Ben Simmons returns to Philly...
And some more like Isiah "The Promise" Joe breakout season coming?
Ben’s back.
The Sixers played a preseason game versus the Brooklyn Nets last night. They were missing Seth Curry, Tobias Harris, Shake Milton, Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, and of course Ben Simmons. Isiah Joe and Furkan Korkmaz combined for 47 points on 52% from three. Joel Embiid completely dominated for the first quarter, scoring 14 points in the only 8 minutes he played.
But, that wasn’t the story of the night.
Early in the day Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Ben Simmons was likely to report to the team, ending his hold out, later this week. Turns out, Ben came back last night, showed up at the arena, took a Covid test, and went back to his house. No one knew this was happening.
At this point nothing surprises me. The Sixers story dating back to trading for a guy who really never played basketball again, has been a complete circus show. lol a player they drafted number 1 over all literally forgot how to shoot and they had a GM who was fired because he was bashing his own players and their medical through burner accounts on Twitter. A Ben hold out and showing up unannounced is child’s play at this point.
But, what does this mean going forward?
The Sixers, despite the obnoxiousness of the last 7 years, have a chance to be at the top of the East. The Nets super team, who are dealing with their own problems right now, seem to be the biggest threat to the Sixers ability to ever win a chip, with or without Ben. Somehow the team managed to deal with all this nonsense and still be in the conversation.
A big reason why. Joel Embiid.
Embiid may be the best center in the league and has expanded his game outside the post in order to be effective enough and score at multiple levels on the floor that he was a runner up MVP last season. The only thing holding him back was missing games.
Embiid is the key to this team ever winning. We are entering Joel’s prime, which is can easily be questioned about how long his prime will last. The unsureness of how long his prime is and how important he is to winning leads me to one conclusion about Ben Simmons coming back. Don’t piss Joel off to a point there is no return.
We can see Joel got a little annoyed when he called it “borderline disrespectful” when asked about ben’s hold out and the idea that Ben and Joel’s pairing has run it’s course, which Ben’s camp leaked. Last night when asked about ben’s return he said:
“I’m happy that things have resolved and we can move on and try to be a better team”
Here is my fear, it’s not resolved. Until Ben says he is all in and wants to be here, it’s not resolved. Ben and Klutch tried to force the team’s hand in order to trade him by holding out and leaking negative news. It didn’t work and he was losing money. Next step, if he wants to continue this process, is to show up, get paid, and be a net negative to the team.
Ben being a distraction staring you in your face, while not giving 100% on court and being a disgruntled employee would only further Joel’s frustration. If I am Joel, I think I am good enough to win with anyone. I would not want to deal with this bullshit that is going to surround the organization if Ben comes back and doesn’t play like a good teammate.
This is where Morey and Brand have their work cutout. How long can they stretch this out in order to get the best possible return but have to make sure it doesn’t go too long that guys like Joel get completely annoyed?
One way or another it looks like we will find out.
On the bright side.
The sixers seem to be hunting more threes. Last year the Sixers averaged 30 attempts per game. Through 3 preseason games they bumped that average up to 35 per game. Joel said they need to “let it fly” and so far they have.
Per Jackson Frank of Liberty Ballers:
“I’m usually pretty wide-open. I just want to take advantage of it and help the team. I feel like over the years, probably except my first two years here playing, when we had JJ (Redick) and Marco (Belinelli) — we used to launch threes and shoot a lot of them — and then I feel like since then, we haven’t taken advantage of it,” said Embiid, who shot a career-high 37.7 percent from deep last season. “It has to be on all of us, not necessarily (just) me. Seth (Curry) has to shoot; he’s a great shooter, one of the best ever. He has to shoot way more. Tobias (Harris) definitely, he’s just got to let it fly. And then obviously, we’ve got Danny (Green), who’s not afraid to let it fly. But I think as a team, we just need to shoot more of them.”
A big contributor to the increase in three point attempts is sharp shooter Isiah “the promise” Joe. In three preseason games Joe has played about 24 minutes per game and has shot 6.3 threes per. And he did it making 63% of his threes.
Joe was a second round pick coming out of Arkansas. Known for his shooting the Sixers gave Joe a promise that if he entered the draft they would draft him. And it looks like the promise could pay off for the team. In fact, if anything we have seen in summer league and preseason this year translates to regular season NBA play, the Sixers got a steal. Joe’s defensive effort has been much better than advertised and his ability to put the ball on the floor and passing is much better than you’d expect from just a shooter.
Joe has the potential to be much more than just a shooter for sure.
A couple last thoughts.
The Sixers have no chance of making any noise until the Ben Simmons situation is resolved. Whether he plays and buys in 100% or they trade him, until one happens this season is going nowhere. But there are good points we can look at. Joel looks great, they are shooting more, the young kids play hard, and Maxey has shown some flashes in the past to what he could possibly be. The future is brighter than it may seem right now. How bright though, is up to Morey, Ben, and the return they can get in a trade.
With enough luck, the situation is resolved sooner than later.
Also, Kate Scot has done a fine job replacing Zoo as of now. No one will ever replace Marc, but she is good and seems genuinely excited to be here.