The Sixers Walk Past Reigning Champion Knicks 120-97 In Preseason Opener

The Sixers first preseason game, though lacking some key pieces and big stars, was an incredible way to start the year and hopefully sets a precedent for the upcoming season. Embiid, Maxey, and Lebron all sat out, while Simons, Barlow, Bona, and Fall were held out due to injury, and Hukporti unfortunately went down a few plays in due to an Achilles injury, but was able to show some really good flashes before that which makes the injury all the more upsetting for Sixer fans.

Jaylen Brown set the tone early on from an aggression standpoint on both ends of the ball, and you can tell early on that he’s gonna be something special for us.

For so long, we had stars that we had to make excuses for: Ben Simmons doesn’t need to shoot, Tobias Harris is overpaid but still a good played, James Harden hasn’t won anywhere but that’s just because he ran into dynasties, PG never plays and is super streaky but did you see his help defense? Jaylen comes with no excuses, just results. He reminds me of 4th quarter Jimmy Butler except for the entire game. Also similarly, to Jimmy, he doesn’t care who’s on the court with him, he’ll find a way to win. Give him the 3rd stringers and he’ll beat the starters; give him a team of young unproven guys and he’ll get you the 2 seed.

The past 2 seasons, I’ve dreamed of our team somehow having 2 things: depth and culture, and it looks like we finally have that. Yeah, the Spurs and Thunder have top 5 players in Wembanyama and Shai, but the real differentiator is that both have an unreal culture and depth that they’ve mostly developed from within. That’s what separates them. They have so many young guys that are legitimate threats on both sides of the ball. My biggest takeaway from this game is we’re a lot closer to that then I realized.

You could see our culture building since we finally started retaining our young end of bench guys, but it looks like the work is also paying off. Obviously, we drafted Labaron Philon Jr. 22nd overall, and he’s looking like a stud already when his shot gets a bit more consistent with reps, but also Jabari Walker, Justin Edwards, and Caleb Love all look like regular rotation players are waiting in reserve at the end of our bench.

We have a history of wasting roster spots, but everyone on this team can play real basketball, which is something I’ve been begging for. No mentors, no forced projects, just hoopers. There will be no excuses to lose when guys rest because we have the depth and the killers to lead them.

The most unfortunate part was obviously the Hukporti injury, which stings really, really badly. I spent all off-season talking up on him and how important he will be for us, and in the brief moments we’ve seen from him (the Blue and White Scrimmage and part of the first quarter last night) he looked really good. He reminded me of a player that left the Knicks the year Ariel joined: Isaiah Hartenstein. His mid range float game was on target and he made multiple good passes, most notably to Dean Wade before going down.

We absolutely need a young 7 footer with good hands and it looks like he was about to have a career year and further our young culture and depth. It really sucks, but I would expect us to give him another chance next year when healthy, though a preseason Achilles tear at 24 for a 7 footer might be too much to recover from.

Tonight we saw what a staggered bench lineup would look like along with some extended bench players, so imagine what this team, that beat the reigning champions playing their entire lineup for some reason, as the backup for the glimpses of what this team will look like from the Blue and White Scrimmage. It’s just nonstop offense and to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure many teams can keep up with that. This is going to an unreal year everyone, get excited!