Despite the loss of J.J. Redick, the Sixers have plenty of perimeter shooters on their current roster, as Derek Bodner of The Athletic details. Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson, Mike Scott, Al Horford, James Ennis, Trey Burke and Raul Neto loom as long-range threats but mainly in catch-and-shoot situations. That means Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons need to create and open up space for their perimeter players.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Point guards Trey Burke and Raul Neto could be useful members of the Sixers’ rotation but big man Kyle O’Quinn will have regain the form he showed earlier in his career with the Knicks to make a meaningful contribution, Mike O’Connor of The Athletic writes. O’Connor breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of the incoming reserve trio and how they’ll fit in.
- Marcus Smart admits the Celtics were a dysfunctional team last season, he said on ESPN’s The Jump this week. Many players were uncomfortable with their roles, according to Smart. “It’s hard for anybody to have to look themselves in mirror and sacrifice something,” Smart said.
- The fact that the Knicks didn’t re-sign any of their nine free agents reflects poorly on coach David Fizdale, the New York Post’s Marc Berman opines. The teams sold player development over the team’s win-loss record last season, yet didn’t consider any of those players worthy of another contract, Berman notes.
Bench better show up. This looks like a weak buyout market already.
RN the buyout market looks meager but it could be ripe for picking late in the season. Teams that are lottery bound and want to improve draft odds while also doing vets a solid will be there. CHA, CLE, MIN, PHX, and possibly ATL have decent vets on expirings. Teague, M. Williams, TT, Delly, T Johnson and maybe Crabbe and Turner could be available. Maybe teams like OKC and NOP struggle and Gallo and Favors are there too. DAL with Lee and NYK with Morris. MEM should be buying out Iggy any day now.
OQuinn never should have signed with Indy in the first place. Signing with Philly is much more sensible. There’s both more playoff potential there AND more PT available, and that dual opportunity doesn’t come along very often.
The writer says he makes poor defensive decisions, which could be true; one only gets limited opportunities to see him. And, there are signs that fouling and transitional defense are issues.
Everyone said that Irving sabotaged the Celtics last year, and there’s some truth to that. But the young guys — especially Brown and Rozier — deserve their share of the blame, too.
What did Brown do to screw up the season ?
I think he’s referencing some of the reports that Brown and Irving didn’t get along… but to be honest I think it started with Irving and so you can’t really blame Brown especially given that Irving Is/was the veteran and supposedly the leader and Brown was/is really still just a “kid” comparatively.
Idk about Brown but I agree Rozier probably didn’t have the best attitude – however in his defense… he probably should have been getting more playing time than he was. Steven’s really stuck with Hayward even when he was essentially useless whereas Rozier poured his heart and soul into the prior season’s playoff run and really was kind of shoved aside when Kyrie and Hayward came back the following year. Not saying that excuses him having a poor attitude but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that it’s not a long term character issue — more so it was a specific situation attitude issue.
Not sure I agree with the Fizdale bit. The Knicks were primarily looking for development of the players they drafted/signed as undrafted FA’s. He was very successful with Robinson and Trier. Knox was up and down but he was also asked to shoulder the scoring load as a rookie with no real help. That’s the development that you need to pay attention to. Not FA’s that were there to fill out the roster.
Sixers be lucky to get 10-12 points per game from Horford. Dude has slowed down over the past two years and was always being rested.