James Harden’s coaching record should be 1-0 after this week’s win against the Celtics. Without him we’re in a must-win situation against the Heat and the Cavs are breathing down our necks for the #3 seed. It was Harden who made the decision to move PJ Tucker to the corner Tuesday where he hit multiple big threes late in the game, via Dave Early at Liberty Ballers:

Then the head coach gave a hat tip to his point guard for making a clutch suggestion.

“And that was a very great observation by James,” Rivers continued. “[James] said, ‘hey, let’s put Tuck in the corner, and let’s put Tobias in the dunker spot.’ And it really came through for us,” Rivers explained. “He’s been in big moments. He’s gonna shoot it. You know, they were gonna help off of him, we said in the timeout, and he stepped up and made ‘em.”

Typically it’s Tobias Harris platooned in a corner, while P.J. Tucker lurks around in the dunker spot, playing what former Sixers head coach Brett Brown used to call “peek-a-boo.”

The problem there is that P.J. isn’t exactly a big…well…dunker threat these days, and often winds up kicking it back out, or feeling forced to loft hot potato floaters as the shot clock winds down.

I love Doc being like “great observation.” No, you dummy. That’s what we call adjustments. We’ve been yelling at you about them for three years now. Pop makes them. An observation is realizing the Phillies scoreboard went from miniature to holy shit huge during the offseason. Observations are made during film, not during basketball games.

This dude continues to just baffle me. How do you not use the regular season to experiment with this? Tucker has been a total non-factor from the dunker spot all season. He’s only taken eight shots from 10-16 feet according to Basketball Reference. He has no confidence inside the three point line. Remember this abortion:

Shouldn’t have had popcorn before the game.

Here’s the thing –


Everyone who watches a tiny bit of basketball understands that Tucker made his money with Milwaukee hitting corner threes. More than half his shots during that championship run were from the corner:

PJ Tucker 20-21 Playoff splits via Basketball Reference

Last year he shot 43% from three during the Sixers/Heat series. Does Doc not remember? It’s baffling Rivers continues to get away with this shit even after he tells on himself. The fans are done with it too. After another collapse in April the Sixers are easily going to be supplanted by the Phillies as the #2 team (if it hasn’t already happened). No one wants to watch this team because of the coach. Everyone I talk to that says they can’t get into the Sixers has one reason: Doc. That’s why it was fair to keep this team at an arm’s length all season. The dude is still talking about using all bench lineups because that’s what he did to win a title 15 years ago. I don’t care that he’s 40-15 in his last 55 games. This team wins in spite of him. When’s the last time you watched a game and said to yourself, “Good call, Doc!”? The only chance we have in the playoffs is Joel Embiid putting this team on his back and going on an Iverson-esque run to the Finals.