Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Work cut out for Sixers after another loss against Boston


The rivalry between the Sixers and Celtics has been one-sided of late to say the least. After yesterday’s 121-114 victory in overtime, Boston has now won 16 of the last 18 regular season meetings with Philadelphia and dispatched of the Sixers in five games in last year’s second round. Yesterday did nothing to change the narrative that the Sixers are a different team for all the wrong reasons against the Celtics.

Most of these games have followed one of two scripts. Either it’s over in the first half and the Sixers never have a chance, or it’s a game they should win and find a way to lose late. Often, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid have wilted down the stretch in the hotly contested games. Brett Brown has been outcoached by Brad Stevens in many of these games. Boston has a much deeper bench than the Sixers which was reflected in the box score yesterday. Jimmy Butler did not get a touch at the end of regulation when the Sixers had a chance to win the game. Instead, JJ Redick missed a jumper he had a good look at.

                                                       USA Today Images
Brett Brown has struggled to find answers
late in close games against the Celtics.
Given all of this, you’d think it’s night and day when comparing the two teams, and it has been on the court. In the standings, the Sixers are even with the Celtics in the loss column. The top-end talent on both rosters is probably even. However, to go with more depth and a better coach, Boston has more veterans that seem to make more plays in the tight games. If there’s anything to take away from yesterday’s loss, it’s that even with Jimmy Butler, the Sixers are likely not going to get out of the East as presently constructed.

With the trade deadline about six weeks away, new general manager Elton Brand has work to do and not much to play with. Sensing the cupboard that was once full of assets was nearing empty, the organization traded for the Miami Heat’s 2021 unprotected first-round pick at the draft last year with the Phoenix Suns. That Miami pick is team’s lone bargaining chip so they’ll have to get it right if they’re to part with the pick this season. Otherwise, it’s likely that the buyout market is where they’ll turn to in hopes of churning out similar finds to Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova from last season.


What’s scarier for the Sixers is that the Celtics also have much more to negotiate with. There are several young players that have not established themselves as a part of Boston’s core that could be moved in a trade for another star player. The Celtics own more future draft picks as well. In addition to looking up at Boston, Toronto’s trade for Kawhi Leonard has paid dividends and the Raptors may enter the playoffs as the favorite to win the East.

The Butler trade certainly created a buzz around the Sixers that wasn’t there early in the season after they did not land another star in the offseason. But, having seen them for six weeks since, they’re not ready to contend yet and it might be time to start getting concerned.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Lost season set to send Eagles back to the drawing board


There have been a lot of emotional highs and lows for Eagles fans during the last 12 months. It was around this time last year when Carson Wentz was lost for the season and a very promising 2017 looked to be dead. Everyone knows how the year ended.  

As per usual, winning the Super Bowl comes at a cost and the Eagles saw players like Trey Burton, Patrick Robinson and LeGarrette Blount collect paychecks elsewhere for 2018 while opting to give Nigel Bradham a new contract. Assistant coaches Frank Reich and John DeFilippo moved on to bigger jobs with other organizations while Jim Schwartz stayed in Philadelphia. Ironically, DeFilippo is available again after being fired by the Minnesota Vikings yesterday. Reich is the head coach with the Indianapolis Colts, a team on the rise that is flirting with a playoff spot in the AFC this year.

Of course, none of this diminished expectations for 2018 and there was no reason it should have. Doug Pederson did an outstanding job in 2017 and he was still with the team. Wentz was returning. They’d get Jay Ajayi in the backfield for a full season lessening the need to bring back Blount. Prized 2017 draft pick Sidney Jones was healthy and they spent a fourth round draft pick on Avonte Maddox therefore losing Patrick Robinson in the secondary wasn’t supposed to matter much. The first pick they made in the 2018 draft was on a tight end in hopes of Dallas Goedert being a cheaper Burton. Executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman had earned the right to be trusted.

                                                     Rick Schultz/Getty Images
Pederson and Roseman have their work cut out for them
heading into the offseason.

Fast forward to now and they’re under .500 with three games left in the season. So how’d we get here? A defense riddled with injuries is a good place to start, but it’s much more than that. The coaches that have returned have been much worse than they were last year and they’ve failed to replace the ones they lost. There are several hypotheses that could be made about Wentz’s inconsistency, but he hasn’t looked the same especially in recent weeks. While the team has stayed healthy on offense for the most part, Ajayi’s injuries woes returned and they’ve struggled to run the ball all season. Wentz is now the most recent injury so how’s that for coming full circle? Prior to all the injuries, the defense choked away a lead in Tennessee and was torched for too many big plays in Tampa Bay. Lastly, multiple players simply have not performed as well as they did last season.

Put it all together and you get a 6-7 team that’s found lots of ways to lose. Even their wins have been relatively uninspiring save for a blowout victory in the Meadowlands against the New York Giants.  The only pain left now is the continued tease of the NFC’s final playoff spot. The last wild card is there for the taking yet none of the teams are separating themselves with three weeks left in the regular season. Whoever “earns” the spot won’t be taken seriously in the postseason and with good reason. Fortunately, it’s not going to be the Eagles and there won’t be a façade to hide behind. It would be easy to sugarcoat the season as one that still resulted in a playoff berth despite the slew of injuries they suffered. It would also be delusional.

Could the Eagles return in 2019 and look more like last year’s team than this year’s? A lot of that probably hinges on how high of a level Wentz plays at but it’s certainly possible they’re right back in title contention at this time next season. It also hinges on how much retooling Roseman can do around Wentz. They don’t have enough playmakers on offense and pass protection was an ongoing issue most of the season. On defense, there are lots of question marks in the secondary, obvious holes at linebacker and a decision to make regarding defensive end Brandon Graham. Whatever happens in these final three games, you can start making your big boards and taking a look at upcoming free agents. There’s work to be done.


Photo: https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2017/3/1/14779738/eagles-howie-roseman-doug-pederson-nfl-combine-2017-press-conference-video-live-watch-media

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Firing Hextall signals concerning shift for Flyers


The only thing consistent about the Flyers at the quarter turn of the NHL season was their inconsistency. A stellar performance one night would lead to a pair of clunkers later in the week. A blowout loss last weekend on Hockey Night in Canada against the Toronto Maple Leafs was the latest lopsided defeat. Fans were growing impatient as a season, and apparently so were the men upstairs.  On Monday, President Paul Holmgren and Comcast Spectacor Chairman and CEO Dave Scott made the decision to relieve Ron Hextall of his duties as the team’s Executive Vice President and General Manager.

On Tuesday, the team found another way to losing in embarrassing fashion allowing three goals in the third period against Ottawa to watch what was a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes become a 4-3 loss in regulation. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Hextall’s dismissal was an indication that Holmgren and Scott were fed up with the same middling results that had the Flyers on the playoff bubble in each of the previous four seasons Hextall was in charge. Unsurprisingly, two of those seasons ended with first-round exits, while the other two ended without playoff berths.

Before Hextall took over in 2014, Holmgren was the general manager and these kinds of seasons were equally as common. Yes, the Flyers made a run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010 but that team needed a shootout victory in the final game of the regular season just to get into the postseason so it’s not exactly like Holmgren had built a beast. Surely enough, they would lose in the second round in 2011 and 2012 and have not won a playoff round since.

Despite the results being largely the same under both general managers, their styles could not have been more different. Holmgren was super aggressive and one to always go for it, while Hextall opted for a more conservative approach. That the results were not much different under each man probably says more about Holmgren than it does Hextall. Sure, the team won several playoff rounds under Holmgren, but the expectations were always to be in the Stanley Cup conversation and they fell short far too often. This resulted in a flawed roster with lots of bad contracts and a depleted farm system. Time and time again, Holmgren would look to fill the team’s biggest holes even if it meant overpaying in a trade or in free agency. Coming up short just meant the Flyers had less roster flexibility and salary cap space.

The Flyers were trapped in mediocrity upon Hextall’s arrival. They were good enough to get into the playoffs most years but bad enough to not do anything once they got there. The only way to get out was to peel the band-aid off. That’s what Hextall did and the focus shifted from a win-now mentality to hoarding draft picks and collecting prospects. In doing this, it’s hard to remain competitive, and it usually leads to fielding one of the league’s worst rosters though the Flyers managed to remain somewhat watchable. For as bad as they looked at times in last year’s opening round playoff series against Pittsburgh, they held a two-goal late in the second period on home ice in the sixth game with a chance to send things back to the steel city for a game seven against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.

                                                           Tom Gralish/Philly.com
Scott and Holmgren ran out of patience on Hextall (left)
and fired him on Monday.
None of this is to say the Flyers were close to becoming a serious contender, but there was progress being made. The Flyers had one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL, lots of cap space for the first time in years and it looked like the results were starting to come through on the ice after a 98-point season in 2017-18. Hextall then dished out the second biggest contract of the summer in the NHL, bringing James van Riemsdyk back to Philadelphia for five years and 35 million dollars. Though, for a lot of the good things he did, ignoring the horrendous penalty kill and lackluster goaltending situations in the offseason are probably the biggest reasons the former Flyers goalie is now also a former general manager.


For a while it seemed like Hextall’s coach Dave Hakstol was the one bound for the guillotine. Another potential drawback of Hextall in charge was that many felt he was loyal to a fault when it came to Hakstol and wouldn’t pull the trigger on a coaching change. Regardless, Hextall is out and in listening to Holmgren and Scott speak yesterday, it sure seemed like other than a lack of patience, they had no other reason to fire Hextall now. Scott referenced the trade deadline at the end of February, and seemed to give off a vibe that Hextall would have been content to stand pat. Hextall’s methodical approach was necessary but so out of the norm for the organization that they assumed he would stay this way forever.  

Flyers fans should hope that Hextall’s successor shares a similar vision, because if he doesn’t, the franchise may be headed right back to the way things were under Holmgren, which could undo lots of Hextall’s good work. Maybe Holmgren and Scott will be proven correct and Hextall was not the guy to see his own plan through. But the only reason he did not have the opportunity to do so was because he operated in a way the organization was not used to.