Because Noel was injured and he with Okafor, who doesnt play defense, play same position as Embiid. Ilyasova does neither, so he plays. Oh, and their coach wants to win, so he plays their best players, Oh and their GM was in love with Bargnani, so that moron gonna keep bringing players like Ersan to limit progress of youngsters. That franchise is a mess and they brought the worst man to fix it.
Exactly, they want to win few more games instead developing their youth, at worst they would increase? their trade value, they deffo won't do it by playing them few minutes. I don't even pitty them (76ers) anymore.
I watched the game last night. It was horrible. The worst game of the year I have watched. Ersan was NEEDED. Not to win, but without a player who knew what he was doing even as roleplayer, the game Philly was playing could leave the threshold of organised basketball and resort to chaos. Thanx to Ersan at least the ball was moving a bit in the perimeter and reaching Embiid or Stauskas. Young players to develop also need vets on the court with them. The situation is already as bad as it is, don't make it worse by having none out there.
Ersan has beaten those guys out so far. Okafor has had and still gets plenty of minutes necessary to develop, but he hasn't developed at all in a year so it's time to add some accountability to his diet. Ersan btw hits 3's, tries on defense and IIRC leads the league in charges taken at something like 1.6 charges per game. Put that into context, that's better than 1.6 blocks a game because the team always keeps possession after a charge is drawn. He's protecting the paint and with Embiid is opening up the floor, except they have no one capable of penetrating. Noel is still getting into game shape and they've already said they will try him out with Embiid more. There are plenty of minutes. This narrative is so ridiculous. Embiid and Illyasova play 27 minutes each. That leaves 21 minutes at C and 21 minutes at PF for Okafor, Noel and Saric to compete for. Which one of those three have earned a minute more than that so far? None. And that's plenty of time to develop and make a case for more minutes. Noel has been a whiny b**** when in reality he's in a good situation, he CAN fit in with an Embiid that hits 38% of his 3's and has a midrange game. I don't think Saric or Okafor have complained. The Sixers problem is that they have no starter level players in the backcourt. They should take a big risk and acquire Rondo outright. The risk is obviously Rondo seems to have issues with every team he joins, but what the hell do the Sixers have to lose, it's not like their lockerroom is stellar and it could help to have a champion in there. Rondo's contract for next season can be waived for about $3m. Hits 1/3rd of his 3's so it's not like he's Rubio. If he buys in, they would do really well. If not, cut him. Embiid/Noel Illyasova/Okafor Covington/Saric Stauskas/Henderson Rondo/Fernandez That's a playoff team in the East.
Okafor isn't a very good player in the current NBA. Noel was hurt and doesn't have much going on between his ears. He is out of place offensively and defensively far too often. That can cripple a defense.... we saw it with Lin, Parsons and even Harden at times. It is compounded when it is an interior big.
Ersan is actually very underrated. He's shooting near 40% from 3s on a dysfunctional 76ers team that doesn't know how to play offense together (yet). If he was on the Rockets, he'd slide into Ryan Anderson's role and you all wouldn't notice a difference.
he's playing ok on philly which isn't saying much but no. but for someone who probably doesn't truly understand the game yeah probably.
Yeah I'm not high on Okafor. Can't defend and doesn't even try. His offensive game is nice but not many teams even want a post up center anymore. I could see him helping a winning team, but I don't see him being a main piece of a winning team.
We need to stop looking at this team, its becoming more and more likely that Okafor will be the one traded and if that's so he doesn't fit our system. Noel would be sweet but Embiid has gone to bat for him publicly basically begging the sixers not to trade him, last night they played together and they actually looked really good together. Thunder dangled Ersan all preseason and only Philly bit and he's starting and contributing so they're probably gonna keep him
