Philly Front Office

We here at Philly Front Office have become a bit cynical about the Sixers over the last few weeks and have not given Mr. Grimes his proper due. He is the type of story that would have had us drooling ten years ago and praising Sam Hinkie for “doing it again” in another trade. It seems like in the trade we got the best player and the best draft pick. Grimes is averaging 22/5/4 as a Sixer while also nabbing over 1.5 steals per game and shooting about 40% from 3…and he’s been even better than that lately. That’ll play.

He’s young too. At almost 25, he is someone we can theoretically build around as a shooting guard. Don’t worry about his fit with McCain and Maxey. I know he is the tallest of the trio at 6’4″, and that is a problem, but it is a problem for another time. This is a guy who can seemingly get his own shot from anywhere and play defense. We can worry about how the 3 of them can coexist on a contender another time, because quite frankly, we aren’t anywhere near being contenders, this year or the next. Here I am being cynical again. Let’s try to enjoy Grimes over these last dozen games and hope his scoring outbursts continue to not translate into victories.

Lottery Odds

We keep bouncing in and out of a tie for the 5 seed with the Nets. They lose, we lose, each continuing to hold serve. We will probably keep up this volley right down to the end, as long as Maxey stays out. Hopefully they have some unforced winners to keep the tennis analogy going.

1 – 9.8%

2 – 9.9%

3 – 10.0%

4 – 10.1%

5 – 2.2%

6 – 20.1% (Odds split due to tiebreaker)

Total – 62.1 % chance to keep the pick

Playoff Odds

Miami has lost 10 in a row. I can’t imagine that has happened too often under Coach Spo. They are our new north star when it comes to elimination. Speaking of which, that number is down to 7 with the loss last night.

(Note: If the Sixers qualify for the play-in but don’t end up making the playoffs, they still have a chance to win the lottery)

Per Basketball Reference, our current odds to finish in each place are:

10 or better – .2%

11 or worse – 99.8% (1.1% increase)

Odds of winning the play-in and making the playoffs – .1% (same)

For those who just want to watch the world burn:

37.8% chance of missing the playoffs AND not keeping a draft pick (same)

Games to Follow Coming Up

Numbers in parenthesis is the number of games ahead and behind the Sixers in the standings. Sixers record is 23-47 with 12 games to play.

March 22

• Brooklyn (EVEN) at Indiana – The last one went to OT and Brooklyn is trying their best. Let’s get it done this time boys!

March 23

• Sixers at Atlanta – This is the Fly the Process game for Rights to Ricky Sanchez. We need 8 dunks and no wins.
• San Antonio at Toronto (+1) – Toronto is still actively losing games and that’s a problem. I can’t imagine Chris Paul not taking advantage.
• New Orleans (-4.5) at Detroit – Tobias Harris averaging a robust 14/6 on 34% from 3 this season. I don’t have any ill will against Tobias. It’s not his fault we paid him $180m over 5 years, the highest possible amount.
• Charlotte at Miami – Miami, consider Charlotte your slump breaker. The Elimination Number can drop to 5 by Monday morning.