Deep Dives With Devon | After a Month, What's Real?

in the rest of the season. But what I've seen, I like what to make of the seventy six or strong start, and in particular Dwell and Bead's MVP caliber contributions. He has just shown a want to out there on the floor to things that we've heard in the past of being dominant, being the best player. He has been tremendous. He has been in that conversation. He belongs in the

conversation of the best player in the game. In our first Friday Deep Dive of the season with Devon Gibbons, we talk about teases, what's real and what isn't through the first four weeks of the season. Here on the broadcast. I'm Brian Seltzer and I am excited. Lauren Rosen, we are starting something new this week. I am super pumped for the debut of our weekly Friday Deep Dive with the one and only Vin Givens from ninety seventy five The Fanatic, our flagship radio station for seventy six ers

basketball in the Delaware Valley. Divon what's up. It's great to be speaking with you man. Oh, good to be back. Good to be back with you both. It's fantastic to be here starting off with the season where they are and we know there have been some difficulties, but they're still pushing through and it's great to be back with you. Guys. I missed you, we missed you, we missed you, and I just I'm pumped because we now can work this into our regular weekly schedule, Friday's Divine Givens the deep

Dive of the week. Yes, indeed, look forward to it. So I want to get into what we've seen so far through the first month of the season in a moment. But first, perhaps you can play a little bit of a game, an icebreaker to start things off. I want to ask each of you of your most memorable in your mind sports teas non seventy six ers. It could be the best sports tease you've seen, the worst sports

tease you've seen, but a sports tease. But the first thing that comes to mind sports teas non seventy six ers, Lauren, I see a look because I'm watching you through zoom right now of flabbergast in your eye. I just don't know where we're going with this. I'm looking forward to what to basing whatever I say off of what you say. So go ahead, okay, Divine, you want to go first, I can go first. I have no problem going first, non seventy sixers, any sport, Yeah, just most memorable sports teas.

Doesn't necessarily have to have a bad outcome, doesn't have to have a good outcome. But a significant sports tease, Oh wow, a significant sports tease. That is the one that you threw on us, that now has me really thinking, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go, and I'll leave it sixers. But it's more of a it's more on the side of it caused me a lot of frustration because I thought it would go a certain way. The teas was back in the in the I believe it was the ninety man, I'm trying to think of

the draft. It was the draft with Chris Webber went number one, Penny Hardaway Anthony penny Hardaway was also available. The Sixers were at number two, the Warriors obviously selecting Chris Webber, and right away that the whole teas the entire time that the Sixers were on the clock, Oh my goodness, They're about to get Penny Hardaway. And I'm a big Memphis State. At the time, it was Memphis State, not Memphis, and I was a huge Penny Hardaway fan.

And I'm thinking that he's coming to Philadelphia. And with all due respect to Sean Brand, the teas dropped right there. And it went from a jaw dropping moment at that point and and and a big time tease and at which turned into a lot of frustration for many years watching seventy Sixers and then watching the Orlando Magic and or Chris Webber since they were traded for one another, and wondering what could have been. This is perfect, this

is exactly what I'm looking for. Infamous nineteen ninety three draft. Yes, a tease, Lauren, you want some more time or do you want me to jump in. I need more time. Please please go ahead. Okay, I hate to throw what's going to sound like some shade, but I'll go Philadelphia Eagles starting quarterback of this season, Carson Wentz at this point a little bit of a tease. I think personally, for the record, he's going to be back, but we

got a little tease when he first started. Thing's been up and down, and who knows what the end outcome is going to be with him in the Eagles. So maybe it's because it's freshened my mind, but to me, that is another noteworthy non current seventy six ers teas. All right, Lauren, we can't delay any longer. I'm ready. I'm sports tease. I'm just gonna go with one from my own life because I figure that's probably the best

way to pick a sports tease. I think I have to go with the twenty seventeen Duke basketball team, headlined by none other than Jason Tatum. I was at Duke

at the time. I was working for the athletic department on the sports media side, but I was also a cheerleader, and that team lost in the NCAA Tournament in the second round, which is the first weekend, and I remember feeling like I was a senior, so there was like a lot of nostalgia there, and I wanted to go on this big deep run that everybody thought the team was going to go on. And they lost to South Carolina on the third day of the twenty seventeen NCAA Tournament.

So I'm gonna have to go with that one. I think. I don't know if that's so much like a tease as much as the downer, but I think the whole season people thought they were going all the way and they very much did not. So wow, there you go. Wow, these were excellent. And I remember and I remember Jason Tatum's first game. It was in the Madison Square Garden when he came back from the injury. And I don't remember the opponent, but I was like, oh, yeah, this

guy can go and you could hoop like from the jump. Yeah, we knew he was good, but that that group really underperformed in the tournament. The tournament's tough. I mean, it was to just paint a little bit more of a picture.

It was a very weird day. They were playing in South Carolina against South Carolina because it was the year that we couldn't play tournament games in in North Carolina because of what was going on politically, and then in South Carolina, where were supposed to have home court advantage. It was like a full house of Carolina fans. There were some weird things going on. There were Confederate flags in the parking lot. There was just some really weird

stuff going on in South Carolina that day. So the juju was certainly off, honestly understandably, but they did lose. So just to give it a little bit more of a nuanced picture of what that game was actually like. Looking back, I understand how they could have been thrown off for sure, but it was zooming out, not the way that they expected the season to end. So here's the thing. I promised that there is some relevance to this exercise. I think you guys did great, especially since

I put you on the spot. It's interesting the way that we look at teases, because I tend to agree with you guys more often than not. When you think of a tease, you think of something that has initial promise and that it doesn't necessarily work out. But I would argue that a team like the two thousand two

one seventy six Ers. They teased you right off the start, got off to a great undefeated beginning of the season through their first ten games, and then they went on to exceed expectations by making it all the way to the NBA Finals. So I would venture to say, in my opinion, teases aren't necessarily despite their regular stigma always a bad thing. They just start to conjure up hope and promise in the mind, which, in a very circuitous, roundabout way, brings us to your two thousand, twenty two

twenty one Philadelphia seventy six ers. We're a month into the season. The team is off to an encouraging start. Individuals on the team have had an encouraging start this season as well. So I want to unpack some of what we've seen so far, what might be real, what might be misleading, and what can we project because this year has already a month in been so funky, Lauren, Let's begin with you seventy six ers, top team in the East, wrapping up their first month the season. Is

this something that you see as being sustainable? Yes, but it's not quite as simple. As things aren't simple these days. If we've learned anything. Yeah, if we've learned anything this week, it's that a team can be thrown off for no fault of their own. When you look at the injury report over the last few games, there were a lot of unavailable seventy sixers, and the fact that they're still at the top of the conference is excellent. But we don't know how many times that could continue to happen

to the Sixers, to other teams around the league. Will there be postponements, will there be cancelations, Will the shortened season get shorter? So I want to say yes, they'll they'll stay among the top teams, for sure, but there are too many intangibles, too many unknowns to necessarily say that. I feel super confident that everything's going to keep going the way that it is. But that being said, after

a very weird week. Luckily the team is getting their folks back, But having seen the way the week went, it's just to me it feels too soon to make any type of declaration about what's going to go on in the rest of the season. But what I've seen, I like that was a bit of a long way to say yes, divon well, looking at the team, that they currently have in a few surprises quite honestly, at the way that things have gone with the roster overall.

And you know, as we go along with these visits with you guys, we can get into the personnel, what they've done, what they've done so well. Obviously Joel emb will get to him how good he has been. I do think it's sustainable because of the star power that you do have and Joel and b the coaching staff and what they are doing. The fact that you are seeing, at least early on, that he can play a lot of minutes, which is very encouraging on his body. Can

that go on? I would think the reason they're doing it now it's to see how it plays out throughout the entirety of the season. So looking at them right now, at this particular record, the stage of the season, and how good they have been despite some obstacles that they've had to overcome, I actually do think it's sustainable for them to continue on this path. I would agree with parts of what both of you guys said. I think

that defining of what this is is very loose. The Sixers are currently a top three team in the Eastern Conference. Are they going to be able to maintain their perch for number one, which is what they held for the first two and a half weeks before the health and safety protocols hit. I don't know if they can end up as the number one seed. There's some even better talent now in the Eastern Conference with the Houston and

Brooklyn trade that happened. But I think that what we can probably conclude at this point is that the Sixers of things level out, and barring anything that's too much more crazy, they really have a good opportunity to be a home court advantage team, whatever that would mean under

these current circumstances that we're living in. But I do think that when you look at them under controlled conditions, they could be as good as just about any team in the Eastern Conference save for perhaps one or two, and even those two teams, in my mind, have some

question marks. So I think that we are in relative agreement that if control will factors exist, seventy six Ers have a really good shot of being a top four team in the Eastern Conference this year, and a lot of that will have to do with Joel Embiid being able to maintain the pace that he's currently at. It beat has it against a Chewa. He shoots the top of the key, shot up and good. With three seconds ago it beat ties the game at one hundred and

twenty time out Miami. He's just been a beast. Guys. I've been so encouraged by seeing what Joel Embiid has done. I love the vibes, I love the body language. I probably talk about intangibles too much, but I think in this case it's relevant. He's just been phenomenal and he is backing up a lot of the talk that we heard at the end of last season, during the start

of training camp, and now to begin the year. Divine. No, he absolutely has and I'm glad we're starting with this because he is just shown again just a want to out there on the floor to things that we've heard in the past, of being down, being the best player, having to put the team on his back, owing things to the fan base. And while he's not done, while the team is not done. We are only a few games into the season. He has been tremendous. He has

been in that conversation. He belongs in the conversation of the best player in the game right now with what he has done and what I do like especially let's go back to a game earlier in the week, the first of the two back to back against the Miami Heat, where they were not playing up to the standards that you thought they should have been. Against the depleted Miami he team, where the team got down him. He just simply said, Okay, let's do it. Let's just put it

on my back. And he did just that. And we saw it games before as well where they needed him. Let's just go back to the opening against Washington when it became a very close game, and down the stretch of that one as well, Joel and b showed why he is arguably the best big man in the game. So I love exactly what he's doing. I think this is sustainable and it's good to see us so early on. I'm a big believer of Lauren, and we've talked about this in side chats a lot. It's not what they say,

it's what they do. At least that's a principle that I try to live by when you're looking in attempting to assess a situation. Joel Embiad has said that he feels more comfortable. That's something that based on the eye test, I believe it as well. He looks a lot more comfortable out there on the court. I agree he talks about wanting to dominate a lot. Dominate, dominate, That's a word we hear from Joel over the years, and this

year he's really doing it. And I think look no further than Devon mentioned Tuesday against Miami forty five points, sixteen rebounds, four assists, a block, and five steals. That's all align. Obviously that added overtime, but the team got into the second half, it looked like maybe the game was going to get away from them a little bit, if not sort of come down to the wire, which it did, and Joel said afterwards that he decided there was no way they were going to lose that game.

And to be able to see him lock into that mentality score twenty points in the third quarter alone, guys, that's insane, and then eleven in overtime, like he really did decide we are absolutely not losing this game, and he made sure that he did everything he could to make that happen, despite some people fouling out, missing a lot of people for the health and safety protocols, and he gave props to his teammates post game and said,

you can't get anywhere without your teammates. He was really proud of the way that the young guys stepped up. But at the end of the day, the story Tuesday was Joel and the way that he took that game into his own hands and made sure the team was not going to take a loss. And that's a great sign. Divin. This is a conversation we've had amongst ourselves and on the air a couple of times. Your favorite Joel embiid performance.

I know which way you go. I think I am still December twenty nineteen, Thursday Night T and T at TD Garden, but I might have to put the third quarter of that game against Miami Heat right up there. I think that's a top three, well regular season at least performance. I agree with you. I was thinking about that as Lauren was talking and just knowing that we have had this discussion because we've seen so many great performances from Juell and b over the years that he

is worn the seventy six is uniform. I have my favorite in Los Angeles that Staples. You have yours in Boston at TV Garden, and immediately I knew this one was number two, right behind my favorite in Los Angeles because the importance of it. Look and we know early in the season it's only game number twelve, but when you're so shorthanded, and as Lauren mentioned, with the foul trouble that a few teammates got into and no longer they're disqualified from the game, you needed is your best

player to do it. And not only did he do it, guys, he did it knowing that still even though he gets this from tip one, from right away minute one, all the attention was going to be on him, and he still was able to do it with the twenty points in the third quarter that you both mentioned and thirty five overall from the second half on, with what he was able to do for this team, what they needed and he uplifted them. They knew that they had to

do it. Doctor Rivers kept feeding him the ball. He played forty minutes in an NBA game that went into overtime, And to your first question about his availability and his durability and something that's sustainable, it was great to see that as an example and now us looking back later on maybe a game number sixty two and saying, well, I saw you do it in Game twelve. I know

you can do it now. I might actually, just because I've never taken a stance on a favorite Joel and B performance, I might go ahead and carve it in. I think I'm gonna do it. Yeah. January twelfth, twenty twenty one against Miami, And look, I think when we look back, we're not going to say that this was his most high achieving moment in terms of what the opponent had available or what the context in this season was.

But I do think when you look at the external factors half the team on the injury report, some of the team fouled out for him to still come in and really say, I don't care what the odds are, I don't care what external factors are going on. We are winning this game. To me, that was really really memorable. I also was at that one as opposed to the other two that you guys pick. So maybe it's like recency bias, being in person bias, But I think I'm gonna go ahead and carve this out as my favorite

Joel and Beat performance at least for the time being. Listen, I will say that it could serve as something at least right now that is seemingly minor. The way that he handled that game, that could become a bigger supporting piece of evidence the type of year that Joel has this year. Because if you're talking about the next thing I'm gonna bring up, you need like that leadership performance when the team is up against it. It's shorthanded, your

other all stars having an off night. You need someone to kind of rein it in and be the horse. And that's the type of player he was in that first game against Miami. It was awesome. It beats bringing a horse again picked up by Strausson's Silva ghost baseline, spins, backs up, shoots it. It's good. It being is dominating MBP light status for the big fella. He's got twenty

points in this quarter alone. So what I'm alluding to is the three words three letters, Well they could be three letters the three words most Valuable Player or three letters MVP, whatever you want to choose. Getting back to this notion of what's real and what is And we've heard chatter it's been brought up with Joel and some press conferences, Joe as an MVP candidate a month into the season. Divine, are you buying it. Yes, I am, I am. He has been one of the best players

in the league. We know there are a few handful of others that are in the conversation with him, but

he is definitely in there. He deserves to be any of They have the best record in the Eastern Conference and with him only missing I believe what two games so far this season and still being able to post the numbers that he has put up on the board already, it's also real because of this we've seen him do it before where he has been in those conversations, even though he has made second team instead of first team All MBA, the All Star Games, the defensive teams as well,

second in Defensive MVP voting Overall Player of the Year.

And that's why it's real. And if he is able to continue along this path putting up posting these types of numbers, the wins continuing to come if they can somehow despite some changes in the Eastern Conference so far with Brooklyn and knowing how good Milwaukee could be also have to respect them in Miami as well, if they can continue to be at the top of the Eastern Conference led by his performances, He's absolutely going to be in the conversation at the end of the regular season,

in the Most Valuable Player discussion if he keeps up what he's doing on both ends the floor, I agree with you, there's no chance he's left out of the discussion, and he has a really good case to win. I mean, how often do you see a guy go for forty five and grab five steals on the same night. I mean, the only other types of players in this league that can do that is a guy like Jannis, who's now

won the award a couple of times. So I would say, yeah, he's got to be in the conversation if he continues to play that he played the way that he is, And of course a lot of that depends on health, whether it's health and safety protocol stuff or injury stuff. I think as long as Joel can stay healthy, stay out there, and stay as motivated as he is, there's no chance that he's not in the conversation at the

end of the season. I think I'm confidence saying right now that I believe that Joel is going to have his most impactful season yet as a pro. I don't know if that means he's going to average his highest point total or have his highest rebound total. I think he's going to have his most effective season. I think that when it comes to the MVP conversation, he's going to be in it. I think it's going to be

really close for some reason. My gut is telling me and I'm always sunshine, unicorn and rainbows, man, I feel but I feel like this is going to be the year where he really proves himself on a national level that he is to be a force to be reckoned

with game in, game out. He's taken the level of seriousness and leadership to a new level, setting up up for I think the following season to really be one of the front runners for that race from the start of the season, unless the Sixers collectively really start too and I think again they're going to be a very good top four team in the East, but really start to go on a run overachieve and Joel is the driving force behind that, which I think is totally a possibility,

but I think it would have to be under those conditions that he would actually win the award, and quickly something you mentioned earlier, his actions instead of his words. He's just going out there and doing it, and yes, he has to do the postgame press conferences, and that's what he's doing. Other than that, there's not a lot of talking about anything more. You're just going out there

and showing the action. Is speaking loudly in the words, We're going to dive deeper into Tyree's Maxie in a moment, but I want to take fifteen seconds to remind you of this. Soon, the Scoop are brand new daily five minute seventy six Ers update series is going to have its own exclusive feed. What does that mean? That means the Scoop isn't going to be on this feed anymore, the seventy six Ers podcast network feed. It's going to

have a feed solely dedicated to the Scoop. So to make sure you don't miss out, search seventy six Ers Scoop wherever you get your pods. It could be Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, Pandora, wherever, and just subscribe or follow to the feed and you will get daily five minute in the season updates about the seventy sixers every day. All right, moving on to our next area of what is real what might not be?

Through this first month of the season. Maxie again for three from the logo of the center three twenty eight footer Tyrese Maxie. He's got thirty nine. It was hard not to fall in love with what you saw, particularly from Tyrese Maxie against the Denver Nuggets. But all at all, he's played really well. This is a very solid it looks like in terms of the top couple guys rookie class, Tyrese Haliburton out in Sacramento. I was intrigued by LaMelo Ball some of the stuff that he was able to do.

But Tyrese Maxie's put himself right up there early on, led by that performance against the Nuggets of being one of the rookie headliners to watch this season? Would you agree? Disagree? Laarn? I think Rookie of the Year conversation remains a little premature.

But he was phenomenal on Saturday, and so when I say that it's a little premature, I think I only say that because, like we saw what we've seen with rookies over the last few years that come into teams that are contenders, they don't get the type of minutes that guys that win Rookie of the Year end up getting. So for me, Tyrese's biggest enemy is the fact that he's on a team with a lot of great players

that outrank him in the rotation. But if he continues to have performances like what he had on Saturday, there's no reason why he shouldn't be considered at least for that award. What do you guys think I would look at it and say, the thirty nine pointing performance certainly put a lot of people on notice of what he

could do. If you didn't know what he could do on the floor, or didn't know who he was and what he was capable of, that certainly put everybody on notice, just like Shake Milton's thirty nine against the Clippers a season ago on the road against Doc Rivers led team that put people on notice. And then to continue to follow up with him having to get the minutes that

he has because the team was shorthanded. Yeah, he's going to have people paying a lot of attention now, as you mentioned, Lauren, maybe premature right now, but at the very least, with so much talent out there and him being on a contending team, he will at least get the recognition of the first team All Rookie at the end of the season. When it's all said and done.

But hey, if he can continue to play and show the offensive output, not thirty nine obviously, but to do something like that and put those numbers up, he will be into the conversation for sure. A couple of things that I really like. Well, there's a lot that I really like about what Tyres Maxie has shown. And I

think that part of this obviously has been circumstantial. I'm about to say, I love the fact that Doc rivers and I thought you could make this conclusion before the health and safety protocol thing happened in half the Ruster was wiped out. Doc was not afraid to play him or throw him out there and give him some responsibilities

right off the bat. Now, credit to the kid for earning it, because it's clear that he's got skill and ability and not just that, but stuff that the Sixers need, you know, another ball handler, a guy who can finish driving to the rim. Yeah, I think Rookie of the year, because if you're looking at this in a perfect world,

you want the Sixers at full strength. And will he get the minutes and the opportunities to put up the line that some of these other guys on lesser built teams might probably not, but I think that so far it's looking really good that maybe in just a season's time, this time next year, we're talking about someone who definitely was to steal the draft and could be one of the top players who emerges from this draft class, regardless of a trophy or recognition or anything like that. For sure,

for sure, they definitely got themselves a good one. I feel that, And you have to remember there will be opportunities such as obviously All Star Weekend is going to look very different this year, but I imagine they'll still honor some young guys with the Rookie Sophomore Game, naming of some sort all rookie teams, another opportunity for Tyrese to get some accolades. I could see him ending up on either of those lists easily, and you never know as the season goes along what other awards he could

be up for. At one point in time, I was hoping the focus of our first Friday Deep Dive with the Voman be about someone like Tobias Harris and the start he's gotten off to. I think my plan is going to be for some of the guys who haven't seen in a week, let's pause on them for a moment, and we'll circle back and touch upon them next Friday, when hopefully they've had three or four games back in

the mix for the sixers. But I do think could we not end more appropriately on this as far as what to tease, what's potentially mirage, what's real, what isn't The Brooklyn Nets, the timing was right. The timing was right for us. Unfortunately, anytime you get an opportunity to acquire or try to acquire a player of this caliber, it's something you've got to look hot at, and that's certainly something we did, and the process spit up very very rapidly and very quickly over the last sort of

forty eight hours. It was sunshine and talk of harmony when things were announced officially on Thursday. Obviously you have three incredible and amazingly gifted players now and Kyrie Irving,

James Harden and Kevin Durant. Because it gonna work, that's a great question, the two of Durant and Harden with the familiarity, of course, that's something that you can play off of the fact that Mike D'Antoni James Harden, former head coach of the Houston Rockets, is the lead assistant for Steve Nash, And I think the Wild Carter, like many think at this point, is what is what is? And who is Kyrie Irving? So on its face it looks tremendous. It looks like it's going to be a

problem offensively for other teams to defend. How do you defend it? But I want to see a at least a sample size of it first to say that it Canada cannot work. I would believe in something like this happens, especially with the players soul later late in their careers. Individual accolades already achieved championships with two of the three some sacrifice. We've seen Kevin Durant sacrifice, So why wouldn't

it once again the Wild Cart. And I think that's fair, and that's on the minds of a lot of people, including Brooklyn fans the Wild Cart right now, Kyrie Irving. I agree with everything you said Devon on face value, this looks like a team that might be the best in the league, but they're starting behind everybody else. They're going to have to build that chemistry. It's been a while since Kevin Durant and James Harden have shared the court together. But I'm excited to see what it looks like.

I agree, Kyrie Irving's the X factory there. It'll be interesting to see how they match up with the Sixers. There will be more than a few games left between those two teams. I'm excited to see what it looks like. Am I convinced that it's going to be as great as they're hoping? No? But am I intrigued? Yes? Yeah, if you're a fan of hoops, regardless of what team you root for, and I know they're in division in conference and that's tough to see, but it's pretty compelling stuff.

And there's always theater in the NBA, and that is that's going to be some theater. I would like to think that if there is a team at least in the conference out there that's got a good enough shot to try and slow him down, it could either be the Sixers or the Milwaukee Bucks. If the Sixers are at full strength, based on how they're playing defense at the start of the season, I would like to at least see how they fare. I think it's gonna be

it's gonna be a challenge. It could be a challenge, but it could also I could see it going both ways. I don't know if this is gonna be a middle ground thing, you know, yeah, yeah, there would be some really really intriguing matchups if the two teams. Whenever the two teams faced off, it's inevitable that they're gonna play one against one another. But to see the matchups with embed in Jordan at this time, and then I would

assume Simmons and Dean, then you have to do. That's women teath I will possibly comes in with, is Danny Green play into this entire thing, and even someone like a young Tyrese Max getting in there and getting a little gritty and seeing if he can make things a little difficult for the all star point guard named Kyrie Irving. I do think when you look at it, the Sixers have a defensive advantage when it comes to pieces that could match up and could slow that group down offensively, though,

it'll be interesting. It'll be cool to see a team with so much offensive firepower play against a team with two defensive Player of the Year candidates plus Danny Green, Latisse, Bible, etc. This is a really good defensive team still. That might be the thing I'm most excited about seeing tonight is the defense that they can play with more people in the lineup, and of course when you guys listen to this, you'll know how that goes. But I'm excited to see

how the defensive potential continues to develop. The team thinks they can get better defensively even with the top rank defense before everybody up on the injury list. So yeah, defense versus offense, I think in that matchup will be really interesting to see and I'm looking forward to it. Good stuff, guys, first Friday deep dive of the year with the Von gives in the books. We did it back on track. One thing I know, the analysis, the

commentary that takes always real here. No no guesswork about that, So thank you one and all. Great to be back with you guys. Thank you guys. That was fun. Alrighty. First deep dive with the Von Givens is a rap. Next Friday, we'll do it again here on the seventy six ers Podcast Network.