You asked what my thoughts are on what we do if we strike out with Brand and Josh Smith. I think we should do nothing. Stand pat, save the cap room for flexibility throughout the coming year and next summer.

-Develop Thad and Speights
-Pray Andre Miller has a repeat performance and gets 8.5+ assists a game raising his stock even higher
-See if Iguodala and Thad can be effective as a 2/3 combo
-Explore “tweak” trades to get draft picks, a bit more cap room, or a shooter or backup PG by packaging some combination of Jason Smith, Willie Green, maybe Carney, maybe R Evans…throw some feelers out, see what we could get.
-Get Iguodala, Thad and A Miller’s stock as high as possible so that we have all kinds of flexible trade options throughout the coming year through the deadline, and then in summer ‘09.

I feel standing pat is very underrated…I don’t like knee jerk reaction moves unless it is one hell of great shot at improving both long and short term. If we were contending it would be different, but we are young, on the up, I see just stay under the cap and don’t blow it on overrated SF’s when we already have 4 of them.

I will say if Krystic WAS healthy, that would be intriguing, but no one knows about his health.

I also should say I love Biedrins, and feel he basically can replicate what D-Bere does and has more tenacity, upside, better rebounding and individual one on one defense. But if we signed him to tag team with D-Bere, we’d have no offensive anything in the post…so if we got Biedrins, for me, I’d immediately look to put Sammy on the block.

I guess I think you undervalue defense since you never talk about it and seem to really like offensive specialists.

We need help in the half court offense, while not sacrificing anything on defense relative to Reggie Evans. Smith doesn’t fit that bill. Speights could. Heck Jason Smith has a better chance to fill that need than Josh Smith and he is a solid shot blocker as well.

We have a bigger question mark at the PG position since we have one candidate to fill that need long term in Lou. Maybe Jamont Gordon will be amazing and push for some PT this year… I don’t see it happening.

The Sixers ought to continue to evaluate and keep flexibility. They don’t really need help defensively, so I don’t understand why they would get Josh Smith.

As you clearly say, “Defense can get you so far, but there is another part of the game which is to put the ball in the hole as well.”

I agree. And Houston shows it. If the Sixers get Josh Smith, they will show it too.

But when I watch this team struggle against good -elite teams both in the regular season and in the playoffs it’s because they go on droughts when they don’t/can’t score. Defense can get you so far, but there is another part of the game which is to put the ball in the hole as well. In order for them to get over the hump they need to figure out a way to decrease both the number of scoring droughts and duration of them when they do happen. For this team that is in the half-court and making free throws at a higher rate. Other strong defensive teams do a good job of getting stops, rebounding and forcing turnovers all things that prevent the Sixers for getting the easy baskets in transition which they thrive on.

This is the off-season and I am looking to fill holes and improve the team. Especially when for once they have the means to do it. Standing pat is fine, but most of my posts are just options worth exploring before getting to that point. So you are right most of the things are just conversation starters and ideas some of which I do personally support.

My point regarding your comments are how do you continue the conversation with someone when the response often times is “everyone sucks.” I could easily ignore them, but is that what commenters really want, to post comments and have them be ignored?

Capspace is determined by your player salaries and cap holds. Trading Miller for Marion wouldn’t affect either of those for next offseason since Miller or Marion wouldn’t be part of the “player salaries” because they wouldn’t be under contract. If you get what I am saying…

“Who knows, maybe Spreights and Lou W will progress well this year and we can look in another direction next summer.”

I agree. This team is filled with so many “unknowns” long term for a championship caliber team. They are set at SF and C IMO and nowhere else yet. Lou, Iggy, Speights, Smith, and Carney all have the ability, in my opinion to fill out roles, such as Lou(starting PG), Iggy/Carney(starting SG), Speights/Smith(starting PF), then other roles like 6th man, shooter, back up C, etc. With another year, I think we will have a better understanding of who will fill what roles and then make a decision on what direction to go with the cap space, if any.

I was under the impression that these were ideas you were just throwing out there. That is why I approached them with the bluntness I did. If I knew you were backing them, I would have been more long-winded in my response. Perhaps I misread your initial post? I don’t think so. Anway…

http://www.wagesofwins.com/Distortion0708.html

Using defensive efficiency as a measure of defensive ability, I like the personnel on 8 of the top 10 defensive teams greatly. The Sixers were 5th best. They were an elite defensive team last year. That is also why they have a chance at 50 wins without additions like Josh Smith. They should evaluate their talent level more so and then make judgments as to what holes they need to address.

The Sixers aren’t going to magically forget how to defend. They have 0 terrible defenders on their team. They have several studs like Iggy, Thaddeus, and Sammy. They have another really good one in Andre Miller. They have good ones in Lou Williams, Reggie Evans. They have an average to mildly below average one in Willie Green. I can’t give an evaluation to Speights or Jason Smith because I don’t have one.

You look at their problems in the half court offense and think this team can’t win because they don’t have a 20 ppg player. I look at this team and say they have a chance to be on the same level as Detroit defensively, if not better. The Sixers struggle on offense, but with minor improvements by Thaddeus, Lou, and Carney, they could easily move from 20th to 15th or so.

The Sixers are BETTER than you think. The personnel is BETTER because you undervalue defense.

Raymond Felton “ran” a team that couldn’t manage to be anything other than bad on offense and defense. His numbers aren’t good and his play, from what I have watched, is poor. He improved this year as I stated. His numbers last year were still worse than a Kirk Hinrich’s offensively and Hinrich’s value is often times associated with his play on the other side of the ball. Felton’s isn’t. Hinrich “ran” a poor offensive team, but last year was a poor year for him and last year was a very good year for Felton. I think of Hinrich as PG that ranks somewhere between 11 and 20 in the NBA aka average starting PG. I think of Felton as a very bad starter.

I honestly didn’t mean to say Al Harrington stinks. He is a below average starter and, with his salary, he just isn’t good enough. That is how I feel.

At the end of the say, you will shrug off the Sixers defensive prowess and overemphasize their offensive flaws causing you to misjudge this team, in my opinion, and THAT is “ridiculous.”

I agree that J Smith would be best all around, but if Atlanta is determined to keep him, trading for Marion might work out. I understand 08-09 is the last year on his contract. Wouldn’t that mean we would pick that up as “cap space” next summer? If so, we could be players again next year when there may be more options. Renting Marion for a year may not be a bad idea. However it would cost us AM. I think Lou W can play the point. He’s had 2 years of teaching from Mo and 1-1/2 with AM. His assist/turnover ratio has improved. I think we here see him as a little bit like Allen Iverson and are afraid he will be a “shoot first” kind of player. His attitude seems to be good and, as I said, he’s had excellent mentoring.

Who knows, maybe Spreights and Lou W will progress well this year and we can look in another direction next summer.

As for Marion I’d re-sign him to a three or four year deal. I happen to think he’s got a lot more left in the tank than most do.

(Again, I’d prefer finding a way to land J. Smith over all these scenarios.)

Side Note: How are we structuring this deal? Is it straight up Miller for Marion? That deal would eat up roughly $6M of our cap space by absorbing the excess of Marion’s $16M contract. Which we would then use to find our new starting PG? Or Shooter if you want to put Lou at the point? Thoughts?

On the other side do we think the Sixers should either extend Marion now or resign him next summer?

I just think when looking at potential deals (especially this one) we can’t just consider “right now” but also consider what the plan is down the line as well. Know what I mean? Unless we are getting a super, super star player at a big need (Elton Brand etc.) all other deals are part of a bigger building process to get this team a level where they can compete for an Eastern Conference Finals and Finals every year. We have some good pieces already I think.