
The Opening Tip
Hello & Happy Almost Weekend - It's the Corner Three!

Oh Yeah, The Sixers

Don't Look Now..
38-19 at the break. Let's party.
This Week's Top 10! (Cheesesteak Edition)
10. Philip's
9. Campo's
8. Chubby's
7. Larry's
6. Nick's Roast Beef
5. Steve's Prince of Steaks
4. Ishkabibbles
3. Woodrow's/Max's/Dalessandro's
2. Angelo's
1. Any Corner Store in the City
I don't argue basketball or cheesesteaks so...
Tweet of the week

LIVE RICKY V PRESALE... WEDNESDAY
It's true, Live Ricky V: Victory Tour, featuring an appearance from B-Ball Paul, and just announced, an Imagine The Process performance by Eliza Hardy Jones, presale tickets go on sale WEDNESDAY at 10am. HERE IS THE TICKET LINK. You can find all of the details about the show HERE. Regular tickets are $35 and the Kornblau VIP ticket (including 2 drink tickets, priority seating, a photo with B-Ball Paul and a commemorative t-shirt) is $100.
THE PRESALE PASSWORD IS: DOCRIVERS
Also, subscribe to the Ricky on YouTube. If we don't get to 10K by playoffs, CJ gets fired, sorry to say.

MIKE'S CORNER... BACKUP CENTER HELL
New to the Corner Three Newsletter: every week Spike or Mike will write a section, aptly titled Spike's Corner or Mike's Corner. It's Mike's turn, writing about the only topic he ever thinks about, Sixers backup centers.
It's been SIX YEARS OF THIS. And all I want is one goddamn Just Right backup center. That's it. Sam Hinkie drafted 18 straight centers and the cursed price we paid for Joel Embiid becoming one of the best players in franchise history, is that the Defense Against The Dribbling Arts position will never be competently filled.
Amir Johnson's knees were shot and never played in the NBA again.
Boban had the best touch of all time and was too easily played off the floor on defense.
Greg Monroe they found in a bin of bouncy balls at a grocery store.
Dwight Howard was stiff as hell.
Andre Drummond got traded before he could prove himself unplayable but of course he would've gotten there.
Kyle O'Quinn, for god's sake! Never played in the NBA again.
Paul Millsap was declared legally dead, and never played in the NBA again.
DeAndre Jordan is still tricking people into paying him but he's currently the worst 7 footer in the world not named James Wiseman.
Anthony Tolliver! christ. And never played in the NBA again.
Montrezl Harrell doesn't know what he could get better at, but I have some ideas, and I have some other ideas about what league he'll never play in again after this season.
It's just Al Aw Shucks Clap Horford who was versatile and playable enough, but they gave him a billion dollars to stand next to Ben and get in Joel's way.
You can't keep signing old guys for the minimum, or at the buyout market, or for the entire GDP of Fresno, California, and expect it to work out. They have to find a sweet spot.
The answer -- as it has always fucking been -- is to find a younger player who still has feeling in their legs, and groom them for Joel's competent backup spot over the course of their relative prime. Usually that's via the draft unless you're buying a yacht with a second round pick, and yachts don't have the verticality necessary to protect the rim. Sometimes it's a reclamation project the way Thomas Bryant has been for LA, now Denver. They've hand-waived at trying. Jonah Bolden wasn't good enough. Norvel Pelle was proto-Bball in the weird ways. They moved Tony Bradley and he kinda sucks. Michael Foster Sr is gone, they barely gave him a look. Charles Bassey was the most normal candidate for that, but Doc didn't play him, then Daryl couldn't get anything for him, so he walked for nothing and now signed a happy-for-both-parties 4-year deal in San Antonio. Bball Paul - who as of me typing this sentence is still in Doc's rotation - has a lot to improve on, but he could potentially be that, except he is expiring! So we're destined to float half-burned-alive in the fires of Mount Doom for another year since Doc would rather lie down in front of a train than push for a Paul Reed Extension Tour.
Maybe PJ Tucker is the answer. I thought he could be before the season. I'm less confident now. I hope he is. But generally NBA teams need someone tall to rebound and prevent dunks, and PJ can only switch everything so much until his dead hand withers into dust.
Backup center should be one of the easiest positions in the world to fill. Not asking for Paul George here. Just be tall, set screens, catch lobs, rebound, protect the rim. The cursed position has unfortunately not been able to get out of 1998, so we can't expect someone who can stretch the floor. But the Sixers have, for nearly all of Embiid's fantastic career, not committed to anybody who can credibly hold down the fort for him. And until there is an organization-wide commitment to making one promising young player that guy for at least 2-3 years, we're going to have to suffer through several more Dewaynes Dedmon and watch them turn into stone in the playoffs. I don't love it!
SPONSOR CORNER
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Peace, Love and Process
Watch NBA All-Star Saturday Night and Root for Redemption (Mac McClung)

-Zo