76ers' Elite Defense Fuels Hot 8-1 Start and Title Hopes

You know, I want to go to the Sixers here, and traditionally you would try to go to the big numbers offensively, but, J-Way, how shocked are you with those numbers there when you're saying points allowed and defensive rating? I mean, they're 8-1 right now. I mean, the offense is like, okay, you know, maybe two below okay, but it's really been a defensive effort. Is that a good sign this year on what you're seeing and what they're doing with the effort on that side of the basketball floor? Yes, I thought that that is what was probably the most important thing to me is their defense. Now, obviously, Joel Embiid, we talked about this last week. Joel Embiid losing weight looks so much better. I don't, um. But they got guys who can defend. VJ Eskom can defend. Jalen Brown can defend. LeBron may not be the defensive player that he was, but he's smart and he's cerebral and he plays angles. And I think that's something that's important. You know, look at Dean Wade is an underrated defender. Anthony Simons for his size as a guard is a big guard. KCP's been doing it for a long time. And that's how Nick Nurse kind of won his championship with Toronto was with Kawhi Leonard and guys that really could defend like crazy. So if they defend at this level, And they stay healthy. Yeah, like, this is the best. I said this before. Big deal. We talked about this in the summer. I said this was the best team to the faux, faux, faux, the 83-60. This is the team they've got. They just got to stay healthy. And what I think is amazing, even though they only had, I think, 23 assists on 39 field goals last night. I still don't think they're playing a lot of iso ball. I see the ball moving. Jalen Brown, who is a notorious over-dribbler, is more of a catch-and-shoot guy. They're playing as well as advertised. Big Sills, they got to keep it up. If they play like this, it could be good times in Philadelphia come June. You know, I love comparing players and I love getting where people can get an idea of what you're looking at with a player. Man, this Maxie kid, you tell me if this is like off base here. He's like a cross between Dwayne Wade and a Donovan Mitchell. That's kind of what he reminds me of. Am I off the reservation when I make that comparison? No, no, I think he's dynamic. If you want to just go to a point guard spot, he's a little bit of a bigger version of Isaiah Thomas. I mean, he's shifty, quicker than Isaiah, can get to the basket. You want someone older, you may go with like a tiny Archibald if you want to go older, right? But his ability to shoot, score, really, really good. Big sales. They're having fun down there in the Illinois Dump. May not be the Eagles, may not be the Flyers, but they're getting something good out of the Sixers right now.