👋 Good morning! Catch of the year.

And to do that to The $765 Million Man? 👨‍🍳💋

The only thing that would have made it better is if Derek Hill robbed Juan Soto at the wall with his trademark toothpick in his mouth. I tried to Zapruder the video and did not see it. Oh well, next time.

With all due respect to Bryce Harper and all of the other Cardiac Phillies, this will go down as The Derek Hill Week. Two ninth-inning homers, including a go-ahead bomb with two outs in Washington, and then that catch in Queens which basically won them another game? Absurd. They traded their preseason No. 30 prospect Dylan Campbell for this guy! Is Dave Dombrowski’s one superpower minor in-season trades for light-hitting defensive specialist outfielders?

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Come on, you know that you want to do it. Flyers and Sixers free agency later this week!

When you miss a week’s worth of newsletter writing, everything is a Big Story. Let’s catch you up on what the four big teams were up to over the past week.

Jalen and Smitty line dancing: It’s officially the one month of the year that the NFL goes away, and there is nothing new to report Eagles-wise.

Well, except Jalen Hurts and Devonta Smith cutting a rug at DeVonta’s wedding. Just a mesmerizing video here. I watched it multiple times in a row, and something new popped up on every subsequent viewing.

They are both country boys, after all. I wonder where they got their cowboy hats. Maybe the Boot Barn in Cherry Hill?

Speaking of the offseason, I always enjoy reading Jimmy Kempski’s dumpster fire series 🔥. Good way to get you caught up on the NFC East in a way that my hate-filled heart appreciates, and get a few laughs while you are at it.

A wild, wild week of Phillies baseball: Oh baby!

The Phillies went 7-2 since our last newsletter. And while they put an absolute beatdown on the Mets in Philly two weekends ago, the crazy part is that they legitimately could have went 0-7 over the past week since then. But they went 5-2, because they are living right.

The Washington series was unreal. By the end of it, John Kruk was legitimately speechless. The Nats have a legitimately great offense this season, but that bullpen is so shaky. They remind me a little bit of the 2020 and 2021 Phillies, teams that you never felt good about while trying to protect a lead.

The Phils did some wild stuff to that Washington bullpen. Two of those things:

Credit to the Nats for bouncing back to take two of three from the Orioles this weekend. As someone who gets way too emotional about regular-season baseball, that is the type of series that is hard not to overreact to.

But mostly, credit to Bryce Harper for battling through some bad luck throughout the first half of the season and putting together a monster ten days. He was taking some heat locally a few weeks ago when he was going through an extended slump, but both #ThePeriphs and The Eye Test were telling you that a hot streak was coming. Bryce now has a .905 OPS, which is tenth among qualified hitters. Elite!

(Perfect way to get the cycle, by the way: Bryce’s signature kamikaze baserunning, followed by a controversial scoring decision. Love it.)

Kyle Schwarber is third among all qualified hitters in OPS, and he hit a bomb off Kodai Senga to win yesterday’s game. That is No. 30 on the season for Kyle, who just keeps on mashing. The bullpen outside of Jhoan Duran did not make it easy — Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Alvarez really helped Orion Kerkering out in the eighth inning — but they got it done.

Not a particularly dominant series for the Phils, but a series win nonetheless. And they impressively won despite the Mets getting The New Manager Bump, after firing Carlos Mendoza two months after they fired Rob Thomson. Then again, maybe The New Manager Bump does not exist for these Mets.

The Mets took a sledgehammer to their roster this offseason, while the Phillies #RanItBack. And while I do not think Dave Dombrowski has done a very good job with the minor-league system and depth, there is something to be said for the consistency of this core group of Phillies players.

That group lost to the Mets in the postseason fair and square two years ago, as the Mets were having an all-time magical run. Once the music ended, most of those Mets players (particularly the pitching staff) regressed in a big way. Despite signing The $765 Million Man and The $126 Million Man, the Mets have been absolutely brutal over the past calendar year.

The Phillies, meanwhile? They are not perfect, largely due to Dombrowski’s shortcomings. But they just keep coming at you. I do not know where this season is headed, but this core group of Philadelphia Phillies is once again firmly in the mix. That is more that can be said of the New York Mets.

The Flyers, thinking big: I have no idea how the Orange and Black did this weekend, as that grade will play out over the years. But when you compare the excitement of this past weekend to that of last year’s draft, it was not in the same stratosphere. Forget about the Martones and Nesbitts. I would have killed for a Murtagh or a Vansaghi this weekend!

Oh well, that tends to happen when you start the weekend with just the 21st and 53rd picks in the first two rounds as opposed to seven selections in the first two rounds… and are picking from a draft class that is not nearly as exciting as the previous year’s crop of players. Charlie O’Connor did a good job summing up the Flyers’ weekend.

In particular, let’s focus on the Flyers’ first-round pick. He certainly is the most interesting one of the bunch.

The Orange and Black recouped some of those mid-round selections that they previously shipped away, trading back in Round 1 with the Sharks. The trade details…

We are going to get to the Sixers in the section below, but their front office certainly has a type on draft day: small guards. And it’s the exact opposite of the type that the Flyers front office seems to have: big defensemen, guys who would actually have forward size in the NBA. Perhaps the nature of the first-round pick is why this weekend felt a bit underwhelming from the Flyers’ perspective. Small, skilled, offense-first players are inherently more fun on draft night than big, lumbering, defense-first players.

This is not a critique of the Flyers going after that archetype, mind you. At some point, every franchise does have to eat their vegetables. And man, Sokolovskii definitely ate some veggies back in Kazakhstan.

The Orange and Black have drafted a total of three defensemen in the first two rounds the past three years. Spoiler: They are all humongous dudes!

Danny Briere was a heckuva hockey player, despite being a little guy. But he sure likes drafting some big boys on the blue line. And the reason that the Flyers drafted Sokolovskii is very much that he plays like a big boy. This is a guy who has a YouTube highlight reel consisting solely of his hits and fights, that runs a cool 9:29. Ed Snider would have loved this guy… well, outside of the Russian part.

“The compete level is something, in a lot of cases, either you have it or you don’t. It’s really tough to bring that out of someone that doesn’t have it,” Briere told reporters. “You watch him, it’s a natural thing. He loves to go after a guy. He likes to disturb.”

He likes to disturb. I feel like that would be a better playoff t-shirt than Good things happen to good people, more in line with the Flyers’ general ethos. Maybe we will see that in orange in 2031. And besides being big and nasty, three more reasons that the Flyers liked Sokolovskii:

Now, I do not want to be all sunshine and roses here. This kid might not have the puck skills to hack it as an NHL defenseman. He had two goals and eight points in 44 OHL games! That is terrible. You can beat people up all you want, that is gonna have to improve in a real way.

Briere and this front office, as they are taking somewhat of a victory lap that is in many ways well-deserved, do not deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to drafting this specific type of player. Trading for or signing NHL reclamation projects? This front office has been nails with that stuff. But first-round draft picks that are outside of consensus? The book might not be out on Jack Nesbitt yet, but he still has a lot to prove. Meanwhile, the book pretty much is out on Jett Luchanko.

In fairness to Briere, this was not considered a particularly inspiring draft in the 20s. Trading back and taking a swing on a high-risk, high-upside guy seems fine, considering the circumstances. Let’s just hope that Sokolovskii slots somehwere comfortably between Baby Chara and Sam Morin… the latter of whom is now a Flyers coach and will likely be working closely with Sokolovskii starting today at development camp.

Sokolovskii is the big attraction. But let’s run through the Flyers’ other picks from the weekend, rapid-fire style:

Liske is the headliner of the rest of that group, and the Flyers seem to be betting on his offensive production being slightly deflated because he played on a loaded junior team. But who cares about that boring on-ice stuff? The important thing to know is that Briere went back to the well again, drafting a Canadian kid who very randomly grew up rooting for the Flyers. That sure worked out well the first time with Porter Martone.

“My dad was always a big Flyers fan throughout his whole life, and kind of brainwashed me into it,” Liske told reporters.

He continued: “Watch party at my cabin right now, and there’s about 30 people with Flyers jerseys because of how many my dad had here.”

Sold. Great pick.

As for the other guys, the Flyers took two goalies. If one of them pushes for NHL time, they will have done well with those two swings. Sauer is a kid who played high school hockey in Minnesota, which is an unusual route for a draft pick.

Garnet Hathaway traded: The Flyers sent Hathaway to Florida, which is on brand because the Panthers like big boys. The Orange and Black got some draft picks for their trouble.

This is fine, especially since Hathaway gave the Orange and Black (*checks notes*) three points in 66 games this past regular season. The Flyers, who are deep in terms of forwards, can likely do better with his spot. Hathaway seemed like a good dude, though, and he had some decent moments with the rest of the fourth line in the playoffs. I will always fondly remember him drawing Sidney Crosby’s first career embellishment penalty.

Some defenseman rumours: The NHL offseason has now reached NBA levels of bonkers. The Tkachuk brothers reuniting in Florida? Sure. Dylan Larkin asking out? Let’s do it. Buffalo getting the No. 4 pick in the draft for Bowen Byram? Weird, but OK!

The common thread between Brady Tkachuk and Dylan Larkin? They both played for the Team USA group that took home the gold at the most recent Olympics. Speaking of that team, have you heard of Zach Werenski? He is a pretty darn good defenseman that currently plies his trade in Columbus, but perhaps not for much longer. The Flyers have certainly heard of him.

If Pierre LeBrun’s reporting is true (and he is well-respected, so I imagine it is), Werenski is roughly in the same position that Brady Tkachuk recently found himself in up in Ottawa: Two years left on his deal, and while Werenski is not asking for a trade, it does not seem like he is gonna extend in Columbus. For Tkachuk, that meant a trade when the Senators saw the writing on the wall. What will it mean for the 28-year-old Werenski?

Of course, the Flyers famously do not have any members of that Team USA group (I dunno, Trevor Zegras and Cam York are Americans?). And Werenski currently has a no-movement clause, which means that he will not be a Flyer if he does not want to be a Flyer. I am getting pretty tired of every big name asking for one of Dallas, Vegas, Florida or Tampa. But the Orange and Black certainly would like to get their hands on a bona fide No. 1 defenseman, a guy who had 163 points from the blue line combined over the past few seasons. A lot of teams would.

Darnell Nurse is another guy to watch over the next few days. An overpaid player, and certainly someone that Edmonton would have to retain some of the salary on, but he might figure into the Flyers’ plans on the blue line. Donovan McNabb’s nephew, too. Remember folks, No. 5 will always love you.

Lots of moving pieces over the next few days with the Flyers and free agency approaching, and I will be here to chronicle all of it.

The Most Scrutinized 22nd Pick in NBA History is… Labaron

Philon Jr.

Labaron Philon Jr. is a 6-foot-3, 176-pound guard who played two years under Nate Oats’ tutelage at the University of Alabama. He was a semi-local kid in college, having grown up in Mobile. I wonder if Labaron crossed paths with any NFL GMs at the Senior Bowl. Maybe he has some good Joe Schoen stories.

The easiest way to look at this selection is through the lens of “talent vs. fit.” And while that lens is too reductive, we will indeed start there today. After all, the Sixers’ new lead decision maker (well, at least we think so) told us that this was primarily a talent grab.

Perfectly reasonable that the Sixers had Philon rated higher on their internal board (which, to their credit, did not leak this year). But he was ranked 20th on the consensus big board, so no need to get too crazy here. The Sixers did not exactly scoop up a player that everyone and their mother projected as a lottery pick. But yes, some analysts had Philon going off the board in the teens.

After my extensive (note: not extensive) YouTube scouting, I would have selected either Philon or Baylor’s Cameron Carr among the Sixers’ options at 22. So, it’s not like I am upset at the decision. The whole “wisdom of the crowds” thing has certainly worked out well for Howie Roseman over the last five years. That is pretty much what Gansey and the Sixers did here.

Let’s also not forget that this is a Sixers front office that, while reworked at the top, has drafted pretty well over the past six years. But there is some legitimate pushback that I can and will make to this selection. We will get to the devil’s advocate portion of our programming in a second.

Let’s start with the selling points, though. Most of them boil down to Philon being an extremely talented basketball player. The main one is that this dude is a legitimate 🧙 wizard 🧙 with the ball in his hands. If you are looking for a couple of good YouTube scouting reports, Derek Parker and Ben Pfeiffer both did a nice job.

The strengths…

➕ Excellent production, excellent improvement: Philon actually thought long and hard about entering the NBA Draft last year. He had started and played big minutes on an Elite Eight team as a freshman, next to All-American guard Mark Sears. But Philon was not a first-round lock, so the Alabama NIL collective ponied up and offered him a bunch of money to stay in school. He was a last-minute withdrawal.

In Philon’s case, returning to school was not just about the money 💰… although I am sure that part was nice. Sears was a high-usage guard that everything in Oats’ uptempo offense ran through. By going back to Tuscaloosa, Philon got the opportunity to step into Sears’ shoes.

And Philon made great use of that opportunity:

Credit to Sam Vecenie for looking this up: Philon averaged 22 points, 5 assists and 3.5 rebounds while shooting at a blistering 50.1 percent from the field, 39.9 percent from 3 and 79.8 percent from the line. He’s the first high-major player since 1980, per Sports Reference, to achieve those marks in one season.

Take that, everyone in high-major college basketball for 46 years!

So, quite a jump in effectiveness for Labaron. As you can see, he got more efficient from everywhere on the court while also becoming The Guy (and dealing with the rise in usage that accompanies such a role change). Not the easiest double to pull off, and he did so with style. I also like that he did all of this for a good team. Alabama played one of the toughest schedules in college hoops and made the Sweet 16.

Speaking of that Sweet 16 game: Against Michigan, a loaded roster featuring three lottery picks that would go on to win it all, Philon dropped 35 points! He particularly made Yaxel Lendeborg, a versatile defender whose pro prospects I am pretty high on, look straight-up bad on multiple occasions. In fairness, Philon makes a lot of defenders look straight-up bad.

➕ High-level creativity: The term “three-level scorer” gets thrown around liberally during draft season, mostly by people who want to sound smart. Often times, one of those levels is just not there. Not in Philon’s case. The man has a bag. 👝

Philon being allowed to shoot middies at Bama was a victory in and of itself, since Oats is a pretty strict “layups and 3s” coach. Gansey kept using the word “hooper” to describe him, and it is a fair characterization. I would use another word: “craftsman.” You watch Philon’s film, and you find yourself saying “that boy nice” over and over.

Philon’s best skill is his ball-handling. He has every single move in the book: crossovers, spins, hesitations, hang dribbles, Euro-steps, left-to-right, right-to-left, change-of-pace, change-of-direction, etc. And while there are numerous examples of players who can go through their legs and behind their back with ease but actually get nowhere, Philon’s handle is plenty functional. He gets into the paint consistently.

I thought Nick Nurse did a decent job this season, but the one major criticism for him is still offensive creativity. Let’s hope Nurse can make some strides in that department this season. But as the great Trill Bro Dude pointed out, Philon is tailor made for the “Cook him!” offense. Just give him a ball screen and let him go. In the pick-and-roll, Philon is particularly adept at rejecting screens and keeping trailing defenders on his back. For a righty, he goes left all the time.

➕ Craft around the rim: Philon is not a particularly good athlete in the traditional sense. He can change direction plenty well, but he is not gonna blow by you in a straight line like Tyrese Maxey or yam on you in traffic like VJ Edgecombe. At the NBA level, he is gonna have to play off two feet quite a bit. Start watching some Jalen Brunson tape, kid.

Despite those athletic deficiencies, Philon was a better driver than all of the super fast and athletic guys in college basketball.

Last year, the major selling point for Dylan Harper as a prospect was his ability to both create and finish shots at the rim despite the cramped halfcourt spacing at the college level. It’s not easy! We saw in the playoffs what a monster Harper should turn into at the NBA level. Philon was a year older and played with better spacing, but he just had a better finishing season than Harper at Rutgers. That was a major improvement from his freshman season.

Playing for Oats can juice those numbers a bit. Alabama plays perhaps the most pro-style system in college hoops. They run, space the floor and shoot a bunch of 3s. I read some of Philon’s quotes, and he already says stuff like “advantage basketball.” He was well-schooled on the offensive end. Caveats aside, the college game is tougher sledding for primary initiators than the NBA game. We saw that with VJ Edgecombe, who was like, “Wow, there is a lot more space out here!” Like VJ before him, Philon will find even more space to cook in the pros.

➕ Can play on or off the ball: Gansey mentioned Maxey and Edgecombe’s sky-high minute totals last year. That is something the Sixers simply have to remedy this upcoming season, especially since they are not in contender mode. Well, Philon should certainly be able to soak up some guard minutes.

Philon improved around the rim as a sophomore, and he also got better from beyond the arc. He shot 40 percent from deep on eight attempts per 40-minutes. Playing alongside one of Edgecombe or Maxey should help him get easier looks than he did this past season, when he was the head of the snake.

OK, those are the pluses. What about the minuses?

➖ Lack of size on defense: Another way to put this is “lack of two-way potential.”

I did not pay close attention to Philon as a freshman at Alabama. But everyone who did felt that he was a better, more active, more engaged point-of-attack defender. The defense slipped in a big way his sophomore year, which is somewhat understandable when coupled with his skyrocketing offensive responsibilities. It is easier to be a “3-and-D player” when all you are supposed to do on offense is take catch-and-shoot jumpers.

Even if Philon’s effort level and attention to detail both improve at the NBA level, there is a lower ceiling on defense for him. To be fair, that is true of most small guards. Gansey’s quote about the hope being that Philon gets to “average to above average” on defense sort of gives the game away there. The Sixers did not draft Philon for his defense.

➖ Lack of strength everywhere: As mentioned above, Philon is not a great run-and-jump athlete. Even if there might be some poor possessions on offense (getting his shot blocked, in particular), I think he can get away with that part on that end of the floor. Too much skill, too much functional athleticism.

But Philon is also a stringbean at 176 pounds. He needs to add as much strength as possible, like Maxey has done over these past six years. Unlike Swole Maxey, I am not sure that Philon has the frame to do so. Still, it is important for him to max out whatever gains he can make in the gym.

➖ Not a wing or a forward: The big one. This negative will primarily be looked at through the lens of the fit with this current Sixers roster, but there is more to it than that.

This Sixers front office does seem to have a type in the late teens and early 20s:

(We can throw Edgecombe at No. 3 in there as well, even if he does not cleanly fit their archetype or draft position.)

Maxey, McCain and now Philon. Three smaller guards. This Sixers front office has done well with that strategy. Maxey was a home-run pick. McCain fared well enough that you were able to get Philon and three seconds in exchange for him. Side note: It will be fun fair to compare how Oklahoma City and the Sixers fared in that trade now that the Sixers have an actual basketball player instead of a draft pick.

On one hand, drafting a guard with Maxey and Edgecombe on the roster, even after the previous POBO traded McCain away, should be commended. The draft is about talent acquisition first and foremost, and the Sixers are nowhere near contention. To his credit, Gansey was honest: This is about finding a guy who can play with one of Maxey and Edgecombe, but not both.

“I don’t see a lot of minutes [with three guards], but maybe in certain situations I can,” he said.

But let’s move past the idea of fit with this current Sixers roster, and more toward positional value. It does seem like this front office is good at drafting guards. But barring a Maxey-level outlier breakthrough from Philon, selecting another offense-first guard does limit the pick’s ceiling a bit. This is an organization that has not possessed much in terms of wing defense or defensive rebounding for the better part of five years. Philon is not helping with any of that stuff.

On The Rights to Ricky Sanchez, I thought Mike Levin framed it well: Cost-controlled wings are very difficult to acquire via trade or in free agency. It worked out for the Knicks, but they had to give up all of their allowable draft assets for One Wing (Mikal Bridges). If the Sixers are not willing to take higher-risk swings (strikeouts or triples) for a wing in the draft, are they just bound to keep playing for singles, maybe doubles with guards?

That feels like a perfectly fair critique. At some point, drafting rotation-level guards is probably not gonna get you all that far unless you have another Maxey-level hit.

Then again, the Knicks also acquired OG Anunoby because they hit a single/double on a guard in the draft (Immanuel Quickley). And outside of the ultra-skinny Carr, I am not sure who that wing would have been in this draft. Perhaps this is more a matter of pointing out a larger team-building roadblock than being upset with this specific pick.

For a Sixers team that is not gonna win anything of consequence over the next few years, drafting a fun player who could certainly outperform his draft slot certainly has its benefits. Apparently Maxey and Edgecombe FaceTimed Philon minutes after he got drafted. Like those two, Philon seems like a talented kid that is easy to root for.

Maybe that is all that matters right now.

00: That is Philon’s number, pairing with Tyrese Maxey’s 0. If anyone has a zero-themed nickname for the backcourt when they play together, have at it.

Hopefully Philon is an improvement on former 00 Spencer Hawes, whose final game in Philly was “masterpiece of not giving a f—-.”

Sixers summer league: The Sixers did not have a second-round pick in the draft, thanks to the unfortunate George Hill trade at the 2021 deadline. They did not acquire any picks, either. Philon was it for the draft haul this year.

They did appear to sign a couple of players to the summer league roster, though: Bowling Green guard Javontae Campbell and Hawaii center Isaac “Big Fish” Johnson. Underrated flick, Big Fish.

The Summer Sixers will play in just Vegas this year, from July 9th to the 19th. No messing around with Utah this year, it seems. I bet Labaron will light up Sin City. The sickos at Cox Pavilion will be chanting his name as they trudge out into the 110-degree heat.

Two massive NBA transactions: I loved all of the NBA news that dropped while I was on vacation last week. In addition to the draft, we had two huge trades. Nothing like firing up Zach Lowe, Bill Simmons or my 15 other national NBA podcasts while on my morning run.

🏀 Giannis to Miami: As someone who has been dead wrong about The Cultures before, I just do not think the Heat were the right team to go all-in for a soon-to-be 32-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Heat now have very few draft picks, very few young players, very little shooting and very little depth. In every way except the shooting, they feel like the Bucks team that Giannis just asked out from! Giannis and Bam Adebayo are a bit too duplicative for my liking. Who is getting that team a tough bucket at the end of games?

Throw in my concerns about how Giannis’ game ages and how durable Giannis stays into his 30s, I do not mind this at all. The Heat feel like a pretty good, mid-tier East playoff team, but their long-term outlook does not seem all that promising.

From the Sixers’ standpoint, the bigger story here is that Boston did not get Giannis. Apparently, Hugo “The Hack” Gonzalez was untouchable in those negotiations. Brad Stevens cannot get that 0-for-3, four-foul performance in Game 7 out of his head.

One problem for Boston? Jaylen Brown was not untouchable in those negotiations, and he knows it. And now it seems like the Celtics are actively trying to break up The Jays.

This was one potential benefit of the Sixers beating Boston in the first round. Just once, I wanted to see how the Celtics would react when the Sixers were the ones who sent them home for the summer feeling bad about themselves. Stevens could be correct to dangle Brown — Jayson Tatum was rehabbing from a friggin’ Achilles tear for most of this season, and Brown basically spent all year saying, “This is the best!” — but I am enjoying Celtics Chaos for once. Way too stable of a franchise over the past decade for my liking. Brown is currently melting down on social media.

🏀 LaMelo to Minnesota: I thought Charlotte was definitely gonna pass the Sixers in the standings this season, but this move makes that prospect less likely. As fundamentally unserious as LaMelo Ball can be, he is a pretty darn good shot creator who was also Charlotte’s offensive engine during their second-half resurgence.

Then again, LaMelo is an unserious basketball player. For that reason, I understand getting out of The LaMelo Business. Thoughts and prayers to automobile drivers in the Twin Cities area.

Free agency is right around the corner! Will have more on the Sixers in the next few days.

Flyers development camp starts in Voorhees today. I am seeing all of Alex Bump, Denver Barkey and Porter Martone’s names on the roster. That is fun.

And the Phils start a four-game series at home against the Buccos (6:40 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). Aaron Nola against Braxton Ashcraft.

Let’s make it a good one.