Sixers Roundup: How Entertaining Will They Be?
Ben Simmons and the Sixers should be much more entertaining to watch this year.
While the NBA is in the midst of its down season — mercifully interrupted by the Summer Olympics — news and analysis being done about your local basketball team is still being churned out at a high rate.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the coverage, both locally and nationally, about the Sixers over the past week.
“Coach Nick” (@BBallBreakdown) from BBallBreakdown.com did an incredible film review focused on the incredible passing talents of Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, and Sergio Rodriguez, and went into how that might fit with the offense head coach Brett Brown has shown the last three seasons. Those three really will make this season entertaining, even if the wins don’t necessarily follow right away. This is a great way to spend 10 minutes and get you excited about the upcoming season.
Sticking on the Dario Saric topic, Croatia played an exhibition game against France where Saric finished with 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. You can view a clip of Saric’s highlights here, or watch the whole game here.
New Sixers point guard Sergio Rodriguez was interviewed by HoopsHype, talking about his decision to return to the NBA, deciding to sign with the Sixers, helping the young kids on the team grow, and how the move impacts his family. It’s well worth your time.
“I talked with management and the coach and felt really comfortable and confident that was the place for me. We had discussions with other teams, but from the get-go it was clear Philadelphia had a lot of interest and I established good rapport with Brett Brown and (Bryan) Colangelo.”
Speaking of getting excited for the start of the season, more Joel Embiid workout videos (here and here). Yes, yes, we know, he won’t be backing down 6′ guys in the NBA, but the number of 7’2″ physical specimens who have that kind of athleticism, fluidity, quickness, footwork, and touch Embiid displays in these clips are exceptionally rare. You don’t need to “well actually” the lack of defense: if he’s healthy, Sixers fans are in for a treat.
Rookie year……. @DrewHanlen pic.twitter.com/8gVTu9XkUN
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) August 3, 2016
Quick hitters:
- CBS Sports ranked the Sixers starters as the worst starting unit in the league, but they did rank the bench 16th.
- Nick Sciria (@Nick_Sciria) did an excellent in-depth breakdown of Jahlil Okafor‘s rookie season. Warning: If negativity about Okafor’s defense gets you down, you might not want to click on the link.
- Nate Duncan (SI’s The Cauldron) and Danny Leroux (Sporting News) gave grades for every team’s offseason moves, and both generally liked what the Sixers did. Leroux gave the Sixers an A- and Duncan a B. The Sixers portion of the podcast starts at just past the 1 hour, 8 minute mark, and you can listen to that here.
- Chris Mannix had Jerry Colangelo on his podcast, mostly to talk about USA Basketball, but they talked briefly about the Sixers starting at around the 29 minute mark. He reiterates that he was taken aback when Sam Hinkie stepped down. Okay.
- Carl Landry was voted teammate of the year for the Sixers.
- Michael Weber (@thisisweber) met Barack Obama, and decided (naturally) that the most pressing issue to talk to the President of the United States about was the state of the 76ers. He told the story on twitter.
- Draft! It’s never to early to start looking at the draft. Chad Ford released v1.0 of his 2017 big board, and at DraftExpress we updated the 2017 mock.
Derek Bodner covers the 76ers for Philadelphia magazine’s Sixers Post. Follow @DerekBodnerNBA on Twitter.
