<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Life as the anchor of the 76ers' defense has become somewhat bewildering for Samuel Dalembert, who hasn't been spending as much time on the court as he would like. The 6-foot-11 Dalembert carries a dubious streak into tonight's matchup with the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center, having fouled out of his last two games. That brings his total number of disqualifications to three in just 16 games since returning Nov. 26 from an injury. In fact, he has picked up five or more fouls in five of his last six games. In the games in which he had that many fouls, he wasn't on the court for more than 28 minutes in any of them. "Some fouls have been unbelievable," Dalembert said before the Sixers left Portland, where they practiced yesterday. "Sometimes I'm not even in the play and they call a foul, saying I touched him. There's nothing I can do about it. I just wish they would let me play. "It's still on my mind, but what can I do? I just have to go out there and play. I have to get it out of my head." </div> link:http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/ba...ll/13520202.htm i agree. sammy has been hit with a lot of phantom fouls this year and a lot of just, well, amazing calls. i hope that the nba really looks at their refs and fire some that are just not doing their job right.
That's right Sam, blame everything on the referees. I hate it when players do that, but even moreso when the players are wrong and the referee's are justified for making these calls. It isn't the referee's fault that Sam rotates late defensively and goes for the block when there is zero chance of him getting it. It isn't their fault he goes over the back going for offensive rebounds when the opposing player has already boxed him out. The bottom line is that Sam needs to play smart. He still does not have a high basketball IQ... hell, he doesn't even have an average basketball IQ. Until he cleans up the silly fouls, he'll have a reputation as a hack, and he'll get called for these phantom fouls by referees.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting BigMo763:</div><div class="quote_post">That's right Sam, blame everything on the referees. I hate it when players do that, but even moreso when the players are wrong and the referee's are justified for making these calls. It isn't the referee's fault that Sam rotates late defensively and goes for the block when there is zero chance of him getting it. It isn't their fault he goes over the back going for offensive rebounds when the opposing player has already boxed him out. The bottom line is that Sam needs to play smart. He still does not have a high basketball IQ... hell, he doesn't even have an average basketball IQ. Until he cleans up the silly fouls, he'll have a reputation as a hack, and he'll get called for these phantom fouls by referees.</div>I was about to say the exact same thing. The reason Dalembert is fouling out of games is because he lacks defensive instinct. He is to late in rotations, does not anticipate a shot well enough, and gets to excited when going for rebounds. Instead of boxing out when trying to get an offensive rebound Sammy tries to use his athletic ability to get the rebound in the air. If he where boxing out, and letting the ball come to him not only would he pick up less fouls he would also conserve a lot of energy. With that said I have to be a little lenient on him, though, he has a big contract and is expected to perform better than what he has been doing lately we have to remember he did not seven pick up a basketball until his late teens. So he did not really have a way to learn all of the games fundamentals. I have to put some of the blame on the organization for not recognizing this and bringing in a big man coach. Perhaps hiring Moses Malone to the staff would benefit the team. When you have a big man with a limited knowledge of big man moves/skills and you are asking Maurice Cheeks, who although a good coach, was a guard during his playing days, trying to teach him obviously his development is going to be slower than the norm.
I agree, the organization needs to bring in someone like Moses Malone. He did tutor Sam a little bit earlier this season when Mo brought him in to give that rebounding speech on Thanksgiving, but Moses said his heart just isn't in to being an assistant coach full time.
