The sixers are too athletic and balanced to be bad. They are building one of the most solid teams in the NBA, and will probably be a contender for the championship the next couple of seasons. I think they finish top 3 this season easily. I dont know about dethroning the champs but the sixers are good. elton brand just bolsters both there offense and defense, which were already decent and good.
well, i expect you to be disappointed with them then. yeah they added brand and he's a very good player(if healthy). but they can't shoot, can't play small without taking away minutes from brand/dalembert, and are going to be playing guys like igoudala/thadeous in positions where they don't play their best. i expect the final result to be less than it looks like on paper because the pieces just don't seem to fit right.
They had the same problems last year but that didn't stop them from finishing 7th and giving the Pistons a hard time in the playoffs. The only difference from last year is that fact that they added a franchise player in Elton Brand, and Thaddeus Young, who started at power forward, will move back to his natural position as small forward. Still doesn't make sense how they will disappoint. They took a very good Pistons team last year to 6 games in the playoffs, and they'll only improve on that from here on out. You guys are acting like I'm expecting a lot out of the Sixers, which I'm not. I'm just expecting them to advance past the first round, which, looking at the eastern conference and what they've accomplished last year, isn't that difficult of a task to accomplish.
Why can't they play small? Brand at C, Young at PF, Iguodala at SF, at Lou Williams and Andre Miller at the guards. Sounds good to me.
young is a natural sf, but he played better at pf than he did at sf last year. igoudala can play sg and play it well, but he still played better at sf last year. and igoudala playing more minutes at sg means less minutes for louis williams and willie green. brand is replacing jason smith in the rotation so obviously that is a huge upgrade but those minutes have to come from somewhere. they certainly have several different options of lineups they can go with at times and play small. but brand is going to be playing 36+ minutes a game and dalembert is going to be playing 32+ per game. with reggie evans and their first round pick marreese speights there to get minutes, that doesn't exact leave a lot of minutes for small ball.
all they need to do is make matchup changes when they need to. They can start Brand and Dalembert every game and get some bigtime mismatches.
Really? How is it horrible? Billups has a ring...Parker has a few, for that matter, both are considered top 5 PGs in the league...Yao has a huge impact on the game when he's healthy, Dwight is the best big man in the league, Nash has two MVPs and his team is considerably worse when he's not on the court. AI...sure, he's got an MVP, but that's it. Nothing else. And I bring up a point that has been brought up already...how has AI actually improved the Nuggets? They were never higher than an 8 seed before they traded for him and haven't been any higher since acquiring him. In fact, they damn near missed the playoffs each year he's been on the team. Now take a look at the 76ers. They made no drastic changes from when they traded Iverson to last season. But what happened? They made the playoffs. Why? Probably because they no longer had Iverson on the team and were able to focus more on the TEAM concept instead of watching Iverson be a ballhog for the 40 minutes he was on the court.
You clearly have never heard of the Bobcats then, or for that matter, the Hawks until they made the playoffs last year. Both teams have great athletes and tons of balance, yet somehow always managed to miss the playoffs. The Hawks did change that fortune last year, but barely. Balance and athleticism can only get you so far in the NBA. I love what the Sixers are building, but they're not going to be a championship team for at least a few years. I loved the Brand acquisition, don't get me wrong, but I still think that puts them no higher than 5th in the East. I still think the Pistons, Celts, Magic and Cavs are all better then them.
How do you know Young is a more successful PF than SF? His natural position? It's not like Young has tantalizing post moves, or great size and ability to defend the paint. He's playing out of position. He won't be successful in the long run playing big minutes every game at PF, because he won't be able to defend opposing post players effectively, just like Marion struggled in Phoenix when he was PF. Young saw a lot of minutes at PF mostly because the Sixers were deep enough at the wing positions, and had nobody to start at PF. Having Reggie Evans as your starting PF along with Samuel Dalembert at C is just asking for disaster, as neither of them have any offensive game to speak of. Young at PF was never a longterm goal, Young himself has said that he prefers the SF position. Next year, with Brand in the lineup, Young will be able to shift down to his natural position and he'll have a better opportunity to succeed. " and igoudala playing more minutes at sg means less minutes for louis williams and willie green." Louis Williams is the backup PG, he will get his minutes. Willie Green is horrible. If I'm Maurice Cheeks, I try to limit his minutes as much as possible. There's no set limits to how many minutes each player will receive. If the situation is right, Cheeks will adjust to a small ball lineup no matter what. He's not on the sidelines keeping track of how many minutes each player has logged in. Who cares? Now, assuming Dalembert plays for 32 minutes, that's another 16 minutes that can be used for small ball. Reggie Evans is a backup PF, if he doesn't get much playing time then so what? And Speights is a raw rookie who probably isn't going to see much playing time next season to begin with. As durvasa pointed out, the Sixers can play small ball if the situation suits them right. Brand, Young, Iguodala, Williams, and Miller is a great small ball lineup.
i said he played better at pf than sf last year. and he did. williams was on the court 47% of the sixers minutes last season. miller was on the court 76% on the sixers minutes last season. meaning that roughly one forth of the sixers minutes last season, both guys were on the court together. which also means that half the time williams was on the court, so was miller. oh and miller played 36 minutes a game last year which only leaves 12 minutes of backup pg play. clearly that alone wouldn't be enough to keep williams happy. horrible is too strong of a word to describe willie green, but obviously limiting his minutes isn't a huge issue. hell they could take away all of his minutes and give those to brand(over what jason smith received last year) and give williams a few extra minutes too. but that does take away most of the small ball they played last year and give you a pissed off willie green in the locker room. right. there are no set limits to minutes. but the reality is that brand is going to play 36+ minutes a game and dalembert is going to play 32+ minutes per game. so while not set in stone on a game to game basis, those are what their average minutes per game will be. and yes, the sixers will still play bits of small ball here and there and adjust to matchups. but last year young play 33% of the sixers pf minutes. you really think there is even a remote chance of that happening again? small ball is going to be a much less important part of their team than it was.
Wait, somebody expects Mo Cheeks to make good decisions? The East was putrid last season, lets not overvalue the teams that made the playoffs last season
what horrible comparisons. Neither of those teams are anywhere near as balanced as the sixers. The Bobcats are full of sporadic young players who's potential was overrated, and the hawks are actually on the same path as the sixers. a young and rising team. why would you even bring them up now, after they took the champs to 7 games? now im not saying the sixers are the best team in the east, but i think you're severely underestimating the Brand pickup. If Brand plays at an allstar level this year and gets say, 23 ppg, 11 rbs, and 2 blocks, i dont see them getting a worse spot then number 3.
From what? How many minutes did he play at SF last year? And again, Young isn't going to be effective at PF for an entire season. I don't really see your point. His game isn't going to all of a sudden deteriorate just because we're moving him back to his natural position, the position he himself said he wants to play. Playing Young at PF for an entire season is just asking for a weak post defense. Miller is getting old, I do expect to see his minutes per game to diminish some next season, which means more time for Williams at point. And it's not like Iggy's going to play the entire 48 minutes of every single game. Williams will fill in for Iggy here and there, and Iggy will most likely shift over to SF as times as well, when Young needs a break. You're getting way too worked up over the minutes. Willie Green is horrible. Ask any Sixer fan, go to any Sixer forum and you'll see that everyone hates him. Willie Green sucks. All he does is chuck up shots and disrupt the offense. If he gets upset then oh well. You earn your minutes on a team, you don't deserve anything. If Green isn't playing well, he should get benched. And it doesn't take away anything from small ball. Like durvasa said, the small ball lineup will be: pg: Miller sg: Williams sf: Iguodala pf: Young c: Brand The less time Willie Green sees on the floor the better. I still don't get what you're trying to say. Sure small ball won't be as important as last year because the Sixers finally have a legit starting power forward who can succeed alongside Samuel Dalembert. Your acting like adding Brand to the lineup and taking away small ball will actually hurt us. Which it won't. Also, once again, your making way too big of a deal with the minutes.
im a huge sixer fan and i like willie green alot. great value for where he was picked in the draft. Hes also a very good ballhandler and capable of pushing it when we want to run. hes great on this team.
