What area teams want (and need) for Christmas
Sources say the Big Guy arrives sometime between sunset Sunday and daybreak Monday. Here are Christmas wish suggestions for the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and their fans.
1. Eagles — Fix Jalen: Hope that Jalen Hurts regains the meticulous form that made him an MVP candidate in 2022 and for the first 11 games of 2023. If they do, the final acts of their 30-somethings will be Super.
Ahead of Super Bowl LVII in February, Chiefs coaches repeatedly told me that Hurts’ best weapon wasn’t his fine arm or his fast, strong legs. It was his mind.
In just his second full season as a starter, they said, Hurts processed defensive looks with the speed and accuracy of a 10-year veteran.
That remained true for most of this season. And then Hurts stopped processing.
He routinely ignores the best option, often a short pass in the middle of the field, in favor of the big play; this was the case with both of his interceptions Monday night in Seattle, which were the plays that cost the Eagles their best chance to win. Hurts claimed he didn’t even see outlet receiver Kenneth Gainwell, who was wide open, when he threw the clinching interception into double coverage. That’s simply unacceptable for a fourth-year starter.
His 17 turnovers are tied for the league lead and are almost as many as he accumulated in 2021 and 2022 combined.
The Eagles have lost three straight games because Hurts has been their worst key player for three straight weeks; he admitted as much after the Seattle loss.
Santa needs to play chiropractor, because the Birds have just three weeks for him to get his head back on straight.
If that happens, the Eagles can win the Super Bowl.
They won’t have wasted what might be the final seasons of their ghosts of Christmas past in Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham and Darius Slay.
2. Sixers — A healthy Embiid in May:
The only playoff run in which Joel Embiid didn’t miss a game was 2020, and that’s because the playoffs were delayed and only lasted a week for the 76ers: The Celtics swept them out of the COVID bubble in four games.
Embiid has been either sidelined or impaired by knee injuries, hand injuries, or illnesses and he broke part of his face twice. Some of it has been bad conditioning, but most of it has been bad luck. And that’s where the wishing comes in.
Embiid’s in pretty good shape. He’s figured out that diving on the floor, diving into the stands and running the break like a guard can be dangerous to the health of a 7-foot, 280-pound center. Still, accidents happen. How about a little insurance, Santa?
3. Phillies — Fewer K’s: Of the 12 teams that qualified for the 2023 playoffs, only the Phillies and Twins ranked among the top 13 teams in terms of striking out. The three 100-win teams — the Braves, Orioles and Dodgers — ranked 25th, 19th and 20th, respectively.
The Diamondbacks, who won the National League pennant, ranked 27th.
Regular-season efficiency does not always translate into postseason success — the D’backs fanned nine more times than the Phillies in the NLCS — but contact matters. Consider Nick Castellanos: He went 1-for-24 in the NLCS and led all hitters with 11 strikeouts. He also whiffed 185 times in the regular season, fifth-most in the majors.
The leader?
For the second straight year that was Phillies leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber, whose 215 K’s gave him 415 over two seasons while hitting .207. Sure, Schwarbs also hit 93 homers in that span, but with a bit better balance and a slightly better eye, just imagine the damage he might do — and Castellanos, too.
4. Flyers — Continued sanity by Torts:
The Flyers are surprisingly consistent, buoyed by an ever-improving Sean Couturier, finally back from a long-term injury, two strong goaltenders, and a killer penalty kill, which includes, of all people, Travis Konecny, who has three shorthanded goals, which is tied for second in the NHL. Who knew?
The biggest reason the Flyers have done so well so far lies in the steady hand of John Tortorella. A hot-headed, short-fused coach who seemed more likely to spontaneously combust during this Flyers rebuild than to act as the Voice of Reason.
But he has done just that. After every loss, Tortorella pinpoints the reasons with typical candor but he has yet to come unhinged. He consistently reminds questioners of the Flyers’ long-term objectives — to build a strong team from the back out that plays smart and hard and to its ability at all times — and that resonates with a purged and rebuilt roster.
You might argue that losing more would result in better draft picks and better prepare the roster to receive Russian phenom Matvei Michkov whenever he arrives — he likely won’t be allowed to leave until 2026 — but, as the Sixers proved for the first five years of their failed “Process,” creating a losing culture on purpose is a fool’s errand.