00:00LeBron James, Philadelphia, Knicks and Sixers is the rivalry back.
00:06What's your takeaway on LeBron going to play in Philadelphia, Craig?
00:10Yeah, I love how Philadelphia suddenly became a basketball town overnight.
00:13Remember how New York took over their building two out of the last three years in the postseason?
00:18And they stopped New Yorkers from buying tickets to games because they were so embarrassed by the fact that there
00:22were more of us than Sixers fans there.
00:24It's a garbage basketball town.
00:26I know all of a sudden LeBron James shows up and they think they're the capital of basketball.
00:32LeBron James going to the Sixers is like Aaron Rodgers coming to the Jets.
00:36Everybody in New York thought that Aaron Rodgers was going to suddenly bring the Jets to Super Bowl and it
00:40didn't happen.
00:41Everybody in Philadelphia thinks that LeBron's going to do that.
00:44So let's go through it.
00:45Jalen Brown's a stud.
00:46Tyrese Maxey's a stud.
00:47I own that.
00:48B.J. Edgecombe's going to be a great second year player.
00:51I loved what he did his rookie year.
00:52So, number one, you now add Joel Embiid for what, about nine games this year?
00:58You add LeBron James for what?
01:0040 games this year if you're lucky.
01:02So here's the first question.
01:04How many games are Jalen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and LeBron James going to play together?
01:10I think the over-under is 20.
01:13Right?
01:13So you're not going to get those guys together.
01:15Number two, we know what Joel Embiid is.
01:17His body, unfortunately, has let him down.
01:19He's never available, and when he is available, he spends most of his time laying down on the court, right?
01:26I love the fact that Philadelphia thinks adding a 42-year-old LeBron James is now enough to overcome the
01:35team that swept them in the playoffs last year.
01:39What's that team's name?
01:41The Knicks, world champion, New York Knicks.
01:44Now, the aspect I do love about it is that I suppose it's a renewal of the rivalry, but you
01:52have to remember this.
01:53When's the last time?
01:54Quick trivia for you.
01:55When's the last year the Philadelphia 76ers beat the New York Knicks in the postseason?
02:03Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, 1983.
02:06It's been 43 years since a Sixers team outed a Knicks team in the postseason.
02:14That streak continues through 2027, sir.
02:19Wow.
02:19That's the last time the Sixers won the NBA championship.
02:22That's also correct.
02:24I mean, holy cow here.
02:27But, again, so Embiid is the factor here, though, right?
02:30Last three years, Craig, this guy's not played north of 39 ballgames.
02:35What makes anyone think he's going to play north of that this year?
02:39And here's what you're going to start hearing, Dan, because it's an annual event, kind of like when a little
02:45rat sees his shadow and goes back in its hole.
02:47Groundhog, right?
02:48So here's what you're going to start hearing.
02:50I guarantee you start hearing this in mid-September.
02:54Boy, Joel Embiid's never looked healthier.
02:56Joel Embiid's in great shape.
02:58Joel Embiid lost 30 pounds in the offseason, put on muscle.
03:01It's the same crap every single year.
03:04And, unfortunately, because I acknowledge that when that dude plays, he's awesome.
03:09He's a great basketball player, right?
03:11But he's never available.
03:13You guys always talk about what's the greatest ability in the world?
03:17Availability.
03:17Joel Embiid is never available.
03:19Now, that being said, I can also own the fact, well, I'm a diehard Knick fan, that a backcourt of
03:26Tyrese Maxey and Jalen Brown is awesome.
03:30That's great backcourt for you.
03:33But what else you got?
03:35Like, who else are we giving the rock to?
03:38And then let's also be honest about it.
03:40You know, one of the things that blew up the Celtics was there weren't enough balls to go around between
03:44Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum.
03:46So here's my question.
03:47Down by one, 10 seconds on the clock.
03:50Who gets the ball to take the last shot for the Sixers?
03:54It's come to me.
03:56Or, no, Maxey for me.
03:58Well, it's Maxey's team.
04:00It's Embiid's team.
04:02Jalen Brown's just going to give the ball up?
04:05LeBron James is going to be happy being a decoy?
04:08No.
04:08Right.
04:09They've got problems around how many balls are there to go around in number two.
04:15And this, I think, is a bigger problem for the Sixers.
04:17One of the things that made the Knicks champions was their depth.
04:22Everybody on that bench got in.
04:24And in the playoffs especially, believe it or not, played meaningful minutes, right?
04:28Yeah.
04:29The Sixers have no depth at all.
04:31Zero.
04:32Boy, that's right.
04:33That's going to be a great task for Nick Nurse to try to figure out because that's the one thing
04:38that Mike Brown figured out, like you said, and how to do the rotation off the bench there.
04:42That's how the Knicks won.
04:44That's right.
04:44Brunson's amazing, obviously.
04:46OG's amazing.
04:47The Knicks won because they got great play, not good play, out of their backups, whether it's Jose Alvarado.
04:54They got, or Mitchell Robinson, who doesn't start for them.
04:57They got great play out of their bench.
04:59Their depth was the best in the league.
05:01And they were a great defensive team also.
05:04Statistically, the best defensive team in the East.
05:06I think second only maybe to the Thunder at West.
05:09The Sixers are not a good defensive team.
05:11And if you have Embiid and LeBron on the court at the same time, that's two old guys who cannot
05:17get back on defense.
05:19That's a matchup problem for them against a lot of teams.
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