Is "Playoff P" the Answer for Philadelphia's Postseason Woes?
Paul George expected the L.A. Clippers to give him the same contract terms that Kawhi Leonard earned, and after the Clippers declined to do so George signed a maximum contract with the 76ers that will pay George $212 million over the next four seasons. Leonard won two NBA Finals MVPs while leading two different teams to NBA championships (2014 San Antonio Spurs, 2019 Toronto Raptors), but George has never reached the NBA Finals, owns an 8-11 career playoff series record, and has a .423 career playoff field goal percentage, so George is the only person surprised that the Clippers do not value him as highly as they value Leonard.
George is a 34 year old shooting guard who has played in more than 60 regular season games just once since 2019; granted, his most durable season during that time frame was last season (74 games), but is it reasonable to assume that an injury-prone player is going to become less injury-prone in his mid to late 30s? The 76ers are wagering more than $200 million that between the ages of 34 and 38 George will be healthier than ever and that he will be more efficient in the playoffs than ever. George dubbed himself "Playoff P," but that is a self-proclaimed belief as opposed to a performance-based tribute. James Harden's 2024 playoff disappearing act with the Clippers should not obscure the reality that "Playoff P" also came up short as the Clippers lost 4-2 in the first round to the Dallas Mavericks, culminating in horrific shooting performances in game five (4-13, .308) and game six (6-18, .333).
The 76ers are desperate to provide more help for Joel Embiid, their injury-prone star who received the 2023 regular season MVP award but has yet to play in more than 68 games in a regular season or lead his squad past the second round of the playoffs. Embiid's regular season career field goal percentage is .504, but his playoff career field goal percentage is just .459. He shot better than .490 from the field once in his seven postseason appearances. Embiid's resume indicates that he is not healthy enough, consistent enough, or dominant enough to lead a team on a long playoff run.
On paper, the George acquisition improves the 76ers by adding defensive versatility, playmaking, and perimeter scoring, but the reality will likely turn out to be that when the chips are down Embiid and George will be injured, inefficient, or both. The 76ers will have to reply heavily on Tyrese Maxey, who averaged 29.8 ppg on .478 field goal shooting in the 2024 playoffs, to save the day for Embiid and George.
The 76ers have demonstrably not "tanked to the top"--unless you believe that the second round of the playoffs is "the top," because that is the farthest that the 76ers have advanced in the playoffs since beginning the infamous "Process" 11 years ago during Sam Hinkie's reign of error. Daryl Morey became the 76ers' president of basketball operations in 2020, and he has yet to succeed where his protege Hinkie failed--and that is not surprising, because Morey's resume as an NBA executive is pedestrian despite the fact that he has been granted nearly two decades to test out his beliefs about "advanced basketball statistics." Morey ranked James Harden as a greater scorer than Michael Jordan and he never retracted that nonsensical take even after Harden's "concert tour" playoff field goal percentages and Harden's numerous playoff failures, culminating in Harden publicly blasting Morey as a liar and demanding to be traded--a demand that Morey granted without ever criticizing Harden; we all want someone to love us as much as Morey loves Harden.
The fact that Morey is betting over $200 million that George can help the 76ers win a championship is an excellent reason to believe that the 76ers will once again fall short of reaching the NBA Finals, as has been the case with every Morey-led team during his tenure running NBA franchises first in Houston and now in Philadelphia.
Labels: Daryl Morey, Joel Embiid, L.A. Clippers, Paul George, Philadelphia 76ers, Sam Hinkie, Tyrese Maxey
posted by David Friedman @ 12:23 PM
The Mikal Bridges Trade Lifts Knicks to Contender Status, Plunges Nets Into Tank Mode
The Brooklyn Nets dealt Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks for five first round draft picks plus a second round draft pick and a first round pick swap; three of the first round picks and the first round pick swap are in 2027 or later, indicating that the Nets are planning to try the trendy--but thus far unsuccessful--plan of "tanking to the top." Tanking does not work, as Philadelphia 76ers fans have seen for the past decade. In contrast to the Nets giving up proven talent while hoping that unproven talent acquired years from now will help the team win, the Knicks are trying to win now, as Bridges joins three of his teammates from Villanova's 2016 NCAA
championship team: Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Donte DiVincenzo.
Bridges has never missed a game during his NBA career. In the 2022-23 season he played in 83 regular season games, appearing in 56 games with Phoenix before being traded to Brooklyn, for whom he played in 27 games. Bridges averaged a career-high 20.1 ppg that season, and he averaged 19.6 ppg in 2023-24. He shot at least .510 from the field during each of his last three full seasons with the Suns, but his field goal percentage dropped significantly as he assumed a larger offensive role with the Nets (.475 in 2022-23, .436 in 2023-24). He is not a great rebounder or passer but he is an excellent defensive player, earning a selection to the All-Defensive First Team in 2022, when he also finished second to Marcus Smart in the Defensive Player of the Year voting. Bridges is an above average three point shooter (.375 3FG% for his career).
Last season, the undersized but scrappy Knicks overcame a host of injuries to rank second in points allowed and fifth in rebounding while finishing second in the Eastern Conference with a 50-32 record. The Knicks defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 4-2 in the first round before losing 4-3 to the Indiana Pacers. Bridges' superior defense and his three point shooting could have made a difference versus the Pacers, and could also be valuable in a playoff series versus the NBA champion Boston Celtics.
Two players have won two NBA titles in the past five years: Jrue Holiday (Milwaukee Bucks 2021, Boston Celtics 2024) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (L.A. Lakers 2020, Denver Nuggets 2023). Holiday and Caldwell-Pope are athletic perimeter players who can guard multiple positions and shoot three pointers efficiently. Bridges fits that mold.
A prevailing NBA narrative suggests that first round draft picks are worth their weight in gold. That is why "stat gurus" and media members mocked the Minnesota Timberwolves for giving up four first round draft picks plus other assets to Utah in exchange for Rudy Gobert in 2022--but after making that deal the Jazz missed the playoffs the past two seasons and are sliding backwards in the standings; in contrast, Gobert anchored a Minnesota defense that led the league in points allowed and defensive field goal percentage in 2023-24 en route to the Timberwolves advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2004. Maybe the Jazz will pan for gold someday with the first round draft picks that they obtained, but it is worth noting that even owning the number one overall draft pick provides no guarantee of striking it rich: the last number one overall draft pick who won an NBA title with the team that drafted him is Kyrie Irving (selected first in the 2011 NBA Draft), and he only enjoyed that success after LeBron James returned to Cleveland. Other number one overall draft picks since 2000 include Kwame Brown, Andrea Bargnani, Greg Oden, John Wall, Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins, Ben Simmons, Markelle Fultz, and Deandre Ayton; put all of those players on the same team in their respective primes and you still do not have a championship contending team!
Teams that have superior scouting departments and excellent player development programs find and develop winning players much more consistently than teams that hoard first round draft picks without having a coherent plan for how to build a superior roster--not to mention the fact that the NBA is in the entertainment business and charges premium rates for tickets and for broadcast rights, which in turn means that the league and its teams have an obligation to the paying customers to put the best possible product on the floor. The Nets, like the Jazz and other teams that have given up proven players to obtain draft picks, will not likely be putting an attractive product on the floor next season.
Labels: Brooklyn Nets, Mikal Bridges, New York Knicks, tanking
posted by David Friedman @ 3:02 PM
