The Sixers Face an Impossible Decision...

This is getting laughably out of hand as everybody in the national media keeps trying to find issues. I put them in the big air quotes with the Sixers, the disrespect just keeps getting more and more outrageous while they underline, just keep making the same tired ass arguments. What's going on everybody? Christian Pedersen back with another episode of Sixers Digest, the show that exists at the other end of that spectrum where I am the eternal optimist, I'm also a Sixers guy. This is an NBA Digest, it's Sixers Digest, but nonetheless, hear me out, I want to break all that down, plus I want to get to an interesting conversation at the end about who should be the guy in the final, who's taking the last shot for the Sixers. I want to hear from all of you on this, like, subscribe, comment, share, follow, all that other things. Like, four days left, even less than that, depending on when you're watching this, until we have training camp back and that means two things. One, we'll have actual reactionary basketball content, two, it means hopefully the end of some of these most absolutely atrocious takes from people like these writers from The Ringer who came up with their latest power rankings and in an effort to, I guess, just to stir things up, I'm unclear as to what the hell was the point of this entire thing, but they decided to say that the Sixers are the 10th best team and, okay, cool, we're top 10, yada yada yada, but the question is that they bring up our, what about Embiid's health, what about, you know, chemistry, and to me, just what is the pecking order, will their locker room implode if they have some losses early on, when the team was first starting to assemble, I was like, okay, let's ask these questions, let's be adults about this and not just jump to 82 and 0, but then, I expected there to be some deeper level of analysis coming out from the greater basketball minds than myself that would be like really into the nitty gritty of being like, well, x, y, and z variables plus a, b, and c over, just the math of it all, it just, all these people keep rehashing the same stupid, stupid arguments, before I get any further, let's talk about one that's not a stupid argument, and that is our odds on the calcium market, and thank you, as always, to calcium for being a sponsor of this video, right now, you can get in on trading this and any other things, basically, on earth, and you can use the code digest NBA when you're signing up, they'll hook you up with $55 when you trade your first $25 in options, getting back to the power range, I think what frustrated me even more than that is they put the Lakers ahead of us, and that just feels like trolling for trolling's sake, the Lakers have gotten rid of everything and everybody other than Luka, and you're telling me that Luka Doncic single-handedly is better than the entire roster, just, I can't take this seriously, when the only analysis is that the Sixers are just health-wise not gonna hang, and they're just not, like, the chemistry, that's when, then, I saw this article coming out about ranking the top centers in the NBA, and how Joel Embiid comes in at number nine, he's the, he's the best big man generationally, maybe one of the Mount Rushmore of big men ever, but it's, the question is how healthy can he be, and is available statistically, and I'm just, I feel like, A, you guys have heard me rage against this, so you don't need me to keep being like, but B, for his, like, the health thing is, to me, it is two sides of a coin, yeah, what about his health, what about the chemistry, what about this, what if these guys all like playing with each other, and it all works, what if the Embiid's, what if Embiid's health is better than ever, because of us having the fewest of back-to-backs, and three out of fours, what if all of this does work, that's where I just, I'm struggling, I get that I am the optimist, and I am the guy that's here to be like, go Sixers, go, better for my metrics, better for all your days, better, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but for as much as everyone wants to be like, well, this, well, that, well, this, I'm also like, well, what about once we start playing basketball, we start playing some really good basketball, I just, it would have been something that worried me, if it was that, then to another greater argument, or several diverging arguments, but I hear none of this, it just keeps being different media outlets out there, rinsing and repeating, not even sometimes rinsing, it's just repeat, just parroting and squawking, I get the underlying questions, but to say like, oh, well, Embiid, the way that the Sixers played the last couple of years with, with Embiid's availability, this team ain't that team, this team ain't any of those teams, this team is a beast of a whole different nature. Final conversation that I want to get to for today, I saw this one, of who's going to take the last shot for the Sixers this season, and I will say, I, I am curious about that, actually, it included this quote from Maxey from earlier in the offseason of just, as far as the chemistry on the court, the guys are communicating, they're having a good time doing it, they're pumping each other up, just, he's talking about sacrificing and all that, and it made me think two versions of this conversation, number one being, we, you know, we should pick some, there should be an established somebody of like, well, is it, is it LeBron's shot, because he's the GOAT, and he wants it, and he knows that he wants it, and even if everybody knows that he wants it, he's built for that moment, is it Maxey's shot, because he's the up-and-coming, like, coming into his prime future MVP type vibe, is it Jalen Brown's shot, because he had the finals MVP, he's got that dog in him, is it, I don't think it's Embiid's shot, is it Adem Bona's shot, because that would be the sleeper troll pick, jokes aside, I also, though, what if it's Vijay's shot, not saying every single time, but what if the final shot is truly emblematic of how deep this team is, and that as we are dribbling up the court, down one, tied game, down two, like, you know, one of those kind of moments that really, Matt, like, you need that bucket. Do you think Nick Nurse really has some sort of deep-in-his-bag sort of play that he can draw up, where it's like, oh, this, that, you know, oh my goodness, and then that gets Bron open for this crazy shot, or Bron's gonna take it while being double-teamed, or Maxi's gonna chuck it up from 39 feet, or something like that, or is this a moment where we're gonna see some stretch, or some final moment shots that are, they really just had so much on the court going on, talent-wise, that with the other, the opponent's defense either left everybody one-on-one, and so then, yeah, it was Maxi's, or LeBron's, or one of those guys' shot, or that they had to go with what they assumed would be the priority, and either leave LeBron open, leave Maxi, or leave, and I think that's where we might get some interesting games that are finished by some of the young guys who are coming into their prime, like Vijay, or like an Anthony Simons, or what if it's LeBaron, like, legitimate question, could LeBaron Philan have some game-winning shots this season if he is out there in the closing minutes, because somebody had foul trouble, or whatever, or maybe LeBaron just grows into a nice little point guard, and instead of, like I said, forcing something to happen where Tyrese is taking a shot over two guys that was triple-teamed in the corner, he dishes it over to Dean Wade, who then finds LeBaron, and LeBaron drives for it, like, I don't have that answer, and I want to see some games under our belt to really understand what this looks like, but I would be curious to see if there isn't some of that being sprinkled in this season. Let me know what you think on all of this. Thanks for spending a little bit more time between now and the start of the season with me. Like, subscribe, comment, share, follow. Until next time, we'll talk to you guys soon. Go Sixers!