Philadelphia 76ers Presser

[ballsohard]

Balls O'HardGood morning everyone. I want to start the presser and say congrats to the New York Knicks as the world champions of the PBSL- there was a lit of talking by them, and they came in and did it. So i wanted to get that out of the way and say credit where credit is due.

Balls O'HardWith that announcement, that tells everyone, obviously, last season didn't go as we wanted it to. We have a star studded line-up that never really got things together. With that being said, we did get to game 7 in the conference finals, so not all was lost- but we don't accept moral victories in Philly. This is a tough time, with tough people that don't put up with weak excuses. So we won't give any and just point towards to the future because that all we can control.


Balls O'HardWe made some moves. We moved on from Ayton. He was a great player for us, but paying a max contract next year was a tough stance for us. On another team he may be a max player, on our team he's 4th - 5th best guy scoring the ball. In return, we got a guy named Karl Anthony Towns. After a terrible Training camp for the squad, we're left reeling as to what to do. Town took huge dips and some other team's in the east, of course, got boosts. Again, not something we can control, so it's not something we will waste a ton of time on.


Balls O'HardRight now we're excited about the team but we have to pump expectations because unlike most teams in the league, we have to deal with massive declines in 26 year old guys on an almost yearly basis. I think we;'re going to roll out a line-up looking something like this:

C: Embiid
PF: Simmons
SF: Grimaldi
SG: Fultz
PG: KAT


Balls O'Hard There's probably a few other assortments of lineups i can see us running throughout the season. Some of them include Fultz playing a lot of one and some others have Don Grey out there. But i think the bottom line is team identity. What is Philadelphia's identity. We're going to be a hard nosed team that does the small things well. We will rebound well, we will pass well, we will shoot the right shots, and we will defend.

Balls O'HardQuestions?

[JNR]

GWR: I love the move of KAT as your point guard. What positives and negatives do you see this creating for your team?

[digiskunk]

You were able to get Joel Embiid on the cheap. How big of an impact do you think he'll have on the team and what sort of numbers do you anticipate him putting up this upcoming season?

[NOLa.]

Rumors are swirling that there is a push to train purple players. Are you for a Cyborg League?

[ballsohard]

GWR: I love the move of KAT as your point guard. What positives and negatives do you see this creating for your team?

I think the positives are, hes the best passer we've had on our team with our "big 3 on board. He's a complete player that can do it all. He fits right in and he doesn't need the ball.

The negatives are, with his decline, he's not "great" at many things. While he's a do it all type of tool that we can deploy, he also isn't a weapon where we can complete a mismatch on. He's weak on the perimeter in the PG spot so he probably slows down the offense a bit and he's not a guy who stretches the floor at the spot.

[ballsohard]

You were able to get Joel Embiid on the cheap. How big of an impact do you think he'll have on the team and what sort of numbers do you anticipate him putting up this upcoming season?

He's going to play a lot. One of the big things we were missing last year in our estimation was shot blocking. Embiid, while not elite at it, can protect the rim in better fashion than we've had at the 5 spot in awhile.

[ballsohard]

Rumors are swirling that there is a push to train purple players. Are you for a Cyborg League?

You know, you look at a few of the GMs that suggest it, and we see why. College kids just don't come in the way they did before, there's at times less polish. And with that, we're not seeing peaks as long and as high as before. We may not ever get a guy like AD again dominating for 15 years. And honestly, thats a great thing for this league. 4 and 5 year runs of great players in their prime is something you can endure. As someone who has 2 Pruple guys who could still use some training, i also get it, but it also feels so entitled to want even more than what we're getting out of these guys who are almost (sans 1 guy) gurantee'd to be all league players for a few seasons. I've always said to myself about it- am i acting spoiled because i want 8 years as an all league guy for my purple instead of 5. And i've always said yes. So i'm against it, but the league is a democracy and we'll see how it works itself out.

[garbageman]

Do you think the 76ers in current form are as strong a team as they were in the last few seasons? If not, when and how do you make the decision to sell off, since it's somewhat of an expensive team?

[ballsohard]

Do you think the 76ers in current form are as strong a team as they were in the last few seasons? If not, when and how do you make the decision to sell off, since it's somewhat of an expensive team?

I think this will be the last iteration of this team as you know it. I can't see us selling off anyone of our big 3 this season.

[WigNosy]

What was the mindset behind the Joel Embiid signing?

[drkavarga]

Do you feel this is the year that the 76ers win the Championship?