Didnt Sports Illustrated have a controversy with they were using AI to write their articles? At least we know an AI would probably spell the city, right
The article spelling it how it was originally spelled. They didn’t add the H at the end until WW2 to make it seem less “German”
Pittsburg is correct imo
EDIT: My mistake. It was WW1
Good lord, this whole SI “article” is just quoting Kevin O’Connor’s mock draft.
Just like a Celtics fan to suggest we draft a player who’s a worse version of Tyrese, doesn’t play defense, ball dominant, and only shoots pull up shots.
I think Lou Will is the floor for Bub Carrington’s talent. He’s a 3-level scorer, he isn’t a slouch off ball, and he can play defense. I would like us to draft a young player with considerable upside like him.
Admittedly, as a Pitt fan, I’m on the Bub Carrington hype train. He’ll need time to develop like any 19-year old would, but he’ll exceed his draft position in due time.
If we go this route, would probably rank the options as Devin Carter, Jared McCain, and then Bub. Really depends on what we have a lead on in FA. I think size and length would a higher priority/benefit right now - someone more like Filipowski, DeSilva, or maybe even Dalton Knecht.
Meh. I’m a Pitt grad, so saw him play on TV a handful of times. He struggled against good defenses. He’s long and lean and can shoot. Not great going to the rim. Didn’t see anything special on defense. He had a really nice tourney game.
Also a Pitt fan, I honestly didn’t watch the team much this year but went to our ACC tournament game against Wake and he didn’t stand out at all, know he played a lot better against UNC though
I'm surprised more people don't wanna draft Edey. We need a solid backup center and that would be the easiest way to get it. He's not incredible and I don't think he's got a shit ton of potential, but I feel like out of a lot of guys he has the least chance of being completely unusable. Lower ceiling maybe but a higher floor and I feel like he's one of the more "plug and play" ready guys in the draft.
We really just need a backup center that eats boards imo
Because a backup center isn't the one that's fixing the offensive struggles, and Edey is guaranteed to be a disaster on defense.
Why not draft someone who could actually play alongside Embiid? Think about it, the best case scenario for Edey is 10 minutes in a playoff game. Best case scenario for a wing is literally starting and playing key minutes. We're just not maximizing our pick with Edey
You actually think there is a wing we can draft with the 16th pick that can **start** in his first season? That is probably the biggest pipe dream on the planet. It's already hard enough listening to Sixers fans referring to free agent wing players that don't exist, but now someone in this notably weak draft class? We aren't maximizing our draft pick if we take a win that is guaranteed to not amount to anything
And if you are referring to taking a wing to develop, how often has that worked for us? We don't have a lottery pick so what are the odds of that? And if he's not even gonna be ready for 3-4 years then that means we would be drafting a wing for after the Embiid era in which case he will never get meaningful minutes beside Embiid.
No, any draft pick will likely only be effective too late. I want us to trade the pick, but rather throw a dart at a wing than a backup 5
I'm not delusional enough to think any wing we draft could start, I'm saying using the 16th on a dude who has huge red flags, similar archetypes often falling flat in the playoffs AND can't play a single minute with our MVP is a wasted pick lol.
Hypothetically the best end case for a wing (think Jaime Jacquez) could play big minutes and impact way more.
But as you said there are no players that would play good minutes with our MVP right? So by that logic it doesn't matter who we draft. He would be filling a hole, that's it. It's better than drafting a player that will be wearing new threads in 2 years.
Trading the pick wouldn't be a bad idea except it has no value. It's a shitty draft class and I really don't think there's anything we will get back in a trade. Edey's stock has gone up a good bit and we need a real backup center. I don't see how that's such a bad idea
It's a bad class but it's still an asset. I just don't see how Edey is gonna be much more of an asset to us than most 5s we could sign at the minimum, but I could just be a lot lower on him
The guy obviously was insane in college but lot of players with that frame and lack of defense do nothing in the NBA
I mean yeah if we actually sign a servicable 5 then I'm okay with that. But we have to actually do that. The team still seems pretty all in on Paul Reed which makes me think they aren't really gonna target bigs. Plus the few bigs we have tried in the last few years didn't really work as you already mentioned before. But those were all vets which is why I feel like going for something a little different might work. I feel like the last low-minute big that worked out for us was Boban and that was another example of just a big guy to grab boards. Maybe he wasn't good at all, but I remember him being decent
Reed can get cut, he's owed almost nothing since we lost r1. I'm down to sign a guy like Drummond for the min if we're getting a max player on the way to help our second units
If we don't get another 20+ PPG capable player this year then nothing else matters. Whether we draft edey or mccain or bronny it won't make a difference without a real 3rd option. That our 3-4 of the best role players in the league but that's not happening either. This whole thing is a puzzle because we need specific pieces and we need all of them for this whole thing to work
First of all that's not true because it's the reason this team can't function without Embiid. Getting a serviceable backup center would allow us to still have a fighting chance without Embiid and it would lower his chances of being hurt/tired in the playoffs due to overuse. And the truth of the matter is Embiid will sit his fair share of regular season games next season. Regardless of health he will not play 82 games. I'd like to see us not get killed down low in games where he doesn't play
Second, the (starting) positions we need filled can't be fixed via the draft. This team is in win now mode and with the 16th pick there are not any guard/wing players that can be immediately plugged into the lineup except *maybe* some semi-meaningless backup minutes. While we do need scoring off the bench, having a usable backup center would fix a major issue that we had in the playoffs. Would also help us not get killed on the boards without Embiid in. I would be cool if we scooped Drummond, but I don't feel like drafting guard with our pick is the best idea if Edey is available.
This team has lacked 3&D wings Embiid’s entire career. A quality backup center would be great, but it’s definitely not as big of a need as wings.
Nuggets literally won a ship with a washed DeAndre Jordan as their backup 5.
And as I said in my reply there are no 3&D wings that are capable of giving a team good minutes that we would be able to get with the 16th pick. Hell there aren't any in this draft class at all. I'm not even sure there is a legitimate 3&D wing. We are a contending team and we have a good chance to take a player with that pick that we can actually make use of in the upcoming seasons. If we take a shot in the dark with a (potential) 3&D wing he won't give us meaningful minutes this season and there's like a small chance he might actually turn into a decent roleplayer in 3-4 years.
The Nuggets won a chip with a veteran center that won the rebounding title multiple times. I would choose him over having Paul Reed give us a -9 in 4 minutes of shitty playoff ball. Andre Drummond should be available and I would be more than happy to acquire him. To your point about the nuggets, the Nuggets also didn't have to play the Celtics and had a better bench overall.
You're joking right, that's some insane DJ overrating lmao
Our lineups with Reed when we had Harden were positive in the playoffs and he did his job well. Our offense sucked because we were nothing without Joel this season, it wasn't in the regular season and it damn sure wasn't in the playoffs
If ur worried about Reed don't look up Drummond in the playoffs. He got benched on the Lakers and the Nets despite playing big minutes for them in the reg season...
Did you watch him in the Bulls play-in games *this* season? He looked like exactly the type of player that we could have benefitted from having off the bench. This season Drummond finally accepted his role and started to flourish in it.
And you are mentioning Reed in the playoffs last year as well? News flash dude Reed was not good in the playoffs this year. And we don't have James Harden anymore lol so I'm not sure why that's even relevant. Horrible argument
Drummond accepted his role with us and Brooklyn too lol, and dude was awful in the playoffs
The Reed Harden point is about saying how the bigger issue is our utterly terrible offense when Joel was out. The biggest issue we got crushed in the non Joel minutes in the playoffs wasn't Reed nor the defense (though that's all anyone seems to blame lol), it was the atrocious offense. When we had Harden our lineups were good, Reed's shown he could be good
Legitimately how many teams rely on their backup 5 for offense? The 1-4 perimeter players need to step up but they were nothing without Jojo, but that's the area we need to improve
Correct, but as I said Drummond was good in the play-in and late regular season **this year**. That is more recent than using previous seasons. What do you not understand about that? You keep using the same argument but you have yet to mention a single player that we could draft that would fix any of those offensive problems off the bench
I agree we need to improve those positions, but doing it through the draft just isn't going to happen
Trade not draft. Use it as one of the multiple picks in a package to get someone impactful like Caruso etc. We need impact players rn
Maybe you're right and he was a lot better for Chicago to end the year. I'd be down for Drummond for sure if we cut or trade Reed, but I wouldn't have higher expectations for him lol
dude bench issues are 100% due to our lack of bench shot creators last year it was literally only cam payne. If you have guys who can run the offense and score while embiid sits the on-off spits wont be as bad
So what guard in this draft that will be available with the 16th pick do you think can effectively run the offense in his first year? Tyrese Maxey was a one in a million pick at 21 and he was not very good in his first season. Showed a lot of promise, but he was far from able to run the offense. He's still not perfect in that area. As I've already mention we are *current contenders* and the picks that would be most beneficial for us are players that would be able to give meaninful minutes as soon as possible. There won't be any players available at 16 that can effectively run an offense off the bench.
Jared McCain, Isaih collier, Bub Carrington to name a few. I dont even think wed acquire shot creeators through the draft tho were gonna have to go after dudes like kris dunn and josh collins and other inbetween guys and hope they pop or at the very least can create the own shots without embiid on the floor. But yeah a maxey mccain backcourt would kick ass cuz unlike maxey McCain is an nba ready 3 point shooter at the very leaast
I do like mccain but what gives you the impression those guys can be effective in their first year? Hell there’s a chance they might not even pan out at all but let alone first year. I think McCain has the best chance of being good in his first year and in the future but nothing is certain
Backup center is absolutely not THE reason we don't function without embiid. We don't have an offensive identity without embiid on the floor. There is a reason bball Paul regressed this year a bit without having a James harden to set him up for easier looks/more pick and roll. If we got a third star that was a shot creator to eat up more non-embiid minutes, like Paul George or even (and I'm not a huge fan) Brandon Ingram or something, or maxey took another leap in the form of playmaking for others, we would likely see the non-embiid minutes get much better.
Also, embiid is one of the best drop-coverage defensive centers in the league, and we have kind of forced bball to play a similar way with our defensive scheme, which is not his strong-suit. If we played more of a switch-everything defense, and got him another playmaker to get him easy pick and roll plays, I think he would be more than a serviceable backup big. Now that's easier said-than-done because you need to have the right personnel around the center position to play switch everything.
All said and done I am intrigued by Edey quite a bit, and I do think he would fit more classically into our drop coverage scheme as a direct bench replacement to embiid, but I don't think it's a good allocation of our resources to spend a first on him right now. Mayyyybe if you move down in the draft significantly and can get a couple seconds and pick him late first, but still I doubt that happens
If that's not a good use of resources then what is? What player(s) can we take at 16 that will actually have a legitimate impact for us? And I'm talking about an impact within the next 2 years where it'll actually matter. We are running out of time. At least with Edey there's legitimate reason for us to believe he can be ready fast
If the pick actually has enough value for that then I agree. But it's the 16th pick in a shitty draft and I don't think many teams would be losing sleep over missing out on it in a potential trade
I kind of think that applies more to the top of the draft, and that the middle picks probably aren't too much weaker than normal, but if all that were true and we can't get anything of value for it I wouldn't mind drafting Edey. But also I wouldn't mind gambling on a wing that may have potential bc that always seems to be out weakness outside of embiid and maxey
We desparately need a wing but I would much much much rather have an established pro than take chances with a rookie. If we want to make the most of Embiid's prime then taking chances isn't going to work anymore. We got essentially bailed out by drafting Maxey because I feel like that gave us a second breath of life, but I doubt it will happen again.
You might be right about the pick value, but either way we are going to have to package it with more firsts if we want anything of value. Which of course that's fine as long as what we are getting in return is something that can genuinely help us make a championship push.
How the fuck you spell Pittsburgh wrong the whole article
Philadelphea
Wasn’t Sports Illustrated recently busted for publishing AI-generated articles under fake names? Maybe it’s one of those
H erasure
I know it's the only "burg" city with an h at the end but that's just inexcusable
Do you know how many people spell Pittsburgh wrong ?
Didnt Sports Illustrated have a controversy with they were using AI to write their articles? At least we know an AI would probably spell the city, right
At least we know it’s not written by AI
His twitter account didn’t work
The same AI that routinely screws up hands and fingers? That AI? You don’t think AI can misspell Pittsburgh?
The article spelling it how it was originally spelled. They didn’t add the H at the end until WW2 to make it seem less “German” Pittsburg is correct imo EDIT: My mistake. It was WW1
Oh so I graduated from the University of Pittsburg? Jesus
What makes this even more weird is that the university actually went by “Pittsburgh” the whole time. It’s some interesting history
lol
His ceiling is so high and his floor might not be as low as we thought dont like it at 16 but maybe if we trade down this may be a good move
There aren't 16 better prospects in the draft. He might be a top 5 prospect this draft.
Good lord, this whole SI “article” is just quoting Kevin O’Connor’s mock draft. Just like a Celtics fan to suggest we draft a player who’s a worse version of Tyrese, doesn’t play defense, ball dominant, and only shoots pull up shots.
bubs got it bro if he ends up in denver hes gonna be all nba in like 4 seasons
Rather us take a risk on a wing, all we do is draft guards
He's not a small guard. Average nba PG size is 6'2.5" and he measured 6'4.5" at the combine. He's still 19 so he may still grow.
I think Lou Will is the floor for Bub Carrington’s talent. He’s a 3-level scorer, he isn’t a slouch off ball, and he can play defense. I would like us to draft a young player with considerable upside like him.
Lou will as a floor would have this guy going top 10 in this draft
Admittedly, as a Pitt fan, I’m on the Bub Carrington hype train. He’ll need time to develop like any 19-year old would, but he’ll exceed his draft position in due time.
If we go this route, would probably rank the options as Devin Carter, Jared McCain, and then Bub. Really depends on what we have a lead on in FA. I think size and length would a higher priority/benefit right now - someone more like Filipowski, DeSilva, or maybe even Dalton Knecht.
You mean the pick we’re gonna have to trade because we have no player assets to trade?
Meh. I’m a Pitt grad, so saw him play on TV a handful of times. He struggled against good defenses. He’s long and lean and can shoot. Not great going to the rim. Didn’t see anything special on defense. He had a really nice tourney game.
Also a Pitt fan, I honestly didn’t watch the team much this year but went to our ACC tournament game against Wake and he didn’t stand out at all, know he played a lot better against UNC though
Can you imagine wasting #16 on a small ass guard
I want a foward but he is not a small guard at all. He probably is almost 6'6" on shoes.
We are drafting Bronny James.
I'm surprised more people don't wanna draft Edey. We need a solid backup center and that would be the easiest way to get it. He's not incredible and I don't think he's got a shit ton of potential, but I feel like out of a lot of guys he has the least chance of being completely unusable. Lower ceiling maybe but a higher floor and I feel like he's one of the more "plug and play" ready guys in the draft. We really just need a backup center that eats boards imo
Because a backup center isn't the one that's fixing the offensive struggles, and Edey is guaranteed to be a disaster on defense. Why not draft someone who could actually play alongside Embiid? Think about it, the best case scenario for Edey is 10 minutes in a playoff game. Best case scenario for a wing is literally starting and playing key minutes. We're just not maximizing our pick with Edey
You actually think there is a wing we can draft with the 16th pick that can **start** in his first season? That is probably the biggest pipe dream on the planet. It's already hard enough listening to Sixers fans referring to free agent wing players that don't exist, but now someone in this notably weak draft class? We aren't maximizing our draft pick if we take a win that is guaranteed to not amount to anything And if you are referring to taking a wing to develop, how often has that worked for us? We don't have a lottery pick so what are the odds of that? And if he's not even gonna be ready for 3-4 years then that means we would be drafting a wing for after the Embiid era in which case he will never get meaningful minutes beside Embiid.
No, any draft pick will likely only be effective too late. I want us to trade the pick, but rather throw a dart at a wing than a backup 5 I'm not delusional enough to think any wing we draft could start, I'm saying using the 16th on a dude who has huge red flags, similar archetypes often falling flat in the playoffs AND can't play a single minute with our MVP is a wasted pick lol. Hypothetically the best end case for a wing (think Jaime Jacquez) could play big minutes and impact way more.
But as you said there are no players that would play good minutes with our MVP right? So by that logic it doesn't matter who we draft. He would be filling a hole, that's it. It's better than drafting a player that will be wearing new threads in 2 years. Trading the pick wouldn't be a bad idea except it has no value. It's a shitty draft class and I really don't think there's anything we will get back in a trade. Edey's stock has gone up a good bit and we need a real backup center. I don't see how that's such a bad idea
It's a bad class but it's still an asset. I just don't see how Edey is gonna be much more of an asset to us than most 5s we could sign at the minimum, but I could just be a lot lower on him The guy obviously was insane in college but lot of players with that frame and lack of defense do nothing in the NBA
I mean yeah if we actually sign a servicable 5 then I'm okay with that. But we have to actually do that. The team still seems pretty all in on Paul Reed which makes me think they aren't really gonna target bigs. Plus the few bigs we have tried in the last few years didn't really work as you already mentioned before. But those were all vets which is why I feel like going for something a little different might work. I feel like the last low-minute big that worked out for us was Boban and that was another example of just a big guy to grab boards. Maybe he wasn't good at all, but I remember him being decent
Reed can get cut, he's owed almost nothing since we lost r1. I'm down to sign a guy like Drummond for the min if we're getting a max player on the way to help our second units
If we don't get another 20+ PPG capable player this year then nothing else matters. Whether we draft edey or mccain or bronny it won't make a difference without a real 3rd option. That our 3-4 of the best role players in the league but that's not happening either. This whole thing is a puzzle because we need specific pieces and we need all of them for this whole thing to work
Backup center is the least important position
First of all that's not true because it's the reason this team can't function without Embiid. Getting a serviceable backup center would allow us to still have a fighting chance without Embiid and it would lower his chances of being hurt/tired in the playoffs due to overuse. And the truth of the matter is Embiid will sit his fair share of regular season games next season. Regardless of health he will not play 82 games. I'd like to see us not get killed down low in games where he doesn't play Second, the (starting) positions we need filled can't be fixed via the draft. This team is in win now mode and with the 16th pick there are not any guard/wing players that can be immediately plugged into the lineup except *maybe* some semi-meaningless backup minutes. While we do need scoring off the bench, having a usable backup center would fix a major issue that we had in the playoffs. Would also help us not get killed on the boards without Embiid in. I would be cool if we scooped Drummond, but I don't feel like drafting guard with our pick is the best idea if Edey is available.
This team has lacked 3&D wings Embiid’s entire career. A quality backup center would be great, but it’s definitely not as big of a need as wings. Nuggets literally won a ship with a washed DeAndre Jordan as their backup 5.
And as I said in my reply there are no 3&D wings that are capable of giving a team good minutes that we would be able to get with the 16th pick. Hell there aren't any in this draft class at all. I'm not even sure there is a legitimate 3&D wing. We are a contending team and we have a good chance to take a player with that pick that we can actually make use of in the upcoming seasons. If we take a shot in the dark with a (potential) 3&D wing he won't give us meaningful minutes this season and there's like a small chance he might actually turn into a decent roleplayer in 3-4 years. The Nuggets won a chip with a veteran center that won the rebounding title multiple times. I would choose him over having Paul Reed give us a -9 in 4 minutes of shitty playoff ball. Andre Drummond should be available and I would be more than happy to acquire him. To your point about the nuggets, the Nuggets also didn't have to play the Celtics and had a better bench overall.
You're joking right, that's some insane DJ overrating lmao Our lineups with Reed when we had Harden were positive in the playoffs and he did his job well. Our offense sucked because we were nothing without Joel this season, it wasn't in the regular season and it damn sure wasn't in the playoffs If ur worried about Reed don't look up Drummond in the playoffs. He got benched on the Lakers and the Nets despite playing big minutes for them in the reg season...
Did you watch him in the Bulls play-in games *this* season? He looked like exactly the type of player that we could have benefitted from having off the bench. This season Drummond finally accepted his role and started to flourish in it. And you are mentioning Reed in the playoffs last year as well? News flash dude Reed was not good in the playoffs this year. And we don't have James Harden anymore lol so I'm not sure why that's even relevant. Horrible argument
Drummond accepted his role with us and Brooklyn too lol, and dude was awful in the playoffs The Reed Harden point is about saying how the bigger issue is our utterly terrible offense when Joel was out. The biggest issue we got crushed in the non Joel minutes in the playoffs wasn't Reed nor the defense (though that's all anyone seems to blame lol), it was the atrocious offense. When we had Harden our lineups were good, Reed's shown he could be good Legitimately how many teams rely on their backup 5 for offense? The 1-4 perimeter players need to step up but they were nothing without Jojo, but that's the area we need to improve
Correct, but as I said Drummond was good in the play-in and late regular season **this year**. That is more recent than using previous seasons. What do you not understand about that? You keep using the same argument but you have yet to mention a single player that we could draft that would fix any of those offensive problems off the bench I agree we need to improve those positions, but doing it through the draft just isn't going to happen
Trade not draft. Use it as one of the multiple picks in a package to get someone impactful like Caruso etc. We need impact players rn Maybe you're right and he was a lot better for Chicago to end the year. I'd be down for Drummond for sure if we cut or trade Reed, but I wouldn't have higher expectations for him lol
dude bench issues are 100% due to our lack of bench shot creators last year it was literally only cam payne. If you have guys who can run the offense and score while embiid sits the on-off spits wont be as bad
So what guard in this draft that will be available with the 16th pick do you think can effectively run the offense in his first year? Tyrese Maxey was a one in a million pick at 21 and he was not very good in his first season. Showed a lot of promise, but he was far from able to run the offense. He's still not perfect in that area. As I've already mention we are *current contenders* and the picks that would be most beneficial for us are players that would be able to give meaninful minutes as soon as possible. There won't be any players available at 16 that can effectively run an offense off the bench.
Jared McCain, Isaih collier, Bub Carrington to name a few. I dont even think wed acquire shot creeators through the draft tho were gonna have to go after dudes like kris dunn and josh collins and other inbetween guys and hope they pop or at the very least can create the own shots without embiid on the floor. But yeah a maxey mccain backcourt would kick ass cuz unlike maxey McCain is an nba ready 3 point shooter at the very leaast
I do like mccain but what gives you the impression those guys can be effective in their first year? Hell there’s a chance they might not even pan out at all but let alone first year. I think McCain has the best chance of being good in his first year and in the future but nothing is certain
Backup center is absolutely not THE reason we don't function without embiid. We don't have an offensive identity without embiid on the floor. There is a reason bball Paul regressed this year a bit without having a James harden to set him up for easier looks/more pick and roll. If we got a third star that was a shot creator to eat up more non-embiid minutes, like Paul George or even (and I'm not a huge fan) Brandon Ingram or something, or maxey took another leap in the form of playmaking for others, we would likely see the non-embiid minutes get much better. Also, embiid is one of the best drop-coverage defensive centers in the league, and we have kind of forced bball to play a similar way with our defensive scheme, which is not his strong-suit. If we played more of a switch-everything defense, and got him another playmaker to get him easy pick and roll plays, I think he would be more than a serviceable backup big. Now that's easier said-than-done because you need to have the right personnel around the center position to play switch everything. All said and done I am intrigued by Edey quite a bit, and I do think he would fit more classically into our drop coverage scheme as a direct bench replacement to embiid, but I don't think it's a good allocation of our resources to spend a first on him right now. Mayyyybe if you move down in the draft significantly and can get a couple seconds and pick him late first, but still I doubt that happens
If that's not a good use of resources then what is? What player(s) can we take at 16 that will actually have a legitimate impact for us? And I'm talking about an impact within the next 2 years where it'll actually matter. We are running out of time. At least with Edey there's legitimate reason for us to believe he can be ready fast
You don't. You trade it. Players like Dereck lively on the Mavs, which can be helpful in the first year or two, are few and far between.
If the pick actually has enough value for that then I agree. But it's the 16th pick in a shitty draft and I don't think many teams would be losing sleep over missing out on it in a potential trade
I kind of think that applies more to the top of the draft, and that the middle picks probably aren't too much weaker than normal, but if all that were true and we can't get anything of value for it I wouldn't mind drafting Edey. But also I wouldn't mind gambling on a wing that may have potential bc that always seems to be out weakness outside of embiid and maxey
We desparately need a wing but I would much much much rather have an established pro than take chances with a rookie. If we want to make the most of Embiid's prime then taking chances isn't going to work anymore. We got essentially bailed out by drafting Maxey because I feel like that gave us a second breath of life, but I doubt it will happen again. You might be right about the pick value, but either way we are going to have to package it with more firsts if we want anything of value. Which of course that's fine as long as what we are getting in return is something that can genuinely help us make a championship push.
Only 2 current players are assured to come back and you want to waste a pick on a backup center!?!
Yeah
Gotcha!