EMB Blog: 2021 Offseason

[Iggles_Phan]

1 minute ago, eagle45 said:

And yet every offseason there is a video of him draining 15 3’s in a row.  I think we can officially say those were photo shopped and will go down in history with Pinkston’s 8-10lb annual muscle gains.

Pressure is an amazing thing.   I mean, I get the nerves aspect.   But, he's a ~60% FT shooter for his career.   How does he not manage to get ONE to fall?   Crazy.  

 

Like I said, I don't care about his 3 pters.  I just want him to not be such a liability from the foul line, especially in the playoffs down the stretch.  It almost makes the Sixers need to consider an offense/defense platoon for him in a close game down to the wire.

[Iggles_Phan]

3 minutes ago, Swoop said:

Some nice irony in this thread right now.

Well, some of what was posted was sarcasm... at least my post was.  

[Swoop]

2 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Well, some of what was posted was sarcasm... at least my post was.  

I was talking about the troll.

RTK: You can't judge Hurts off of 4 starts! He was a rookie! The team was bad! He needs more time! Too early to make a judgement call on him!

Also RTK: After 4 starts I'm ready to write off Dillard and Hightower.

[blindside]

16 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

It's really basic.  I don't care about his 3 point attempts, is willingness or unwillingness to shoot from the field.   But, I can't watch a professional basketball player take a donut from the foul line.  I mean, that's ridiculous.  Sure... it was just one game, but that's more embarrassing to me than a guy that strikes out 4 or even 5 times in a baseball game.

I agree. Striking out in baseball has lots of variables. A free throw has literally no variables. It’s only your muscle memory and a bunch of standardized constants. 

[Mike030270]

1 hour ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Way to kill a young boys dream

It's amazing what happened

[LeanMeanGM]

6 hours ago, Swoop said:

I'll have to find another stat/picture to watch the meltdown happen again.

Jalen Hurts wearing a Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen T-Shirt the first time he met DeVonta Smith proves he’s a narcissistic egomaniac who already thinks he’s an all time great 

[Swoop]

1 hour ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Jalen Hurts wearing a Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen T-Shirt the first time he met DeVonta Smith proves he’s a narcissistic egomaniac who already thinks he’s an all time great 

Agreed. Let's go with this 

Jalen Hurts is too arrogant to be a good QB in the league. Guy is comparing himself to a HoFer.

[Utebird]

3 hours ago, bpac55 said:

Man it's nice to hear a loud Sixers crowd and Marc Zumov saying "And they're on their feet here at the Wells Fargo Center" again. 

Good luck to the sixers a sixers jazz matchup in the finals would be fun.

[Green_Guinness]

2 hours ago, blindside said:

I never understood that either. I haven’t shot a basketball in 10 years and could probably hit 5/10 right now with no warmup. 

I could probably do at least 50% with either hand.  I'm sort of ambidextrous anyway as I do some things left handed and some things right handed, though if asked I answer that I'm left handed.  My natural shooting hand is my right, one year (back when Chris Mullin was a big time player for St. John's and he shot lefty) I decided to shoot left handed and after a short while turned out I was equally as good as compared to my right hand.  And years ago when I went to a gym, I wouldn't go to lift weights, but to swim, hit a heavy bag, and shoot 3s and FTs which I would alternate left and right.  I also did an exercise in concentration where I'd shoot FTs with my eyes closed.  I would stare at the basket for a handful of seconds then close my eyes and try to keep that image in my mind of where the basket was and take the FT.  I came close to making 50%.  So there's no excuse for these tall athletic pro athletes not to make at least 70% of their FTs, especially since they have the time to practice them almost daily.

 

[FranklinFldEBUpper]

I once made 90 out of 100 free throw attempts, and I'm not even close to being a decent basketball player. There's really no excuse for a professional to be under 70%. It's their job. They do it every day, pretty much all of their life since they were kids. 

[Guest justrelax]

Oh geez, here we go. A big win snd all we see is crying about free throws. Not a whisper about what a great game he played. Fantastic defense, poise etc. What these idiots don’t get is (1) we lose without hom and (2) in case  anybody noticed, he totally shut down Westbrook and handled Beal when they switched. As I have said many times, idiots hete focus on what a guy can’t do- become oblivious to what he can. Stupidity abounds.

[Iggles_Phan]

4 minutes ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

I once made 90 out of 100 free throw attempts, and I'm not even close to being a decent basketball player. There's really no excuse for a professional to be under 70%. It's their job. They do it every day, pretty much all of their life since they were kids. 

I guess the basketballs and courts are different in the NBA than at other levels.  Must be that they changed the height on him, the circumference or the ball since joining the league.   


He needs to learn this: 

 

[Guest justrelax]

13 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

I guess the basketballs and courts are different in the NBA than at other levels.  Must be that they changed the height on him, the circumference or the ball since joining the league.   


He needs to learn this: 

 

I sit in awe of you.

[Original Sin]

43 minutes ago, Utebird said:

Good luck to the sixers a sixers jazz matchup in the finals would be fun.

As a jazz fan , hopefully they don’t see the suns .

[Vortex]

Venison skewers with early asparagus from the garden. Marinaded in a scallion, garlic, EVO and balsamic purée which was reduced into a sauce at the end. 

[LeanMeanGM]

Slow day. This made me laugh. The tweet Tra is replying to is Brian Westbrook

 

[Utebird]

2 hours ago, Original Sin said:

As a jazz fan , hopefully they don’t see the suns .

Yup the sun's edged them out this year in head to heads, as much as I'd like to see the jazz beat the best to be the best Im not sure they can beat the sun's in a playoff series, though the jazz would have homee court advantage where they were really good this year 

They got a favorable first round match up avoiding the Lakers and warriors both teams that have them trouble as well and should be able to dismiss the Grizz.

Part of me thinks hopes this is the jazz year and they can actually win it but I've had my heart broken way to many times by the jazz and won't believe it much like the eagles til it happens, that and I'm convinced the league will never let the jazz win a championship not just because it's a small market but a small market that is  difficult to market to the vast majority of NBA fans who along with LeBron feel the jazz are some dorky anti black franchise that is only supported by old white ladies and Mormons.

[Mike030270]

3 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Slow day. This made me laugh. The tweet Tra is replying to is Brian Westbrook

 

The comments are hilarious lol

[e-a-g-l-e-s eagles!]

15 hours ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Watching Ben Simmons shoot foul shots makes me sad.   How can a guy so athletic be so bad at foul shooting?  0-6 for the game.  How is that possible for a professional basketball player?

He played really really well outside of the FTs. It really stinks he hasn’t improved on that aspect of his game. The not shooting threes i can live with. However he went firm 62.1 from the FT line in 19-20 to 61.3 this year. So he actually regressed. He had a really really good stretch midway through the season where he was hitting at mid 70 %. You saw what happened when he was he was much much more aggressive to the basket during that stretch cause he was confident at the line. It was his best 2-3 week stretch of the season. To me if he can just manage to make himself a consistent 70-73 percent FT shooter it would help elevate him to even another level. 

 

[315Eagles]

40 minutes ago, Utebird said:

Yup the sun's edged them out this year in head to heads, as much as I'd like to see the jazz beat the best to be the best Im not sure they can beat the sun's in a playoff series, though the jazz would have homee court advantage where they were really good this year 

They got a favorable first round match up avoiding the Lakers and warriors both teams that have them trouble as well and should be able to dismiss the Grizz.

Part of me thinks hopes this is the jazz year and they can actually win it but I've had my heart broken way to many times by the jazz and won't believe it much like the eagles til it happens, that and I'm convinced the league will never let the jazz win a championship not just because it's a small market but a small market that is  difficult to market to the vast majority of NBA fans who along with LeBron feel the jazz are some dorky anti black franchise that is only supported by old white ladies and Mormons.

Dude I've been a Spurs fan since David Robinson.  When he played he was obviously good and they always made the playoffs but could never get out of the west.  I always thought they'd never win a championship for some of the same reasons you stated for the Jazz.  They got lucky getting Duncan and drafted well.  Jazz have a star already in Mitchell.  Hopefully one day they will break thru finally.

[Utebird]

1 hour ago, 315Eagles said:

Dude I've been a Spurs fan since David Robinson.  When he played he was obviously good and they always made the playoffs but could never get out of the west.  I always thought they'd never win a championship for some of the same reasons you stated for the Jazz.  They got lucky getting Duncan and drafted well.  Jazz have a star already in Mitchell.  Hopefully one day they will break thru finally.

Yup I've heard the spurs small market comparison and in my opinion there's one glaring difference, the spurs don't have a difficult time marketing to minority populations,SLC is one of the whitest cities in the NBA and they have zero street cred with NBA fan base.

When LeBron joked that when playing NBA jam no one picked the jazz he wasn't just being funny he made a true observation. Nobody other than jazz fans pick the jazz or buy jazz merch, heck half the kids in my school growing up wouldn't be caught dead  wearing jazz gear especially while playing basketball and this was at a time when the jazz had been to 20 straight playoffs and two championships and still no one other than grannies and 40 year old men wearing new balance and pocket protectors were wearing jazz gear. They're just not marketable to the majority of the NBA fan base whether one is black  white latiino or any other race noner think the jazz are cool no matter how much they win.

[eagle45]

5 hours ago, justrelax said:

Oh geez, here we go. A big win snd all we see is crying about free throws. Not a whisper about what a great game he played. Fantastic defense, poise etc. What these idiots don’t get is (1) we lose without hom and (2) in case  anybody noticed, he totally shut down Westbrook and handled Beal when they switched. As I have said many times, idiots hete focus on what a guy can’t do- become oblivious to what he can. Stupidity abounds.

Good enough to beat an 8 seed in round 1.  That which he can’t do just might be a problem against real competition.

[D-Shiznit]

 

One of the most vicious breakdowns I have ever seen, our boy put a legit clown suit on next year's top 5 pick Derek Stingley.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

53 minutes ago, D-Shiznit said:

 

One of the most vicious breakdowns I have ever seen, our boy put a legit clown suit on next year's top 5 pick Derek Stingley.

Really good breakdown that. 

[Iggles_Phan]

11 hours ago, justrelax said:

I sit in awe of you.

A 1 seed beat an 8 seed.  That's what is supposed to happen.  Meanwhile, a professional basketball player missed every foul shot in the game.  A foul shot, which is exactly the same for everyone who plays basketball from 14 years old through the pros.  Same distance, same ball, same hoop size, same height, no defense.  Just you, the ball and the rim.   Same difficulty at all levels... actually a little easier in the pros, because they get 2 shots once in "the penalty", whereas at lower levels of basketball they shoot "1 and 1", so you need to earn that second shot... until you get to 10 fouls in the half.

 

My original comment was made during the final minute of the game, while the game was in doubt.  The Sixers had the lead, and that means the defense will be fouling to try to catch up.  Basketball 101 for a long long time.  Simmons barely saw the ball offensively in the closing minutes, and after that foul wasn't a part of the offense the rest of the way, he was barely a part of it for a few minutes before then other than offensive rebounding.

 

So, I will point out the embarrassment of the foul shooting, because against better teams playing offense 4 against 5 will be a potential Achilles heel to close out games.  He's supposed to be a superstar, his salary says so.  He's supposed to be a lock-down defender.  Thats doing what is expected.  And he's great at that.  But, the observation I made as he missed his second shot within the final minute was made because the game was not over and could have still been lost.  The very next possession they gave the ball to Embiid to run clock and work for a shot rather than their "point guard" and Embiid dribbled off his leg.  Two lost possessions in a row.  It could have cost them the game.  It didn't though... because Harris and Embiid missed 1 foul shot between them the entire game, and nailed the final 4 foul shots to close it out.