At this point, it's time for Philadelphia 76ers General Manager Daryl Morey to say goodbye to Head Coach Doc Rivers. Rivers is just an average coach who just so happened to win a championship with the right talent when he was coach of the Boston Celtics.
It's the same thing with former Bucks Head Coach Mike Budenholzer and former Lakers Head Coach Frank Vogel. They're just average coaches who had the talent and those teams won. They don't make adjustments, it's just stating the facts. When Jayson Tatum can go off for 51 points in a closeout game on his home court, it's all you need to know at this point.
Doc Rivers has blown 3-1 and 3-2 leads in so many series, I've lost count. He just doesn't have it and it doesn't mean he's not a good guy. It just goes to show you some coaches aren't really that good.
It's not that Philadelphia didn't have the talent to win, they may have had the wrong players (James Harden). Is it fair to say that James Harden is just not the player you need for “win or go home” games? Yes. May we be reminded of how many times he's fallen short while playing for the Houston Rockets. It's not a surprise he crumbled when Boston put the clamps on him in Game 7 on Sunday afternoon.
Next, let's address the NBA MVP Joel Embiid. Once again, a regular season award because if we're voting for playoff awards, LeBron, Jayson, Jimmy and Nikola are in the conversation for that. Embiid fell short in a crucial game that would've finally pushed Philly over the hump and gotten the match-up with the Miami Heat.
To say in a press conference, “Me and James can't do it all ourselves, it's a 5 on 5 game” I would've loved for him to explain that comment in more detail. I say this because Tyrese Maxey had 17 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists in Game 7 and Tobias Harris had 19 points and 5 rebounds. That's 36 of your 88 points in that game.
You and James Harden combined for 24 points, a horrid 8 for 29 from the field, 1 for 9 from downtown and 9 turnovers. So once again Joel I'll ask you, what exactly did you mean with your comments regarding you and James doing it all?
If it weren't for Tyrese Maxey most games this season, y'all aren't at this point, I don't need to state the stats because what I'm saying are all facts. Maxey was one of the first guys to congratulate you when you won your first MVP. You might want to take a quote from Giannis and take the blame on yourself this time. You no longer have Ben Simmons to point to as the scapegoat.
It's obviously time to blow up things in Philly. It's time to move on from James Harden, put the ball back in Maxey’s hands and bring in a new coach because Doc’s raspy voice isn't reaching the players anymore.
It's also time to have a solid backup center that can fill the void of not having Embiid for the bare minimum of 20-25 games going forward. We all know Embiid will never play all 82 games in a season for as long as he's in the NBA.
At the beginning of this season, I made it clear that Boston and Milwaukee were the only contenders. I wasn't sold on Miami and even though they've made it this far, I still feel Bam Adebayo needs to turn into that legitimate, consistent Robin that Jimmy Butler needs since he's the Batman of the team.
The Philadelphia Fakes have some time to reflect and think of what's next. Hopefully they make the right decisions because bringing back James and Doc spells another doomed season…
