Ready to Get Hurt Again With the Too Good For Summer League Sixers
We better be ready to be real, real careful or real, real dumb over the next couple weeks.
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When you're up 34 in the third quarter and still causing turnovers and getting wide-open looks at three, you know things are going good. But when one of those turnovers leads to Aaron Henry -- whose name you will probably never think about again once the calendar turns to September -- getting and missing one of those open triples, and you scream at your television, "AW COME ON 20, THOSE ARE THE SHOTS YOU GOTTA HIT!"... well, you know you're in trouble.
The Summer League Sixers absolutely plowed through the Summer League Mavericks yesterday, with a 22-point victory that -- how delectable to be on the good side of these words again -- wasn't as close as it appeared in the box score. Tyrese Maxey hit two pull-up threes in a row and ended with a 21-5-4-3 line on good shooting. Isaiah Joe was briefly unstoppable from deep. Paul Reed was two steals and a block away from a 5 by 5 line. Filip Petrusev seemed like a good hang. Jaden Springer... seemed like a Sixer, anyway. Generally speaking, a good time was had by all.
But there's reason for concern. And that reason is: This team absolutely is too good for Summer League, which means anything less than a Vegas Championship will be a disappointment. So we better be ready to be real, real careful or real, real dumb over the next couple weeks.
At the moment, I'm leaning towards dumb. Much more than the Not Quite Good Enough For the NBA Playoffs Sixers, these Too Good For Summer League Sixers seem destined for greatness. They're the exact sort of team that tends to thrive in Summer League -- filled with prospects, but not a lot of big-name ones, and equipped with shooting and playmaking and shot-blocking and pesky defenders able to capitalize on bad passing and errant dribbling (which does a lot of; it's Summer League). Most of their best guys are a little small or a little slight for their position; that matters a lot more in May than it does in August. What matters in Vegas is being quick, being skilled, and being annoying as shit, all qualities which the TGFSLS have in spades.
And what's more, they have playoff experience. I'm not talking about Maxey's big-game performances against the Wizards and Hawks; I'm talking about Isaiah Joe and BBall Paul lighting up the G League playoffs before falling short in the championship game -- a taste that no doubt remains just as sour in their mouths as anybody has on the Big League club following the Atlanta series. It's not just the guys from Draft Night 2020 who are back, either -- we've also got familiar faces shooting big Braxton Guy and ballhawk point guard Rayjon Tucker in the mix, like old school acquaintances you're surprised at how happy you are to see again at the start of the new school year. It's a motivated bunch, no doubt, with a Dr. Samuel Beckett-like hunger to put right what once went wrong, and the Vegas Championship is the perfect opportunity for them to achieve that Final Leap closure.
Of course, some people will insist that winning is not the most important goal of Summer League basketball -- and indeed, the Sixers have been pushing a narrative of using this Vegas run primarily as an opportunity for player development. On this I loudly and obnoxiously call bullshit; anyone who thinks winning isn't important in Summer League clearly wasn't outside (or inside, as it were) for the Orlando Sixers' 2014 championship run, certainly one of the fondest memories from all Philadelphia sports of the past decade. People who scoff at Summer League mattering turn me into Ben Affleck in Boiler Room. Ben Simmons can focus on skill development in the offseason, Paul Reed's number one goal is to win the motherfucking chip. As it should be.
Now, there's nothing I want to care about more right now than the Sixers. Last postseason is absolutely still raw, and even though I've actually been generally in favor of most of Daryl's offseason moves so far, shit's not getting any more cooked until Melbourne's finest 6'11" point guard-not-point guard is officially playing for a team outside the Wawa radius. Plus, the Forever .500 Phillies have somehow won eight in a row to move to six games over -- as long as I can avoid thinking too much about what that likely implies for the next six games, that seems like it should be plenty excitement to tide me over until Ben is gonezo.
But really, this isn't the Big League Sixers. Obviously that's true in a literal roster sense; only one guy from this time was a consequential part of last year's regular season roster, only another 2-3 are likely to be next season. But it's also true in a larger identity sense: Whether Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, or of course The Other Guy, nothing defines our Autumn to Spring Sixers quite like the hesitation to shoot from distance. But this squad is absolutely fearless in that respect -- Tyrese Maxey in particular appears to be applying to fill in the role of Kyle Lowry now on the Sixers himself with his pull-up bombing, and Isaiah Joe doesn't seem particularly bothered by how many threes he makes as long as he gets to double digits in attempts. Even our bigs shoot: Paul Reed, Filip Petrusev and Braxton Key combined to go 1-4 from deep, but they all took at least one. If nothing else, this is not a team that's gonna get caught looking at strike three; they're going down swinging, dammit.
So fine. I will open my heart to the Too Good For Summer League Sixers. They seem worth it, and COVID variants may be pushing me inside and in front of my television 24 hours a day soon enough anyway. I have nothing to lose except my soul and my sanity.