👋 Good morning! The Sixers, never the same place twice.

That sure was a fun one last night. Lots of hoops talk coming in today’s newsletter.

The Friday links. Spread the word, spread the word:

And you know what else you should spread the word about? 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]

Let’s do it!

(1) Last big snow: Because I am sick in the head and my life revolves around the sports calendar, I remember what I was doing the last time we got more than a half-foot in Philly: January 29th, 2022, when the Sixers played a Saturday night game at home. Which opposing player, who was linked to the Sixers in trade rumors at the time, dropped 38 points on them in a loss that night?

(2) 2013: Saquon Barkley has the record now, but LeSean McCoy broke this Hall of Famer’s Eagles single-game record with 217 rushing yards in the Snow Bowl against Detroit. Who was it?

(3) 2005: In the middle of a huge snowstorm, Villanova blew out the No. 2 team in the country in Philly. Who did the Wildcats beat 83-62 on that day?

As always, answers at the bottom.

I do not know why, perhaps because the Sixers have at least largely been watchable through the halfway point, but the NBA calendar really snuck up on me this season. The trade deadline is on February 5th.

That is less than two weeks from now!

Perhaps another reason why there has not been much trade deadline anticipation in these parts is that, for a multitude of factors including the Sixers’ current level of play (“in the mix,” but not a real contender), the Sixers’ salary structure (top-heavy) and the increasingly-restrictive NBA collective bargaining agreement, we do not expect the local basketball team to do anything of consequence. This is not February 2019, when the ill-fated Tobias Harris trade happened at 3 a.m. And this is not February 2022, when the successful but ultimately ill-fated Ben Simmons-for-James Harden swap got over the finish line, with Daryl Morey yelling at Sean Marks "Stay on the f---ing phone!"

Will Sleepy Daryl awake from his slumber this year? Let’s talk about the Sixers’ trade deadline. But first, I would recommend you checking out yesterday’s preview.

I am not an NBA salary cap expert nor do I play one on TV, but here are some of the general points on the Sixers’ financial situation:

The first thing to look for is the two-way situation. Sexy, I know! We went from James Harden trades to converting two-way roster spots.

But Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker have both been very good two-way signings. Before the season, I wondered how screwed the Sixers would be at the 4. And the answer is “not that screwed!” thanks to a couple of strong two-way signings. Walker is a rotation mainstay and Barlow has started 29 games.

Unfortunately, time is up for the two-ways. If the Sixers stay at 14 roster spots, they only get one more game of both Barlow and Walker on two-ways. Morey can push that clock back a few weeks and continue to play Barlow and Walker by signing someone to a 10-day contract, something you would expect to see in the coming days. But shortly after that, time is up for real. The Sixers will have to sign them to a standard NBA contract, one that counts on the books and everything, or stop playing them.

I would argue that both players have proven themselves worthy of that contract. Our Marc Stein suggested that it is expected that Barlow and Walker will get their contracts converted. If that is the case, and I have no reason to doubt Steiny Mo, that would require the Sixers opening up one additional roster spot one way or another.

Eric Gordon or Johni Broome, it was nice knowing you.

Perhaps a quiet deadline league-wide: Kyle said that he is expecting a quiet deadline around The Association, largely because there are teams are saving their powder for a future Giannis Antetokounmpo trade when that becomes a reality.

Conceptually, I have wondered in recent years if this level of big-game hunting could benefit the Sixers. They actually have a decent amount of draft capital, but they are woefully short of teams like Oklahoma City, Brooklyn, Houston, Utah and a few others. They realistically know they are not getting into The Giannis Derby anytime soon. But with real stuff to trade, could the Sixers make sensible moves around the middle while everyone else is sitting on their hands?

Maybe, but unfortunately…

The lack of mid-tier salary is a real hold-up. This was part of why I was so frustrated that they did not sign Quentin Grimes to a long-term contract this year. You need matching salary to make trades in the NBA, and the Sixers just do not have it. Grimes was their best chance at finding matching salary that you are willing to trade. Now Grimes has a no-trade clause on his one-year qualifying offer, and since he would lose those precious Bird Rights if he were dealt, he is likely not going anywhere.

Joel Embiid and Paul George both make a ton of money and are considered negative contracts. Basically, the type contracts that you would have to attach assets to get off of. I do not think the Sixers would want to do that, especially because both guys have been much more productive this season. JoJo had 32-15-10 in 45 minutes last night! More on that in a second. And barring some unforeseen shocker, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe do not appear to be going anywhere.

That brings us to Kelly Oubre, who makes $8.4 million. And to be clear, I wrote this section before Oubre went for 26 points on 10-14 shooting against Houston last night.

Oubre factors into the general strategies that Kyle (mild-to-moderate buyers) and Derek (don’t duck the tax) both suggested.

I do not think Oubre is a perfect player. His advanced numbers have always been iffy, he can be a bit of a space cadet on defense, he is not much of a passer and he is a historically poor 3-point shooter. But Oubre is also having a pretty good season. He always plays hard, takes on tough defensive matchups and is having a much improved 3-point shooting season. I also like that Oubre can pretty consistently get isolation buckets when opponents stick their worst defender on him. He yet again did that last night in the first quarter against Alperen Şengün.

And most importantly, Oubre is a wing. Like a real-life, properly-sized NBA wing.

The Sixers currently have two wings who are NBA-rotation caliber, Oubre and Paul George. So, if the Sixers were going to trade Oubre, I would hope they got another real-life, properly-sized NBA wing in return. The guys suggested Dallas’ Naji Marshall, and that would be fine. But that is easier said than done.

Andre Drummond looms as a smaller piece of matching salary, but now let’s talk Ducking The Tax. Trading Oubre for a worse player or salary relief for the fourth-straight year would stink so, so much. The next day’s newsy would just be ducks. Here is a preview:

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The Sixers have been able to save Josh Harris a whole ton of money the last three years. Remember, ducking the tax can take a team from having to pay $10 million-ish to receiving $10 million-ish. Derek seriously might have a conniption on air if that happens again this year.

In retrospect, I am sympathetic to the Sixers getting out of the tax last season. I did not love the KJ Martin deal when it happened, but KJ Martin is now playing in China. The Sixers were not going anywhere, and that move aged well. No reason to start the repeater tax clock.

But this season is so much different. I do not expect the Sixers to win a title, and I would put them at below 50 percent odds to win a playoff series. But the Eastern Conference is completely fraudulent, Joel Embiid is playing basketball consistently for the first time in two years, and the Sixers have a reasonably talented team that could catch fire. This is not the time to make yourself worse for tax savings. What type of message would that send to Tyrese Maxey, who was throwing up bricks the past week because he plays 53 minutes per game?

Ultimately, if the Sixers do nothing, I will not be mad. It’s hard to make trades in this cap environment. And Morey has done some good work before, the steal of a Grimes trade completely came out of nowhere. But please, for the love of god, do not salary dump Kelly Oubre.

Not Dallas! I had made peace with Eagles defensive backs coach Christian Parker leaving this offseason. He might have received a defensive coordinator job last season if the Eagles did not play through February. His excellent work with Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean has been well-documented.

I was prepared to wish him well in Arizona, Tennessee, Cleveland, or some other far-flung franchise. Until…

Christian Parker is the new defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys. After all of those “The Flus is Loose” jokes, this is me today.

I would love to say that I wish Christian well, but I absolutely do not! Not at this stop, anyway. As EJ mentioned, the Eagles seem like they have a decent replacement for Parker in safeties coach Joe Kasper, a guy that has a good amount history with the Eagles and Vic Fangio separately.

Declan Doyle: The Eagles made an interesting interview request according to Adam Schefter.

At the beginning of this search, my preference was to land a proven NFL play-caller. But do you see the names above? Not the most exciting group we have ever seen.

Yesterday, I asked the question if any of the remaining names have the juice to make the wholesale changes that this Eagles offense requires. Today, I am also asking if the Eagles should start to introduce some variance into their coaching search. Would you turn to a potentially high-upside name who has never called plays at the NFL level before? Someone, potentially, like the Rams’ Nate Scheelhaase or the Bears’ Declan Doyle?

Doyle is so young that Wikipedia does not know his age (it’s either 29 or 30). He spent most of his first six years in the NFL working under Sean Payton in New Orleans and Denver. And then Ben Johnson hired him to be the Bears OC this year. And that is a key point. As Adam Hoge said on the Eagles show, that Bears offense is Ben Johnson’s show. Johnson runs some beautiful modern offense that blends the run and pass, but it is hard to know how much of Chicago’s success rubbed off on Doyle in one year. The Eagles learned this lesson on the other side of the ball in recent years, cycling through Fangio-adjacent defensive coordinators before they finally succeeded in bringing The Master into the building.

Regardless, Doyle is an intriguing name added into The Great Offensive Coordinator Search of 2026.

Two quick roster notes: The Phillies signed Tim Mayza to a minor-league contract, while Weston Wilson got claimed off waivers by Baltimore.

Not mad about the Phillies DFAing Wilson, but he did give us fans a few good moments. Two that stand out to me:

Wilson’s first homer came against Nationals ace MacKenzie Gore, who Washington traded to Texas yesterday for a whole bunch of prospects… which is ironic, because Gore came to Washington initially as one of the whole bunch of prospects that the Nats traded Juan Soto for. Time will tell if that is the right move, but the lefty is now out of the NL East.

Sixers 128, Houston 122 (OT): That was a really fun January NBA game. Incredible shotmaking from Kevin Durant at 37 years old. And the Sixers barely withstood the nightly assault on the glass from Houston, perhaps the greatest offensive rebounding team in NBA history.

Post-game show is here, Kyle’s observations are here.

And to quote the great philosopher Rasheed Wallace, “Ball don’t lie.”

Because, not for the first time this year and probably not the last with the way things are trending, the Sixers were on the wrong end of an egregious call at the end of the game. There was the time Nick Nurse’s timeout was not granted, and there was the time the NBA changed the backcourt rule on the fly seemingly. And with the score tied late, Tyrese Maxey blows by Amen Thompson and gets clearly goaltended by Durant for the go-ahead bucket with four seconds left. The officials did not call it, and then there was a bogus inadvertent whistle on the mad scramble after the play.

The Last 2 Minute Report later today is gonna be a bloodbath. Actually, who am I kidding, they will just say all the calls were correct.

But credit the Sixers, they bounced back in overtime and made this officiating shenaningans a moot point. And they got contributions from all five members of their closing lineup. Paul George hit a clutch 3 and made a big block against Şengün. Oubre had a big driving bucket. Edgecombe came up with a big-time putback.

But this was a Joel and Tyrese game, first and foremost. Joel Embiid, who played bully ball against Houston’s switch-happy defense the entire game, finished with 32-15-10 and was a +21. For one night, the two-year anniversary of Embiid’s 70-point game against the Spurs, we took the DeLorean back to 2022.

JoJo even played FORTY-SIX minutes! I am kinda worried about his availability for the Knicks after that type of load, but if he cannot go, it was worth it. It was not all perfect, the Sixers’ transition defense was a tire fire at times and he is partially responsible for that. But man, what a game. And he was cracking jokes and turning into Troel on Instagram like old times. These are good signs.

Resilient game from Maxey, who is continuing to struggle from 3. But he finished 13-18 from two-point range (and one of the misses was the bogus goaltend), en route to 36 points and 10 assists.

Again, I have no idea where the Sixers season is headed. But right now, it feels like a worthwhile journey that this team is taking us on.

☃️ Make sure you are locked and loaded for the snow this weekend, friends. ☃️

The good news, as far as I can tell, is that I am not seeing a ton of local sporting events on the calendar for Sunday. And in between shoveling what apparently is gonna be a lot of fluffy snow, you can watch Broncos-Patriots and Seahawks-Rams. Hopefully the snow totals stay within reason. Fingers crossed. 🤞🤞

No need to break out the normal format, we have just two professional games this weekend: Flyers-Avalanche (9:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly) tonight, Sixers-Knicks (3:00 p.m., ABC) on Saturday. Let’s hope the Sixers fare better at home against a struggling Madison Square Garden tenant than the Flyers did last weekend.

And I also have my eye on Kevin Willard’s upstart Villanova Wildcats going up to No. 2 UConn this weekend. ‘Nova is currently in a pretty good spot to end their three-year, Neptune-filled NCAA Tournament drought, as Joey Brackets last had them as a No. 6 seed before their win on Wednesday. But the two Big East heavyweights are UConn and St. John’s. Villanova lost to the Johnnies in a close one last weekend, Rick Pitino’s team was a little too big for them in that one. But Villanova has three more chances against UConn and St. John’s the rest of the year. They would not need it, but getting at least one win from those three would give them a good bit of breathing room.

Your tentative Friday schedule at PHLY:

And oh yeah, the trivia:

Have a great weekend. Let’s make it a good one today.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS