Justin Verrier

I don't think much about them in terms of like their playoff future.

If they get passed around, I would still be surprised, but it does feel like the door is ajar just a little bit.

little bit so that they could really just slug someone in the mouth that like perhaps has these injuries or is like the Rockets where they're just a little bit more sluggish than they should be going into this matchup.

And they just drop like 125 a night.

And it's just like, you got to keep up with that.

That's at the very least feels like a nice little swing here when it does feel like these marginal things might matter more in matchups and matchups matter more in the West playoffs.

I think the fact that they lowered the stakes by not swinging for something so big almost opens the door for something fun to happen, which you wouldn't expect considering a team with LeBron James toward the end of his career and Luka looking to win now as much as possible would be in that position.

Now they feel like the fun wild card on the table in the West.

And that's a good position to be in because if they went around, it's found money.

They also don't have the opportunity to because Reeves will presumably be coming back on a full max.

And at that point, you're restricted to what you could do.

I doubt it's a Giannis move, but honestly, I think it might not be in their worst interest to bring back Reeves and fill out a defense and just go from there.

I think they can still be a pretty good team.

Since we're circling teams that didn't do something that we're kind of secretly a little disappointed in, the Sixers, every time I watch them, I'm just marveled at how much of a monster Joel Embiid still is.

I know he's probably never going to be the version that we hope

he will be or was before, but he's putting up 30 on a night practically at this point.

And so I do wonder like it is this disappointment that they didn't turn the stuff that they got from McCain into something else.

It seems like more just ended up with a SW side swipe and another case of what could have been does feel like that whole, that Paul George has left over the next 20 plus games here.

If they weren't able to fill that,

They could be spicy enough that, again, like the Lakers, if things just happen to roll their way, if Embiid, when we're least expecting it, is actually healthy for a playoff series, who has the counter to that in the East?