Good defensively doesn't mean they're tough though. Nobody thinks of Tatum or Brown as physical tough gritty vocal leaders. Rob is good but he's made of glass and isn't even a full time player anymore. Horford is 73 years old and while still productive has to see decline very soon. You're still missing that goon like Smart and Williams were, guys you can put on Embiid and tell them to be a pest with leverage while allowing other bigs to weak side double when Embiid makes his move. We saw how annoying they were in the playoffs.

One thing is for sure, 76ers fans are happy to see Smart gone. He was annoying as fuck in the playoffs and was the reason the Sixers didn't close that series out in 6 games. Guy went bonkers in game 6. White has never killed us like that so we'll see what he does with the keys now. Nobody views the Celtics as a physical gritty team though, they gotta shed the soft label now (they were already considered kinda soft and finesse last season with those guys). Jump shooting team who didn't want to play physical, just settling for jumpers.

Celtics will still be good defensively no doubt. They're full of good defenders. It's the mental toughness and physical/scrappyness they need in the big moments.

This post was edited by Sixers on Aug 12 2023 11:40am

We just saw the nba voters give Marcus Smart and Joel Embiid the DPOY and MVP respectively. Neither of which should have won it.

Doris Burke is the biggest Tatem homer of all time and she is going to be calling a lot of prime time games. I could see her and the nba awards voters colluding with Adam Silver to shoe Tatem in.

Lol how did Embiid not deserve it 🤣

He deserved it. But Jokic deserved it more.

So really, Embiid didn’t deserve it then?

Agreed

KP can protect the rim? He wanted absolutely nothing to do with that in Dallas, he was a perimeter player.

KP hasn't been a rim protector since his days on the Knicks. Also just confirmed that he has plantar fasciitis, another key Celtic player with an ongoing injury issue (Brogdon, KP, and Timelord)

Timelord? More like Timelost.

They might be able to flip Brogdon near trade deadline.

Perimeter player in Dallas? I’m assuming you mean offensively, because he’s a baby giraffe defensively when he’s anywhere outside of the paint…. But I’m still not sure what this has to do with protecting the rim on the defensive end? How are they at all similar?

Also, did you not watch him last season with the wizards?

Clearly not, because he’s pretty good interior defender. He just sucks everywhere else, that’s all.

Anyway, looks like he’s injured already smh plantar injuries suck, even more so when you’re 8 foot 5738463. But the Celtics knew what they were getting before hand so can’t really complain too much.

This post was edited by Nwotmik on Aug 15 2023 07:27pm

Gotta back up this Kent here

KP was actually a pretty solid rim protector last season

Fragile bitch already hurt again though, no surprise.

Irony