Summary judgments: Nick Sirianni’s future, Sixers trade targets, Phillies vs. Dodgers

Small thoughts on big things for Q1, 2024 ...

I keep thinking about Buffalo.

The game, I mean.

Anybody who wants to fire Nick Sirianni should think about it, too. It was only five weeks ago that the Eagles pulled out a 37-34 overtime win over Buffalo to improve to 10-1 and cement their status as one of the two or three legit championship contenders in the NFL. But I’m not thinking about the Eagles. I’m thinking about the Bills.

See, that same night, the Bills lost for the third time in four games, and the fourth time in six. They were 6-6, they’d fired their offensive coordinator, and people were starting to seriously question whether Sean McDermott had lost control of his team.

Sound familiar?

Five weeks later, the Bills are a win away from entering the playoffs as the No. 2 seed. They’ve won four straight games, and a fifth straight will send them to the playoffs for the sixth time in McDermott’s seven years as coach. Granted, they could miss the playoffs entirely if they lose to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday and get the wrong kind of help elsewhere. But therein lies the point.

Things change fast in the NFL. It’s a week-to-week league where success is as predicated on schedule matchups and injuries as it is on a team’s overall competency. The Eagles have had a rough go of it since that win over the Bills. Sirianni absolutely deserves some blame for that. But if you think that the last five weeks tell us more about the Eagles than everything that happened before that, you should widen your worldview and watch the NFL ebb and flow as a whole. Or, at least, check back in a month.

Three names the Sixers should consider pursuing ...

Pay no attention to Zach LaVine. Resist the urge. The Sixers have a whole summer to shop for blockbuster deals. That’s not what they need right now. The entered Friday 23-10, top five in offensive and defensive rating, and paced by a couple of no-doubt-about-it All-Stars who are developing the kind of chemistry you don’t want to mess with.

The Sixers are a good enough team that a complementary player or two might be the only thing they need to push them over the top. At the top of that list is a legitimate ballhandler who can take some pressure off Tyrese Maxey and make plays against a playoff-caliber defense. They could also use somebody who would help the defensive effort against the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks.

» READ MORE: An Eagles action plan for playoff success: Play the starters? Of course. Feed A.J.? Yep.

Three early names to chew on a month ahead of the trade deadline:

Tyus Jones, PG, Washington Wizards: He’s been high on my Sixers wish list for several years now. I feel the same way about him as I did about Seth Curry and Jalen Brunson several years ago. The efficiency is there. The moxie is there. The three-point numbers are there. Not just a player who can help a contender, but who can flourish in the right situation.

Look, I’m not saying Jones can break out like Brunson did a couple of years ago. But his numbers do look a lot like Brunson’s did the year before he made his big jump with the Dallas Mavericks.

Jones 2023-24: 12.5 ppg, 5.4 apg, 27.7 mpg, .426 3p%, .606 efg%

Brunson 2020-21: 12.6 ppg, 3.5 apg, 25.0 mpg, .405 3p%, 2.9 3pa/g, .588 efg%

They are built similarly. They both come from winning backgrounds. And they’ve both shown steady improvement.

Of course, both are 27 years old. And Jones is in his ninth season in the league. So I’m not saying that he has the whole world in front of him. Curry might be a better comp for potential trajectory/upside. Remember, he was 30 years old with a 10.1-point career average when the Sixers acquired him from the Mavericks in 2020. Over the next two seasons, he averaged 13.8 points and 31.2 minutes. They are different players, but Jones’ skill set fits this version of the Sixers just as perfectly as Curry did with those Sixers. He can handle the rock, navigate the court, knock down a three, and compete.

Malcolm Brogdon, PG, Portland Trail Blazers — Brogdon is doing his usual Brogdon things in Portland. At 31, he can score (20.3 points per 36 minutes), shoot (.414 on threes), and handle the ball (7.2 assists per 36 minutes). And he can do all of those in a playoff environment. He’s under contract for another year at $22.5 million, so the Sixers would have to take their summer free-agency plans into consideration. But there’s always a workaround for that, it seems.

» READ MORE: Is Jalen Hurts pacing himself? The Eagles need him back scrambling.

Kelly Olynyk, C/PF, Utah Jazz — Jordan Clarkson is the Jazz player you might initially peg as a fit for the Sixers. And he might be. But it’s hard for me to project how he’d fit alongside Maxey. Premier isolation scorer, but ball dominant and not much of a passer.

Olynyk might be the more sensible addition. He’s another guy who has been on my Sixers wish list for a while. This might be the year when the conditions are finally right. He’s an expiring-contract player who is 32 and has spent the last few seasons bouncing around from non-contending team to non-contending team. The Jazz have little incentive to hang onto him. The Sixers could certainly use a guy who can give them another option for non-Joel Embiid minutes while also giving them an option to use against bigger lineups. He doesn’t kill your spacing because of his ability to knock down a three. Would be interesting to see Nick Nurse utilize him, particularly against the Bucks and Celtics.

The Phillies haven’t lost as much ground in the National League as people seem to think ...

The Los Angeles Dodgers have had a heck of an offseason, but the second half of that lineup still looks like a place where a lot of bad things can happen. Max Muncy had a .713 OPS and 21 home runs just two years ago. James Outman had a .742 OPS in his last 107 games. Chris Taylor had a .677 OPS in 2022. Jason Heyward had a .606 OPS in the two seasons before 2023. Gavin Lux has a .712 OPS in 1,003 career plate appearances.

Granted, the first four hitters in the order are as good as it gets. But people are overstating just how helpless the rest of the National League is. This was an offseason borne more of necessity than luxury for the Dodgers, with J.D. Martinez hitting free agency, Clayton Kershaw’s future up in the air, and Julio Urias facing a lengthy suspension.

Let’s just hope the Phillies aren’t done with their offseason just yet.