78 Comments

Do you think Mikal or Lauri could be a move this offseason? Or do you think those guys don’t move or the ask is too high?

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No idea why either team would trade either of them.

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I think Bridges is more likely than Markkanen but both would take an absolutely massive offer. (And if I was Daryl I'd still consider making it.)

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What do the sixers have to trade? They only have three players under contract (assuming maxey signs). Would draft picks only land a player like maxey?

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Think they could just absorb him into space but I'm not a cap expert. Four firsts on their own could maybe get it done but it depends on what other teams are asking for / maybe where Bridges actually wants to go.

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Oops…player like bridges

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Despite getting more money, do you think Tobias regrets re-signing with 76ers 5 years ago?

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How can sixers make a trade this summer when they only have three players under contract (assuming maxey at max). Can you trade years worth of draft picks solely for a player like Bridges?

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Is Embiid injury prone or should we blame the trash shoes he’s been wearing since 2018?

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he is either injury prone or the least lucky healthy man in the world

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Does body bio not want mike to make up a tag line after their ad reads? Feels like the perfect type of sponsor for mike to get creative with

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are we ever going to get an official apology from Mike for defending Tobias Harris for years? I half expected Mike to tell us all of the good things Tobi did in the elimination game.

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This is both an absurd characterization of Mike's on-pod treatment of Tobias Harris and an absurd demand to make of him with any degree of seriousness.

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I don't know Dawg, Mike has profusely praised Tobi several times over the years to the point of absurdity. He did it several times this season to the point where Spike had to say "enough, I'm done talking about him.". Spike even once joked that Tobi's dad must have gotten to him.

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"defended him on any level" does not actually equal profuse praise you realize

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Yes/no question for yous. Did Daryl learn nothing from going all in on a petulent fading star stumbling into his mid-30s and being the last to know that his game is aging poorly in today’s league, or are we really doing this again instead of finding someone closer to Joel’s age or younger and/or making multiple smaller moves to build a functional roster? Thanks for sharing our misery. FTPLA24 forever!

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The problem wasn't that they got a star in his mid 30s, the problem is it was James Harden. Playoff failures aside for someone his age he performed well.

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I think short of the most screamingly obvious positional overlap concerns (like going after Gobert when we have Embiid), Daryl will forever chase the best players and worry about exact fit stuff later.

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Hey Spike, listened to your pod this morning... and, regarding best path for building this summer, I'm starting to think that "old guys" is not the way to go... We all make the disclaimer, "yeah, this guy is old and often injured BUT the fit... " - and I think we're too quickly dismissing the BUT?

It's not only injury history for guys like Butler, PG, etc. - but look at who's left in the playoffs and who's not... Kyrie is the oldest "star" and he's only 32. $40+ million for a "3rd guy" just seem way too big a risk.

I would rather get the 16th pick in the draft right - find a guy like Jaquez and Derek Lively who can help the rotation right away. I would argue if we had Derek Lively playing PF instead of Tobias, we solve a lot of the rebounding issues and beat the Knicks. We should be able to find a defensive/rebounding focused guy at #16, as we don't need offense (the good 2-way guys will go higher). Or use our first round picks to move up in the draft for the right guy at #8-#12... reverse the mistake we made with Mikal Bridges!

Then focus on using Tobias' $40 million to keep the current team more together for continuity/unfinished business motivation:

- sign Oubre;

- pay Batum more not to retire;

- sign BOTH Lowry and Cam Payne;

- and use Buddy's $18 million to get the right #2/#3 guard to complement Maxey

- Drafting the rebounding PF then also solves your backup center issue... and if that doesn't work, you have the trade deadline to re-evaluate.

???

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I don't think you can count on nailing the draft at 16 nor can you count on that player to contribute in the first year even if he works out. No problem using that pick for a player but I don't think you can make that your primary strategy if you want to win a title in the next 2 years.

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Yeah true. I guess the choice is more add 3rd star vs. build out roster with role players, and I'm voting for the latter... and wouldn't mind using picks to trade up in draft if Daryl really likes a guy.

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Hey Spike Mike CJ. I have mixed feelings about the loss. On one hand, the sixers played a better than round 1 opponent and played a tight series all around with a team that was fun but probably wasn’t going all the way. On the other hand, I can’t help but shake this feeling that among different teams, coaches, GMs, the result for this Sixers team is the same. How is that possible? For the last 7 playoffs, they have had the best player in many of those series and not once have we ever won one that was “50/50” or even surprised people and won one we weren’t supposed to. Why does it feel like every year we run up against another random/new team playing well (we’ve never played the same team/group of guys besides the Celtics) but is always a loss (Heat, Celtics, raptors, hawks, now Knicks). Every new upstart team tends to win against us while we’ve been here the whole time. Any thoughts on this? I love Joel but he is the common denominator and he sets the tone for the team.

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Who are you guys rooting for the rest of the way? Root for the Knicks to help the narrative of how good Embiid / Maxey are? Or is it still too raw?

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Knicks in the East, Nuggets in the West. Only thing I really care about is Boston losing.

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For me, don't really care to be honest. I think the Nuggets are the only great team.

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andrew what would need to happen in sixers land this summer for you to make a rap song about it, and what is your favorite P.O.D. album cut

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Pretty good chance I make one regardless but we'll see. May take requests if the offseason gets boring enough.

I don't go super-deep on P.O.D. but I do like "Set It Off" from 'Satellite.'

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im envisioning a recreation of the blade 2 soundtrack but each song is about a guy morey signs or something

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hey, sorry for a sort of off/topic question, but im a life-long Sixers fan from Austria and I‘ll be in the US for the first time in my life this year. I‘ll stay in NYC for a work trip from the 26th to the 31st of October and I‘m dying to take the train down to Philly to watch a Sixers game. So i guess my questions are: How likely do you think it is that they‘ll play a home game in that time frame (I know schedule is not out)? How far in advance should I get my tickets and what is the best way to get tickets? Thank you so much for any sort of direction or guidance with this. And thanks for everyng always, obviously!

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Truly impossible to tell! I'm sorry.

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Hey, thanks to you and Mike for podding! This time of year, it's like ongoing therapy at this point lol. If you were to bet on which of our current FAs will be back on the team, who do you think returns?

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All of the talk about acquiring a 3rd star just doesn’t seem realistic due to the lack of attractive (and realistic) options in the market . Plus, that player would have to be comfortable being the 3rd scoring option behind Embiid and Maxey as well as being a good stylistic fit. Am I wrong to think this?

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It's not a sure thing by any means, but I think there are enough plausible potential candidates (plus likely one or two guys we're not even thinking of yet) that I think it is at the least a strong possibility.

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Who do you think is on the roster next year if Daryl pulls off a good offseason? Are we just upgrading Tobias or do you expect bigger changes? Is there a scenario that gets us a better roster than Boston?

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I think the roster is a lot stronger next year but I doubt we'll have a top six quite as good as Boston's assuming they retain everyone. The formula to beating them in the playoffs is likely always going to start with having the two most dominant players in the series.

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A buddy of mine (two buddies, actually) suggested the answer for the Sixers is drafting Bronny and signing LeBron. The good thing about going the LeBron is that he’d probably take less than the max and attract some other good players to round out the rotation who would also be willing to take less than from other teams. since we only have three players under contract for next year, we’re going to need bodies. ATHLETIC bodies. Then again, when has a team that was built in one year ever won a title that year? So that’s an argument against going the LeBron route. Thoughts?

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Spike might be the only person on the planet even more anti-LeBron-on-the-Sixers than I am. I think Daryl would still consider going after him if he was legitimately available but I doubt he'd be thirsty enough for it to attempt to woo Bronny first.

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Can't stand him and he's not leaving California.

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I don't think there's any chance Lebron takes less than the max

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