Back to The Middle
Spike on how everything, everything will not be just fine with the mediocre Sixers.
It’s been so many years since we started this that it would be easy to miss the irony of the situation that the Sixers are in, and thus, we are in.
As usual, I am here to remind you of the bad stuff that you’d like to file away in the back of your brain.
The reason you’re having such a hard time trying to calculate how you feel about this year’s Sixers is because they’re in the spot that we most dreaded at the start of this entire thing in 2013. The Sixers are in the middle. They are not good enough to win a championship, and they are not bad enough to get a high draft pick. And while they do have promising young players, they are not in a position where we believe that the first of those two situations is coming any time soon. The Atlanta Hawks were always the example we used, but now it’s us.
And you can see why those Sixers teams of the pre-Process era were so easy for people to check out on. It’s difficult to really inspire any real emotion out of you. It’s hard to get that excited because even when they play well, you know ultimately they don’t have much of a chance, so the feeling is fleeting. It’s hard to be that mad at them, because you already knew who they were anyway. Most normal folks (unlike all of us) just sort of turn a blind eye and move to a more healthy and sane “let me know if any of this changes” stance for the team.
I’m sure there are some people who can watch them lose and turn it off and just go to bed without thinking twice, or watch them win a game they shouldn’t and be excited it happened without worrying about whether it means they can win in the playoffs. Unfortunately I am not one of those people.
I do think that’s why everyone has gotten mad and rallied around the Jared McCain trade issue. It’s the first time in a long time we’ve all been really excited or mad about something at the same time, and it’s good just to feel anything at all aside from the dread at looking at the cloudy road ahead of us.
The scary part is that when you look ahead to this summer after our inevitable playoff exit, it’s hard to imagine anything significantly changing before next season. Joel will still be some version of this Joel, impressive in spurts but not truly playing enough to believe in the team, and with too many years on his contract remaining to imagine anything different. Maxey will probably find a way to get better as he usually does, but probably not by a measure that would change the ultimate outcome of the team. Edgecombe will improve, but still, enough to change the overall outlook right away? It seems doubtful. Maybe Morey will find a creative way to move on from Paul George and it’ll give an injection of life.
The middle sucks as much as we thought it did.
Team Ricky
We had a three-man pod on Wednesday night after the just atrocious Jazz game, with AU as the third wheel, and I thought it was a lot of fun. We haven’t done this much on the pod, but it seemed like the perfect antidote to a game that was almost impossible to talk about.
An absolutely great look at how Tyrese Maxey has evolved this season and how exactly he raises the floor of the team during a season where it’s been difficult to figure that out from the great Mike O’Connor.
Other Stuff
Friend of the pod Mike Su developed this website that will email you every time the Sixers play, and tell you after the game whether it’s worth watching or not. When you enter your email just make sure you click on the confirmation link email it sends you (they do this so people don’t sign their friends up). It’s good for when you record the game but don’t know whether the game is worth your time. Another Ricky listener developed this one that does it for the rest of the league as well.
Friend of the pod Kevin O’Connor wrote this great piece about how the Sixers fucked up the Jared McCain situation.
Jake Fischer actually talked to Jared McCain about the trade and wrote this about how he’s adjusting in OKC.
We heard from Ricky listener Ethan, who is fostering this great dog (see below) named Brick. They’re fostering from ACCT, who really needs all the help they can get. They can only continue to foster Brick for another month until they move, so they’re exhausting all avenues to try and find him a home.
Ethan says that Brick was a stray, and has even done well in their quiet one bedroom apartment. He is potty trained and crate trained, sleeps through the night, love to play and cuddle, and has been a great roommate to Ethan and his girlfriend. He can get a little scared on noisy walks, but nothing too much to worry about. He is a great walker, but if there are less distractions where you live it might be easier on him to enjoy himself. He’s about 40 pounds and he’s about for years old.
You can read more about Brick here and see more photos of him. If you have any questions, send an email to phillyfoster26@gmail.com. If you end up welcoming Brick into your home,please let me know so I can send him some toys and treats.
The Sixers are indeed stuck in the worthless middle of the NBA, a place where your team can neither be truly terrible nor have any shot at winning in the playoffs. But it’s worthless to US, the fans. It’s still worth a helluva lot of money to team ownership, the highly paid execs in the front office, the coaching staff, and most of the players. All of these people are still financially enriched when the team is stuck in the “middle.”
I think that’s a big part of why we are here. Where is the incentive to take risks to be better? I’m not suggesting that if, at the trade deadline, Milwaukee offered Morey a chance to trade for Miles Turner for the picks the Sixers got in the McCain trade that Morey would have turned that down. I’m not suggesting that if Yabu was interested in returning to the Sixers for $2 million a season that Morey would have that turned it down either. But rather, fixing a team THIS poorly constructed with salaries and a mix of players built to play around a 27-year old Joel Embiid is really HARD. To trade away Embiid and George for draft picks and a couple of young players who may never develop is HARD.
The Sixers ownership plays it safe because doing so still results in increasing value for the franchise. They hire safe execs. Safe coaches. And they keep Embiid around, long after that was proven to not lead to playoff success, because it’s also safe. They’re cool with being in the middle. All of their actions tell us this.
The middle sucks. The Sixers have had the most bizarre history with front office, draft picks, random injuries and FO malfeasance among other things. This has to be a 30 for 30 for sure. A 4 part 30 for 30.
But despite it all, they had 2 real shots at a chip:
1) Kawhi’s shot (it still hurts)
2) Up 3-2 on the Celtics at home (and a thank you to SF for showing up in Game 7🤦🏽♂️)
If anything, it’s been entertaining. I’m a Philadelphian so I don’t expect success. I live in Milwaukee now and the delusion with the Bucks is quite fascinating and unfortunately familiar (Coach Rivers).
It could be worse. It could be boring. 🤷🏽♂️