Offtopic » The Falcoholic Postgame Podcast: Falcons vs. Bengals

2018 Week 4 Hello, sullen Atlanta Falcons Atlanta Falcons T-Shirt fans near and far, it’s podcast time. The Falcoholic’s Postgame Podcast has returned for the quarter point of the season, where our Falcons sit at a surprising 1-3 and fresh off a 37-36 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Cory’s joined by Falcoholic writer and podcaster Allen Strk to break down exactly why the team lost Sunday and what’s ahead. On the Docket: How the offense continues to thrive with Steve Sarkisian The emergence of WR Calvin RidleyWhy the defense collapsed SundayWhat this team’s fate is, even if the defense gets it togetherHow to size up what you should think at the quarter pole Be sure to follow along with Allen on Twitter at @Allen_Strk and read his work here at The Falcoholic, like this most recent look at the Cincy loss. You can follow along with your fearless host on Twitter at @CoryWoodroof47 and read all of his awful takes on The Falcoholic.Be sure to tune in next week to another edition of the show, and plug in to our many podcast subscription options below.Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | ART19 Late in summer 2016, Joel Embiid was fuming. According to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz, Embiid was stomping around the Sixers’ old practice facility, at one point chucking a basketball across the hardwood. He had a workout scheduled with a marquee college big man prospect, but it got cancelled at the last minute. Instead, he had to face off against a 37-year old Elton Brand who was on the last legs of his NBA career.”The night before, I’d been watching Shaq’s highlights, and I wanted the competition,” Embiid told Arnovitz. “I needed someone to go back at me.”It sounds like he needed a competitor like Jimmy Butler, but Butler was 750 miles away at the Chicago Bulls’ practice facility, busy exchanging profanities with Rajon Rondo over who got to defend Isaiah Canaan, the hottest scorer on the opposing scrimmage team. Everything you need to know about the Jimmy Butler dramaJimmy Butler wants out of Minnesota. This is how we got here.Winners and Losers from the 76ers-Wolves blockbusterJimmy Butler’s ‘vociferous’ return to Timberwolves practice, explainedThe 7 most savage moments from Jimmy Butler’s interview with Rachel NicholsThe Timberwolves let the Jimmy Butler mess happenJimmy Butler was ruining the Timberwolves’ season, and maybe their futureInside the state of the 76ers before the Jimmy Butler tradeTwo years since then, the number of people on the business end of a Butler profanity-laced rant has gone up, ranging from teammates in Chicago and Minnesota — who he chastised in private and in front of cameras — to the Wolves’ front office. When he first returned to practice after demanding a trade from Minnesota, Butler challenged Karl-Anthony Towns to post him up, schooled the starters, and turned to GM Scott Layden. “You fucking need me!” he screamed. “You can’t win without me!” Meanwhile, Embiid got paired with Ben Simmons, who sat out a season due to injury and then won Rookie of the Year. In 2017, the 76ers drafted Markelle Fultz at No. 1 by trading the No. 3 pick — who became superstar-in-waiting Jayson Tatum — to Boston, in hopes of rounding out a homegrown Big Three. A shoulder injury held Fultz out most of his rookie year and infamously prompted the destruction of his once-perfect jumper. Sam Hinkie, who led the Sixers into the Process era, was forced out Atlanta Falcons Hats , and Bryan Colangelo was ushered in. At least three burner Twitter accounts, an internal investigation, and an exhausting search for a replacement later, Colangelo was fired and Brand, now a front-office executive, was promoted to the big job.Butler and the 76ers both had to take their hits. On Saturday, they merged out of necessity. The Sixers traded Jerryd Bayless, a second-round pick, and two Process babies who had been handpicked by Hinkie — Robert Covington and Dario Saric — to the Timberwolves for Butler and sophomore Justin Patton. Despite their meticulous planning, the multiple draft picks, and reserved cap space, the Sixers still needed a third star, so they took a gamble on the 29-year-old Butler, who is a free agent at the end of the year. They didn’t trade for him to put the sputtering Process era to an end, but to refuel it. Built unconventionally around a 7-foot shooter in Embiid and two point guards who can’t shoot in Simmons and Fultz, the 76ers are prone to bouts of offensive malaise, compounded by envelope-pushing plays that too often end in multiple turnovers. They needed Butler, a nightly 20-point scorer and stabilizing on-court force. And Butler, whose reputation for being old school has teetered into infamy over the past few months, needs a team like the 76ers — modern and analytics-obsessed, but also defensively inclined — to drag him into a version of the 21st century that aligns with his values.Butler was consistently at odds with Towns and Andrew Wiggins, the young pillars of Minnesota’s rebuild. That’s why it came as a surprise when Embiid told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon he discussed his new potential teammate with them and “they thought we were definitely going to get along.” It makes more sense if you separate personality from persona.The kid from Tomball, Texas — who used to strut around Chicago in cowboy boots, blast Garth Brooks from the locker room, stan Taylor Swift, and imitate wrestling moves on his teammates — is more famous for his 5 a.m. workouts, locker room tirades, and throwback attitude. Meanwhile, Embiid, the NBA’s best tweeter and troll, is known as the class clown. But it’s easy to forget how serious Embiid is and how funny Butler can be. At their core Atlanta Falcons Hoodie , they’re both hard-boiled workers with a nose for mischief. There’s a reason why Butler is arguably the NBA’s most meme-worthy star, and why Embiid relishes roasting big men on the floor as much as he does online. Their jokes don’t offset their intensity. Instead, the jokes are an extension of that competitiveness. After getting blown out by the Raptors on the eve of Halloween, Embiid stewed in his own frustration. The Sixers’ new switch-happy defensive scheme was out of sorts. “I’m the guy behind, so if I call something, my teammates gotta respect it and they gotta honor it,” he told me that night. “We have a lot of communication problems. That’s the key to a great defense.”Later, he added, “I gotta communicate better. If our defense is not good, I feel like I’m not doing a great job so I gotta do a better job. I don’t ever allow someone to give up 129 points. That’s bad. I’m pissed about it.”The message was not dissimilar to what Butler has tried to get across in Minnesota: stern, public, focused on effort, disappointed in the gulf between who they are and who they could be. But Embiid has a less explosive (read: less profane) way of communicating, and he put himself on the list of people who needed to be held accountable.And unlike Minnesota, where Butler was supposed to imbue work ethic by osmosis to a franchise that hadn’t made the playoffs in more than a decade, Embiid isn’t alone.Bill Streicher-USA TODAY SportsWhen 76ers head coach Brett Brown took over in 2013, he deliberately hung posters all over the walls of the practice facility that read, “Philly hard, Philly real, Philly edge.” The goal was to constantly remind the team what it meant to be a 76er, evoking memories of Allen Iverson stepping over Tyronn Lue in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, or Charles Barkley crashing against floorboards for loose balls. A few days prior to the Raptors game, after the 76ers dropped back-to-back road contests against the Bucks and Pistons, the coaching staff convened with the players, hoping to remind them who they were supposed to be. “They didn’t call out anyone as a person but they called us out as a team,” T.J. McConnell told me. “We all took it personal and decided it’s not good enough and that we need to be better.” In Butler, Embiid now has an aid and kindred spirit: a dogged, prideful defender who will call out perimeter switches and funnel opponents into his towering 7-foot frame. A core of Simmons, Butler, and Embiid could wreak havoc defensively for years. But Butler will have to adjust to Philly’s culture. Simmons and Embiid are not Towns and Wiggins, but they’re still young players: prone to inconsistency and still figuring out who they are on the court. When things momentarily go off the rails Cheap Customized Atlanta Falcons Jerseys , Butler will have to be patient and measured, especially if Fultz — whose road to reclaiming his potential, let alone tapping into it, looks long — sticks around. And if Butler chides, he must do it behind closed doors. The microphone never helps him. Butler is a rare combination: an open book, easy to read, but hard to manipulate. His intensity does not flood onto the court and blur his decision-making ability. Instead, it is defined by Butler’s need to assuage his anxieties. When something is wrong, his first impulse has always been to consider what more he can do. More from Seerat SohiThe scripted chaos of Stephen CurryLeBron James knows that winning big will erase any early strugglesDanny Green is the key to making the Kawhi Leonard trade workAnthony Davis is leading a big man training revolutionOperation Keep Kawhi is already workingButler’s instincts turned him from a near-homeless 13-year-old to a JuCo standout to a first-round draft pick to an NBA All-Star, so you can see why he hangs onto them. But in the fragile ecosystem of a locker room, Butler’s aggression rarely translates positively to others.He has always known that, even if he hasn’t been able to help himself. When I profiled him at the 2016 All-Star game in February, he joked he had to stop telling the truth (i.e. criticizing his teammates) in the media, because it always got him in trouble. He led the NBA in minutes at the time, and he liked presenting himself as an archaic heel, the foil to a league charging in the direction of rest and injury prevention. That didn’t lend much credibility to his insistence that he was sitting out games in Minnesota because his body needed it.But even back then, he admitted his own intensity wasn’t healthy. “I say that I don’t wanna sit down, I wanna play all those minutes, but I really be tired of playing like I’m Superman or something” Butler told me then. “They hit me with Kryptonite, then I hurt my knee.” He hurt his knee again last year, tearing his meniscus and missing almost two months. Butler’s mentality may run in opposition to the way analytics have transformed the game, but he isn’t ignorant to their benefits. The question is whether he can lean into those moments of rationality. The Sixers, a numbers-obsessed franchise that wants to hang their hats on being tougher, longer, and grittier than their opponents, could provide the happy medium that allows his aggression to thrive and his joints to heal. At the very least, they’ll field one of the most intense locker rooms in the league. Butler’s favorite pop star put it best: It’s gonna be forever, or it’s gonna go down in flames.