👋 Good morning! OK, that is enough snow for the winter.
Speaking of the snow, I was out of town this weekend and got back late Saturday night. When I woke up on Sunday and the snow was dumping, I had not stocked up at the grocery store like all of my local newscasters informed me to. So, you know where I got my morning coffee, lunch and a few snacks when most other places were closed? Wawa!
Is there any better deal than Wawa’s Big $5 Deal? From 5 a.m. to 11 a.m., you can get a Sizzli, coffee and a hash brown for just $5. Wherever you are in the area, there is a Wawa near you. Take advantage today!
As always, you can reach me at [email protected]
Coordinator news: I am not gonna run through the whole ✅ and ❌ exercise, but some interesting news concerning the Eagles and around the league…
🧀 Johnny Ganz! Meet the new defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. Cannot wait
🐬 Bobby Slowik: The Eagles interviewed Slowik for the OC job according to Adam Schefter, but Slowik will stay in Miami and will now be the Dolphins’ play-caller
🐬 Clint Hurtt: Interviewing for the Miami DC job, according to Jeremy Fowler. Hurtt would likely not be the play-caller there with Jeff Hafley running things, but this still would qualify as a promotion. Hopefully the Eagles can keep him around. That one would Hurtt
⭐ Klayton Adams: The Eagles requested to interview the Cowboys OC, but the Cowboys said no. That is within their rights, because it is a lateral move by title. But the Eagles would have represented an upgrade for Adams in practice because he does not call plays in Dallas. Jerry is still so shook
🍎 Dennard Wilson: The former Eagles DBs coach will be John Harbaugh’s DC with the Giants. So, that is two former Eagles DBs coaches who are now coordinators elsewhere in the NFC East
🐦⬛ Falcons: They have interviewed Joe Douglas for their open GM position, along with a bunch of familiar names (Ian Cunningham, Andy Weidl)
🏗️ Mike McCarthy: The new Steelers head coach. Yinzers gonna Yinzer!
Conference Championship Thoughts: The NFC Championship Game felt like a different sport compared to the AFC Championship Game… and that was even before the snow. There is no question to me that Seattle is a better team than New England on most days, but as we have seen before, the Super Bowl is a one-off thing.
That said, go Seahawks.
Even in the loss, I was incredibly impressed by how well Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford and that Rams offense moved the ball against Seattle’s elite defense. And the Rams losing now opens up the possibility of the Eagles talking to someone who I think could be a potential OC candidate: Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase. A former college QB at Illinois, the 35-year-old worked his way up to Iowa State OC before departing Matt Campbell’s staff for a shot with McVay and the Rams.
On the sidelines, Scheelhaase was right next to McVay and signaling in the plays to Stafford during that excellent offensive performance. Now, does that mean he would do a good job of calling plays for the Eagles? Not necessarily, and he is a guy that both has never done this at the NFL level and would likely get poached after one successful season. But McVay is a tremendous game-planner and play-caller, he has learned under a great coach. Just someone to keep an eye on, although Scheelhaase could still be in the running for some open head-coaching jobs as well.
Flyers 7, Colorado 3: Sure, go ahead and beat the best team in the NHL by a mile.
First, an important note: Our Bill Matz has a nice head of hair, one that I am jealous of. And on the pre-game show, he said that he would shave it off if the Flyers beat Colorado in Colorado. Well, Bill is a man of his word. The clippers are coming out like Bill is headed to boot camp. We will air Bill’s punishment on tonight’s post-game show.
Man, the Flyers really were a Garnet Hathaway away from taking all six points in regulation from a Vegas-Utah-Colorado road trip. Still, five points is pretty darn good.
Credit to Charlie, who has it ingrained in my head that Owen Tippett is a weird player in that his highs are truly superstar-level stuff. The Red Rifle has four to seven games every year in which he carries the Orange and Black on his back and drags them to a win, which is unusual for a second-line winger. But Tippett, who can absolutely fly, is capable of brilliance. He delivered a hat trick and four-point night in Colorado.
And as Charlie noted in his post-game piece, this game felt like a reward for Tippett playing well for a few weeks.
There was no hesitation on Tippett’s part when it came to the goal that kicked off the third period — fresh off beating Blackwood clean in the first period, he was shooting all the way despite Barkey a passing option on the transition rush. And then, with Colorado on the power play still down only two goals, Tippett manufactured a goal by himself, forcing a turnover (off Cale Makar, no less) before blasting down the ice and again fooling Blackwood on the breakaway. Oh, and Tippett did that 50 seconds into a long PK shift, still easily bounding away from the chasing Avalanche players before putting the finishing touches on his hat trick.
“I just think the last month, he’s been obviously one of our best forwards,” head coach Rick Tocchet noted.
Tippett’s shorthanded goal for the hat trick was cool to watch. A little bit of a head start, but there are not many players can run away from Cale Makar in the open ice. Tippett can.
Credit to the Flyers fans for taking over that barn, much needed in anticipation of another Knicks fan takeover in Philly the next day. Loved Travis Konecny’s unselfishness in getting Matvei Michkov his second goal of the night, too.
Non-roster invitees: There are 27 of them headed to Clearwooder, but the most important ones are Justin Crawford and Aidan Miller. If you are wondering, Andrew Painter is already on the 40-man roster.
Speaking of those three guys, MLB Pipeline came out with new Top-100 rankings and they were all on it: Miller (23), Painter (28), Crawford (53). Considering Painter’s struggles with command last year, dropping him below Miller seems fair. What seems unfair, though? The Phillies really need at least two of these guys to pan out and do so fairly quickly, both to get some new blood in that locker room and get some cost-controlled talent on the roster.
NY Knicks 112, Sixers 109: The Sixers could not get to 3-0 on the season against the Knickerbockers. Post-game pod is here, Kyle’s observations are here. And in recapping this one, I am gonna post one negative thing related to Joel Embiid and positive thing related to Joel Embiid.
That would have been a nice one to get, though. I still prefer to classify the Sixers as “in the mix” as opposed to “contenders” after their better performances, and part of that reluctance is that they are tenuously holding on to the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. You gotta get to the playoffs in decent shape before you can start thinking about winning rounds!
Credit to the Sixers, they fought hard down the stretch and made it a game like we have seen a ton this season. But, and stop me if you have heard this before, a 30-13 third quarter did them in. Above-average team in the other three quarters (dominant in the second quarter, in fact), but the Sixers are still the worst NBA team in the third quarter by a good bit. Figure it out, fellas!
This game was an example of the Sixers losing The Possession Game by a ton. The Knicks had 16 more field goal attempts, to just two more more free-throw attempts by the Sixers. The Knicks earned themselves a lot more room for error, and in that sense, it felt like the right team won.
OK, the negative point related to Embiid: Since The Embiidissance started in earnest on December 12th, the Sixers are the worst defensive rebounding team in the NBA: Dead-last, 30th-ranked, with opponents rebounding over 34 percent of their misses.
That number is not entirely Embiid’s fault. The Sixers are small elsewhere, players sometimes might be out position due to their aggressive defensive schemes and Adem Bona’s minutes are much more of an issue on the defensive glass. I honestly watch Bona and wonder if he would choose to box random fans out. But Embiid has not really helped things on the defensive glass over the season, either. It’s nice that the Sixers force turnovers and are good on the offensive glass to mitigate the damage, but at some point, you cannot be dead-last in the NBA in defensive rebounding. It’s a consistent killer.
But the positive (and more important) point related to Embiid: That 28-point first half was legitimately inspiring stuff. Insert any “He’s back!” meme that you would like.
After games, Nick Nurse has made the point a few times that Embiid is better when he is driving to the basket. To me, that means he is better when he is feeling good enough to push off on that left knee. You look at those first-half highlights, and Embiid is driving a ton. He is dunking in transition. Even some of his mid-range jumpers involve the real threat of that drive. It was beautiful to see, the type of high-level stuff we routinely saw and took for granted Before Kuminga.
Sure, the Sixers got a little iso-happy in the third quarter because of Embiid’s dominance. But they have close to three months to figure out the team offense. But we never knew if Embiid would look that dominant offense again. In fact, many people confidently said that we would never see him hit that level again.
It’s a great story. Now it’s time to start best utilizing an Embiid that can turn it up to 11.
Chuck Bassey, welcome home: The Sixers signed Charles Bassey to a 10-day contract, and while you might think Daryl Morey could be getting a little nostalgic for the 2021 NBA Draft, Friday’s trade deadline preview told you to expect a 10-day of some sorts over the weekend.
And that has everything to do with Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker.
The Sixers’ two-way guys have played a ton for the big squad this year. And the CBA states that when a team is under the 15-player roster limit, they can only have two-way players active for a total of 90 (individual) games. Well, the Sixers are under that limit, and Barlow and Walker are active for pretty much any games.
So, the Sixers signed Bassey to get to 15 players. Once you are there, then Barlow and Walker are allowed to be eligible for 50 NBA games each.
The TL;DR version: Bassey will allow Barlow and Walker to play on two-way contracts through next week’s trade deadline. But shortly after, they will have to be converted to NBA contracts if they are gonna keep playing for the Sixers.
We are double-dipping games-wise while everyone in the Delaware Valley is snowed-in.
The Sixers’ game in Charlotte got moved up (3:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly) due to the weather, and no, do not ask me why it got moved up because of the weather. Regardless, we will have some afternoon hoops against the Hornets, who are 10 games under .500 but actually have a positive point differential. Pretty good young team! Joel Embiid and Paul George are both sitting out the first end of the back-to-back, and after the Sixers probably lose this one, they really need to sweep all three of Milwaukee, Sacramento and New Orleans at home later this week. Not enough winning during this home-heavy portion of the schedule, and the Sixers are losing ground in the jumbled Eastern Conference standings.
The Flyers, coming off their surprisingly good road trip, are home against the Islanders (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). Four games for the Orange and Black this week, including three against teams they are jockeying for playoff position yet in the Eastern Conference.
Move the Sixers game up, and we will still be podding all day at PHLY. Join us!
Let's make it a good one.
Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS
