Being a Sixers fan this year has for the most part felt like being in a doomed relationship. While the rest of the league talks about young stars like Luka and Zion, and well-constructed mega-teams like the Lakers and Clippers, the Sixers spin their wheels with a misshapen team.
On Thursday, those exact feelings – the “why should the Sixers be like that ?!” anxiety – got a mainstream vote when ESPN’s Pablo Torre, who considers himself a Sixers fan, talked about the team’s state.
Torre appeared on the Thursday episode of Tom Haberstroh’s “Habershow” podcast to talk all things NBA, and they finally made their way to the Philadelphia basketball team, probably on their way to another exit of the postseason.
Torre began his dissection of the Sixers’ battle around the 35:20 mark, came on a roll and did not look back:
I just hate that Al Horford plays basketball. I just hate it. It’s annoying. And Tom, it’s August 12th, right? We had four extra months to really remember how useless Al Horford is for the Sixers’ ambitions. More than we would even get in a normal season. And we’m still talking about Al Horford.
And part of that is because Brett Brown and the Sixers took forever to admit that he should not play with Joel, and the other part now, which is irreparable, is this injury to Ben. It’s just groundhog day. It’s endless. I do not hate anyone in the NBA, but I hate watching Al Horford play basketball.
[…]And I want to be honest with Al Horford here. I do not hate how Al Horford plays more than I hate how Elton Brand has generally succeeded. And when I say Elton Brand, I mean Elton Brand plus, in brackets, the remaining brain confidence of Bryan Colangelo. What have they done to build this team? That is truly the root of all my fullest and sour reflux-like reactions. Why do they not have guards?
Yep, that almost calls for it.
The 2019-20 season has been so frustrating for Sixers fans because the complications are twofold.
There’s the underwhelming performance of guys like Horford and Josh Richardson, who were brought in (and paid immensely) to put the Sixers on top, but instead played a very average basketball. That’s about it because Horford, unless he’s traded,’s been here for three years and not getting younger – or, probably, better.
And then there’s the performance of Elton Brand, the man arguably the lead on adding the underwhelming players. He failed to tackle the team’s necessary perimeter shooting approach this past offseason, causing them to return to medium length this year.
The team must resolve its product on the court by finding better-suited players to place next to Simmons and Embiid. It also needs to evaluate its decision makers before looking for those better suited players.
Excluding an unpredictable miracle performance – and, honestly, even if one happens – Sixers fans like Torre should see these important changes this offseason. Because this year have created enough “acid reflux-like reactions” to last a lifetime.
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