Last we spoke, I alluded (maybe allude is too weak a word) to the fact that the Sixers were struggling just a bit, and here we are and they are, checks standings, now 3-13. Now, this is the East mind you, so that’s like what, two games back of first? Okay, that’s a little unfair, but 10 games under five hundred is still only about 3.5 games of the play-in, which has difference nuances of crazy that we can complain about at a later time.
But no matter who you want to slice the geographic implications, this is simply not a good team, not a healthy team and certainly not what really anyone expected in their wildest dreams, and I’m just strictly speaking of Sixers haters. There is literally no other time and place for them right now.
After getting blown out at home against the Clippers this Sunday (Norm Powell is still sitting by the way) one has to wonder what the floor actually is. There is also the flipside of this where Joel Embiid (who admittedly has looked “marginally” better than when first coming back) starts returning to some kind of form, hopefully more All-Star than off season buffet, that Paul George will establish some non-injured days in a row to play and Tyrese Maxey will play back into last year’s form. Yes, the season is still young, but they basically have to win twice as many games here on out just to get to last year’s win-loss record, which seems about as daunting as Andre Drummond jogging for at least 30 seconds without collapsing.
Obviously Guerschon Yabusele and Jared McCain are great bright spots for the Sixers, both in fantasy and real life, but this team is pretty much cooked unless they start going on runs, and (damn, used my buffet joke already) that’s increasingly becoming unlikely as we reach the end of the IST and soon, the trading deadline. But at least no matter what happens, it’ll be entertaining. I’ll never trust the process harder than right now, that’s for sure…
Really quick, I understand that no one really knows when Kawhi Leonard will return, but as the local Clippers whisperer (there are dozens of us, dozens!) there has some chatter that around Christmas could be a target. I will say that you should all take this with a grain of salt, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all when they return him to a load management schedule we’re all used to.
Now over to the East! Haha, just kidding, you think Minnesota would be there, right? Naw, this the NBA, where we also have the westside Pelicans and there’s probably another team I’m forgetting. Maybe it’s Memphis. Regardless, the Timberwolves are sort of teetering between average and hot mess, and since I rarely talk about them, it seemed like now is the time.
Coming off a close loss against the Celtics last night, the Wolves have now lost two in a row and sitting at the 11th spot at 8-8, right outside the play-in. Now to be fair, the Wolves hadn’t beaten the Raptors in 20 years and the Celtics in 19 away from the Target Center, so having them back-to-back was kind of a weird thing for them. Not that past is prologue, but there shouldn’t be as much doom and gloom from this stretch that’s I’ve seen aggregated.
The real struggle seems to be roles, the team dynamic, basically just how they run their offense. True, with the loss of KAT, the defense probably shouldn’t have take a huge step back, but there are some concerns there. But the dynamic between Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards seems to be a work in progress. ANT has been quite straight-forward in his play, taking a record number of threes, leading the offense a bit more, but the energy there is messing with his defense a touch. Then you have Randle, who also loves to ISO (as much as he loves to pout), to mixed results and spacing.
All this is to say is they need Mike Conley to orchestrate a bit more, and while I’m no NBA coach, but this offense is looking kinda like the Suns without Durant, one star and one above average wing pushing tempo with solo ball and seeing what comes from that. Also, I feel Naz Reid needs more playing time, but isn’t that true all the time? So we’ll probably keep tabs on them and reapproach later, but as of now, the Timberwolves are listed as very very mid until they can work out this Randle/ANT pickle.
I just went pickle because I’m hungry. Which is a different, but just as engaging conversation. Maybe!
