The BroadCast | What Have We Learned?

at both ends of the floor can't even done. From Ben Simmons to Tobias Harris, we discuss our biggest takeaways, plus some thoughts on other key members of the rotation who have been playing well. The teenth Bible with a major move and slam. Well done by the rookie for his first who. I'm Lauren Rosen, I'm Devon Givens, I'm Brian Seltzer and this is the broadcast from the seventy

Sixers Podcast Network. We saw it. It happened. They cannot take two seventy six or scrimmage games away from us, and all at all guys, I thought it was pretty promising early stages, yes, but what wasn't like about seeing some seventy six or scrimmage basketball over the weekend. It was fantastic. It was great to see basketball back out there on the floor, great to see that the team seemed like they had their chemistry, and albeit a scrimmage game.

With that being said, with the way that they performed, and we'll get into all of that, it seemed like they were in sync with a loud and things that they did on Friday definitely in sync. I think coming into this we knew it could sort of go one or two ways. Either they were going to look rusty and like they hadn't played in a while and that maybe they were making too many changes, or things were gonna click. It was gonna be exciting, and luckily we

ended up with the ladder. So I was happy to see that it did look like they were in sync, and it looked like they were having fun, which means a lot to me as a viewer, Like you don't want them to look like they're like barely making it through out there, but they really look like they're having fun, and so I'm excited about that we're going to get into the nitty gritty of what we saw. But you just mentioned Lauren as a viewer key phrase about those

two scrimmages. What'd you think of the presentation of what we saw. I thought it was really cool. I liked it more than I thought I was going to. I didn't know how much I was going to miss the crowd, but to be honest, the lighting in there is spectacular. It really looks like a TV studio that they're playing basketball in because obviously they tailored this just for basketball on TV. So from a quality perspective, the quality was high. It was really easy to see everything. I don't love

all the innovative camera angles. I find them a little bit disorienting, but maybe that just makes me old school. Overall, I thought it was a really good viewing experience. I thought the way that you can see them on the bench, the way that you can see the coaches interacting, was really interesting and I'm excited to keep watching basketball like that. I really liked the way it looked. I like the

ca I disagree, Lauren. I did like the cameraing was I like where they went with it and the lighting. I agree with you on It was very easy for me too as a viewer, as you guys are mentioning, very easy to follow, and the one aspect with the lighting, of course, it had a kind of a world games feel when the teams go to these different countries and all and they play these games. It had that kind of feel to me, and I was really into it overall, and it was great to watch. It was good to

see it back out there. It was good to see the touches of the floor that were out there as well, and the spacing of the players on the bench, whatever you want to call it. It was interesting to see that as well. They gotta love that if I were a player on the bench or a coach or a staff member who sits on the sideline, you get six feet worth a breathing room that's entirely new real estate

compared to what you'd have in a normal NBA game. Sure, sure, absolutely the other thing, two guys, And I'm sure you noticed that. How many times have we seen and maybe this will be something that they adjust now later on And you kind of not because you love the photos and a video they're taken from on the baseline and

things of that nature. The spacing that they don't have to worry about from the court side seats and the baseline when they land from some acrobatic move that they do not much worry, right, guys, of the bracing of people underneath to catch themselves and try to avoid any type of injury. I thought that for everything that they could reasonably control, NBA did as what by all accounts inside the bubble, it seems like it's been the case consistently,

they did an awesome job. I thought, whether I was listening to t MAC on the radio on the Fanatic, or I was watching parts of the game with zoo Ala and Serena, the sound mix was totally unnoticeable. I don't think you could really tell that much of a difference, with the exception of courses you guys have pointed out the obvious, which is that there were no fans, and that's something that you just can't have right now. So

that's beyond the NBA's control. But for everything that was within their power to control, I thought they did a really really good job. In the seventy sixers, as we start our deep dive for this edition of the broadcast, I also thought did a really really good job in their first two scrimmage games. Can we agree that the second scrimmage against the Oklahoma City Thunder, we're only really counting the first three periods of that before the Sixers rested their starters, or is that a naive way to

look at this? I mean, to me, I would have loved to see our reserves be able to pull it out at the end. But I agree with you. I think realistically, what we're looking for in these scrimmages is how the starters do together, and then how the primary rotation looks, and so far in both when they're working

with those key contributors. Let's say they've played really, really well and at the end of the day, the reserves that were playing at the end of the Okay See game, even though it didn't end the way we wanted it too, necessarily they got good experience that maybe they wouldn't have gotten otherwise towards the end of the season. The way we had these mid season scrimmages, you will. I agree with you. I think realistically we can look at the first seven out of eight quarters and call it a

win overall. Absolutely agree with you both. You definitely focus on those first three quarters of the Oklahoma City game and the win. You always want to come away with

the w just because of morale. You walk away with the win and with those players that are trying to maybe find themselves in the playoff rotation once things get underway for the postseason, of course, they want to go out there and perform weather and show their teammates, show their coaches that they can close out a game, especially with the big league like they had. But for what we saw from the regular group, if you will, I thought they did a fantastic job in their first showing

together since they returned to the floors. Very very encouraging to see them play the way that they have played being away from each other for so long. I definitely walk away from that second scrimmage with the Thunder and say, the first three quarters and starters and the big reserves right there that we think we believe will be in

the rotation certainly showed themselves well. Big picture, when we step back and look at some of the main themes surrounding the Sixers, what were the two things that Brett Brown talked about before the team even left for Orlando, Florida. Would the team come back with a solid fitness base and with a team play together, with a spirit, camaraderiechemistry, whatever you wanna call it. I don't know what the other twenty one teams in the bubble did, but I

feel totally confident in saying that. However, the seventy sixers spent their time on their own and then together before going inside the bubble. They came back fit, ready to play, taking it very serious and for as much as you can come out with purpose in a scrimmage, I think they did it. It It seemed like they were really in lockstep with one another for as much as they could be. Suordan.

A lot of times you have to worry about the conditioning, as Brett Brown was talking about with the fitness basin. So far through these eight quarters it had everything seems to be to be fine. Now you have to worry about the little knick knacks like Glenn Robinson the third picked up how Unto as well, and even Joel and Be with the cash strain. But so far nothing to really hold your breath with in terms of how this

team looks coming back. As you pointed out, Sos in the conditioning that they are getting ready for back in basketball Sheep so good showing, and you hope that that just maintains and they're able to collect their basketball breaths as they go along through the final scrimmage, the eight games, steating games, and then certainly a long run in the

postseason as well. Guys, I think we may have set some sort of record for Sixers related content within the last forty eight hours that we've gone like eight and a half minutes without referencing the name Ben Simmons at all. He has been so off the charts. I think everyone has been able to see what he's been doing so well. But I mean, listen, eighteen assists over two scrimmage games in about fifty minutes worth of action. He's not even on the ball. I think that whole experiment it certainly

has legs. We don't know how far it's going to go, or how it could play in a seating game or playoff situation, but at the very least, it looks as if there is no reason to abandon ship on the Ben Simmons playing off the ball and Shake Milton having the opportunity to bring it up and initiate I'm with you, Salts. It feels like such a win win for everybody involved, so maybe a win win win, win win. He looks really good, like he said, on both sides of the ball.

He flirted with triple doubles in both outings in which he played less than thirty minutes. So that's an accomplishment no matter what. And correct me if I'm wrong here, but to me at least, it felt like he was the best player on the floor in both games. And these aren't necessarily teams that they're going to play against unless they meet either of them in the finals down

the road, but these were still quality opponents. And Ben came out there, looked like he hadn't missed a step, looked like he hadn't been injured, looked like he wasn't playing in a different role he had been playing previously. He was so good, And I'm worried about other teams that now are going to have to deal with Ben

Simmons as we continue. The one thing that I kept saying when we talked about this potential change that was made by coach Brett Brown and moving Ben Simmons was He's too good for the ball not to find him, and the ball found him. And when the ball found him, he did what he does. He played basketball, and the instinctual nature of his game is to look for others as well, and he did that. And the fact that he had what nine assists at halftime in game one,

scrimmage number one was amazing. And as you said, it, guys that he didn't even have the ball, primarily in transition of course. And I'll even highlight the one where he was playing Jaren Jackson Junior trying to front him on the post, and they tried to go high low with Jaren Jackson Junior through the past and instead of Benson is knocking it away, he snatches it out of the air, right snatches it out of the air, pushes the brake, draws the attention of the defense right around

the free throw line, extended area. Fur Concords goes to the right corner, quick pass, knockdown three, none, let's move on, let's go to the other way. That's the type of impact. That's what he does when he's on the floor. That's what makes him special when he is just in sync.

As we've been talking about with his overall basketball game, there was the allue blob to Tobias Harris and the first scrimmage One of my favorite plays from the second scrimmage against the thunder was I think Tobias Harris was

bringing the ball up. This might have been in the second quarter, and Ben was playing off on the wing, and he saw Chris Paul up around the free throw line, and he pointed right at Chris Paul, with Tobias having the ball in his hands, as if to say, get me the ball so I can go right at Chris Paul and create that mismatch. He did, and then he made a terrific left handed pass to Josh Richardson, who made a great cut to get to the basket and score.

This all goes back to that notion of the IQ of Ben Simmons, the vision now almost being used in a different way in that situation. Talking about the OKC situation scenario, he was seeing the play on fold a few steps ahead, he realized where he could create an opportunity for a mismatch, and then he delivered. Like he is. To go back to what we've been talking about, he is a play maker, and I don't want to overreact too much two scrimmages, but I also don't want to

undersell us. Seeing evidence of some of the things that Brett Brown and Ben Simmons and other members of the Sixers have been talking about. I think, Davon you said it. The way he's able to get out in transition, the fact that he's still going to be doing that even if he's not the so called primary ball handler, he's still going to have those opportunities to get out on

the break and finish himself or find someone. I remember at the beginning of the hiatus, we had the opportunity to interview most of or all of our players actually to check in on them and see how what they thought about the beating of the season, And one of the moments that you made me think of was Matisse Thybel discussed the fact that Ben has this ability to create looks or finish looks in a matter of whatever, one two seconds before the other team's defense can even

get set, and Matifs called it deflating for other teams. And I think seeing that multiple times now in the scrimmage, even when he's not in his former role, is potentially

really deflating for other teams moving forward. He gets up the court and four steps, so you know, for him to be able to do that at six ten the way he moves, and when we talk about the fitness base in the conditioning, that was number one for me when it came to a player in the seventy sixes that I was not worried about, and that was Ben Simmons.

So the energy is there, the IQ celts as you mentioned, and Lauren, just to point out again the fact that he just finds as you mentioned with Matisse saying that he just finds everyone, and it is deflating when you feel like you're doing everything right. And then Ben Simmons kinds of breaks all of that, breaks all of that up and turns it into something of a positive. For

the seventy sixes, I thought he was tremendous. He assist numbers, the flirting with the triple doubles, and scrimmage games less than on to thirty minutes, really good start in the return in the bubble Shakemail against the Memphis Grizzlies six points, a rebound, three assists against the thunder eleven points, four boards, two dimes. Isn't wrong to look at Shake's roll this way.

Obviously he's got to make some shots to make the whole thing work, but in terms of what he's doing on the ball, just kind of keep the ship running and not do anything to compromise whatever advantages the Sixers might be able to create. Am I wrong at looking at in that prism? I agree with you play within yourself.

Play within yourself too to help the team. Shots will come because you have people who will draw attention to themselves like Simmons and and b and the ball will find you, especially when you are shooting at a very high clip like he was before the season went on pause.

Now coming back and still being able to shoot the basketball so far in these two scrimmages where he looks confident to get out there the same way that you hear guys just talking about him being out there where he looks like he belongs in that starting group with those players that they go on a potential championship run. Absolutely, so I totally agree with you one hundred percent that I just play within yourself, don't play out of the system.

And has never been indication of Shake Milton being that type of player anyway, so this is not surprising. I

don't expect it to be the thirty nine point performance. Again, if it does come, that will be a bonus for them, But just run the team, hit your open shots, play smart basketball, protect the basketball, and the job will be done by Shake Milton that way, I will say that, for as much as we talk about his calm, cool and even killed demeanor, which he does have when he gets out there, at least what I've seen so far

in Orlando, there's an aggressiveness to him. I mean, Chris Paul is no real slash as a defender, and Shake went right at him a couple of times. Absolutely, I think we've talked about it on the podcast. But he's not afraid of any situation. And I think that that's such a big part of why he's found the success that he's found so quickly. He wasn't scared when he spent time in the G League. He wasn't scared when he was filling in for Ben Simmons, and he's not

scared play alongside Ben Simmons. And if he can keep that spirit all the way through these seating games and the playoffs, AND's something Brett Brown has talked about. He can keep the spirit that he currently has, Sky's the limit for Shake another young man worthy of discussion, most certainly for the seventy sixers. Matisse Thyble Gosh Darnett NBA dot com. You usually track deflection numbers in your hustlebox score, but you haven't had them to the first two scrimmage games.

And I suppose if I weren't lazy, I could go back and I could chart deflections on my own. But I also don't even know if we actually have to know the exact number. The I say a lot, right, a lot, he had a lot, especially in that OKAC game,

that it is Matisse Thible. Can we even say, I guess we have to kind of say, for a guy who has not even completed his first full NBA season, vintage Matisse Thible, he was all over the place getting involved, making things happen, and that certainly is going to be a huge part of what the Sixers need if they

want to get to where they want to go. Now he has stepped right into the role that he had before where he just comes in and if it's not offensively like you expect to punch off the bench for that type of player, and you look at him the impact that he does have defensively, it is so impactful with what he does stepping on the floor when Ben Simmons is already there and quite possible when Josh Richardson

is out there as well. So you're talking about three wing defenders that are very, very problematic for the opposition. And the length, the instinctual nature of what he does defensively, and the fact that, I mean, we know it's a it's an extension of the nineteen twenty campaign and getting ready for the twenty playoffs. It's almost like he's right coming into his next season. He's not a rookie anymore, even though they claim him as a rookie because the

season is extended, it's not a rookie anymore. And he's already gained the trust of his teammates. So he just out there free flown and playing that defense the way he knows how to play defense. He hasn't skipped a step la based on his media available since they got to Orlando. He would have loved to hear you say that he's not a rookie anymore, because I know he's still responsible for some rookie duties and he's trying to convince everybody, okay, like in terms of the calendar, it

should be time for me to graduate. But unfortunately it looks like he has a little bit of rookie dumb left, But what you said is correct. He's so disruptive and unafraid. I think in the first half of this last scrimmage against Okase, he had to deal with Chris Paul quite a bit, and he didn't give up. He stayed in there, and then late in the game he played for a little bit longer than some of his teammates did and ended up on Dennis Shrewder and made his life just

really difficult. You could tell he was getting frustrated playing against Matisse, and having a weapon like that on your team is awesome to know you can plug him in and he's just going to pester the heck out of

whoever he's on. Is such a privilege for a team, and I think what we saw from him in these first two scrimmages was really encouraging, and he didn't fall very much at all, which is one of the bigger problems he had in the regular season that Coach Brown talked about a lot is limiting his fouls, limiting the risks he's taking, And it looks like he's taken those

notes and applied them and is seeing the benefits. Now, one thing that I feel like we're not going to have any way of being able to quantify or measure. It's just going to have to be based on anecdotal cases, is how a four month layoff will have affected someone like a Matise, Thyble or even I'm going to put

Alec Burks into this category. Glenn Robinson the third players who we can put them in the experiencing something new in what was the pre COVID era, but then having four months to digest, process mentally kind of what it was that you experienced, and then apply at once play resumes. Because to me, maybe we can call it the slowdown the game factor, because to me, I wonder if it's going to look like the game slows down from ATIS. It's certainly through two scrimmages has looked to me like

things have slowed down for Alec Burks. He seems a lot more comfortable out there. I thought Glenn Robinson was playing pretty well before he had to leave the game against the Thunder over the weekend. So I'm just curious to see how for guys like that, there's certain things that when they were trying to make adjustments or figure out something new for the first time before the suspension of the season. They come back looking playing, competing a

little bit more comfortably. I mean, obviously, Saltz, you never want to find yourself in the situation that we're in. What's going on around the world is just I can't wrap my head around it. And it's been five months. But if you are going to look for a silver lining in the context of seventy Sixers basketball, it does seem like this might be one of the teams that benefits the most of for having time off, because we've seen it with the starters, we've seen it with the reserves,

we've seen it with the team's health. It really does feel like this restart is sort of a blessing in disguise for the Sixers, who now look better than maybe they have in a while. Yeah. Absolutely, And when you mentioned Robinson and Burkes, two players that were acquired at the trade deadline, they play what about a month together with the seventy sixers, and you're right, at one point,

I'm sure the guys really didn't. And when Robinson even mentioned it a little bit, just you know where he fits in his role and how to help the team out as best as possible, and now with this extra time, all the zoom calls that they've had in the offseason, coming together now in this bubble where they've been together for a couple of weeks. Now it's just them. It's the family, it's the brotherhood, and you have to do

this together. You cannot lean on anyone else, your significant other, your parents, or your siblings, or your children or whatever it is. You have to lean on each other right now.

And while the Sixers of course and other teams will benefit from this as well, just being together in that bubble from the perspective of what we see it from our eyes here with this basketball team, Yes, those two players Matista will certainly will help those players out, especially if they're going to play a key role in what

Brett Brown is trying to do with his rotation. Sometimes, unfairly, I feel like players are penalized in the court of public perception for just being steady doing what they're expected to do, even if they're doing it really well and at a very high level. And that seguates me into

bringing up Tobias Harris. Really start for Tobias the first two scrimmages for the Sixers, I think he's put together, as he did throughout the regular season, some clips already of being able to score in a variety of ways, whether it's being able to create room for a pull up jumper amidst a double team on the baseline, showing his strength on a post up for a dunk, knocking down open threes, getting out on the run, and finishing

in transition. So far, to Bias Harris, I think it's been very steady to the first two scrimmages, and maybe that's one of the reasons why it just hasn't caught that much attention so far. But I feel like he's played pretty well. He has. I can highlight just a few where as you talked about the mid range game, pull up on the baseline where he had a couple of short ones that went in for him. They look very pure for him with what he does at six

nine and shooting over the smaller defender. Also one where I believe Ben Simmons missed a close up shot and he was the one, to Bias Harris that got the rebound, missed, got another rebound, miss grabbed it, backed himself back underneath the bucket and tipped it up and end for the two, and you love to see that kind of extra the extra bounce that he had in him, the quick extra bounce to go up there among those trees down there

and find that. But you're right, as we talked about the time off, not only has he maintained and kind of developed that, he maintained it because he seemed like he was doing it before the season stopped. That leadership that he now has on this team, coming together with everyone with the zoom calls during the marching and standing up for everyone during the protests and all that was

happening here in the city in Philadelphia. It's encouraging to see Tobias Harris, as you said, steady, but also more of an maybe impactful way of doing things even right now. Absolutely devon. You said it when you talked about that play where he just wasn't willing to give up, and he was the bell ringer for that first game he had a double double. I believe fifteen and ten. Does that sound right? And when I asked Coach Brown about to buy it after the game, he said he was

most impressed by those offensive rebounds. He had four offensive rebounds out of his ten boards, and that's really impressive. It really does show that he's so committed to what he does and committed to not giving up on the floor. And then the second part of that is his communication

Devon you said it. He's been such a leader for this group on and off the floor, but on Friday, in that first scrimmage, we finally got to see him show the leadership that he's shown in the community and with the team and standing up for what he believes in. Now he's also getting to do it as a player, and it's really cool to see him emerge among his teammates, him emerge in this city, and he's finally getting credit for all the work that he's put in, for how

solid he's been. He's not giving up, and it's really gratifying to see and I hope he feels it too. I think Tobias is sneaky tough too. I felt that when we got to see him more in the regular season when he has opportunities inside. But I'm even thinking of a basket he had against Jonahs Valancunis against the Memphis Grizzlies. He's not afraid to take an inside. I kind of like that about Tobias. I feel we associate him with finesse players on offense, but I feel like

he's got some toughness to him. Yeah he will. He'll sneak in there and it surprise you from time to time when he turns the ball over, not in a bad way, whisking the other way, seems like he's going to be a layup and he turns it over and just flushes it on somebody with force. He'll duncan on you, and that is something that you want to see. Yes, he has that finesse game. We know about the great footwork,

soft touch the range as well well. When he does add that ferocity to him and shows more of that fearlessness going to the basket and not just putting up a layoup, I love when I see that part of Tobias's game as well. Yeah. I mean he's super tough and he can take someone in the post. He can go one on one. I think when you play alongside Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, maybe you don't have the most opportunities to showcase that type of skill. But we know he can do it. We know he's tough, we

know he doesn't give up, and he's durable. I think that's something that he's proving now that he's coming back, and he seems to be in good for him. He actually, I believe, leads the league in minutes played so far this season. He's always there, he's always available. He takes really good care of his body, and that's a pretty underrated thing to have from a player, especially for a team that has dealt with a lot of injuries this year. Tobias has kind of been a constant for this group,

and now he's proving it once again in the restart. Certainly, his ability to score the basketball will be a primary need for the Sixers when the games begin to count. All Right, there's two players left who I wanted to hit. If I weren't a paranoid germophobe, which has been only made worse over the last four months, I would flip a coin, but I ain't touching hard money these days, and I would do a coin flip to see who

talks about Jay Rich and who talks about Al Horford. Lauren, why don't you give us your thoughts on Al Horford? You give a nice spark to the Sixers, put them in front for good against the thunder really got things going then Ivan, I want to hear where you think Josh Richardson is ant sure selts you and I talked about it during the game, how valuable it is to have an all starred talent like Al Horford be able

to come in and back Joel and beat up. Obviously, it seems like Joel's day to day he practiced today, it doesn't seem like he's going to be out for

a considerable amount of time. The fact that we know that Al is going to be able to come in and hopefully play the way he did against the Thunder, I think has got to be a sigh of relief for this group to see him be able to take ownership over that position and be such a solid person that can step in who, like we talked about last week on the broadcast, has proven himself as such a heady but also tough and can finish in the playoffs. Sorry,

that's the word I was looking for. He can get the job done in the playoffs, and that's something that not everybody can do. So looking ahead and knowing that the playoffs are just around the corner, I think Sunday's contest was a good opportunity for Al to show that he can do it, that he can step in and play those minutes and contribute positively. And to see him rain those threes, I mean, that was just a treat to see two because it's not something that you necessarily

always count on from a big man. But he shot four or five from deep I believe, and looked really comfortable and good doing. Yeah. I like the work that he put out there, especially in the game against Oklahoma City Thunder. As far as Josh Richardson, he's the one that always gets lost in these conversations because he's like the fifth or six because Shake Milton and of course the twos All Stars and Tobias Harris so on. But Josh Richardson is as you talked about Selts a little bit.

He also benefits from coming back from dealing with nagging injuries all season long before the break. In the sixty five games that they've had, he's missed a great deal of them. To have him out there, to be a consistent wing who has playoff experience, who has performed well in the playoffs and through the first two games, to me, I think we've seen some good things both offensively and defensively.

I would like a little more offensively, but I know as far as the ball swinging around and touching all the hands, everyone has to take what they can get. But if he can get gone, we've seen him go off like we did in that first game against the Miami Heat in Philadelphia at the Center. Much need to spark offensively from him, and I expect to see some good performances from Josh Richardson going forward to good performances by the seventy sixers in the books. That was our

dissection on this week's deep dive. In this time of social distancing, Novacare Rehabilitation is offering physical therapy from the comfort and safety of your home. Through their new tele a rehab program, Novocare will virtually bring their services to you so you heal, build strength, and get back to the things you love. Tell a rehablets too easily connect with one of Novocare's licensed therapists through web based technology that's hipoc imply more information, visit novocare dot com. Did

you hear? I don't know, did you? That's why we do this segment each and every week. Some perhaps slightly more subtle subplots concerning the seventy sixers and what's going on inside the bubble other things outside of the major takeaways from the first two scrimmage games. Devon Gibvens, what did you hear of note from this past week? Guys? Did you hear Horford talking about guess who Ben Simmons. Here's a couple of things that he said A little quote here. Ben is just being Ben. You know, he

just sets the tone for us. It's like good luck getting in front of him and won't stop him in transition. Such a big body, so fast, explosive, He just knows how to play. He has a really good feel for the game. So those are some things that I thought really stood out to me from Al Horford speaking on Ben Simmons and his spectacular played through two exhibition games.

Really love to hear that from a veteran presence from the playoffs that has done some successful things in the playoffs without Horford and certainly had to defend Ben Simmons in the past. Love hearing what he said about Ben Simmons. I don't necessarily always believe, depending on the situation, that just because you are in a position of authority or expertise,

who should be believed. But I do think it's not worthy to take into account what all of Ben's peers, whether they're on his team or from opposite teams and coaches around the league consistently say about him. I don't think anyone would say Ben just complete yet, and there's still certain important things that he has to figure out. But it just seems like the opinion's unanimous around the

league what people think of this guy. Yeah, and it is something to pay attention to as they get deeper and deeper again and to the meat of the season with the eight seeding games and certainly the playoffs. It is great to see him out there performing as well and everyone noticed, and they will definitely have their eyes with him once the playoffs get underway. Lauren, what did you hear? Well? So I'm gonna go with something that Brett Brown said on Monday morning about how good the

NBA has been at curating and protecting this bubble. We talked last week about the fact that the league revealed that there were no positive COVID tests among the three hundred and forty six players tested in the bubble, and today, along with plenty of other times, Brett Brown gave the league some serious props for the production, and production doesn't even feel like a big enough word for the ecosystem

that they've created. I think that what the NBA has done the environment that we are all in is spectacularly brilliant. I think it's elite. I conceie that it's early days, but let's just say what we know now continues. Every day I take my temperature, and every day I do my oxygen test and it immediately goes to a bluetooth device on my phone that lets me in places. Every day I'm tested with mouth and nasal swaps, and I just can't imagine it not being or having the chance

to be a blueprint to many things. I give a complete thumbs up to Adam Silver in the NBA. I'm proud to be here. I feel safe being here. That lets me do my job. That's huge. I feel great about the fact that they're there, They're feeling at home,

and most of all, they're feeling safe. Listen, we talked on a pretty regular basis with two of our colleagues who we work closely with who are inside the bubble, from the public Relations department and from the content department, and at this point, about two and a half three weeks in and speaking with them, it sounds like it's kind of for as much as business could be conducted as usual, it's business as usual. It seems like, yeah,

it seems like they're comfortable. And to be honest, when Coach Brown likes something, he comes up with the right words to say that he likes it, that he endorses it. And when I tweeted out that quote that I just read to you, a lot of my followers, you have to give a shout out to six or Twitter here. They love hearing Coach Brown excited about stuff. So with

the words spectacularly brilliant. The mentions on this tweet were all about how random Philadelphians would love to hear Brett Brown give them a compliment at some point because it would just feel so good and it means, you know, whatever it is is done well. I mean to say, spectacularly brilliant. That's got to feel good to whoever's receiving the compliment. Spectacularly brilliant, high praise. How about your celts,

what did you hear this week? Good? That spared me from having to painfully ask myself in the third person, what did I hear? I heard? Ben Simmons talking about virtual fans. If we're not playing hard, I want to hear those booths, but that's that's you can't put this ear. And they have the fans of the screen and kind of replicated six or fans. You know we're one of the kind, so um, they'll do that best. But there's

nothing might playing at home at Wells Cargo. Why not pump in some simulated crowd noise to keep yourself honest. I think that's a great idea. I also thought the first scrimmage game we saw, which was against Memphis on Friday, that was, I guess, a designated home game for the Sixers, compared to Sunday's game, which was a thunder home game.

Loved hearing some of the staple auditory elements that you would come to expect at a home game at the Center, whether it's the free throwmade jingle, the mister Burns excellent, or some of the music like Dan Dan Dan Dan. I thought it was it was auditory comfort. It made me feel at home at place in South Philadelphia, even if it was only in mind and not in body and souls. How about hearing here come the Sixers. Yeah, terrific. Perfect. I think again this goes to bring it all together

before we say goodbye. I think this goes back to what we talked about at the beginning of the pod that for as much as the league and teams can control things within the bubble, they're doing a great job. Can't have the fans, We know that, But as far as everything else goes, bang up. Job by the NBA and it's teams all right. We have got one more scrimmage game to go. In fact, it is later on

Tuesday night against the Dallas Mavericks. So an opportunity for the seventy six is to put in a little bit more work before seating play begins against the number five seed team right in front of them, the Indiana Pacers on Saturday, and only speaking before then, but at least within the context of the pod. Thank you very much, thanks for having me. As always, Devon Gibbons. We will be hearing and talking to you on the radio man. See it seals, Lauren. Always great to be with you.

Thank you out there for listening, and enjoy the final bit of scrimmage action before we really really get NBA seventy six is basketball in a few short days. See it