they went 10-72 last year. you're high on crack.

7/22/2016 1:30:45 AM

But they added ben simmons and cat barber as his backup.

7/22/2016 3:48:14 AM

Make the playoffs? No. Win 30 games? Decent possibility.

7/22/2016 5:08:08 AM

If Simmons is Lebron-esque, maybe they win 30 games because the team is awful otherwise. The young inside guys all have issues. Okafor is horrible on D and turns the ball over, Noel has an offensive game like Rodman/Ben Wallace, Embiid is broken trash, Saric will be playing against NBA competition for the first time this year. Couple that with a lack of shooting and shit guards and it's a recipe for disaster even if Simmons is a stud.

I think 25 wins is reasonable. Simmons alone will get them media coverage even if he sucks.

7/22/2016 9:01:27 AM

Embiid, by all accounts, is finally healthy and looks to be their best big man. I think they'll move Okafor sooner rather than later. They're probably trying to get a starting guard in exchange for him. Simmons might not be listed at PG, but he's going to be running the offense.

Also saw an interesting tidbit - the Sixers are already at their 20 man roster limit for training camp prior to signing Barber. Kendall Marshall's contract becomes fully guaranteed August 26th, so it's highly probable that he will be cut to make room for Barber.

7/22/2016 10:23:02 AM

Saw that too. Poetic justice for the charge in the ACCT.

As for Embiid. I'll believe it when I see it.

7/22/2016 11:44:00 AM

glad to hear cat got picked up, hopefully he makes the final 15 roster. teams like philly seem like a good landing spot for rookies just hoping to make a paycheck and get some nba experience, since they won't have to compete against elite veterans for roster spots, and also won't be expected to win X amount of games.

7/22/2016 10:05:09 PM

cat signed with the 76ers yesterday

9/1/2016 7:19:21 AM

Good for Cat!

http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/sixers-sign-anthony-cat-barber

9/1/2016 11:13:08 AM

i'm sure he used his Iverson connection to help facilitate that. or...he just balled out like cat do.

9/1/2016 11:40:21 AM

It'd be nice if he could catch on there. Philly won't make the playoffs this year but they are ~2 years away from a decade long playoff stretch. Simply far too many assets not to be a really good team.

It's a shame they didn't keep hinkie though. They'll probably only win 25-30 games this year. A lot depends on embiid obviously. But simmons is gonna be nasty.

And they have like $75m in cap space next year. They did a nice job signing placeholders and not blowing their wad this season on all the ridiculous deals signed

9/2/2016 2:26:47 AM

Philly has so much potential, but they need to move some pieces to actually have a team. Their roster right now still makes very little sense. I mean, there's like two guys on that whole roster that are even NBA rotation players at either guard position. Simmons is going to play a lot of point forward, but even with that you can't role into the season with Jerryd Bayless and Hollis Thompson as your backcourt.

They're actively trying to move Okafor and Noel, but I can't see them getting a ton back given the trend away from bigs.

9/2/2016 3:16:42 AM

Cat should see some in-game season NBA action.

I'd think he goes D-league for a stint and gets moved up quickly.

9/2/2016 9:30:28 AM

Philly has established a culture of losing over the last half decade. That won't change anytime soon.

9/2/2016 10:11:19 AM

Lol, a culture of losing amongst a lot of guys who won't even be on the team. The hottest of takes...

They'll probably be above .500 by the '17-'18 season once they add a few players.

It's the nba it's easy to build a 40 game winner. They could have done so this year if they'd spent their cap space. But why do that when they have the opportunity to build a contender?


And Sergio Rodriguez is a better player than Hollis thompson. He improved a lot over the last few seasons.

Ben simmons is gonna be their point forward they shouldnt waste money on a pg that would have been retarded given the plethora of the PG at the top of a draft where they should have 1 or 2 picks in the top 7.

This team is gonna be freaking loaded. They have the lakers and the kings 1st rd pinks AND a swap with sacramento. On top of that they have Simmons, Noel, Saric, and Covington who are all good young players. Embiid is anot absolute freak of nature if he can stay healthy which is 50-50 but certainly more probable than people are giving him credit for.

I don't think Okafor will develop into much but I think they can fool a team into trading for him.


You guys are nuts if you don't like this roster and loaded draft cupboard. These guys are all gonna be restricted free agents and philly is a big market hungry for a winner. They can go deep into the luxury tax.

[Edited on September 2, 2016 at 10:28 AM. Reason : A]

9/2/2016 10:25:44 AM

I mean take a look. The bobcats went from the worst team ever to a 43 game winner in two offseasons by adding only 2 above aberage players. Mcroberts and Jefferson. And a bunch of solid rotation waiver wire guys like Tolliver and Chris Douglas roberts

McRoberts was acquired for virtually nothing (a 30 yo washed up hakim warrick). Jefferson was signed by slightly overpaying.

Our draft picks Biyombo, Kemba, Zeller, and MKG were all very average contributors. Now all have developed into very good players 4-5 years later but none of these guys were better prospects than Noel, Simmons, or Embiid.


Absolutely anyone (except the most inept team in the league Sacramento) can build a .500 team in the nba. The way the system is set up with a soft cap and lottery picks helps. Also the lack of injuries (compared to the nfl), the consistency of player output (compared to mlb), the speed of player development (compared to mlb and nhl).... all this makes for extremely easy team building.

If your goal is to get to .500 the league is flush with tons of easily attainable "solid" players like jared dudley, luol deng, George hill, Andrew bogut, and Robin lopez who will help get you there. These guys move teams all the time because bad teams have no real use for them and as teams look to get younger they become available.

Look at Portland they dumped their entire starting lineup and got back to the #5 seed just by identifying overlooked guys like harkless, davis, and aminu.

Even "good" players like Iguodala switch teams.

The difficulty is acquiring guys who can truly move the needle like Paul George, Andre Drummond, or Kemba Walker. Finding a late breakout star like Paul Millsap, Kyle Lowry, or Derrick Favors.

Landing a true superstar like Harden, Curry, lebron, or Durant Or identifying an overlooked future superstar like Kawhi or Green is the only way to build a contender though.

Philly was not tring to build a 40 game winner. They'd already have one if they wanted that.



Teams like miami just add a bevy of good young players like Josh Richarson, Tyler Johnson, and Hassan Whiteside that no one has ever heard of and supplement with a late lottery justise Winslow and a solid PG Goran Dragic and they're most likely a playoff team even without chris bosh. And this is while losing Lebron, Wade, and maybe Bosh in two offseasons.


Philly would have made the playoffs this year if they wanted to. But why squander the opportunity to build a contender? This is where the hornets really screwed up by not tanking hard enough Between that and letting biyombo walk for nothing it's unlikely we ever make it even to the ECF despite building a really impressive starting lineup this year if mkg can stay healthy



[Edited on September 2, 2016 at 11:28 AM. Reason : A]

9/2/2016 11:19:14 AM

Solid posts. Too bad they are buried in a Cat Barber thread. Need to be in the NBA thread.

9/2/2016 1:17:39 PM

He's on philly though, and they are the future of the league. If he can stick there he's golden. Needs to develop nba 3 pt shot though and he will never fit with simmons .

He could be a nice backup scoring option when simmons sits though if he develops.

I think he has as much potential as a guy lIke Schroder.

9/2/2016 1:20:04 PM

Tanking for 5 years is a moronic way to build a franchise and has never proven to work. The players get paid no matter how many games they lose.

9/2/2016 1:36:48 PM

Tanking is a great way to build an nba franchise

9/2/2016 1:42:16 PM

the Warriors tanked before becoming the Warriors of the last 3 years

9/2/2016 1:55:06 PM

Tanking is a fine strategy, Philly took it to a bit of an extreme and drafted some injured guys. They also didn't draft the best talent of these last few drafts, Minnesota did that.

Philly, Minnesota, and the Bucks are going to be a ton of fun to watch over the next few years, but Philly has the most work to do out of those three.

9/2/2016 2:35:02 PM

Tanking has worked well enough in the NBA that MLB teams are copying that model. Astros deployed it successfully. Braves will be an interesting case study. Some people say the Cubs tanked too, but they were just horribly managed and then hired the GM god Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon.

9/2/2016 4:06:09 PM

Tanking doesn't work when the worst-record team isn't guaranteed the top pick in the draft.

Let alone the misconception that a bunch of lottery players can just "flip a switch" and start winning games against good competition, when they've been conditioned to just lose all the time.

And tanking means intentionally sucking. Not that you happened to have a bad season or two ie the Warriors.

9/2/2016 4:15:50 PM

they went out of their way to lose games the year they tanked

9/3/2016 1:13:04 AM

Please elaborate

9/3/2016 2:13:16 AM

They tanked because the Bynum trade left them completely fucked. They'd given up their picks and they had very little talent. They've literally won every trade over the past 4 seasons and now they are by far the team with the best future in the league if Coleangelo doesn't screw it up.

They got a great haul for jrue holiday who hasn't done anything since they traded him. They got a great haul for MCW who was a bust. Saric is a great late lottery pick. Okafor looks like a bust but he could possibly develop it looks like he's changed his body composition. Embiid if he ever gets healthy is probably the best center in the NBA. Simmons is a generational talent. Other than Brooklyn having the #1 picks from Sacramento and the Lakers? Whose picks would you rather have??

Noel is about to get $20-25m/yr as one the leagues defensive stalwarts. He doesn't fit with Okafor which is an issue. They clearly should have drafted Porzingis as theyd be a .500 team with him this year but he wouldn't work out for them and the organization chickened out.

The only reason they sucked last year is they disn't have a point guard after kendall marshall got hurt. And they tried to play okafor and noel together which took away Noel strength of playing center. He's not a good power forward because he has no range and it pulled him from the basket. He needs to be around the basket. Okafor was an absolute nightmare defensively, he has to improve markedly on that end to be playable.

Simmons cant shoot so he has to play a lebron facilitating role. It will take him 4-5 years to become dominant but he's a guy who grabs the rebound in traffic and starts the fastbreak. That's one of the biggest advantages you can have in the NBA. It also allows them to find a defensive PG who can shoot to pair with him. The guy is unstoppable getting in the lane with a head of steam. He's a better pure passer than Lebron. He's got the kind of game that will translate in the playoffs. He's going to get to the line constantly and you can't help too much on him because that plays into his passing strengths.

This whole "losing is imgrained" theory is bullshit. Almost none of the guys were there for the losing. Embiid, Saric, and Simmons are 0-0. They have early lottery picks the next several drafts with all their own picks, the lakers pick this year, the kings pick in 2019 ( which is the year after Boogie leaves sacramento), and a pick swap with the kings this year.

Noel has lost a few games. So what? The 76ers were a lot better than their record suggests. They played at a high pace and shot 3 pointers wIth guys who coukdnt shoot because they insisted on playing the style they WANT to play when they get good. They disn't try to slow the pace down and take shots they were more likely to hit because they wanted to instill their system.

Now management made a huge mistake switching from Hinkie to Coleangelo but Coleangelo hasn't screwed it up yet. And they haven't fired Brett brown yet And remember Coleangelo built the Nash Suns so he isn't anti - fast pace basketball.

Simmons is really underrated. The nba rookies voted and said Kris Dunn will win ROY. LOL. I'll bet my life Simmons or Embiid wins ROY if they don't miss the season with injury. I doubt Kris Dunn is top 3. Maybe even top 5.


Also, best young team in the league is Denver. I'd much rather have their roster than Minnesota. I don't buy into the Wiggins and Lavine star hype they haven't done anything yet. And Towns and Jokic are roughly equal prospects. Denver is loaded through all 15 roster spots.

Utah is about to win ~50 games with a pretty young roster too. Minnesota is still all hype at this point. They were 29-53 last year.

9/3/2016 3:30:09 AM

^^

http://www.businessinsider.com/golden-state-warriors-nba-tanking-2013-5

9/3/2016 11:51:52 AM

Ah, I had completely forgotten about that. I still have my doubts that it's going to work out with Philly.

9/3/2016 2:45:03 PM

Miss you kitty cat, miss you even more on days like today.

1/8/2017 10:58:17 PM

yea, he would've made the difference




































































































LOL

1/9/2017 10:01:02 AM

Quote :

"The Atlanta Hawks are planning to sign guard Cat Barber on a 10-day hardship deal out of their G League affiliate College Park, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The former McDonald’s All-American and NC State star gets NBA call after being undrafted in 2016."

12/25/2021 12:31:05 PM

RIP Trae Young's career

12/25/2021 2:53:54 PM

Oh hell yeah. Go cat go

12/25/2021 9:11:52 PM

he played 1 minute 56 seconds today, had 1 assist, 1 turnover, and was +5 +/-

probably in garbage time though as the Hawks lost by 14, but I didn't see any of the game

12/26/2021 1:38:54 AM

PI!!!1i

https://packinsider.com/2022/08/21/where-are-they-now-cat-barber/

8/22/2022 10:40:17 AM

lol at that face post

Quote :

"Noel is about to get $20-25m/yr as one the leagues defensive stalwarts. He doesn't fit with Okafor which is an issue. They clearly should have drafted Porzingis as theyd be a .500 team"

8/22/2022 11:30:07 AM

Wonder how many guys are heading to Ukraine now??

8/22/2022 10:50:43 PM