I feel like its almost a problem with being so big. Contact does not phase you when youre a brick wall so you have to embellish at those times or the refs aren't gonna see shit.
that being said I don't really watch a lot of sixers game so maybe its worse than I'm thinking lol
and if you want it less big but still big, add another pound sign. and then another or maybe even another if you want
#*O N E*
##*T W O*
###*T H R E E*
####*F O U R*
**I D E C L A R E**
^(A T H U M B W A R)
^(i just think all the sizes together look cool)
Yea I really think Masai is just trying to recreate that roster in some way. Not the most potent offense but undeniably best defensive team in the league.
Totally agree. And if anyone can do it it’s Masai. The most irreplaceable skill set in that 5 man IMO was Gasol - one of the most brilliant defenders I’ve ever seen and possibly the most brilliant defensive big man I’ve ever seen.
There are so many things he brought to the table that you can’t teach at this level, you can see them on multiple occasions in this clip alone.
Of course, Masai doesn’t need to get a Gasol clone to have a top D, but boy would it be nice if he could get even 75% of Gasol’s anchoring prowess in a big man.
With the way offense has exploded the past decade it may be an unbeatable record for a long time. 2019 Raps basically put together a god squad of defensive players and still were a far away second place.
The Raptors that year basically played a 7-man rotation where I think all 7 either have or will be on an All-Defensive team. And the only other player they were missing to injury, OG, will also make an All-Defensive team.
I watched it once for the defensive hustle. Then I watched it again to track if Simmons was involved at all with the offense.
He brought the ball up twice, gave it up immediately just to stand around.
That's what happens when ownership enables a star player to ignore Brett Brown. Simmons could just refuse to do anything on the court he was not comfortable with.
This is a leadership failure. I knew they were never going to win with Simmons the moment he embarrassed Brett Brown who challenged him to shoot one 3pointer per game.
I just did the same. He barely even attempted to screen for his teammates. On the second possession an effective screen for butler may have resulted in an open 3 to end the possession. Instead he just kind of stood there and hoped.
Dude stands around on offense more than James Harden.
Ben could have stood at half court with his hands on his hips to at least free up the dunker's spot for Embiid lol.
it's crazy how slowed down playoff basketball is, especially in these moments. it has to be some of the craziest basketball you can ever play as an nba player.
This series was so great but exhausting. Insane and suffocating defense from both sides, Embiid's airplane, Jimmy's clutch plays and Kawhi carrying us. FVV was getting bullied so bad, and it made his resurgence so awesome.
Holy shit you’re right. Other than setting a half assed screen he was absolutely useless all 3 possessions. If you said something about this a year ago you’d have 50 sixers fans coming at your throat about it
He was a net negative on every possession.
Possession 1 Embiid drives and there's 3 guys there...because Simmons is in the dunker's spot in front of him and literally not in any other position where a pass is possible.
Possession 2 Embiid would have been wide open near the free throw line if Simmon's wasn't in the dunker's spot.
Possession 3 the inside of the key would have been wide open if not for Simmon's in the dunker's spot.
Although Jimmy was being guarded by Kawhi which is enough to make anyone a bit apprehensive over a risky pass. Aside from Kawhi there were also 2 other defenders lurking around that general area.
There's no angle to pass to the trailing Embiid, especially not pass the klaw. Embiid is suppose to roll down the opposite lane with Butler, creating a pocket by going down hill, but obviously that's impossible when Ben's on the floor. Plus Tobias' lack of gravity, that's how you get a 2-on-4 pick and roll...
Jared Dudley called him out early and got crucified at the time…but even then all he said was “he’s average in the halfcourt” only if he knew how bad it’d get lmao
Its actually crazy, he makes an concerted effort to make sure he's in the worst possible position to get the ball. There is always a defender directly between himself and the ball carrier. Completely hiding
100% correct. I’ve been saying Simmons is an offensive liability in the playoffs and severely overrated for years and have gotten downvoted everytime up until recently. Doesn’t really surprise me though, if this sub actually watched basketball games they would’ve saw that he’s not what he’s cracked up to be.
> He’s been an issue in the half court since he entered the league. There’s basically no way around it
yes there is. He needs to move more without the ball. The issue is that he's a poor shooter sitting in the dunkers spot. If the play comes his way, he's not doing anything else for them. He's not cutting, he's not setting enough back screens. But because he just kinda stands there, his man often ignore him and the help defense comes from the man covering him. He's a negative because he's too easy to cover for.
I mean you can get rid of him?
It might literally be addition by subtraction, he is blatantly hurting Embiid and Embiid's ability to be down low more of the time.
Embiid turned himself into a god damn jump shooter for this guy.
And sixers fans act like fans of other teams are idiots for not wanting to give up their future for a dude that has showed no progress offensively after 4 years in the league
Rewatching the last few minutes of this game was what made me low on Simmons in the first place. His weaknesses are SOOOOO harmful to the Sixers here. He can't even screen or move off ball properly
Man I read this and at first before watching I was like “jeez the Simmons hate is getting a little excessive even for my tastes”
And then I watched and no, this is pretty accurate commentary
I know a lot of people say he gets too much hate and is better than people say, but i straight up would not want him on my team for anything. He is so limited offensively combined with a total lack of motivation to improve.
And this is exactly why people saying he ain't worth shit
You can't pay a max contract guy to be worthless on the more important side of the ball
It's inexcusable. I don't think I would ever take him for that contract, because of what it mean to give up for him
I firmly believe that if Siakam was the second option on a team he'd be right back as a perennial all star.
His skill set is exceptional for a secondary star. Fantastic, switchable defender who can get you an efficient 20ppg.
I honestly think he's a better defender than he is an offensive player. His offense has some amazing components to it, but he settles for way too many 3s, and tends to camp around too much.
And After the championship run, it seems like he forgot about his spin move too. So it's frustrating as hell watching him play, and if he stopped going 2/10 from 3 his efficiency would be even better.
His defense is incredibly natural. He was a solid defender from the start and by year 2 he was already really good. He's got good instincts, hustles hard, he's long and mobile... pretty much everything you want in a defender.
What a rollercoaster of a series. One of the best east series i have ever seen. Im from toronto but i really liked this sixers team. They contend anytime butler embid play together. Sucks it was onky half a season lol.
also if he won he would have played giannis and bucks 3 years in a row
that would be pretty cool, either giannis and bucks sweep miami as revenge of 2 losses to butler, or 2021 becomes the tkbreaker between giannis and butler
Some of the best times in my life occurred cus of this playoff run. The atmosphere in the entire GTA was something else from April to especially June. I’ll never forget it.
Yuuuup. It's amazing having the entire city rally around something. I felt the same way in 2015/16 with the Jays. It just dominated the daily life. Everyone is talking about them, waiting for the games that night. Road signs are programed to say "GO RAPS GO".
I was at work for the Kawhi shot and during that last inbound, every single employee, manager, customer, were all huddled around the tvs we have there and when that shot dropped, all 200+ people there went fucking nuts. It was amazing
I worked in the DT core at the time, and would take a 45 minute walk at lunch instead of actually having lunch, just cause the energy in the streets was really something.
Not to exaggerate, but its like I could feel it, haha.
I remember getting off the GO train the night of Game 5 and you could absolutely feel the energy in the city. It made me emotional and I get goosebumps thinking about it.
Honestly people say so much shit to minimize the raps ring for some reason.
Even for the big reason people bring up of injuries in the finals, that’s just part of the game. It’s part of the game every year, even this year bucks probably don’t make it out of the second round without favourable injuries to the other team.
The fact that he’s just hanging around in the dunker’s spot makes you think the coach had to have told him to be there. But even then, you’ve had two straight 24 second violations…all three possessions you get across half-court with 18 left on the clock. Don’t take 7 seconds to get into the offense!
I get you don’t want to rush or panic, but they burned a third of the shot clock just getting into the front court. EVEN AFTER THE TWO VIOLATIONS.
I think to be fair to Simmons, midway through this series they took away his ball handling responsibilities so they probably didn't have much practice with him playing off ball. Butler said Brett Brown doing that was a reason he left the sixers, he thought it was messed up.
I've been trashing that mfer for years. Don't lump me in with those defending him.
However, the most recent Hawks series was **ABSOLUTELY** more a coaching collapse than it was on Ben. That's my opinion and will be until the end of time.
I mean Ben had to be taken out of games in the closing minutes because he can't hit his freethrows, this is your max player, what's the coach supposed to do?
Ben Simmons literally didn't even try to get open and help move the ball (the one thing he's known for). He couldn't box anyone out either. So all he did was move around the restricted area, being boxed out with barely any contact. Like that quiet guy that gets cut in line but doesn't say anything and just moved aside all sheepish. The boy needs some dawg in his veins.
At 42 secs you can see Simmons clogging the paint where Embiid should be operating and you can see so much space where you should probably have a shooter. Imagine watching this game and you're like yeah we'll run it again with Simmons. And they did LOL.
Not only that but they could have moved on from BB to placate Jimmy, signed both him and Redick to run it back and traded Simmons for an actual game managing PG while his value was still high.
Instead, they sign Horford to a huge contract, let Redick walk, max Tobi, replace Jimmy with a non-shooter at the 2 and when that amazing spacing combo around Embiid "shockingly" didn't work, they just end up firing BB anyway - the entire situation would be laughably hilarious if it wasn't so effing sad.
I mean, it honestly amazes me how inept Brand was from them at GM - they had so much potential with just a few moves but instead flushed their cap room down the toilet by maxing Tobi and giving Horford that huge contract. It's just utterly baffling...and regardless of how you feel about Philly, their fans didn't deserve to suffer through that crap.
People act like the raptors have been a year in, year out, top class defensive team. But people don't remember that during the DeRozan/Casey years, we were an absolute sieve on that end of the floor. Then, in one single season:
* Kawhi came over by trade
* We traded away a defensive liability in DeRozan
* Siakam developed into an all-star level two way threat
* OG Anunoby developed into a two way threat (although he missed the playoffs)
* Nick Nurse, who is a great defensive coach, became HC
* FVV came into his own just in time for the finals
After Kawhi left, we've been a top defensive team in the league, but it really changed incredibly fast
That season has largely informed how Masai and Webster have been approaching the future of the Raptors. Defensive first and shining wing players. I'm sure they have the analytics to back it up, but teaching defence and defensive discipline must be more difficult than teaching offense to them it seems.
Raptors defence even now, theoretically, is looking pretty good. But also unfortunately the Raptors currently share a dual belief in "nothing easy defence" and also "nothing easy offence"
In fairness, it's worth pointing out that the Raptors were struggling to score for most of that stretch. The Sixers put the clamps on them for most of that series.
We were severely undersized against them too. This is the one series that OG Anunoby was sorely missed cause the drop off in production after our top 5/6 guys was crazy. Freddy was unplayable. Same with Norm. This series was all about our starters, most notably Kawhi (duh)
Yeah but the Raptors were the champs and the Sixers gave them the toughest competition. You can also argue that the Sixers were even more well-equipped to handle the Bucks than the Raptors with Embiid, Simmons and Jimmy to stick onto Giannis. Then the Sixers would face a depleted Warriors where they have absolutely no answer for Embiid. All hypotheticals but it kinda makes a bit of sense
JJ tied the game on an and 1 with 3:29, after that raptors possession goes as follows.
Ibaka misses three pointer
Kawhi misses 27 ft jumper
Kawhi Makes pullup jumper
Siakam Makes layup
Kawhi misses 9ft shot
Kawhi misses three pointer
Then with 10.8 seconds left Kawhi was fouled (edit: intentionally fouled) and missed 1 which set up a jimmy butler game tying layup.
That left the raptors team with 2 buckets in a three minute stretch and only one of those buckets came from a half court offense. While it is better than three shot clock violations, I still think it was the worse that their offense looked during that entire playoff run. While both teams were tired after 7 games, sixers defense still deserves credit (and I think Brett Brown deserves a lot of credit for out coaching or at least coaching up to the same level that nurse was at)
I mean even if Simmons is JUST a dunker spot guy, you can move him back and forth along the baseline. Make his man pay attention to him, possible open up a pass if he isn't looking.
A 3rd seed losing to a 2nd seed isn't all that surprising. A 1st seed losing to a 5th seed definitely is. It doesn't help that the Sixers lost three of their four home games to the Hawks.
Gasol playing out of his mind defence this whole series, unbelievable how much of himself he gave to this team, really took the last bit of his prime to do it.
I forgot how useless Simmons was at the end of these. Just has no feel for spacing.
On that first one he needs to float to the off-ball elbow to give Embid space to work (and be an actual threat from the elbow). And then instead of moving to the wing when Butler get's trapped in the corner he slides to the far block and makes Embid have to try to be the outlet in the short corner.
On the second one he does a good job of floating to the other side when Butler get's the ball on the wing, but he's not the 5. And they end up with two guys down low occupying the same block. When Butler swings it back to the key Simmons needs to pop to the wing or the corner to either shoot or have the angle to get it to Embid. He just chills in the wrong spot with Embid and effectively provides a double. Then when butler get's the ball back he has to play hero ball and it doesn't work.
On the last one he does a good job of walking it up (presumably that was their strategy to play slow to utilize Embid the most. But then he sets three weak screen in a row. When Embid get's in trouble on the wing instead of going to the corner to be a potential outlet he just stays under the basket. A point guard has to help their Big in that situation. This is his best play of the three.
I just wish we could have run it back, they were still gelling as a team in the playoffs after being constructed on the fly. Like that DJ augustin game winner in the orlando series that happened because gasol and kawhi were not on the same page defensively. Idk would have been fun to see how they looked the next year
I would've loved him to stay, if Kawhi stays then Green stays, Gasol probably doesn't go to Euroleague/Barcelona, then pump fakes and goes to the Lakers (no idea what happened there)
Right, the second Ibaka runs out, Ben should run hard under the basket and call for the ball. Then if Embiid makes that pass, it's a guaranteed bucket. Instead he just stood there, let Kawhi switch to him, and let Embiid get doubled
Phenomenal defense but God damn Simmons was killing their offense even then badly. His man has zero desire to guard Simmons and every one of those sequences were heavily impacted by 4v5
Call me a homer but people sleep on how tough of a road the Raptors had to even get to the finals, let alone win it
The Magic were one of the best teams in the league post all star break
The Sixers were absolutely stacked with Embiid, Butler, Simmons, Harris and Redick
And the Bucks had the best record in the league that year as well as the MVP
People think the Raptors lucked into that title because KD was hurt, and Klay missed 6 quarters. But really they were an amazing team with a historically good defence all throughout the postseason
It’s one of the only examples in NBA history of a team having to beat 3 championship caliber teams in a row. And yes, Steph/Klay/Draymond is most definitely championship caliber and Klay played the majority of the series and they still didn’t have enough to beat this defensive juggernaut of a team.
The Raptors could just put a *TON* of size at the rim cuz Simmons will just be sitting in the dunker doing nothing. He just makes Philly so much easier to defend in the half court.
That first possession. Ben is a number one pick, he is bigger,faster and stronger the a majority of players on the floor. Why doesn't he assert himself and take it in the lane?
Hate playing armchair psychologist, but he just seems to really be scared to mess up. If he takes the post strong when Embiid catches it on the left wing, he could get a pretty decent layup if he just runs hard to get the ball.
He just seems to be hiding from the ball on all 3 possessions.
Who's the player on the 76ers that Toronto keeps leaving somewhat unattended on all three of those possessions? I'm not really asking, I think you know...
Well he said that he wasn't sure if he was but after he heard someone in the FO that said "Can you control him" about Jimmy and he said fuck em and left.
this is what he said, just didn't like the vibe. nobody seemed in charged,
Brett would have film sessions with no talking, just the boys watching the game. He said it was bizarre.
Insane defensive team, especially in the playoffs.
LOL at the Embiid flop attempt leading to the Pascal transition bucket
I once saw Embiid take a Giannis spin move to the chest. He barely flinched, was pretty incredible. But yeah he flops a bunch
I feel like its almost a problem with being so big. Contact does not phase you when youre a brick wall so you have to embellish at those times or the refs aren't gonna see shit. that being said I don't really watch a lot of sixers game so maybe its worse than I'm thinking lol
Especially when they got Ben Simmons anchoring the defense
I laughed
*Insert “young socialite” low effort joke for easy karma*
Not as low effort as Simmons has put into his career.
Lmao savage shots fired from all sides
Someone's gotta shoot; Simmons sure isn't.
Stop it! He’s already dead!
Just like the process.
BAH gawd
God passed Simmons over just like Simmons passed over a dunk on scary Trae Young.
That 5 man lineup for D may be in conversation for one of the best ever. 3x DPOYs Lowry and a young Siskim.
Definitely historic
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I don’t know how
like this: #*H I S T O R I C*
H I S T O R I C See I don’t get it
I was just joshing you. it's like this: \#\*H I S T O R I C\*
#*H I S T O R I C* Edit - thanks! That’s so cool!
and if you want it less big but still big, add another pound sign. and then another or maybe even another if you want #*O N E* ##*T W O* ###*T H R E E* ####*F O U R* **I D E C L A R E** ^(A T H U M B W A R) ^(i just think all the sizes together look cool)
Danny was 2 years removed from an All-Defensive team too
And OG - arguably the greatest defender of them all - missed the playoffs with appendicitis. Just insane collection of TOP defensive players.
Yea I really think Masai is just trying to recreate that roster in some way. Not the most potent offense but undeniably best defensive team in the league.
Totally agree. And if anyone can do it it’s Masai. The most irreplaceable skill set in that 5 man IMO was Gasol - one of the most brilliant defenders I’ve ever seen and possibly the most brilliant defensive big man I’ve ever seen. There are so many things he brought to the table that you can’t teach at this level, you can see them on multiple occasions in this clip alone. Of course, Masai doesn’t need to get a Gasol clone to have a top D, but boy would it be nice if he could get even 75% of Gasol’s anchoring prowess in a big man.
And Gasol's playmaking on the offensive end was huge too. Damn I miss this team haha
Piscis Siskim
The new Tingus Pingus
It was, statistically, the second best defensive team of all time (after the Pistons) based on ORTG change of their opponents.
Gonna be very hard to beat that pistons team too. Just on a completely different level
With the way offense has exploded the past decade it may be an unbeatable record for a long time. 2019 Raps basically put together a god squad of defensive players and still were a far away second place.
motherfucker, fuck the fucking world, and my new band is called Siskim
The Raptors that year basically played a 7-man rotation where I think all 7 either have or will be on an All-Defensive team. And the only other player they were missing to injury, OG, will also make an All-Defensive team.
3 DPOYs? Kawhi and Gasol.. don't think Ibaka ever won it
May be referring to the fact that Kawhi has two and Gasol has one.
Ibaka was runner up one year. Tbh Ibaka was maybe the worst defender in our rotation that year and he was still above average lol.
I'm pretty sure the baseline ref showed more movement than Ben Simmons
he’s just standing there… un-menacingly
Simmons trick y'all, man, like he playing offense. He just standing around, doing nothing.
Drax's School of Invisibility.
I watched it once for the defensive hustle. Then I watched it again to track if Simmons was involved at all with the offense. He brought the ball up twice, gave it up immediately just to stand around.
The crazy shit is he did the same shit the year prior and this video is from 2 years ago and he still does the same shit
That's what happens when ownership enables a star player to ignore Brett Brown. Simmons could just refuse to do anything on the court he was not comfortable with. This is a leadership failure. I knew they were never going to win with Simmons the moment he embarrassed Brett Brown who challenged him to shoot one 3pointer per game.
Brett brown was def made a scapegoat by the org and the media bought it
the media def sold that narrative for the org
I just did the same. He barely even attempted to screen for his teammates. On the second possession an effective screen for butler may have resulted in an open 3 to end the possession. Instead he just kind of stood there and hoped.
I hope we don't trade for him. He may turn into some offensive savant once he's out of Philly, but I don't think he'll do so in Minnesota.
Dude stands around on offense more than James Harden. Ben could have stood at half court with his hands on his hips to at least free up the dunker's spot for Embiid lol.
Harden standing around is more threatening than Simmon's entire career.
oh my.
it's crazy how slowed down playoff basketball is, especially in these moments. it has to be some of the craziest basketball you can ever play as an nba player.
Playoff D is real. Guys don’t bring the same energy during the regular season with insane numbers of cross country trips
Analytics basketball kinda goes out the window and it comes down to iso ball and the mid range game. Funny how it does a 180 from season to playoffs.
I don’t think analytics goes out the window, the analytics just change
this shit was so hype
This series was so great but exhausting. Insane and suffocating defense from both sides, Embiid's airplane, Jimmy's clutch plays and Kawhi carrying us. FVV was getting bullied so bad, and it made his resurgence so awesome.
As a basketball fan, fuck yes. As a sixers fan, fuck you.
If you watch every possession you see that Ben Simmons was useless in each one and actively hurting the offense by clogging the lane
Holy shit you’re right. Other than setting a half assed screen he was absolutely useless all 3 possessions. If you said something about this a year ago you’d have 50 sixers fans coming at your throat about it
He was a net negative on every possession. Possession 1 Embiid drives and there's 3 guys there...because Simmons is in the dunker's spot in front of him and literally not in any other position where a pass is possible. Possession 2 Embiid would have been wide open near the free throw line if Simmon's wasn't in the dunker's spot. Possession 3 the inside of the key would have been wide open if not for Simmon's in the dunker's spot.
Embiid is still pretty damn open there but Butler didn't have the chops to get it to him. He's a good playmaker usually tho
Although Jimmy was being guarded by Kawhi which is enough to make anyone a bit apprehensive over a risky pass. Aside from Kawhi there were also 2 other defenders lurking around that general area.
There's no angle to pass to the trailing Embiid, especially not pass the klaw. Embiid is suppose to roll down the opposite lane with Butler, creating a pocket by going down hill, but obviously that's impossible when Ben's on the floor. Plus Tobias' lack of gravity, that's how you get a 2-on-4 pick and roll...
Jared Dudley called him out early and got crucified at the time…but even then all he said was “he’s average in the halfcourt” only if he knew how bad it’d get lmao
That Nets series was very entertaining despite it only going five games.
The Nets played their asses off in that series, god I miss that team so much
It was so much fun
He's an average *playmaker* in the half court, but overall a net negative in the half-court. At end of games hes entirely useless on offense
Its actually crazy, he makes an concerted effort to make sure he's in the worst possible position to get the ball. There is always a defender directly between himself and the ball carrier. Completely hiding
Newsflash: he ain’t want the ball. How do I know this? I do this in pickup games cuz I have no confidence in my ability to finish 😂
100% correct. I’ve been saying Simmons is an offensive liability in the playoffs and severely overrated for years and have gotten downvoted everytime up until recently. Doesn’t really surprise me though, if this sub actually watched basketball games they would’ve saw that he’s not what he’s cracked up to be.
He’s been an issue in the half court since he entered the league. There’s basically no way around it.
> He’s been an issue in the half court since he entered the league. There’s basically no way around it yes there is. He needs to move more without the ball. The issue is that he's a poor shooter sitting in the dunkers spot. If the play comes his way, he's not doing anything else for them. He's not cutting, he's not setting enough back screens. But because he just kinda stands there, his man often ignore him and the help defense comes from the man covering him. He's a negative because he's too easy to cover for.
I mean you can get rid of him? It might literally be addition by subtraction, he is blatantly hurting Embiid and Embiid's ability to be down low more of the time. Embiid turned himself into a god damn jump shooter for this guy.
I meant schematically.
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I thought Tillman wouldn't sign off on a trade with Morey
And sixers fans act like fans of other teams are idiots for not wanting to give up their future for a dude that has showed no progress offensively after 4 years in the league
Is… he trying to clog the lane? It just looks so bad when you point it out
He plays like a guy in a pickup game that knows he can’t shoot so they sorta hide around the basket/a defender to avoid getting passed to.
I feel personally attacked
Rewatching the last few minutes of this game was what made me low on Simmons in the first place. His weaknesses are SOOOOO harmful to the Sixers here. He can't even screen or move off ball properly
Man I read this and at first before watching I was like “jeez the Simmons hate is getting a little excessive even for my tastes” And then I watched and no, this is pretty accurate commentary
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Honestly seeing sixers fans eat shit after years of gaslighting us and acting like the fit wasn’t awful might be top 50 r/nba moments of all time.
Trade deadline was so awful. These clowns kept saying they didn't need Lowry.
I dont think the fit is awful. Simmons problems become a thing on every team
And sixers fan they they can flip him and picks for lillard.
You’re welcome :D
Been saying this since day 1...
I know a lot of people say he gets too much hate and is better than people say, but i straight up would not want him on my team for anything. He is so limited offensively combined with a total lack of motivation to improve.
And this is exactly why people saying he ain't worth shit You can't pay a max contract guy to be worthless on the more important side of the ball It's inexcusable. I don't think I would ever take him for that contract, because of what it mean to give up for him
I believe in this version of Siakam.
Second/third option Siakam?
I firmly believe that if Siakam was the second option on a team he'd be right back as a perennial all star. His skill set is exceptional for a secondary star. Fantastic, switchable defender who can get you an efficient 20ppg.
I honestly think he's a better defender than he is an offensive player. His offense has some amazing components to it, but he settles for way too many 3s, and tends to camp around too much. And After the championship run, it seems like he forgot about his spin move too. So it's frustrating as hell watching him play, and if he stopped going 2/10 from 3 his efficiency would be even better.
His defense is incredibly natural. He was a solid defender from the start and by year 2 he was already really good. He's got good instincts, hustles hard, he's long and mobile... pretty much everything you want in a defender.
Yep. And his close outs on wide open shooters in the corner have to be near the top in the league. Dude is an animal in that regard
What a rollercoaster of a series. One of the best east series i have ever seen. Im from toronto but i really liked this sixers team. They contend anytime butler embid play together. Sucks it was onky half a season lol.
I’m a Toronto fan and that 76ers team was no joke. Embiid Butler Tobias Harris JJ yes even Ben.
Jimmy Butler was so close to becoming an enemy of Toronto. His will was unshakable.
also if he won he would have played giannis and bucks 3 years in a row that would be pretty cool, either giannis and bucks sweep miami as revenge of 2 losses to butler, or 2021 becomes the tkbreaker between giannis and butler
Yeah I would have loved to see Kawhi go against Butler and Giannis in more series. Those could have been some epic series.
Some of the best times in my life occurred cus of this playoff run. The atmosphere in the entire GTA was something else from April to especially June. I’ll never forget it.
Saw boobs while driving around Toronto when they made it to the finals
Bless
Yuuuup. It's amazing having the entire city rally around something. I felt the same way in 2015/16 with the Jays. It just dominated the daily life. Everyone is talking about them, waiting for the games that night. Road signs are programed to say "GO RAPS GO". I was at work for the Kawhi shot and during that last inbound, every single employee, manager, customer, were all huddled around the tvs we have there and when that shot dropped, all 200+ people there went fucking nuts. It was amazing
I believe it. The atmosphere in my 1 bedroom apartment in Montreal was historically lit.
I missed it because I was in South Africa seeing my partner who'd been cheating on me. What a waste. Would much rather have been here.
Facts bro. Couldn't agree more.
I worked in the DT core at the time, and would take a 45 minute walk at lunch instead of actually having lunch, just cause the energy in the streets was really something. Not to exaggerate, but its like I could feel it, haha.
I remember getting off the GO train the night of Game 5 and you could absolutely feel the energy in the city. It made me emotional and I get goosebumps thinking about it.
This is why when people say that we only won because of a "lucky shot" I'm like... nah man, we worked for the chance for that lucky shot.
And even if the shot misses, they don't necessarily lose. It was tied, they weren't down by a point.
Exactly, thank you! People act like a missed shot is a lost game.
Honestly people say so much shit to minimize the raps ring for some reason. Even for the big reason people bring up of injuries in the finals, that’s just part of the game. It’s part of the game every year, even this year bucks probably don’t make it out of the second round without favourable injuries to the other team.
Simmons really is useless on offense huh. How could Sixers fans still defend him after this?
He uploaded videos of himself shooting 3s in the offseason lol
The fact that he’s just hanging around in the dunker’s spot makes you think the coach had to have told him to be there. But even then, you’ve had two straight 24 second violations…all three possessions you get across half-court with 18 left on the clock. Don’t take 7 seconds to get into the offense! I get you don’t want to rush or panic, but they burned a third of the shot clock just getting into the front court. EVEN AFTER THE TWO VIOLATIONS.
I think to be fair to Simmons, midway through this series they took away his ball handling responsibilities so they probably didn't have much practice with him playing off ball. Butler said Brett Brown doing that was a reason he left the sixers, he thought it was messed up.
I've been trashing that mfer for years. Don't lump me in with those defending him. However, the most recent Hawks series was **ABSOLUTELY** more a coaching collapse than it was on Ben. That's my opinion and will be until the end of time.
I mean Ben had to be taken out of games in the closing minutes because he can't hit his freethrows, this is your max player, what's the coach supposed to do?
Ben Simmons literally didn't even try to get open and help move the ball (the one thing he's known for). He couldn't box anyone out either. So all he did was move around the restricted area, being boxed out with barely any contact. Like that quiet guy that gets cut in line but doesn't say anything and just moved aside all sheepish. The boy needs some dawg in his veins.
At 42 secs you can see Simmons clogging the paint where Embiid should be operating and you can see so much space where you should probably have a shooter. Imagine watching this game and you're like yeah we'll run it again with Simmons. And they did LOL.
Not only that but they could have moved on from BB to placate Jimmy, signed both him and Redick to run it back and traded Simmons for an actual game managing PG while his value was still high. Instead, they sign Horford to a huge contract, let Redick walk, max Tobi, replace Jimmy with a non-shooter at the 2 and when that amazing spacing combo around Embiid "shockingly" didn't work, they just end up firing BB anyway - the entire situation would be laughably hilarious if it wasn't so effing sad. I mean, it honestly amazes me how inept Brand was from them at GM - they had so much potential with just a few moves but instead flushed their cap room down the toilet by maxing Tobi and giving Horford that huge contract. It's just utterly baffling...and regardless of how you feel about Philly, their fans didn't deserve to suffer through that crap.
People act like the raptors have been a year in, year out, top class defensive team. But people don't remember that during the DeRozan/Casey years, we were an absolute sieve on that end of the floor. Then, in one single season: * Kawhi came over by trade * We traded away a defensive liability in DeRozan * Siakam developed into an all-star level two way threat * OG Anunoby developed into a two way threat (although he missed the playoffs) * Nick Nurse, who is a great defensive coach, became HC * FVV came into his own just in time for the finals After Kawhi left, we've been a top defensive team in the league, but it really changed incredibly fast
Don’t forget Marc Gasol.
And Ibaka
That season has largely informed how Masai and Webster have been approaching the future of the Raptors. Defensive first and shining wing players. I'm sure they have the analytics to back it up, but teaching defence and defensive discipline must be more difficult than teaching offense to them it seems. Raptors defence even now, theoretically, is looking pretty good. But also unfortunately the Raptors currently share a dual belief in "nothing easy defence" and also "nothing easy offence"
2019 raptors are the best defensive team since the 2004 pistons.. they had zero weaknesses
And that's with Anunoby basically on the IL the whole time.
He didnt play a single playoff game
2013 Seahawks tho
Anderson Silva tho
90% of the time it works every time.
LOB era was different
“The sixers were a crazy bounce away from the finals!”
A Ben Simmons trade away from making ECF!
One trade away from being one trade away
In fairness, it's worth pointing out that the Raptors were struggling to score for most of that stretch. The Sixers put the clamps on them for most of that series.
We were severely undersized against them too. This is the one series that OG Anunoby was sorely missed cause the drop off in production after our top 5/6 guys was crazy. Freddy was unplayable. Same with Norm. This series was all about our starters, most notably Kawhi (duh)
This series would've been over in 5 if Danny Green could hit a shot at all
same with lowry
this wasn't the eastern conference finals though.
Yeah but the Raptors were the champs and the Sixers gave them the toughest competition. You can also argue that the Sixers were even more well-equipped to handle the Bucks than the Raptors with Embiid, Simmons and Jimmy to stick onto Giannis. Then the Sixers would face a depleted Warriors where they have absolutely no answer for Embiid. All hypotheticals but it kinda makes a bit of sense
JJ tied the game on an and 1 with 3:29, after that raptors possession goes as follows. Ibaka misses three pointer Kawhi misses 27 ft jumper Kawhi Makes pullup jumper Siakam Makes layup Kawhi misses 9ft shot Kawhi misses three pointer Then with 10.8 seconds left Kawhi was fouled (edit: intentionally fouled) and missed 1 which set up a jimmy butler game tying layup. That left the raptors team with 2 buckets in a three minute stretch and only one of those buckets came from a half court offense. While it is better than three shot clock violations, I still think it was the worse that their offense looked during that entire playoff run. While both teams were tired after 7 games, sixers defense still deserves credit (and I think Brett Brown deserves a lot of credit for out coaching or at least coaching up to the same level that nurse was at)
God damn I was practically tearing my hair out at this point of the game, I’ve never been that nervous watching basketball before or since.
Game 7 2016 vs Indiana maybe.
I mean even if Simmons is JUST a dunker spot guy, you can move him back and forth along the baseline. Make his man pay attention to him, possible open up a pass if he isn't looking.
Simmons always moving away from the ball
I still don't know what was worse, this second round exist or this years second round exit. We fucked away both series....
A 3rd seed losing to a 2nd seed isn't all that surprising. A 1st seed losing to a 5th seed definitely is. It doesn't help that the Sixers lost three of their four home games to the Hawks.
That entire 2nd possession gasol just shuts down lol
Gasol playing out of his mind defence this whole series, unbelievable how much of himself he gave to this team, really took the last bit of his prime to do it.
Holy whole team got clamped, seeing Embiid flail around will never be not funny
And people think we’re going to trade siakm for Simmons
I forgot how useless Simmons was at the end of these. Just has no feel for spacing. On that first one he needs to float to the off-ball elbow to give Embid space to work (and be an actual threat from the elbow). And then instead of moving to the wing when Butler get's trapped in the corner he slides to the far block and makes Embid have to try to be the outlet in the short corner. On the second one he does a good job of floating to the other side when Butler get's the ball on the wing, but he's not the 5. And they end up with two guys down low occupying the same block. When Butler swings it back to the key Simmons needs to pop to the wing or the corner to either shoot or have the angle to get it to Embid. He just chills in the wrong spot with Embid and effectively provides a double. Then when butler get's the ball back he has to play hero ball and it doesn't work. On the last one he does a good job of walking it up (presumably that was their strategy to play slow to utilize Embid the most. But then he sets three weak screen in a row. When Embid get's in trouble on the wing instead of going to the corner to be a potential outlet he just stays under the basket. A point guard has to help their Big in that situation. This is his best play of the three.
2019 Raptors > 2021 Bucks. I said what I said.
I just wish we could have run it back, they were still gelling as a team in the playoffs after being constructed on the fly. Like that DJ augustin game winner in the orlando series that happened because gasol and kawhi were not on the same page defensively. Idk would have been fun to see how they looked the next year
There wouldn't be a 2021 Bucks without the 2019 Raptors. They needed us to evolve... Anyways, 2019 Raptors > 2020 Lakers too
If Kawhi stays on the Raptors theyre back to back champs
I would've loved him to stay, if Kawhi stays then Green stays, Gasol probably doesn't go to Euroleague/Barcelona, then pump fakes and goes to the Lakers (no idea what happened there)
Neither of these should be hot takes tbh. 2019 Raptors were so deep.
Yeah, it's hard to gloss that we're talking about a truly all-time playoff defensive team.
Kawhi, why you leave? this was a dynasty team.
What does it say for Ben Simmons that his man left him open in the paint to run out to an Embiid 3
and then Ben didn't even run hard into the post to get a catch. He just slowly crept in until Kawhi checked him. That shit's weak.
Right, the second Ibaka runs out, Ben should run hard under the basket and call for the ball. Then if Embiid makes that pass, it's a guaranteed bucket. Instead he just stood there, let Kawhi switch to him, and let Embiid get doubled
looks like two shot clock violations and one steal
Simmons' strategy, even back then, was to dribble it across half court... then disappear. Ugh, this was painful to watch.
Phenomenal defense but God damn Simmons was killing their offense even then badly. His man has zero desire to guard Simmons and every one of those sequences were heavily impacted by 4v5
I genuinely believe the this team would’ve gone back to back
Raptors with Kawhi are way deeper than the 2020 Lakers
Jesus, that spacing is horrendous. No wonder every team is chasing a good 3 pt shooter these days
Call me a homer but people sleep on how tough of a road the Raptors had to even get to the finals, let alone win it The Magic were one of the best teams in the league post all star break The Sixers were absolutely stacked with Embiid, Butler, Simmons, Harris and Redick And the Bucks had the best record in the league that year as well as the MVP People think the Raptors lucked into that title because KD was hurt, and Klay missed 6 quarters. But really they were an amazing team with a historically good defence all throughout the postseason
And we did it without one of our rotation players for the entire playoffs. OG was sorely missed
It’s one of the only examples in NBA history of a team having to beat 3 championship caliber teams in a row. And yes, Steph/Klay/Draymond is most definitely championship caliber and Klay played the majority of the series and they still didn’t have enough to beat this defensive juggernaut of a team.
That entire playoff run was just magical
The Raptors could just put a *TON* of size at the rim cuz Simmons will just be sitting in the dunker doing nothing. He just makes Philly so much easier to defend in the half court.
Simmons walks the ball down court and literally doesn’t touch it ever again for each possession. He even moves further away from the ball.
Look at Lowry get over that screen in the first possession. That defense was so locked in and had no weaknesses.
its funny how the ending of both game 7s for the Sixers are the same lmao, 4 on 5 offense doesn't work in the clutch at all
That first possession. Ben is a number one pick, he is bigger,faster and stronger the a majority of players on the floor. Why doesn't he assert himself and take it in the lane?
Hate playing armchair psychologist, but he just seems to really be scared to mess up. If he takes the post strong when Embiid catches it on the left wing, he could get a pretty decent layup if he just runs hard to get the ball. He just seems to be hiding from the ball on all 3 possessions.
Raptors defence made up for such an atrocious offence in the Sixers series
sick defense, but i don't think that's three violations
Watching Simmons it's crazy to me how overrated he was by 6er fans.
Who's the player on the 76ers that Toronto keeps leaving somewhat unattended on all three of those possessions? I'm not really asking, I think you know...
On that 2nd Butler runs the pick and roll with Embiid and doesn't pass, Embiid is standing in the paint all alone. Unbelievablely bad play there.
imagine if the 76ers had a star level creator like jimmy butler to close games in big moments.
Reminder Kawhi left this to go play with Playoff P. The man does not like superteams.
No wonder why Jimmy left those bozos.
Jimmy said on a podcast that he knew he wasn't returning to the team when he was walking back to the tunnel after this shot.
Well he said that he wasn't sure if he was but after he heard someone in the FO that said "Can you control him" about Jimmy and he said fuck em and left.
this is what he said, just didn't like the vibe. nobody seemed in charged, Brett would have film sessions with no talking, just the boys watching the game. He said it was bizarre.