Mailbag Monday | Furkan Stans, Jo Finishes Week Strong

Sixers wing man. We're talking about a six foot seven wing twenty three years old, forty percent from the three for an entire season with high volume, Furkon is the goat. Plus in the spirit of Matisse thybel some NFT talk. Yes, there is no limit to what we discuss your DM's mentions and voicemails. As always right here on mail Bag Monday, there were wins, there were breakout performances. There is impact, ending mercifully the end of a road trip, a busy week.

It was Lauren Rosen, how are you. I'm doing well. I'm feeling like Dwight Howard this morning. Happy to be alive. That was a I'm not sure if it was coincidental, but it was a timely name drop of Dwight Howard. Tell me why. I'm not going to spill too much. Some quality Dwight Howard content coming later on this rainy Monday edition of the mail Bag. Let's do it. You know what else there was this week? Before I get into the mail Bag, I have to bring this up.

I'm going to go to the Brian Selter mail Bag because I want to clear this right off the bat. What's happening on the internet right now? I'm seeing things about bitcoin, NFTs, yats. I can't keep up. I'm thirty five. I'd like to think that I'm still on top of things. I have no clue what's happening right now. I need you to debrief, so I'll tell here's what I know. I know some of it, and I'm faking of it. I think a lot of new information is just about

buying in and just like being ready to rock. So that's what I decided last night, was that I'm all in on NFT's non fungible tokens. I'm all in on bitcoin. I don't have any because it's expensive, but I understand what it is, and through conversations with one Darryl Morey and a couple other people in the in the Sixers universe,

I'm starting to understand how this all works. If you don't follow Darryl Morey on Twitter, He's now going to start doing little bitcoin NFT tutorials on his Twitter page. Last night he did one spurred by Matisse Thybles posting about his own bitclout on his Twitter. Matise, as we now know, is very into the cryptocurrency world, as is Tobias Harris, as are some other people around the league. You're seeing it everywhere now, and Daryl Morey's is all

about it. So not only are these guys connecting with I guess their boss about basketball, they're now connecting about crypto as well. And I joined the fun. Last night. I got myself a yat, which is a unique token of emojis that now nobody else can have except for me. I own my group of four emojis. You can make it into UURL. It now directs to my Twitter. It was like a big decision to decide which emojis I wanted to get to create this little NFT. I'm all

in do I understand everything that's going on. No am, I learning and trying. Yes, followed Daryl Morey seems like he's going to keep doing some tutorials on his Twitter about how this all works. And if I trust anyone to explain something foreign to me, it's that. Man. Is it wrong that I think the most accessible of all the stuff for me to understand, between the Bitcoin, NFT and yet is the YAT. That's the one that piques my interest the most. I might want to yat. I'm

already having some ideas well. So I think the YAT is very accessible because you can see it. And that's the problem with NBA Top Shot, with Bitcoin, with a lot of other NFTs, you can't necessarily see the thing that you're getting, and it's it's hard to conceptualize what you own and how you own it and nobody else does. That's where I struggle. It's like, how are we sure that if you buy an NBA Top Shot play, how

are you sure that nobody else has it? Because plenty of people have the video, plenty of people can look it up, plenty of people saw it in person, some people maybe recorded it on their own cameras in person. So how do you really own the play that you bought? I don't know, but you do get a receipt when you buy it, and eventually I would imagine that that receipt becomes valuable like a trading card. Does have trading cards ever been truly valuable? No, they're pieces of cardboard.

But somehow may dispute that claim, Lauren, Now, come on, but this is not the slander trading cards here, absolutely asking about modern day currency. But the comparison that was made for me by a friend that explained what an NFT is is. It's like a trading card. You only make a certain amount and when you buy it, probably at a low price. You buy a rookie trading card this season, and that rookie ends up being in the Hall of Fame in twenty years. That trading card that

you bought in twenty twenty one is very valuable. So maybe my yat, which is four emojis, the fanciest yats are one, two, three, four five emojis, so mine is the second to lease to fancy yat. But I do have one, and I got in early, so if the yats blow up, eventually my yat will become very valuable, and if it doesn't, it's still mine. And it feels nice to know that I own a tiny pocket of emojis. Maybe that's why I'm in such a good mood this morning, is because I got my yat this morning. How do

I get an invite? It might be yat? I don't even know. Oh, well, you might know someone that has a couple invites. Left. All right, I'm going to try and figure out she could help you. I might need that. I think I know what I would do. In a perfect world, I might be able to do it in five. Well, so I wanted to do mine in three, but it was more cost effective to do it in four, so I ended up doing four or for the for the price reduction. Um you know, what are your emoji combinations?

Can you tell us? Yes? I can. Let me just pull it up, make sure I got it in the right order. It's very interesting to like certain certain orders. Um mine is basketball emoji, microphone emogi, manicure emoji, checkered flag emoji. Okay, I don't think I need to explain, but basketball microphone, what we're doing right now, manicure what I have on my hands? And checkered flag I love formula one for love it and if you go to why dot at dot basketball microphone manicure checkered flag, you

get to my Twitter. I have an idea of what mine will be if I'm fortunate enough to claim it. Okay, I'm not going to spill the beans here because I don't want any of you out there to get into your NFT zone and go hawk it. But I think I know could you and could you potentially announce it tonight on seven six Live Countdown presented by TSO. Maybe

I'll do that. Yeah, either either on seven six five Countdown presented by TSO later on this Monday, or perhaps on the Deep Dive on Friday, or maybe maybe on the Bag next Monday. If I'm fortunate enough to claim this yet, just make sure you go into the experience with an open mind, because I had no plan of when I went into mine. I knew what I wanted.

What I wanted was really expensive, and then I ended up loving this one that was really inexpensive but might one day be very expensive, And now I own it. Did all of you out there expect this is what you wanted? Right? Six minutes forty seconds of NFT bitcoin and yat talk before we even start the mail bag without further ado, let's get to it. You have one new message. I think most of you know how this works by now. If you are a newcomer to mail

bag Monday, welcome to get in touch with us. We do it every Monday, either drop us at DM, getting our mentions on social media, or the preferred method. I've now changed the policy a little bit. If you leave a voicemail, you get swag. It's that simple call out to us on the podline two four zero three seven six three to seven. We also post a weekly sticker on Sundays on the at sixers Instagram story. So get in touch there, respond, engage. We love hearing from you,

especially your voice. Vince Picaro on Twitter, he was always active in the mansions. Wanted to start this week with Joel Embiid. I think that Lauren was one of the big headlines from this week. He was back for a second time. It seems like he's back for good for good this time. Played in the back to back look really strong against the OKC Thunder. But Vince chimed in after the win over the Boston Celtics last Tuesday, in

which Joel Embiad went off once again. He finished the three game series with one hundred and fifteen total points against the Celtics. Finn says Joel is a matchup nightmare for the opposing defense, and his ability to draw the foul, especially from the triple threat position rivals Or could be better than that of James Harden for the most effective in the league. I think Joel Embiid had two excellent

games this past week. He played three. Obviously, the game for everyone against New Orleans was forgettable, but I think Joel against Boston and then again against the Oklahoma City Thunder,

he was terrific. Lauren, he sure wasn't. And something that I think is worth noting after both really solid performance is Joel expressed that he feels that he has a lot more in the tank, that he's still just getting back to things that he wants to be where he was prior to the break, and even prior to the break, he felt that there was more that he could be doing.

So the fact that he's back and he looks to the level that at least my eye test tells me that he looks pretty similar to how he looked prior to the break and he feels that there's a lot more there. Very encouraging and of course, on a human level, if he's not fully comfortable, if his knee brace isn't his favorite thing in the world, you hope that he's able to work through that, because that must be frustrating.

He's working really hard and clearly has put in so much work on his body and his stamina and his endurance. He looks so bouncy out there, so it must be a little bit of frustrating to get used to that brace. And I hope for his sake that he can get used to it and thrive with it. Laura, I know he said to Doc Riverson passing after the game on Tuesday versus the Celtics that he thought he was back.

He had thirty five and six that game, then kept in check for fourteen and nine against the Pelicans on Friday. To me, the OKAC game, granted against lesser competition, that to me looked like semi vintage, if we can even refer to something within the context of the same year as being vintage in twenty twenty twenty one, That to me was the level of Joel and b that we saw before the knee injury against Washington, he was doing the little head fake, shimmy bassline, fadeaway jumper got inside

for some really impressive jams. I thought to me, it looked like he had his bounce back a little bit more in that okayc game than any of the other couple he's played in since his return. Yeah, and I think that the team's collective performance against Okase, I mean they really didn't. At no point in that game did the Sixers not look like the better team. I think that gave Joel a lot of freedom to start getting more comfortable, to relieve any tension that he was feeling

from coming back. It was cool to see him getting a rhythm in what turned out to be a pretty low stakes outing and figure out how to really capitalize on the stakes that were were not there. Oh, it was great to hear from Vince. Thanks for leading us off. You have one new message. It is time to head to the podline two on five four zero three seven sixty three seven. As we announce top of the show, you leave a voicemail. We play it. You automatically win,

no random name picker generator or anything like that. Here we go. Voicemail number one this week. Hello mail Bag Monday, I would just like to give a special shout out to the man that's stole my heart and also had a career high of five steals, mister Furkhon Corkmon sixers, fill it sixer for life, you know what, in the spirit of great Monday Morning vibes, Furkon to me, simply from a human being standpoint, he is a guy you always want to have around and be around. He is

the best celts. I think you'll agree with me when I say there has not been a day that I've been with this organization that I have not rooted for Furkon's success. He is just a wonderful dude. President of the great vibes. Regardless of what's going on, the team's great vibes. This year, Furkan had those, and he's had those for a very long time. It's awesome to see him succeed. He's a guy that's so easy to root for,

so delightful. His teammates love him, they celebrate his success, and so cool to see him succeeding on the defensive end now as well. I think that's an area of his game that I don't know we expected to see him unlock at the level that he has, especially over the last couple months. Tremendous game from Firk against the Thunder over the weekend on Saturday, twenty points, a season high to go along with a career high five steals, four three pointers in each of his last two games,

three straight double figure scoring games. Great to see this from Firk. Staying in the bag. You have one new message. The fur come slander has got to stop. We're talking about a six foot seven wings twenty three years old, forty percent from the three for an entire season with high volume, can disrupt the game with steel, and he's finally starting to learn how to handle the ball on a pick and roll. Stop it. This guy's feeling is crazy. We're talking about like the ninth player on our team

with this much challenge at that age. Stop it. Furkon is the goat. Jimmy Caputo bringing it. I know that was Jimmy because he got into the mansions and said, I left a voicemail, got an injust under the wire, one of the all time calls. Huge love for Furkon and I'm all about it. You heard me after our last voicemail. But I'm thrilled for fur Con, thrilled that the fans are rallying around fur Con. I mean, how wonderful would it be to see him continue performing at

this level down the stretch into the playoffs. Like I said, he's someone that his teammates love, the city loves. It's great. There's no doubt side here with Furkon succeeding. Listen, I think that in Jimmy references, if there is slander out there about fur Con, I feel that's a vocal minardy. I feel, buy and large, this is a beloved man and he's continued to improve again. I mean, I think you have to respect guys that find ways to get better,

find ways to capitalize on opportunity. I mean, there's a lot of competition for minutes this season, and Furkon has proven over and over why he's deserving of them, and it's been really special to watch. This may sound like a not positive comment, but it is one meant in a good way. And I think this is something that Doc Rivers has talked about too. What am I alluding to? Stop drawing it out, Brian here. It is. It's the fact that when Furkon is not asked to do too much,

he is going to be that much better. Like his five steals where they all generated single handedly by himself. No, but when he's out there with the likes of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid and Matisse Thible I thought that was a great unit, by the way, starting with a six or shorthand against the Thunder on Saturday. But when Furk can be out there on the defensive end, you got some of those other guys doing their thing well,

then fur Con can be that much more effective. Same thing when he's got the ball in the offensive end, he can handle a little bit. We saw the great dime he laid out for Dwight Howard the other night. But when he doesn't have to be maybe you're second, possibly even third guy, he's going to be an option who can hurt you. I think we've seen that much, and I think it's been great for him to find this this rhythm the last couple of games. I think

you raise a really good point. He's set a couple time this season that he loves the minutes he gets to share with Ben and Joel because it really opens him up to do what he does best on the offensive end. I think in the last couple of games, we've seen the way that it opens him up on the defensive end as well. You just said it incredible to watch him just sort of fly around and be a disruptor and like you said, capitalize on the defensive movements of his teammates of who's out there. I agree

with you. I thought that that unit that started in that game was delightful. They all sort of filled in for one another, did a good job of knowing each other. I mean, it was an interesting group because Danny and Tobias are really sort of the vocal leaders in that starting lineup, so without the two of them, I was curious to see how things would go. And they clicked from the jump and they didn't look back. I agree

with you. I thought it was a really fun starting unit and I was happy to see the group succeed together. The stan for for Con continues. You have one new message, how you've done. Big game coming up this week for the nets. I'm Luke. Nice to meet Love the pod the stand for Furkon. It's It's truly great. Fur Coons is great. You know, you know, he comes out, he shoots the three ball, he fled out to shoots it. He's not afraid to get up there. He'll go off

there and shoot eight. Three's a game off the bench. I love it. It's unmatched energy, it's Philly vibes. There's nothing better to it. Go out on Wednesday, pound the nets. No one on that team can guard Mbid, drop fifty on him and let's go win a championship. Let's do it. Yeah, I'm ready, find me a brick raw. I am prepared to just bash through it after Luke's call. Tremendous energy, A lot to cover there before we start segueing into the nets. Furkhon Philly vibes, I think for as much

as someone from Turkey can have Philly vibes. With all due respect to Ersani Lusova, who was great when he was here. Furkon he's an adopted son and I'm all about it. He looks he's a bit of an underdog character. He came in with grit and determination, two qualities that this city doors. I'm all about it. Of course, as a transplant myself, I love to see outsiders get embraced

because that's my utmost ambition in this city. I love seeing the city rally around guys like for Coon, who really have worked hard to get to where they are today. Awesome to hear all this enthusiasm in the mailback. He's off the roof. He's off the roof. What more can you say? All Right, moving along, you have one new message. Time to go through our Instagram story rapid fire around

here on the bag. Our question that we posted to the at sixers Instagram story on Sunday was what do you think some keys are to Wednesday's big game against the Brooklyn Nets? So pumped for that one, Lauren. The timing of this one for me, as you get into the sub twenty games left in the season range, couldn't be better for me, with the alone exception perhaps being that the Nets might not be at full strength. Yeah, I think we've been talking about this game now for

well a couple of I'm not sure. This is one that we've had on our calendars for a long time, hoping though that everybody would be available. It seems like more folks could be available than the last time these two teams met. Will everybody be available on both sides? I'm not sure, but looking forward to it either way. This is obviously a matchup that the Sixers are looking

forward to. I think it's interesting that the Nets continue to be so heavily favored in general narratives, national, local, wherever you are, the Nets tend to be the favorites, but the Sixers have been holding that number one seed pretty much all season long. Now their neck and neck. I love the idea of either team having the chance to prove that they are the better team head to head, hopefully healthy, really looking forward to this one, and there's

no ambiguity where things are to start this week. They've now played the same number of games, the Sixers and the Nets. They're both even at thirty six and seventeen. The Sixers hold the tiebreaker. They have a better division record, They've played more games than nine to Brooklyn six and two. The six or the better conference record. It's the key one right there. Twenty four and seven the Nets or

nineteen and eleven. Brooklyn plays Monday at the Timberwolves. The seventy Sixers obviously at the MAVs on Monday, and then it's back at the Center on Wednesday night for that big nationally televised showdown. So the question was keys to the game against the Nets. Benz Dot goat says, dominate the paint, play bullyball, and most importantly, control the pace. Those are three big keys, but I do agree that if the Sixers can do all three, they should be

in pretty good shape. I look forward to seeing what they do with Joel Embiid. I think that's the biggest question mark in this matchup is who is stopping Joel Embiid. They've obviously added some front court depth, but can any of the guys they've added really handle Joel. Historically no, and Joel has better options around the perimeter. Now really going to be interesting to see how they match up

with Joel Embiid. And then, of course, the offense versus defense matchup that you and I have talked about so consistently already shaping up to be a pretty classic one. Even if James Harden is at with that right hamstring strain, They've still got Kyrie Irving, who's been playing at a really high level of the last week or so, along

with Kevin Durant. And this is the thing that is so compelling about this game to me, Laura, Not only do you have two division rivals that are at the top of the Eastern Conference, with plenty of star power. It's that the way they're constructed is pretty much at different ends. The seventy Sixers go through Joel Embiid the Brooklyn Nets. They've got their prowess, athleticism and scoring punch from the wings and in the backcourt. How can those

two things offset one another. Which team can create the better advantage based on its own strength? I think that's going to be the fascinating part of the game on Wednesday. G Money underscore two on three zero, just lock in at Joel Embiid, Swag one underscore, fam underscore a lamb, Joel MVP. We need the Big Fella at its best and need Danny Green and Seth on top of things. And I think that that's a good point. The Sixers probably will need some three point shooting to try and

keep pay with Brooklyn's second rated offense in the NBA. Well, it's interesting, second rated offense in the NBA. You mentioned it, the second rated defense in the NBA. We've talked about this before, but I think it's worth repeating. The Sixers might struggle a little bit to keep up offensively with this Brooklyn team. The Brooklyn team is going to struggle to keep up defensively with the Sixers team. I'm very curious to see which one rules the day, the offense

or the defense. But I agree Danny and Seth could be major keys. Of course, the three point shot, when you might be a slightly outmatched offensively, can make a huge difference. If they're going in demon underscore trio zero, good transition defense, and play smart no turnovers. I would agree with that. You don't want to let the likes of Kad or Kyrie get out in transition. Obviously, they also brought in Blake Griffin to come off the bench, and while he's certainly not the guy he was when

Doc Rivers coached him, can't overlook that. Let's see Josh Rathman says, I want thible on Katie. Let the kid prove himself. We might see some of that. We might see some of that. We might And you just mentioned Blake Griffin. Don't forget what a good job Matisse did on Blake Griffin in Detroit a couple months ago. I don't know if anyone expected Matisse to have the upper hand in that matchup, maybe just based on purely size KD another good one. Interesting I look forward to Matisse

getting his shot. You never know. It's very interesting to see the way the rest of the league has started legitimizing Matissa's defense. You can tell that players are a little more on guard when he's around, which is interesting. And I wonder if that will transfer over to mister Durant because the two of them have not seen each other yet this season. M Preger underscore thirty put KD in the benitentiary. I think that we can all presume

that Ben Simmons will certainly see some time on Kevin Durant. Yeah, no doubt about that, and Ben will be getting up for this matchup. We know that Ben loves a heated matchup. He's been priding himself on defense all season long. This is a great chance for him to show off what he's been able to do. Elijah underscore forty four. Ben being aggressive offensively and defensively, he is the key to our success. I do think this is a matchup where Ben could be a swing factor. And listen, I know

everyone's saying, well, where's the scoring, Where's the scoring? Personally, I think I agree with this sentiment from Elijah. If he is aggressive, good things happen when he is aggressive, good things happen. Sometimes that could manifest itself as a forty two point game against the Utah Jazz. Other Times it could just be setting the tone for a game, getting downhill, being the facilitator and defensive stop or the Sixers need him to be. If he's aggressive, I think

good things happen. I'm with you, Selts. We say it over and over again, but Ben's priority is defense we know, and getting his teammates involved. If he's able to do both of those things at a high level on Wednesday, the scoring doesn't need to be relied upon as much as people want it to be. That being said, an aggressive Ben is one of the most fearsome I would be fearful of an aggressive Bet in any matchup. So as long as Ben brings that aggression, he brings that

trademark defense, trademark facilitating. I think it will be a interesting Like you said, did you call it an X factor, Celts? He could certainly be an X swing factor. No, I think it used too good to be an X factor, But he could be a tipping point, a tip point I think in this matchup. I mean, I like the Sixers chances when when everybody's firing and everybody's intense on defense. I think this team can beat anyone, as they've proven

all season long. Urn AVT thirteen lockdown defense on Kyrine Katie also letting him beat Feast in the paint dash. Could I have a bag? Yes, I'm going to give urn AVT thirteen a bag, he asked, or she asked, very politely, And you know what I'm gonna do it. Let's do it. Can you shall receive? Those are the rules here. I can't say that's gonna happen all the time, but ourn AVT thirteen did at the right time. Happy

to give you a bag. I'm all about it. That key, all these keys, I mean, if the sixers follow these keys suggested on on I G I think they'll be good to go. But of course, sometimes easier said than done. Obviously, that defense on KG and Kyrie will be huge, and we can probably guess which sixers will divide up those responsibilities in this big one. Robbie Lee Waters says, the Keys are allowing mister Dwight Howard more game now. Listen,

we all love Dwight. Great matchup of the backup bigs in this one, potentially between Dwight and DeAndre could be and we know that Dwight does a good job of getting the mental edge as well. That could be an X factor in this one. I look forward to seeing how Joel matches up with the host of backcourt options that Brooklyn now has. Speaking of Dwight Howard, No, we will not play his latest rendition or two of Benjineese, but we did get a voicemail about Dwight Howard, so

let's check in on that. You have one new message. Hi, I'm alive for us to White Howard fain super fan. I think you should allow to White Howard to play more or even story joy positivity. He's a go getter. Give a dar Bear chat this time? Getting time? Who Yeah? Go with the hour some famous six Ers day? Are you doing it? Yes? That is one of the best voicemails we've gotten. Listen, I'm gonna leave all personnel decisions to mister NFT Daryl Morey and the head coach, Doc Rivers,

but I appreciate the enthusiastic sentiment about Dwight Howard. Anytime we can have a Dwight Howard lifer on the show and getting in the bag, I'm all for it. You our caller says that Dwight brings a lot of joy and a lot of energy. It's clear that you are matching his joy and his energy. Thank you for that call. And I couldn't agree more. I love the people are picking up on the energy and the vibes that Dwight Howard is bringing to this team on a day to

day basis. It was interesting. Someone asked Matisse Sybel and his last media availability what he had learned from Dwight Howard. Actually, I'm remembering that I asked the question. I was bad way to see it up, but I did ask what he had learned from Dwight Howard. That's my bad. And he said that the biggest thing he learned from Dwight is the positive attitude that he brings to the office every day, whether or not it's a game day, whether or not media members fans are able to see it.

Mattis says that Dwight brings a positive attitude late in his career, understanding that his role has changed, that his abilities have changed, he still brings a positive attitude, joy, and enthusiasm to work every single day, which, as we all know, anyone with a job knows that that's a challenge to do on a daily basis really cool to hear that Dwight is a doing it and the people are seeing it. I am a huge fan of that collar, fan of Dwight. Glad it's working out so well with

him in Philadelphia. One more from the podline. Remember two and five, four zero three, seven sixty three seven anytime, any day, anywhere, you have one new message. As much as I love to buy his Harris and Danny Green, it was so awesome to see the Ogs and Bead and Simmons just wreck the Solahoma City team on Saturday night. I also want to give a shout out to Toby and Bob and the Cracker campaign. It is amazing and brings new life to that relationship. So keep up the

good work on the pod here. Thank you. Yes, the Cracker campaign is legit. The goldfish spots between Bobie and Toby so endearing, and yeah, I thought it was cool to see some of the Ogs get in there against Oklahoma City. Ben and Joel do their thing, and Furk who's been around for a while, but listen the goldfish spots. We are on red alert for any new installments when those come out, celts. I get so excited when I'm

watching a Sixers game and that commercial comes up. When I see Boby and Toby on the couch in that living room wherever that living room was, I get really excited because I know I'm about to laugh. I love this commercial. I love the two of them, I love their relationship. It's been such a pleasure to watch the commercial blow up the TikTok challenge about holding goldfish blowing up. The two of them could not possibly be more likable,

and I love the commercials. Tremendous all around outstanding Bravo mailbag, whether you chimed in on social or left a message on the podline. Fantastic work everyone. Thank you. Yeah that was elite. Thank you guys for swag bag winners. We shall be in touch, Lauren, Thank you very much. As always, we will do it again next week. Thank you. Coming up later this week on the seventy six Ers podcast Network, Friday Deep Dive with Divine Givens. Also, if you are

not yet a subscriber, it's the scoop. Find us and follow us by searching seventy six or scoop wherever you get your pods. Starting with the playoffs, those episodes will only be available on the Scoop Feed, no longer on both Sixers Podcast Network and the Scoop that's it, We'll see you