Tobias Harris and Al Horford providing absolutely nothing. Embiid is not much of a leader. Watching these rudderlesss teams completely tank at the sight of adversity just makes it clear how lucky we are to have the kind of culture and leadership we do. I would love to steal either Harris or Horford but their contracts are toxic.
There is an argument for them absolutely having to go for it with Embiid's injury history and volatile body. It's similar to NO and Zion now. They have a finite number of years before you know their bodies will break down. But giving Harris and Horford close to 300 mil combined might not have been the best option for going all in.
I think I've changed my mind on this, just as Philly is probably warming to it. Simmons is probably happy he can't be blamed for this series.
Based on a suggestion on Reddit - Brooklyn could offer this plus a couple of picks and they'd have a real boom-or-bust superteam:
That would be a pretty interesting Philly team, too. LeVert looked amazing against us, but the Nets keep Joe Harris. Dinwiddie has got to be a significant improvement on Shake Milton, too.
If we get Horford out of their hands by giving them CJ we could get some more pieces like Josh Richardson, Milton and 2 1st rounders. Elton Brand is all for win now so i don't think he cares about picks anymore. He has to save his job by winning. Then we use those 1st picks to get some rotation guy or trade up for draft. Then our starting lineup would be Lillard Richardson Hood Collins Nurkic Milton Trent Little Horford good mix of 3&D off the bench Of course Horford's contract is terrible, probably worse in the league but he is not that trash as they made him seem this year. If we use him like 18 mins backup C and 7-8 next to Nurk he would be fine. Rest of lineup would be shooters like Dame, Trent and Hood when he plays as PF. And both him and Nurk can shoot the 3 I don't think spacing would be an issue like playing next to Simmons. Will this team win a title, probably not. But the way we are now we have no chance either. Not saying he is better than CJ exactly but also advanced stats are ok for Horford
We need to take advantage of the philly Situation, they are a mess and their payroll will be ridiculous high with the Simmons extension. Who knows how corona gonna affect the Cap
Hm. I like Josh Richardson a lot, and if we were getting the Heat version, I'd be very tempted. Great defender. But even then, taking on Horford's contract is just too much. Maybe it would be different if we had nobody at C, but there's no way you can play Nurk and Horford together. And Horford's contract, let us reiterate, is HORRIBLE. (I dunno about Shake Milton, though. I don't think he'd be playing if they weren't desperate.) Agreed that CJ seems to be an ideal player to pair with Simmons, and that the Sixers would jump all over this in a second. Which should give us pause.
So another example of how tanking for several years didn't get you any further along than most other teams? Not saying tanking never works, just that it is far from a smart solution for most franchises.
Agreed on the horrible Horford contract, but why wouldn't he fit with Nurkic? I get neither the most fleet of foot on the perimeter as defenders, but the offensive spacing and rebounding would be great. Also, without CJ our backcourt defense may be a little less of a sieve.
If Philly and New Orleans really wanted to mix it up and go for it I'd love for something like this: Por: CJ out; Jrue Holiday in Philly: Simmons and Horford out; Lonzo and CJ in NO: Jrue and Lonzo out; Simmons and Horford in I also think Kevin Love would fit pretty much perfectly with Embiid. Cleveland wouldn't swap Love for Horford without some sweeteners though of course.
Seems to me that Philly and the Lakers were built on the same philosophy. Two really good players with a bunch of scrubs.
