18:42
Alexander Walker, those are both players, I think that there will at
18:47
least be phone calls about a potential deal getting done. And the other aspect
18:49
is there's being so financially conscious of everything. There's a four million dollar cap
18:55
hit that comes with making that sixteenth pick. If they were to dance around
18:57
and move out of the first round completely, that's four million more that you
19:00
can free up for the big dogs you're trying to bring in in free agency.
19:03
So the fact that the draft is before free agency, I wouldn't shock
19:07
me if the Sixers are conscious. So personally, I think it's a waste
19:10
if you don't take the pick that there's only so many ways you can bring
19:12
in young talent and the Sixers pass up on it too often, but it
19:15
does seem like it's trending towards them looking to move it all right, Very
19:18
good again. Chan Bernard from Pickswap Media, Sean, buddy, it's always
19:22
great to talk to you. You're so good for jumping on psc podcast show
19:26
here whenever we ask you. I'd love to talk to you more about this
19:27
Sixers team down the road, my friend. Yeah, absolutely, It's gonna
19:32
be a bit busy offseason, so I appreciate you having me and always get
19:34
to talk. That's going to do it for us here on Table Talk this
19:37
week. Please share our podcast with your friends and family members who are Philly
19:41
sports fans or sports fans in general. We thank you our listeners for being
19:48
part of this online community with us and within this space. Please make sure
19:52
to check out our website Philadelphiasportstable dot com for all of our podcasts, and
19:57
follow us on our social sites over on Twitter at Philadelphia pst, threads at
20:03
Philadelphia Sports Table, and over on Instagram as well. Take care and we'll
20:07
catch you next time.