Summer Friday mailbag.

Let’s get to it:

Yes, we should apologize for that weather-related snafu. Pagan did the hail tweet, so he takes full responsibility.

It was a good tweet though. He was just pointing out how many ridiculous things had happened in Philly in a short amount of time. Highway collapse, hail storm, etc. We’ll “do a better job” next time, as Andy Reid likes to say.

I would not trade the reigning MVP, but to answer the first part of the question, that’s a good bet. Probably worth a fiver because the Sixers are near the ceiling and are faced with limited options right now. If they don’t make the conference final in the next 1-2 years, then that might be it. Meantime, the Flyers’ turnaround, we think, we will be complete by then, so they’re on a much more favorable trajectory. Their ceiling is going to be infinitely higher if/when the Sixers bomb out again.

What’s particularly excruciating is that almost every team has made an ECF over the past 20 years other than the Sixers:

  • Celtics 10x
  • Bucks 3x
  • Hawks 2x
  • Heat 8x
  • Raptors 2x
  • Cavs 7x
  • Pacers 3x
  • Bulls 1x
  • Magic 2x
  • Pistons 8x
  • Nets 2x

Only the Knicks, Wizards, Sixers, and Hornets have failed to make an eastern conference final since the Allen Iverson run of 2001. Conversely, the Flyers have been to the conference finals three times and went to the Stanley Cup Final in that same time frame. Even with the past 10 or so years of ineptitude, the Flyers have been the much better team than the Sixers over the past two decades.

*addendum – It looks like the only NHL teams not to make the ECF in that same time frame are the Red Wings and Blue Jackets, who didn’t come over from the west until 2013. It’s harder to build those dominant dynasties in the NHL than the NBA.

The comments have been turned off entirely for a few years now. The only way they would ever return is if we did some kind of moderated thing with an email signup where people were restricted from spamming.

Not sure if people realize this, but the old comments section was basically the same group of idiots posting racist and homophobic shit under different names from the same IP address. Over and over again. Kyle highlighted this back in the day. It was a handful of trolls, and when we would put profanity filters in there, they’d find a way around it every time. I know people got a laugh out of the comments, but the door is closed for “Jillian Mele’s Butthole” and is likely not going to be reopened.

Without question. It’s going to be sick. People from all over the country and all over the world visiting Philadelphia for the festivities. Plus, Jalen Hurts is still going to be in his prime and the Flyers won’t suck, so even on a strictly local level you’re presumably going to have at least two of the teams looking like contenders at that point. Hopefully.

Probably. Whatever interest he had overseas seems to have waned. He’ll either sign a new contract here or walk. I can’t see them extracting any value via transfer. My gut just tells me that ship has sailed, but the best case scenario would be what happened with Jose Martinez.