How the Cavs compare: Philadelphia 76ers

bbwchingy0007 · Sep 23, 2008

Cavalier Attitude said:

Philly is coming off of a 40-42 season that saw them make the playoffs as the 7th seed and earn a date with Detroit in the first round. It was at this time when the team really came together, as they were able to steal two games - including one in Detroit from the heavily favored, and not to mention more talented, Pistons.Over the course of the season, Philly’s young core began to develop into a quality rotation. In fact, five players averaged 10 or more points by the end of the season. All but one of those five - Andre Miller, at age 31 - is 26 or younger. However, the majority of this offense came from the perimeter and slashing, with four of the five major players being guards.

Heading into the off-season, the 76ers appeared to be primed for another playoff season, as their young talent still has the potential for even more improvement. However, the team’s dynamic shifted dramatically when, in early July, Philly was able to make a huge splash with the signing of Elton Brand.

As mentioned earlier, there was a huge void at power forward for the Sixers, and outside of Samuel Dalembert, who’s primarily a post defender, Philly had no inside presence on the offensive end. The addition of Elton Brand greatly improves the primary rotation for the Sixers by inserting a natural NBA power forward into the starting lineup and moving Reggie Evans to the bench.

Not only does this shore up the Sixers lineup, but it also adds another star caliber player to join Andre Igoudala, making the 76ers a legitimate player in the 2008-2009 Eastern Conference. Over the course of his nine-year NBA career, Brand has averaged more than 20 points, 10 rebounds, and nearly three assists per game. To put this into context, only Carlos Boozer averaged more than 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 2.5 assists last season.

But where there are positives, there are usually negatives. The negative with Elton Brand is, of course, his injury last season.Elton Brand basically missed the entire 07-08 season, playing in only eight games after suffering a torn achilles tendon. This is a huge question mark for the Sixers as they add Brand, who has not yet had an opportunity to prove that he is 100 percent healthy and ready to reproduce his numbers before he got hurt.

Brand is certainly capable of coming back from the injury, as he is just entering the prime of his athletic life at the age of 28. Beyond that, Brand has been quite durable over the course of his career until last season. In fact, Brand played an average of 76 games per season over his first eight years in the league. So if anyone is going to come back from such an injury, it will be a durable, younger player, and that is exactly what the Sixers have in Elton Brand.

So now that we have taken a quick look at the Philadelphia 76ers, it’s now time to see how the Cavs compare. With the addition of Mo Williams, the Cavs have a starting lineup that looks like:

PG Mo Williams
SG Sasha Pavlovic
SF LBJ
PF Ben Wallace
C Z

Bench
Delonte West
Daniel Gibson
J.J. Hickson
Wild Thing

Whereas the 76ers starters and depth looks like this:

PG Andre Miller
SG Andre Igoudala
SF Willie Green
PF Elton Brand
C Samuel Dalembert

Bench
Louis Williams
Reggie Evans
RodneyCarney
Maresse Speights
Thaddeus Young

Two things that jump out right away are the sizable offensive advantage for the Sixers in the post and the size advantage at the perimeter for the 76ers. As far as the post is concerned, the Cavs have no one outside of LBJ that has shown they can score at a consistent rate on the inside. Z is almost strictly a jump shooter at this point, and Varejao and Big Ben are “defense only” kind of guys. They are definitely useful, as both players should do well defending and rebounding against the likes of Dalembert and Brand.

My worry about the inside is that Brand and Dalembert will have little to do on the defensive end, allowing them to shade LBJ’s way on a consistent basis. As far as the guard comparison: Outside of Sasha Pavlovic, the Cavs biggest guard is Delonte West at a generous 6′4″. Sasha would certainly be the guy to guard Igoudala, but I doubt they will be playing comparable minutes. This leaves Gibson, West or Szczerbiak on him or on Willie Green, the 76ers’ “three” from last year.

I suppose LeBron could defend Igoudala in those spurts, but that gives him potentially too much to deal with on defense, because of what we expect from him on offense. Thaddeus Young is also a bit of a mismatch for the Cavs who at 6′7″ has played point guard in spurts.The size difference could also be a problem on the offensive end, with the 76ers guards able to strong arm the Cavs out of the lane.

However, Igoudala is the only guy they can put on LBJ, and that would free up some of the smaller guys like Williams, Miller, and Green to defend the Cavs guards.Defensively, the Cavs have been one of the best teams each of the last two years, giving up only 96 and 93 points per game, but the 76ers have been right there giving up only 96 and 98 points per game each of the last two years. The same can be said for the respective offensive at least for last season when they both averaged basically 96.5 points per game.

With that being said, the main difference between these two teams is depth and experience. As far as depth is concerned, it appears as if each of the four Cavs main bench guys have a slight edge over their Philadelphia conterparts. West has proven himself to be a starting guard and has similar talent to Williams. The others are not quite as close with Gibson, Varejao, and Hickson, beating out Young, Evans, and Carney.

Experience is even more important in the starting five, and the Cavs lead the way here - and not by a small margin. Four of the five starters have played in at least one NBA Finals, with the exception being Mo Williams. The fact that the Cavs have been on the big stage before gives them a huge leg up on the 76ers.With all of that said, these two teams are relatively even across the board, although with a clear edge to the Cavs due to experience and depth.

The most important and most influential factor, however, is the star power. While the 76ers do have both Igoudala and Brand, as we saw in the playoffs it takes three second tier stars to keep up with the Cavs and LeBron. The dominance of LBJ now with an actual point guard to make plays for him really seperates these two teams. Just as the Cavs won two out of the three games that the teams played last season, Cleveland should be able to take care of business again this year.

Both the Sixers and the Cavs are sure to improve on mediorce regular seasons last year, and I see each team having what it takes to be in the top half of the Eastern Conference this year. Depending on the development of the team and the health of Brand, however, the Sixers could easily have another .500 year toward the bottom of the playoff seedings.That’s a wrap on the first installment of “How the Cavs Compare.”
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bbwchingy0007 · Sep 23, 2008

This is a great article from some knowledgeable guys over at MVN. It sums up the matchup really well, and I look forward to the future articles in the series.

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How the Cavs compare: Philadelphia 76ers

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