👋 Good morning! Did I enjoy the Whit Merrifield Phillies era? Not particularly, longtime readers can vouch for that, but I enjoyed his retirement letter.

“Philly, I liked you way more than you liked for me. Sorry I stunk for you.” LOL, enjoy retirement and that million bucks that the Phillies are paying you this year man. — Rich Hofmann

As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Tonight is the night. We will be live poddin’ at The Boozy Mutt in Fairmount, which you can RSVP for here. You do need to RSVP, though, because we are getting extremely close to capacity for the upstairs portion of the event (where we are poddin’). Free event, but you have to RSVP.

If you do not RSVP or RSVP too late, you might have to hang out downstairs for a bit… which still should be a good time, they will have the draft on and there will be a bunch of dogs in the outside area. Just letting you know!

OK, final big boards were released on yesterday’s pod. Let’s do this, Q&A style…

Do you know what the Sixers are gonna do? No! But let’s talk through it, you and me.

Does there seem to be a likeliest outcome? If I had to bet on the likeliest outcome, it would be the Sixers sticking-and-picking Baylor shooting guard V.J. Edgecombe at No. 3. But I would not put any money on that or anything.

Is there someone you have not talked about enough? Kyle, Derek and Devon have talked about this guy a ton, but I probably have not written enough about Texas shooting guard Tre Johnson. I would not be stunned if Johnson was the pick at No. 3, nor would I be stunned if the Sixers thought about trading back to get him.

The selling point for Johnson is extremely simple: He shoots the absolute [redacted] out of the basketball. Johnson shot 40 percent from beyond the arc on insanely high volume as a freshman, and these were not easy “Check the wind” type of shots. Just getting up seven 3s per game is impressive, but this guy actually made those shots at a high clip, too. It went undercovered that the Sixers were the 27th-ranked 3-point shooting team in the league last year. I love how hard Kelly Oubre plays, but it is hard to win games with a starting wing who shoots 29 percent from deep on middling volume. Want someone who helps shore up that weakness specifically? Pick this guy.

Now, Tre was bad at defense and did not get to the rim all that often. That can be a risky profile projecting to the pros. Tre has warts, just like everyone else available where the Sixers are picking. Speaking of that…

Is there any nagging issue you have with this draft? Yes, and it is one that coincides with the current state of the Sixers roster. It is just too small.

I really like Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain, but two 6-foot-2 guys are realistically not the backcourt of a title contender. That is OK, I still want to see what those guys look like together this season and figure it out later. The Sixers do not have to worry about titles, they have to worry about picking the best player possible, playing competent basketball and delaying their fans’ heartbreak until at least April.

But when you look at some of these players (V.J. Edgecombe, Tre Johnson, Kon Kneuppel) most often mocked to the Sixers, it is a lot of smaller dudes. I do not know if any of those guys have the upside of a primary creator, so the other most valuable archetype is a two-way wing. And these guys are too small to be wings. I guess Edgecombe and Johnson could in theory play the 3 in some lineups, but that takes some projection.

This is not to say that the Sixers should not select one of the 2 guards, but it seems to be a (no pun intended) small issue heading into the draft.

Is there a player in that range that at least plays the right position?

(*Coughs*)

Yes, Ace Bailey.

What about a trade-up for Dylan Harper? I would be in favor of that, because I think Harper…

Alas, I would be surprised if Harper was not selected by San Antonio at No. 2. If the Spurs wanted the 2028 Clippers unprotected pick (a real asset) to move back just one spot, I would love to help them out provided the medical is OK and Harper did not take shooting lessons from Markelle Fultz.

What about a move back? I understand why this has become a cause célèbre among the fan base. The Sixers are picking first in a tier that is generally considered to be pretty deep. They have a few bad-ish, one-year contracts on the books, plus Paul George and Joel Embiid’s mega deals that are considered to be among the worst in the league. That could change, but those guys have to prove it. More on that in a second.

My general thought here is that trading back would be acceptable, but you have to convince me that the player you wanted at 3 is still there wherever you trade back to. Basically, trading back to No. 7 with New Orleans for Herb Jones and to dump Kelly Oubre is cool. But you do that because Your Guy is also there at 7 and why would you not improve the team if that is the case? But you are not doing it because of someone like Herb Jones. At least I would hope not, that would be a win-now mindset.

The farther you move back, the harder it is to predict who will be there in real life… unless you really think someone like Carter Bryant is the third-best player, then knock yourselves out. But yeah, I do not think the Sonny Weaver approach Draft Day would work out for Daryl Morey tonight.

How much do we care about next season? With the pick, very little.

I mean, I do care about next season. I would love for Joel to be healthy and Paul George to make shots again. I would love for the Sixers to play meaningful basketball so my post-game shows with Devon are lively and earn a bunch of listens/watches.

But the Sixers cannot operate with the Embiid/George timeline solely in mind anymore, since they (Joel, in particular) have not given you enough confidence over the past year. If Joel is actually healthy, then the Sixers are gonna be one of the best teams in this watered-down East regardless of the pick and you can reevaluate at the trade deadline.

But this pick is your best chance to upgrade the team’s talent level, and I would not mess with it in the name of adding a fifth starter to next year’s roster. But hey, if both of those goals align? Knock yourself out.

We will all learn much more tonight.

Zegras speaks: The newest Flyer spoke to the media, and he seemed to say all the right things about a fresh start. Pretty mature answers for the guy who is the NHL equivalent of “Hot Sauce” or “Skip 2 My Lou.”

Asset management: As Bill mentioned on the pod here, this was a nice bit of work from Danny Briere. Think about what the Flyers traded for Trevor Zegras…

Anyway, I think that was pretty well done by Danny The Diplomat. Maybe Zegras does not work out, but the process was good.

Houston 1, Phillies 0: Do not care that he lost the game, it is a legitimate treat to watch Ranger Suárez pitch.

As I wrote about last week, Ranger never gives up hard contact. I am not usually the biggest exit velo truther, but heading into the eighth inning, the Phillies had 15 of the 16 hardest-hit balls in the game. I thought they were slightly unlucky against Framber Valdez (who is very good and clearly owns them), but Ranger was absolutely dominant. The Astros were creating nothing against him. The man had a no-no going through five.

Ranger is not the best Phillies pitcher since Cliff Lee, but he is very much the coolest Phillies pitcher since Cliff Lee.

That looked exactly like Cliff in Game 1 at Yankees Stadium. The Ranger Pause before doubling up Isaac Paredes was chef’s kiss.

Anyway, Ranger unfortunately gave up a solo homer in the eighth inning, which I am not gonna get even a little bit hung up about. But because the Phillies did not manage a single stinkin’ run, Ranger had to be perfect. He was not perfect.

Very annoying that this lineup could not score for Ranger. And I am going to rant about the most frustrating at-bat of the evening: Edmundo Sosa gets hit by Josh Hader in the ninth inning, and with two outs and a runner on, the Phillies trot out Johan Rojas because Hader is a nasty lefty and there are only lefty hitters on the bench. But because Hader’s stuff is sometimes too good, he can miss the strike zone. And Rojas works a 2-0 count.

Mind you, Trea Turner is on deck and he is the Phillies’ best shot against Hader. Rojas, who has a .558 OPS but is hitting because everyone on the bench is a lefty, has to take a pitch.

Rojas swung at Ball 3 before striking out! I would sit him for… a week? A month? As good as Rojas’ glove is, it just does not matter if he is this bad at hitting… and not compensating for it with smart at-bats. Brutal stuff.

Bryce Harper: Just wanted to give an update on Bryce, who is dealing with this mysterious wrist thingy.

The Celtics bow out: The Celtics traded Kristaps Porzingis for Georges Niang, and I have two thoughts on this.

Anyway, the Celtics are taking a pretty sizable step back. They will be a decent team with Jaylen Brown (I assume?) and Derrick White, but they were a team that had such a cheat code with five-out spacing defensive versatility. They will have neither of those things anymore. Plus no Jayson Tatum. Happy for my guy Georges getting to go home, though.

The East is gonna be bad.

Pretty loaded night. Phils-Houston Game 2 (8:10 p.m., NBC Sports Philly), Union-Chicago (8:30 p.m., Apple TV+) and the first round of the NBA Draft (8:00 p.m., ESPN).

Your tentative Tuesday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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