New Sixers head coach Doc Rivers deserves a lot of credit for the 18-7 Philadelphia’s current perch as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference standings, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Rivers commands respect in the Sixers locker room due to his championship pedigree and prior success across head coaching stops in Orlando, Boston, and most recently Los Angeles. Sixers center Joel Embiid is enjoying his best season as a pro thus far, averaging career-bests in scoring (29.1 PPG), steals (1.4 SPG), and shooting (.547/.377.855).
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Knicks reserve guard Frank Ntilikina is not traveling with New York for the team’s game against the Wizards tomorrow despite continuing to test negative for the novel coronavirus, according to Ian Begley of SNY. Ntilikina has been held out of team activities since Tuesday after contact tracing determined he had been close to someone who later recorded a positive test for COVID-19.
- Celtics head coach Brad Stevens indicated in comments today that reserve guard Romeo Langford will not be back with the club until after the NBA All-Star break in March, per Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald (via Twitter). Langford had a right wrist surgery to address torn ligaments in his shooting wrist in September.
- The Nets still hope to improve the on-court dynamic between their new Big Three of All-Stars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden now that everybody is healthy, writes Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “It’s funny,” head coach Steve Nash noted. “[It’s been] four weeks already, Kevin and [Irving] and James have played 5 ½ games, if you include the Raptors game, together.”
The stream of Rivers haters no longer babbling
Perhaps it’s a bit premature to be a tributary for Doc.
Wait until his team is ahead 3-1 in the playoffs and see if he sinks or swims.
Lol thank you
Rivers is great most of the time. But he’s not the guy you want calling the shots in a series. At least not without Thibs running the defense.
Thibs is a heck of a defensive coach. He and Rivers were a good combo, but Thibs wanted the big chair, and that hasn’t worked out great for either coach.
Lol “hasn’t worked out great” meanwhile sixers leading the east and knicks in the playoff picture. Good luck getting taken seriously around here ever again…
Doc and Thibs are doing good. Nobody in the media. Had them where they are today. It’s still early I agree. But so far so good. In Thibs we Trust NYK
Isn’t that why they hired Dan Burke as an assistant to lead the defense? The Sixers’ defense has been great this season.
Doc’s success is really simple to explain. Brett Brown was clearly a trash coach.
Feed Embid, give him some shooters.
100%. Brown was garbage. Plus I think the addition of shooters like Green and Curry and moving on Al Horford has been huge.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I think on our day we can beat anyone but it’s about get rid of the inconsistencies and seeing who else can step up beside Embiid. Embiid is amazing but he’s had injury problems in the past and if we were to challenge for a title he’s going to have tough match ups with Giannis and AD. So I’d like to see Simmons take control sometimes, just a couple 20-10-10 games with lots of driving and finishing. Plus if Green could step it up a little. I also wouldn’t mind us trading for a better combo forward for the bench.
But I’m optimistic
Outta all 30 teams I still think Kyle Kuzma was made for the 2021 76ers
PJ Tucker might be the play tho (in the corner!) – Nice kick option for Ben and nice space in the corner for Joel if doubled
I wouldnt hold my breath w Green but you never know, he just needs to chip in that 1 big shot per game thats he still certainly capable of – His D looks better than it did last year in LA at least so thats cool
Yeah not that we will get Kuzma but having someone play that similar role off the bench would be ideal. Tucker is a good shout and he’s also great defensively and would be good for the locker room.
That Langford injury sounds pretty serious. Hope he recovers from it alright.
Yeah was thinking the same thing. And at this point… he’s starting to kind of put his career at least with the Celtics jeopardy. I know they were high on him when they drafted him… but they can only wait around so long while he takes up a roster spot. Especially this season where there currently in a position with the TPE and everything where they’re going to be looking to add to their roster before the trade deadline… its going going be harder and harder to justify keeping him around if he can’t stay healthy to prove that the hype around him when he was drafted was warranted. It’d be one thing if he had a good year last year… but so far at this point he really hasn’t done much to indicate that he’s going to live up to their expectations. Hopefully for his sake he gets to stick around and when he gets healthy hopefully he really can show off his talent that made the C’s take him in the first round last year.
he did have an issue with his hands being hurt in college, i wonder if this will be a reoccurring issue for his career.
His second career won’t be boxing.
PHI with 2nd easiest strength of schedule so far probably helps as well.
You can only beat what is in front of you… never seen any point in strength of schedule, you can’t do anymore than beat the teams you play against, right?
You don’t “see the point” in strength of schedule? Not much point trying to explain it to you then.
Langford seemed destined for stardom coming out of HS. I think he hurt his hand in college and played through it. Maybe it never healed. Bad age to lose your shot.