FanPost

Hype and Hope

If you are a fan of the Rockets, you are being asked to believe that Boogie Cousins and John Wall can turn back the clock at least half a decade, when they were both rising young NBA all-stars with futures as bright as can be,

If you are fan of the Wizards, you are being asked to believe that Russell Westbrook will become the ultimate backcourt partner for Bradley Beal, and that they can be the next great NBA backcourt, meshing like Steph and Klay, and leading the Wizards resurgence to relevance.

If you are a fan of the Nets, you are thinking that KD will come back instantly at 100%, and that Kyrie will distribute and score in perfect proportions to meet the needs of all of his teammates. Also, the earth is flat...

And if you are a Sixers fan, you are believing every word coming out of camp - kumbaya has arrived, and Ben and Jo have achieved both health and maturity, and all of their teammates young and old will fill their new roles perfectly.

So is it all just camp hype, or do we have some real hope here, more than some of those other 'delusional' fanbases??

No one of course can speak to this with any degree of certainty, not yet, but we perhaps can ponder some ideas in this regard....

Note that the best years thus far with Embiid/Simmons included not just shooters such as JJ and the rest, but also Brett surrounded by solid top assistants to handle the Xs and Os, while Brett slowly brought this team out of the worst of the Process Era with his own version of the good guy kumbaya stuff with the ever shifting roster that he had to manage in his early seasons as the Sixers coach. Those years and his survival brought him a lot of goodwill especially as the team began to turn the corner on talent while retaining the memory of those years of struggle...

But when Brett lost some top assistants just as the team was getting to the playoffs his Xs and Os deficiencies finally were exposed for all to see, and goodwill is like helium leaking out of a balloon when the losing starts to really mean something come playoff time and the players feel that hurt in a personal way, and the person that is looked to for answers has none. And on top of that some of the key locker room guys that had started out with Ben and Jo disappeared at the same time.

So now we get a fresh voice - along with some truly top notch Xs and Os guys in the assistant roles once again, plus some new shooters to space the floor, plus some better health, and the natural maturity proceeding apace in our young stars, and even one of the old locker room Process survivors back in the fold. And the natural hunger that comes from dealing with some disappointments. All at the same time....Hmmm, makes you wonder, even makes you have some hope....

So if the guys in the room can take the opportunity to begin to buy into some of this that will be very much self-reinforcing is my thought. And if Jo has really taken the opportunity to get into career best conditioning this offseason nothing will do more to get our defense back to where it once was when Jo was a premier rim protecting, pick and roll busting trap and recover guy, and not the earth bound aching knees poor man's version of himself on that end of the floor.

And if Ben Simmons is really back to focusing on making plays rather than making shots, on stopping penetration on D and getting out and running and finding the shooters on the wings or taking it all the way to the goal, then maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to get past the hype, and find some real hope once more....

Thoughts??

A user-created LB joint. The Liberty Ballers staff does not contribute to FanPosts.