Corner Three: 5 Most Important Sixers Not Named Embiid or Maxey

The playoffs/play-In (maybe) cometh.

5. Paul Reed 

BBall Paul, as adorable as he is polarizing, will have to be his very best herky jerky self for this run to ensure Joel Embiid gets the little 5 minutes of rest that he needs – and to also ensure he cements second round playing time should things progress that way. He’s officially as important as a change-of-pace big as he is as an energy source. Add to that the fact that he’s comfortably taking more threes this year and having stretches where his defense is down right impeccable, he absolutely deserves to be an important rotation piece when shit gets very real in a few days.

4. Nico Batum

He’s been downright sensational this past week, during a time where the Sixers margin for error in avoiding the play-in (if that’s the goal) is less than zero. He’s fought a lot this year with injuries and getting his family settled etc., but he has been a major component of almost every Sixers lineup that has had considerable success this season. I personally attribute it to his sneaky, functional length on defense and willingness to knock down the very special corner three (holla) when presented with said opportunity. 

3. Kyle Lowry

There’s a reason every teammate or opponent says the same damn thing: He’s nonstop and has an amazing basketball IQ. His God-given ability to be an asshole and straight shooter will finally work in our favor. I look at what you can/should expect and I see him being the one who calms the waters during a tough second-half scoring drought or after a rough game 3 or 4 loss in the second round.

2. De’Anthony Melton

Feels like he hasn’t played all year because up until Tuesday night, he really hasn’t. Backs are extremely tricky though, and I’m in the party that says he probably still isn’t 100%. But if he’s good enough to be his extremely active stalwart self on defense, take and hit open shots, maybe a few dribble drives on offense – all probably at a lower minutes clip initially – then I’ll take it. 

1. Tobias Harris*

I swear on all that is right and holy that I’m not trolling here. Nick Nurse won’t bench him, Embiid and Maxey and the rest of the roster seemingly love him. So we have no choice but to will this dude to his swan song. I feel like we’ve been saying “Can you imagine what they’ll look like with a dialed-in Tobias?” the whole time he’s been here, aside from that one year where he got mentioned as a possible all-star for two weeks. It’s absolutely right on though – and what better time than now, his final playoff run as a Sixer, to finally come alive? 

*Disclaimer: This Tobias shit is not going to work one bit but I can at least say I tried to be positive.

SPIKE’S CORNER - THE YEAR: THE RULES

As we officially determined on today’s podcast, this is The Year. If you’d like to hear our reasoning, just check out the pod. I don’t need to go too deep into that here. 

In my old age, I’m trying to look on the bright side. There are simply too many factors pointing to this year being The Year to ignore it. I will go down with this ship. I won’t put my hands up and surrender. 

With that, there are some rules we all need to live by once we officially lock in for the playoffs. 

1. No Jinx Blaming

If the Sixers fuck this up, it is THEIR FAULT. They have earned this over the last decade plus. They have fucked up so many times that people have written books about it. They have fucked up so many times, in so many different ways, if someone told you those books were fiction you’d say it was not plausible.

If they fuck this up, it’s not because you wore a T-shirt that said it’s the year (foreshadowing, it’s coming), it’s not because I said it on a podcast, and it’s not because someone tweeted it. It’s because the Sixers fucked it up. Again. 

Is Joel Embiid Ready for the Playoffs?

2. No Offseason Bullshit

We can talk about Bronny’s draft status and Paul George’s comments about Joel Embiid right up until the game against the Nets ends on Sunday, and then pick it up right after the playoffs are over. 

But during the playoffs, we are going old-school LeBron ZERO DARK THIRTY on offseason acquisition rumors. I simply will not acknowledge them. We are here to do one thing, win a title (get past the second round or a good team in the first round actually). 

3. We Can Get Scared, We Can Get Dark, But We Can’t Get Super Whiny

We can be a morose group, for good reason. My position though is that this time, let’s walk around with a little confidence. Let’s just be a little less bitchy than normal. 

Scared? Yes. Mad? Sure. Whiny? Eh, not so much. 

The Sixers have the best player in the league this year. They are 30-8 when he plays. The Bucks are frauds and Doc Rivers is their coach. The Knicks are a cute story. The Magic are too young. The Cavs suck. The Pacers are a regular season parlor trick. The Celtics just played a game in which they shot ZERO free throws. The Heat’s “get there from the 8 seed luck” has run out.

It’s our year. It’s The Year. Let’s do it.