For real foodies, there's nothing better than trying that new restaurant. I'll have the special, please. Except returning to your tried and true fave. Hey, the usual for you? Especially when you can access over $400 back in dining value annually, and four times points on restaurants when you use your Amex gold card. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply, cop applies, learn more at americanexpress.com/with Amex. Hey, happy, healthy, and excited to be here with you. It is the Sixers Talk Podcast brought to you by Bovington University, Danny Palmelles, Noah Levick, Supermom Amy Fadoule here with us. Our producer extraordinaire Ben Barry, pulling strings in the background, making things happen, talking-ish in the chat, and he also has a big back. But that is not a part of what we're talking about right now. We're happy to be joined by the powers that be Noah Levick, keeping us on the level. Amy Fadoule always having the insight and knowledge that we enjoy. I got no introduction, now I get to. I had to. I had to double down. I had to double down. And a lot to get to, surprisingly, always new and interesting things been in the chat saying all I heard was jealousy. But we are interesting things popping up in the Sixers world. Funny how pop culture in the Sixers intermingle here as a New Jersey has been released, a new version of their city edition, and this is a book from John's. Adam, Jeff, Amit, I think that's how you say his last name from the program. Yes. Yes. He was rocking a white Tyrese Maxie city edition spectrum jersey with the multicolored green orange red on the side. They had the blue ones. The Navy. The Navy that was a banger. Absolute hit. The shorts specifically I really liked. Thoughts on this white version of the city edition. Thoughts on the new advent of new city editions every year. What do you guys think? Yeah, I fully agree that that was the best alternative jersey in recent memory. I mean, it felt authentically like a callback to something that was, you know, uniquely filly with the spectrum. And I just thought they looked incredible on the players. And yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with sort of remixing what was successful for them in the past. It's obviously been a little hit miss with those as you'd expect that the boathouse row one stand out as a divisive option that the Sixers turn to. But yeah, no, I don't think anyone's going to be complaining if they're seeing the Sixers. And in these jerseys throughout some of the next season. So big thumbs up for me if that is indeed what they're going with. Yeah, I'm with no on this one. I loved those throwback to the spectrum. The wording, the logo that they had with the Sixers just the way the font was. And then of course the spectrum colors on the side. It was an absolutely killer jersey. So I think sometimes you don't need to reinvent the wheel completely to have a successful city edition jersey. If that is indeed what this is going to be, the white version. Everybody wanted to have them throwback the black when we watched Tyree's Maxie Museum. They wanted to have throwback of the black with the Allen Iverson days. I think that's probably still going to happen. People would lose their minds for the black jersey. But I think this is going to be a really close second. I love that jersey. I bought one for my son as soon as we could. It's going to be a very close second. It's going to be a very close second. Everybody has also has a Maxie one. So I'm sure we'll be lining up to get the white one if indeed that exists. Or if Jeff a man has the only one, then I guess I've got to make some calls. And the court Amy, the spectrum court. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like that's the one thing. You know, you brought up like how you have to have a new city edition jersey each time with it comes that new court. And there's also the court that they have for the play and tournament. It's not really like, especially the ones that are across the league. Like I remember Charlotte's last year was just atrocious. It looked like they were on ice gates. It was terrible. Brooklyn's was really bad. Sixers was there. There's was okay. One alternate court is enough. City edition court is more than enough. So let's just leave it at that. If they do the spectrum court, great. Let's bring it through. Yeah. I imagine that's that's not going away. They definitely want to make now. Now it's labeled as the NBA club. They want to make it stand out and be exciting on TV. And a visual sense. But yeah, I thought the large majority of those courts did not. Boise State. So I thought some of those courts were a little atrocious. Really bad ones, which is too much. Like I get you and make it different. And to Noah's point, they want to distinguish it. Yikes. Yeah. Like to me, the players doing incredible things athletically is is very sufficient. You can have it. You can have like a logo, a couple logos on the court. But yeah, I just thought it was a little overboard. I imagine that is here to stay. And hopefully these NBA cup courts are at least a little better this year. I think that's probably the best we can hope for in the near future. Yeah. To your previous point, Amy, they don't have to work so hard on these city edition things. I mean, we see some of the Miami Heat versions with the flamingo and the pink and the blue and different versions that are out there that takes you so far away from like maybe some of the traditional things that you associate with. You associate with the teams and specifically the color combinations that some don't fit. So, you know, they don't have to work so hard. You had a blue spectrum joint that people love. They made a white version. They can still run that same court out there. There's some synergy, some continuity with the past. So I don't think they have to work so hard to make them cool. Yeah. No offense to boathouse row, but that was like the worst one I ever saw. That was the worst one. It didn't hate it at first, but then it really grew on me too. I loathed it. And maybe it's because Ben Simmons was the ad campaign. I appreciated it with Ben. And so it just, it just didn't resonate Philadelphia. I mean, it's not the black jerseys that people wanted. They wanted the different black jerseys. But like a weird, you know, skyline on it that's only like here in Philadelphia. People would know what that is. And even people here in Philadelphia, you had to tell them was boathouse row and they're like, oh, okay. Why? I don't know. I just, I just hear for it. I still got it. I mean, we still buy it. And boathouse row is cool. And when you drive by it, it's very neck bending like you're like turning and checking it out. You're wondering like what it is more than like that. Like, what is that? Why is it like that? Why is it lit up? Why is it lit up? I love boathouse row. I love driving up and seeing boathouse row. I don't know if I went down to Jersey or not, but there you go. Speaking of Pearl Jam, you guys ready? Cause I'm breathing. I was in a red and white and a red and white. I wasn't ready. Wow. I knew it was coming and I still wasn't ready. I don't know whether I'm rather bored. Yeah. I look back at you. I was like 30 years old and you just thought you would just like Adam Sandler it. That was kind of strange. But yeah. No. No. No, you're not, you're Adam Sandler doing any better. That's what you're doing. That's what that is. Yeah. Oh. There's not even the words. How do you not know the words in these songs? These are like songs that are ingrained in like our childhood. For those who don't know, I've known Daniel for, I don't know, over a dozen years. And I have repeatedly told him that a singing voice is not good. It is not melodious and no one really needs it. And yet here he is to a larger scale audience than just the newsroom, which I have on a daily basis, thinking and just tormenting people. So if you've managed to listen this law. You said you were ready. You said you guys said you were ready. No, we didn't. No, no, we definitely didn't. Rewind that. No, and I did not say we were ready. We were just pausing thinking what is going to happen. And I thought you might sing. And then I can't see me at the 90s grunge band. You don't see me. You can't sing anything. You can't sing R&B. You can't sing lullabies to children. It's terrible. And I apologize for everybody listening and watching alone. Shout out Pro Jam for inspiring me. Inspiring me. It was fire. It was terrible. It was not getting a little worked up. Yeah, I know. Let's stay on point here, Bella. Listen, that's not the only thing people are getting worked up about these days. The Sixers arena is causing a lot of divisiveness, folks. People on both sides of this thing. And we talked about it briefly on the previous podcast. But just to recap a little bit of what's going on. The Sixers want their own arena, Comcast. Of course, like, no, stay here. We'll refurbish everything. $300 million worth to make it look better, which it does look great. I do have to say it looks incredible, especially with all the digital boards and additions to outside and inside the arena. And the Sixers are like, nah, we want our own thing. We have a plan. We're going to move downtown and put it in the old gallery market right next to Chinatown. Comcast is like, nah, we'll split everything 50/50. And the Sixers are like, nah, we don't want to pay rent anymore. We want to have a control and ownership of our own arena. Everyone in Chinatown is like, nah, we've already been down this road before. Take it somewhere else. And Camden, Delaware is like, you know what? We got tax incentives. You can come here and build it and we'll figure it out. There is a town hall meeting. Cheryl Parker is hosting today to, for people to voice their thoughts and concerns. The Sixers are like, listen, we're running out of time. We want to have this arena in place by 2031/32. Where I will be pushing 60, but they are ready to get this thing. The ball rolling on it and having a firm plan in place. There's so many balls in the air with how this thing might play out. Any thoughts on where you guys sit on either side of this thing and what you think might be a viable solution for to placate everyone involved? Well, that seems impossible to accomplish. Yeah. I mean, I think already a lot of all parties involved are dissatisfied with various aspects of this process. I mean, there's this meeting coming up and people who are opposed to the arena say there wasn't enough heads up to gather numbers to speak their opinions at this meeting. Yeah, I mean, look, the opposition has been pretty consistent and pretty strong from folks believing that this would have a severely negative impact on China town. I think the Sixers have also been pretty consistent and they really don't see it as a viable option to remain renters in Wells Fargo Center. Yeah, I mean, the wild card option as you laid out that is materialized is potentially having an arena somewhere besides Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I think surely such a decision would not be perceived well by the large majority of folks. But I think just from a cold hard business sense, the Sixers are probably a large and successful enough organization that like those games would still be sold out as long as it's a very good basketball team. Sure, like the public opinion of ownership would substantially worsen if they were to bolt from Philly where they've been all these years, but it does at least appear to be an option that's not totally outlandish. But of course, there's still a lot of leverage and posturing and what have you happening with this whole debate. So look, I mean, there are people who are far greater experts than all of us on these sorts of matters. But yeah, to that sort of central question of whether it's even possible to make a large amount of people happier to make everyone happy, it just seems like a no. And I don't have a great gauge on how it's ultimately going to play out. But yeah, I think you're right to note that the timeline part of it is really important now because it takes a long time to finish such a project and do all the construction and the Sixers are pretty determined to get this thing built and up and running by the 2031 32 season. So clock clock is ticking, even though that may seem rather far away. Yeah, it does seem far away until you think about it when, you know, you're trying to build an entire infrastructure of arena and then take down what's currently there, which is the gallery. Yeah, it's interesting. Mayor Parker has not come out on one side of the city council has, you know, there's people that are representing that area. Mark Skula represents that area. And obviously different parts of the city, they all weigh in and different council persons have weighed in on that. She is not weighed in yet. So that'll be interesting. I think she was waiting for something like this. They were also waiting for that study that came out. I know we talked about that a few weeks ago. A couple of things that came out of that, which was pretty glaring, was the 40% or more taking public transportation. That was a large number. When you need, basically, almost half people take transportation, public transportation, how that would work. And then there was the new wrinkle that came out. That if there was another arena built in Philadelphia in the time after the Sixers build theirs or at least broke ground on theirs, whatever public funds that arena would percentage wise would be given. The Sixers could then retroactively. They want to retroactively ask for that percentage as well. That was always a big pushing point for the Sixers was no public money. It was going to be spent to build this arena. And they want the caveat that if another arena of any kind is built in the city, whether it's something new here down at the sports complex in South Philly or elsewhere. And if there was any tax dollars, they would get the same. It's basically like, you know, you would make everybody whole and you wouldn't give any kind of, you know, favoritism for anybody else. So, and I get the Sixers point. I get the Sixers point in a lot of things. I get the Sixers point in the fact that they don't want to be renters. That they want to have first dibs on whatever schedules they want. That they want to have maybe a Christmas game, which they have never had here because they host Disney on ice at the Wells Fargo Center. I shouldn't say never, but I feel like it's been probably 10 years. And granted in that time, they haven't been very good. So they don't get a lot of Christmas day games. But now that they are very good, they could be in line for that. It's a second year in a row. They've got a Christmas day game and it's not going to be here. So it's interesting to see two sides of it. As a person who lived in the city, one for the first almost 10 years I lived here, I just cannot fathom the traffic and just the congestion of trying to get to Center City for a game. We see how it is here in South Philadelphia. And it is the perfect, you know, kind of influx of 76 and 95. And you're right off of both major interstates. And there's lots of parking and it still can be a nightmare to get in and out of just because of the way things are. That's what people drive. Sixers are notoriously late arriving crowd. We're all here. I come off set for Sixers Post game and there's people still, you know, driving in. The game is getting ready to tip off. It hasn't already. So to me, there's really, and you know, it hits it on the head. There isn't a win-win in this. I think what will eventually probably happen is that they will have to move outside of Philadelphia. And that will be very disappointing. I understand what the sixers are, where they're coming from. I understand where the city's coming from. I thought it was interesting that Spectacore proposed an alternate use for that. The galaxy. Yes. Medical hub. Very strange. Some kind of like medical kind of research hub or something like that. Yeah, read medical research hub. Thomas Jefferson, nothing. You know, you've already tried to take, they already took this away from them. Now you're going to try to swoop in and take their building away. Like in the posturing gamesmanship, like Noah said, there's a lot of posturing. I have the idea of something happening there. We've all been in the city. There's nothing cooking. They've tried to redo the gallery multiple times. And I think COVID was the thing that they put 350 million into that refurbishment, but then COVID hit and it was just like, it looked really nice. And then no one went there. And then, of course, all the stores had to close because of COVID. It would help the city immensely if there was something viable there. I just don't know if an arena is the best use of that space. I feel for the people of Chinatown, I know that the studies that were produced said that homes wouldn't be displaced, but their home prices certainly would be and things like that. And that would be the construction was something they also the environmental. Yeah, money for the building of it. There's no doubt. But then I looked at the further studies, which was a study paid for by the Sixers. It was commissioned by the city, but it was paid for by the Sixers because they're building. They're building. It was the attacks returns on it as far as like the 30 year, which I have no idea how economists can do this, but that's why they're economists and I'm sitting talking to you guys. This 30 year projection, it fell well short of what the Sixers projected, which was like 1.8 billion and they projected like 350 as far as continuous revenue generated 350 million, which is still a ton, but it is well short of what they projected. So, you know, it would be great to have something like that. I think that area needs something. I just don't know that, that the arena is the right choice for that section of town. There could be something better, but it's, it's a, they're at an impasse. And I don't think that it's going to be solved. They're going to leave the Wells Fargo Center at some point whenever the release is up. I think it's obviously coming up sooner than that 2031. I don't know why I think that no, when is it? Yeah, I think it's just the season prior to. Right. Okay. That makes sense. So, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, this, if Mayor Parker comes through, even if she says yes, and there's still a lot of blowbacks that they just say, no, we're just going to, and they already built their practice facility in Camden. You know, what's another building right there? I just don't know how everyone can. They should have built their practice facility, by the way. That would have been really convenient. Well, how do they get, you know, get into the practice facility from Philly is really only one good way to get there. So, I think the arena is near there. Well, I just, the traffic congestion would like the, you can see, I can see the car is backed up on the Ben Franklin trying to get to the, this new arena. Oh, it would just be a, it would be a mess if it was in Jersey. But that's, you know, I would think that New Jersey would love it. You mentioned the tax breaks. They would give them all kinds of stuff. I mean, talk about revitalizing an area. If they put it. There is a ferry though. That, that's the maybe they're the pending. Yeah. Okay, give me, I hadn't ever taken it. I would love to hear thoughts. I mean, I would think you would create more of those. It's fun. It was like a little party. Right. You know, we were going, how long, is it 30 minutes? It was about that. It was like 35 minutes. I feel like it wasn't very long. It's like we were all going to a concert. So I feel like most of the people on it were going to. Oh my gosh. So it was kind of like game based people loaded up on those boats. I'm sure you have. You're in the subway down to a birds game. Like that's the same kind of vibe. Okay. I mean, I, I would think it would be that kind of vibe. But I don't know, then you're timing it. You have to time it with the game. That's the thing with public transportation, especially our public transportation here. No, it was just in New York. Talk about a night and day experience. You can get anywhere you need to go at any time of day in New York. Help probably Atlanta and Chicago and DC as well. But you can't get anywhere you need to go at the exact time you want to go here in Philadelphia. Our public transportation is just not up to par with any other city that has a downtown arena. That's the one thing I think when people think about like, Oh, Brooklyn has it. And Atlanta had whatever. Yeah, but you can get there. You can't get there with ours. You can't get there. It's not great. Sorry. I get on the rant about the. No, it's definitely something that is front of mind. Everyone's going to be affected by it one way or another. And how it plays out will be very interesting, a shame that it can't be one of those amicable, you know, everybody's happy. This is a no brainer to build here type of situation, but it is so funny how Comcast thinks I should just build it in the parking lot. Like it's like across the street from Citizens Bank Park. That's where they should build it. Well, we were going to have that. Oh, it was a arena that was supposed to be built. That's right. Well, remember like when if Xfinity was first proposed, it was massive. It was like it was the hotel that's there now was that it was the casino was all these shops and then obviously the 2008, you know, the bottom fell out of the real estate market and the recession, you know, kind of started in and it was scaled down a huge amount to what Xfinity is now. And then obviously they've come in secondary and built the live Philly live, you know, hotel and casino and everything else. But yeah, I mean, there's some empty space over there just buy where the spectrum used to be just buy that. I'm sure they can't. They can't buy this man. And it is, it is messy and it seems like it might be messier. We will be abreast of everything that happens from here moving forward and hopefully, you know, come on, keep the team in the city of Philadelphia. Someone was giving me the Detroit comparison of like the moving of Auburn Hills. The palace used to be and Detroit and now they got over. I mean, the comparison, I understand, but Detroit is barely one anything or been as viable as a championship contender, particularly after they won one for a minute. So I didn't feel like that was the comparison that kind of sold me on the whole thing. You don't have to go over a bridge, I think, when you think about some of the ones that are out of the town, whatever in the city proper, that's like a, that's problematic, is going over a bridge and there's only two bridges. I mean, I guess you go up to Betsy Ross and come down, but it's now six dollars every time you want to get back home after a Sixers game. I mean, yeah, there's the Meadowlands, New York Giants, D.C., you know, I think Washington football team doesn't have the city proper, but that is the worst arena. Yeah, like these are, yeah, these are certainly not shining examples of like the great arenas of the world. And, you know, I think part of the Sixers vision was for this to be TD Gardenish, for this to be Barkley Center, where it feels, you know, right in the heart of the city. And, of course, a solution that is not in Philadelphia is the opposite of that and not going to please the vast majority of fans and people that care about Philadelphia sports. But, well, we'll see what happens. I mean, it still would strike me as a pretty wild ending to this saga. I still am not so sure that, you know, the Sixers will go that route, but yeah, if they feel it's necessary or, you know, like the options in Philadelphia are just not viable in their eyes, then they have established it. It is something they're considering. And yeah, I think it's absolutely valid to say they sort of opened that door a little bit by the Camden practice facility choice and, you know, the state of the art facility that they already have in the state of New Jersey. Yeah, which is pretty cool. Honestly, it's a pretty good facility. Yeah, I mean, especially, you compare it with the head. Big upgrade there. Check in. Let's talk about our title sponsor Wilmington University and show some love to them, find your higher education home at Wilmington University, where your academic success is celebrated by Karen community, explore your opportunities at will view.edu. Celebrity cook Steve Monterano brings his Italian American cooking back home to Philly and joy, Monterano's prime at Rivers Casino and Steve's famous meatballs with Sunday gravy prime steaks and more. Make reservations for Monterano's prime on open table. There's more to imagine when you listen, select your imagination soar with audible. 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What do the Sixers need to do in your eyes for this season to be considered a success? I'll start if you don't mind. Go for it. And it's really simple for me. I need them to have three all-stars. To me, if they get to the midway point of the season and have maxi and beat and Paul George healthy and playing in the all-star game, that will obviously be a tremendous success for this team, considering all the players that they have brought into the fold that weren't on the team last year, getting Paul George acclimated and being a viable part of the Sixers organization and fitting in quickly. So if they get to that point and have three all-stars, I think that would be a big coup. And then moving forward, we have to get past the ghosts of the second round, man. I just think back to so many opportunities and moments that have been lost over these just recent years of their turnaround and success from the process. And they haven't been able to get past the Celtics. They haven't been able to get past the haunting past from Ben Simmons under the basket to Matisse Thuy Bull when he could have dunked on Trey Young. All those things, Maxi's heroic effort against the Knicks last year, all their fans converging on the Wells Fargo Center and kind of trashing our place for lack of a better words. So it just is a haunting feeling at this point. And if you want to say success, a success to me is them kind of exercising those demons and being good enough to have three all-stars at the break and healthy enough. And as congealed enough to be able to get past the second round into the Eastern Conference Finals, that's all I'm asking. It's not a big ask, but to me, that will be considered a success. Yeah, I personally wouldn't care about a number of all-stars that they have. I mean, we've all seen there are years where players make the all-star game who maybe, you know, did it merit a spot or, you know, there's argument about who should be in that mix. I mean, I think it's a great success to be a great star trio, but the regular season stuff, I think, for many fans is just irrelevant. At this point, they understand, "Juelm D, this is a historically great scorer." And that Maxi is, you know, an all-star who's getting better and better, and they like winning in the regular season. Look this up the other day, the Sixers since 2017-18 have like a 63% winning percentage. They have no appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals. So, for me, it would be pretty simple. I think you make the Eastern Conference Finals, and you do yourself proud with your performance there, I think. That's very cut and dry. I didn't expect you to be that cut and dry, Noah. You usually have a little more perspective that lends itself to the journey part of it rather than the destination, but you're at a point now where you feel like... The Sixers, I mean, they're a pretty unique team, like with these circumstances of, you know, the "Juelm D" era, year after year, they're winning just about 50 games every single season, and MB does now in his 30s. It feels very essential, especially now that you've assembled a star trio to make the Eastern Conference Finals. And then I'll say, you know, like, don't get swept in these finals. I think that would still feel like a failure play well. Maybe that means winning these finals, obviously. That would be a great success. But yeah, I think it is pretty simple for me in that regard. I think, sure, like, you provide the caveats that the matchups are really important. And, you know, I think the way that seasons ends often have a large impact in how we sort of do these retrospective histories. You know, like, that year where there were the number ones you didn't use during conference, all anyone remembers is the embarrassing collapse against the Atlanta Hawks. I think, you know, the year they played a seventh game against Boston, all anyone remembers is the squandered opportunity to clinch that series in Game 6 at home. And then, again, the pretty embarrassing Game 7 blowout. - Oh, I like that. - Where Jason Tatum Square's 51 points in Boston. So, you know, for me, last year, it actually felt like the Sixers had quite a few things to be proud of, given the circumstances. And they didn't go all in, right? Like, the main deadline move was Buddy Heald, and Darryl Moore very intentionally saved his chips to spend this off season. But, yeah, I think this year it feels pretty darn important to make these finals and then do as well as you can from there. I'm sure any season that does not end in a championship would be judged harshly by some, but for me, sitting where we are now getting beyond the second round of the playoffs would be a pretty successful season for the Philadelphia 76ers who have not been able to say they did that since Alan Iverson played basketball for them. - Yeah, I think it's pretty simple. All Stars are great, and I get your point as far as if you have three All Stars. Obviously, people have been healthy and they're playing exceptionally well, and that's setting you up for success. But it's all about the postseason. It's all they talked about last year. It's all they talked about this offseason. It's all Paul George talked about. Let's get Joel and Bead healthy to the postseason. It's all about the postseason for these guys. These are guys that know what's at stake. They know where they are in their careers, certainly some of them, and they know what they have to do. It's all about Eastern Conference Finals, or it's not a success for me. There's not any question. I think if you lose in a seven game series and you fight all the way down and you're in the semifinals, no. This team is constructed to win. This is a championship caliber team with those aspirations. There is no doubt that that is their goal, their goal. And everybody says it being it. The Pistons will say, "Our goal is a championship, but sure it is." Your goal is to win 20 games if you're the Pistons. That's your goal, seriously. But for the Sixers, it has to be Eastern Conference Finals. There is no second place for them. There is no, "Hey, yeah, but we got to the second round." No, you can't keep going backwards, okay? If you got to the second round and you lost, you didn't get it past the second round the year before. Last year, you didn't get it out of the first round. You got waxed here at home by a team that was just up the road and they took over your arena. It's all of those bad feelings will come up again, no matter how the Sixers finish the regular season, no matter what. They could be the one seed, they could be historic and win 70 games and it will be great. And everybody would be like, "I don't care. I don't care until you get past the second round." That is just the mantra it's been here and it hasn't felt so close as it did two years ago. Last year, it didn't feel that close and one of the reasons was obviously Joel and B being injured. But to me, it's just very simple. It's cut and dry and it's Eastern Conference Finals. And that's my base. That's my base. Ooh, I'm a little surprised. I've been there. I've been there years past and some people are talking to me about it. You're on top of the number. Apparently, I have gone a little soft because... You're like, "I just went some all-stars and just have everybody have fun." Over every second time. To me, I'm trying to think of markers that would be clear indicators of the success that they would have had at that point. And to me, that's your loss. That's your marker. And I feel you on that. A hundred percent. I feel you on that. A hundred percent. I think, too, about the personality of this specific coach. One of Nick Nurse's mottos that they even have painted somewhere in the practice facility is expect to win. And that dates way back to his days in England. He's huge on instilling a culture of... It's just unacceptable to come to work and not envision yourself winning. I don't think he's someone who really subscribes to, "Oh, this is nice just because if you guys are getting better at some skills." Sure, he wants to be detailed-oriented and he understands when they're ridiculously short-handed. The odds of winning are pretty low, but he goes into every game expecting to win and he takes it pretty darn hard when they don't. I mean, you saw it really started eating him last year when they were playing a lot of close competitive games without Joel and B. But they just didn't have the resources to be good enough to win against many teams, but that's not how Nick Nurse thinks. And yeah, I think his mentality is not one of seeking moral victories of any kind. And I think, yeah, I think he will do his best from day one to make it clear to players that anything besides expecting to win is just not acceptable with this organization. Let's do this. We're going to wrap things up shortly, but the percentage chances of them reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in your eyes, if that's the measurement stick, what's the percentage chance that they actually make it that far? Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, I think like championship odds, it's usually safe to say that, you know, outside of like prime, golden state, most teams are below 10%. Most of the good teams are in that like five to 10% range. We're just getting to the final four. No, so I'm sort of- I see you're setting it up. You're setting it up. I'm trying to calibrate for myself. As far as the Eastern Conference Finals, obviously that's an easier task. To me, Boston still looks like the cream of the crop. You really want to avoid facing them before these finals if that's at all possible. And as we, as we've said, the Nova Nix seem like a formidable team, albeit one where their top end talent will need to stay healthy, especially center Mitchell Robinson. And Jalen Brunson, right, the kind of the head of the snake there. So, like, but for me, I do feel pretty comfortable seeing the Sixers as a better basketball team than the box right now, right? Like Milwaukee was 500-ish during Doctor of Earth's first season on the job and are really leaning heavily on on some older veterans, like Damian Lillard's 34, Brooke Lopez is 36. It feels like a lot of things need to go right, I think, for them to be finished better than the Sixers and to finish better than the Nix and Celtics. And of course, yeah, like there's some other really good basketball teams in the East. But I guess I do have a decent degree of confidence, especially with three stars on board and a little cushion if an injury or two hits that the Sixers will be in that top tier of the conference. So, the pure gut feel for me now is like 20 to 25% chance that they make the Eastern possibly 1 in 4. Yeah, maybe you could talk me into as high as 30, but it's hard, as the Sixers have seen, it's hard to win playoff round after playoff round. And Joellen Bead has just a brutal playoff injury history. I do think Tyreys Maxi and Paul George are two legit all stars next to him. But I still have a hard time seeing them being being an East finals team without Joellen Bead or with a seriously depleted or worse than worse than his norm, Joellen Bead. Yeah, we'll put it out like 20, 27%. That'll be the call. That'll be the call. And that's not making any prediction. That's just me. Trying to do my my sort of odds, odds guesswork here. Trying to spitball it a little bit. Give me one dollar when Price is right at $1. No, I think that that's that's pretty. I mean, it's all based on Joellen Bead. It's hampered in any way, shape or form that the 30% goes to 3% because maybe higher than that, maybe 5% because they do have legitimate all stars and guys that can play. But he is the, you know, the engine that makes this whole thing go. He is the offense is predicated upon him. He is such a generational type of talent and it's hard to play an entire season or any games that he is there. And all of a sudden, if he's not or if he's not 100%, you have to change everything. It's just, it's a really big adjustment. And I think that Nick Nurse is a great coach and he would be up to the task. But we saw last year it is a big adjustment when you have a guy that is, you're so dependent upon in the way that your offense runs. And then if he's not there or not there 100%, but I'll go ahead and be optimistic and I'll bump it up from 27. I'll give you even 30% even 30%. Yeah, I mean, just to piggyback back off that too. Like, yes, Andre Drummond should make them a better rebounding team. He should be capable of, you know, quality spot starts. And should I think be more dependable in at least some ways than Paul Reed. But if we're being honest about Andre Drummond, he's, he's historically been a subpar free throw shooter, which could be really problematic in the NBA playoffs. And he's an, he's an imperfect player, right? Like he's, doesn't tend to be super efficient offensively. He can make some risky head scratching decisions on both ends of the ball. I still think he's a really good backup center. But, like, again, if, if we're just giving, I think a truthful assessment here, it's, it's an extraordinary drop off between Joel and Beaten on Andre Drummond. And that's not someone I think you would love to have starting in the postseason as opposed to an MVP caliber player. So not intended to, like, be disrespectful at all to Drummond. He's an historically great rebounder who's trying to make the case that he's literally the best rebounder of all time. But the NBA playoffs are a different beast. And if he's playing like a high volume of minutes, that might be rough for the Sixers in certain situations. It will be interesting, particularly considering how teams like to be aggressive with Joel and Beaten and beat him up in those opening round series. We've seen the Raptors do it time and time again. So a healthy Joel and beat will go a long way to the success of this team. And, yeah, hopefully he's better than he has been in years past, but we don't have to have Greg Monroe behind him. So that is, that is the plus. But, Noah, the website is always popping. What's going on there as you continue to apply your craft churn out content. Well, yeah, the journal accelerated a few weeks. But for now, I'm just just looking at some of the big intriguing questions with the Sixers. The latest one was just what will they be able to depend on with this new look roster. A few pieces along those lines coming up in the next few weeks. And then also, we've got essentially the Sixers fall preseason schedule opponent for their first preseason game is TBA. But have the details there on their six preseason games coming up in the near future here. Jeremy. Thank you for listening and watching the six star podcast brought to you by Wilmington University, where you works for Amy for the old no 11 then Barry. I'm Danny from else. Thanks for listening and watching. We'll see you next time. Appreciate it. (Applause) [BLANK_AUDIO]
