Offseason Speculation for The Eagles and Sixers… But Also, Go Phils

I was swinging a golf club today which means I miss football and basketball.

Let’s take a look how the Eagles and Sixers look as the teams currently stand and what else they could do to improve this offseason.

Eagles

Howie does it again.

How we went into this offseason with this amount of talent, a quarterback on a massive deal, and still had a ton of cap is beyond me. Really, beyond me. I’ll never spend the hour necessary to understand the basic concepts of the NFL salary cap, dead cap, luxury tax, etc.

If I had to get picky, I’d go with the way the linebacking core and D-Line was addressed. We’ve got a million DBs. Some of which still have significant promise from last year or the previous years, like Kelee Ringo and Isaiah Rodgers. Let’s say the top 5 CBs are Slay, Mitchell, Ringo, Rodgers, DeJean. That would be the ideal scenario. Will we be able to swap some of that CB depth for another stud linebacker or another edge rusher? With the cap space available it begs the question, could we not have kept Reddick?

Cooper DeJean. It’s so easy to see him as a massive success in this league playing multiple positions as a do-it-all secondary addition. It might be just as easy to see him being a bust. The draft day video definitely put a little more pressure on both him and Howie Roseman.

We’ll see how the offensive and defensive coordinators fair, but I like that we went with a couple of solidified names because it didn’t work out with the in-house promotions.

But above all, what makes me more nervous than anything is Hurts’s comment that the offense is 90% different. Which is an insane number and had Shady McCoy and Emmanuel Acho in disbelief talking about it on ESPN. It gets worse when you hear from Philly’s controversial, sketchy-at-best reporter, the Delco divorcee demon, the South Philly slick back, the owner of Dre Beats in every single color — you know who I’m talking about — it was reported that the offense is only about 20% different. Which is still a lot by the way. But Hurts’s comment now sounds like a built-in excuse, which is unlike him. Yikes.

There’s nobody we’re cheering for more than Hurts because everybody knows he will essentially make or break the season.

Lastly, speaking of the offense, we need a new set of plays for 4th and 1. Sure, keep the “Brotherly Shove” or the “Tush Push” in, but early in the year we should be looking for other solutions. Like a good NBA team, you play the young guys early and get them in rhythm so that they can actually contribute when it matters. Because the Tush Push did fail later in the year, especially when it was 4th and 1 and not 4th and inches.

This offense is too talented to rely SOLEY on that play on 4th and 1.

SIXERS

The thing about The Process is that it actually worked.

We got every opportunity to get the best players to put together a championship squad. Imagine the lineup was Maxey as combo guard 1, Tatum on the wing, Mikael Bridges running stretch four, Embiid at center, and ME at combo guard 2. Seriously, throw any schmuck you want at SG and it’s still a 55+ win team no question. If you want, you could probably throw Jimmy Butler in there at combo guard 2.

It could’ve been like that. But instead we are here due to piss poor GM decisions — ringless, slightly optimistic while being increasingly frustrated, and in forever beef with Ben Simmons.

I actually think the best solution to the clear and obvious need of a superstar wing is LeBron. But with his buddy JJ Reddick coaching the Lakers now, I don’t think he goes anywhere. I’d be shocked if he played for any other team at this stage in his career quite honestly.

I don’t believe in the aging Paul George and Jimmy Butler to complete the team. The best free agent option in my opinion is OG Anunoby. He’s not the scorer/playmaker that we truly need but if we’re signing someone long-term I think it’s him. Anunoby and DeMar DeRozan in a perfect world but that’s not possible. Anunoby isn’t going anywhere and those two together would break the cap. So it would be reliant on the following year or a trade situation to truly get the roster where it needs to be to make a run against the Celtics in the East.

Now that the Sixers “aren’t interested” in Paul George — which just means Paul George isn’t interested, DeMar DeRozan is your best option. DeRozan is always a high level 4th quarter PPG guy and being a quality defender make him an exciting prospect for the Sixers. But seeing how the teams he’s lead have performed for over a decade now in the playoffs, it makes me nervous.

Maybe not having to lead the team would do him some good.

For fuck’s sake can we get a quality backup center. I’ve been saying Dwight Howard, Andre Drummond, and Boogie Cousins for three years but we got rid of the first two and at this point they might all be too old. Boogie might be blacklisted from the NBA.

The most salient point I’d like to make — anybody saying we need to trade Embiid is a fucking moron.

Sure, it’s frustrating, his health is totally unreliable, and as a number one option in the playoffs it doesn’t look very good. But you don’t trade away a 7’2” rim protector who can drop 50 burgers like he runs a McDonald’s. And the man is still hungry. He was guarding Jalen Brunson at half court on one knee at the end of some of those games and immediately after the game Philly was talking about trading him.

Idiots.

FLYERS

I don’t know shit about hockey, especially offseason hockey, but there’s some buzz about this Russian kid, Matvei Michkov. That’s exciting.

PHILLIES

God, I love this team.

Besides the last three years I haven’t even had the urge to go to a baseball game since Jimmy Rollins was turning double plays with Chase Utley… which doesn’t feel THAT long ago. FYI — never been a big baseball guy.