That is the best advice I can give. Because if you don’t take it and try to analyze the game you will walk away depressed with a feeling of hopelessness.
Why you ask?
Well number one the final score is dangerously misleading. The 99% of Philly fans who didn’t watch and were focused on the Phillies might look at the score and say “oh we only lost by 14 to the defending Eastern Conference champs.” Um, no. We technically lost by 14 but the game was a 20 point blow from the second quarter on and 30 for parts of the game. It was never close after the first period.
Besides that we MUST move on and forget that game ever happened because if you really dig into it you would probably come away thinking …
- Brand will never be good again
- Lou will never defend anyone – EVER
- Iguodala can’t play the two
- Sam had a weird ridiculously bad game. 8 shots (granted made 4), 5 fouls and 3 turnovers in only 7 minutes at one point? What the hell! He finished with 16 total minutes and the same stats.
- Still not shooting FTs well
- The offense looks horrible. More standing around now then before AND they are really running the offense through Sam in the post
- Our defense is high school level at best.
What makes the game even worse for me – I didn’t even get to watch Jrue Holiday play. He could have helped defensively since Lou looked flat out clueless on the defensive end as usual.
AND the fact that Toronto beat the Cavs by 10 and the Wiz won on the road at Dallas by 11.
The ONLY Good News …
Marreese Speights has me very excited. He looks like he could be a lock 20 ppg scorer with potential for mid twenties and a legit threat to drop 30 with minutes and shot attempts.
Speights was better off the ball with his defense getting deflections than on the ball. But he was defending Howard. He had no shot. I’ll judge his man to man defense more against average to good bigs not the best. He can’t give up points to marginal players. Do that then progress to handling better offensive bigs.
Random Stuff
- Lou still can’t defend, BUT he didn’t have a turnover with 4 assists. He shot well from the field but he had a few easy transition baskets.
- Thad was non-existent both by his on passivity but also because there didn’t seem to be a good flow for him in the offense. He wasn’t getting the ball with good space and opportunity to score.
- Kapono is going to make threes and make free throws for us.
- Carney got in the game before Willie Green and was 2-4 from three and 4-7 from the field. Nice production in 15 minutes.
- Sam did have a couple possessions of good defense to his credit.
- We got out rebounded.
So again, my advice is to trash this and move on.
“Sam had a weird ridiculously bad game. 8 shots (granted made 4), 5 fouls and 3 turnovers in only 7 minutes? What the hell!”
all I could do is laugh at this. That’s preposterous.
Well – I live in DC so saw several years of Jordan. He is like the guy who brought the wildcat to the NFL. He has a trick offense. I doubt it can work in the NBA
Andre Iguodala! Elton Brand! Sixers Fever, catch it!
Denver – Have been toggling the Phils slaughter of the Yanks with the Nuggets / Jazz game on ESPN. Have to say…our shoulda/coulda/woulda been draft pick Ty Lawson has earned the trust of Karl to get a lot of minutes in a very tightly fought game, and he is having a strong showing.
From minute one he’s looked like he flat out belongs. His transition quickness with the ball is, as in college, off the charts, and he’s honestly looking Rondo like with his speed (one of many reasons why he would have been great for us), he’s been confident in attacking his man off the dribble, and is properly deferring to his elder teammates when needed. Having some trouble fighting through picks on defense, but aside from that, looking like nothing but a valuable asset in transition and half court offense. As I type this, he just made a great read on a K-Mart screen from him, and ran the pick and roll nicely wracking up an assist for an easy K-Mart basket.
Gee…the Sixers definitely couldn’t use a quick, pesky defender, pass first, hustling, lightning bolt speed in transition, excellent at splitting defenders to get into the paint, good spot up shooting Point Guard right about now! No, no, we wouldn’t want something like that. We’d opt for Kevin Dooling Jr, a 6’4 defender project that won’t be ready to contribute for three years. Grrrr.
Go Phillies!!!
Danny, I don!t understand Holliday in street clothes; what benefit is it when games are lopsided he can get some courttime. DaveT., its a little early to annoint Ty, don!t you think. Spieghts looks like a beast on the block and with Jason out there with him he seems to stay mid-range and in, a good thing. L.Will. got exploited by a guy who took a year off, not a good start, I was disappointed in his EFFORT defensively.
Ok my 2 cents.
Our two “stars” Iggy and Brand absolutely suck. I read an article about how Iggy was basically saying, yeah its one thing to score 30 points a game but can you make your teammates better. Well news flash Iggy you can’t do either. I hate the fact that preseason the coaches and Gm are lobbying to get him on the all star team, actually they were lobby last season too. Go out and prove it, turnovers galore for him and also terrible d he was losing his man and getting beat of the dribble left and right.
Brand just looks out of place and resigned to the fact that he is washed up.
Thad and Speights are the best players on this team hands down. Lou Will looked good on offense but I think his d is worse than Andre Millers.
Basically same team as always, turnovers, no perimeter defense, and Sam could have fouled out in the 3rd.
Carneys shooting does not seem like a fluke he hit some shots tonight but our defense is terrible, they had 70 point at the half. Thank god for the Phillies
what is really going on?? Why did the Rookie sit in street cloths?? Defense win games people and he plays good D.. They look like a high school team.
2on5: Iguodala “sucks”? Really? Let’s not get out of hand here…it looks like the Sixers had a crappy game, but why rag on one player? Iguodala is a very talented player. He shouldn’t be making $13 million a year, and as we’ve beaten to death on here, he is not a franchise player, nor a true 2nd banana on offense. Andre Iguodala is THE perfect type of 3rd banana guy: an athlete that can slash with the best of them, has good court vision, is a willing passer, plays very good defense when he applies himself (less so when he’s coasting and more worrying about his offense), and can burn people with his first step. He’s also grown as a leader the last two years, does not shy away in crunch time (even though he shouldnt BE the one taking the shot), and honestly played one hell of a series against Orlando last year.
The Sixers will be a .500 or so team this year, maybe a little less, maybe a little more if all the stars align (doubtful). But not sure why anyone would be going off on Iguodala after one game.
New coaches same defensively philosophy. Rotate and leave shooters wide open for three point shots. Its deja vu all over again.
defensive. sorry.
RRose – The Sixers have most definitely done an excellent job buying into the “slow rotations to the perimeter allowing a 3″ defensive set. We may be near the top five in the league in that defense.
haha it cant be that bad
A number of silver linings: 81 more. There’s room for improvement (in fact, there’s a whole house available). The ”seconds” cardboard box that the organization grabbed the uniforms from has been emptied. Perimeter defense is not an illusory aspect of the game of basketball; in turn, Robert Goulet’s sonorous voice will be piped into practice loudspeakers today … to dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where Lou Will dare not go … this their quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far … . Expectations for Brand & Iguodala will eventually allign with reality. Vegas has up-next Bucks winning 26.5 this season. With all that - chin up, fans.
Suede – I don’t think Ty was anointed anything by Dave. But he was a later 1st round talent (shouldn’t have been, but that was the reality) who got 26 important minutes in the first game of the season against a good team with a top point guard for his team that went to the Western Conference finals last year. And by the way he was extremely productive scoring 17 points on 7-13 shooting, 6 dimes, 4 boards, 1 steal and only 1 turnover.
If I was a Denver Nugget fan I would be pretty excited about that deal Denver made on draft night right about now.
No understanding why our rookie was in street clothes. I am praying that Speights performance and Lou’s lack of defense changes that going forward. Meaning, the coaches realize there will be no time for Brezec with Speights playing well and the fact that Lou can’t guard anyone that it is a must to have Holiday on the floor.
Needed to “allign” spelling of ‘align’.
Speights can shoot it but what else does he bring, outside of streetfighter’s spunk? I’m not getting too excited over 26 points in an largely uncontested game (70-49 after 2, 100-69 after 3). At this point, he’s a Baker League player – an eager gunner (last night a marksman, 10-11) with obvious holes. Not afraid, but has a selfish game. His interior play in areas of defense and rebounding, is highly erratic. If ya gotta brag on him, it speaks ill of team. A Rasheed Wallace imitator without same intelligence and basketball know-how (ingrained winning concepts).
ok wait, did anyone really expect Lou Williams to play defense? well if its any consolation , he made some effort. remember him body checking a forward (Anderson?) on the baseline (resulting in a foul)after Thad or someone got blown on a screen. that was more than I expected.
why are we quick to jump on Iguodala? he had a bad game. nothing more or less. he hurt us more defensively. kept getting caught up in screens leaving Carter wide open.
please Brand do something!
how to get more minutes for Marreese Speights? anyone?
Carney looked good
its good no one expected the to win this one.
game was lost in the 2nd quarter. damn they can shoot the 3!
i think Iguodala will struggle to understand his role every game – distributor, scorer, slasher. might be a slow start again. bad passes amuck
i think someone needs to give Thad the ball somewhere inside the arc so he can do what he does best
i am going into hope mode for Elton Brand.
I wanna see Holiday on the floor too, Dannie. Number 1 pick (over Lawson and others) by Stefanski & his local consortium of geniuses oughta be put on display, not hidden an incubated the way-overmatched 19 yr old Lou Williams was. If Holiday can truly D it up, let him learn other areas as he goes along. Sixers should show the courage of their draft day conviction. He’s got size and pride & desire (as evidenced by his hurt reaction following pre-season DNP). If he can play, mistakes will help him grow. If he can’t, the organization and its dwindled fan base need to find out. Pro basketball isn’t about tomorrow … unless you go ALL IN for tomorrow. The organization needs to make up its mind. “Cake and it eat too” – not an option.
corrections on #18: hidden and incubated, the way way-overmatched
Saying that the PO offense doesnt need a is a crock of shat, that is Jordan saying politely that Lou isn’t a PG. Jason Kidd put up silly numbers in this Offense for Jersey. We need to see Jrue play, and now. It’s funny because it was only a year ago on opening night against Toronto when I was yelling at Checks from the front row to activate and play Speights.
Having seen Dikembe Mutumbo in the Princeton Offense, I know that we have a tough road ahead of us with Sammy.
Brand looks like he is 50.
Everyone knows that Thad is my boy but with Lou at the point and Sammy directing the offense I have no clue how he is going to even match his 15pts from last season.
sorry meant to say
Saying that the PO offense doesnt need a PG
Directing the offense from the post – I think I had said at some point after the EJ hiring that one of my few worries for him with our halfcourt offense, after having watched so many Wiz games, is the realization that EJ really likes to utilize his bigs on the low block and run back screen cutters that cut to the high post or across the floor to the basket for an easy dump off. EJ used non-offensive players for this a lot…Brendan Haywood, Kwame Brown when he was there and Andray Blatche as well. Haywood in particular actually proved surprisingly adept in this role.
I actually tend to like coaches that do that, and think bounce passes into the low block as an option for the perimeter players to have some movement is a lost art. That said, you NEED TO HAVE A CENTER THAT IS CAPABLE OF PASSING…OR AT LEAST NOT TURNING IT OVER…to do this. Sammy is obviously NOT the guy you want with the ball in his hands. He’s too clumsy, jittery…this is just turnover city waiting to happen.
Now the player EJ should be doing this with, as I believe Dannie mentioned once, is Elton Brand a la Chris Webber. Elton is a strong passer that is able to see the floor well, and excelled with the Clippers in finding cutters or hitting the open man for a 3 when receiving the ball in the mid and high post. Granted, last year he looked atrocious passing out of double teams…but this is the guy we should be dumping it into for the P.O. I’d also like to see it given to Speights, as eventually he’s going to have to learn to become a more well rounded player.
Greek – I agree with you that EJ’s comments about the P.O. not needing a PG are his way of saying that is exactly what Lou is not, great call. He is right in that any type of motion offense that involves lots of cutting and screening to the opposite side without the ball does not need a traditional PG as much, but a legit PG obviously helps any team run their offense, and it is nice to be able to kick the ball out to the perimeter to someone capable of re-setting things up, or running a set play, or reading the defense and offensive spacing and improv-ing a play off intuition when we are in a jam. Lou W doesn’t have that ability, that’s for sure.
Greek, Agree, every strong basketball team requires an anchoring director (for when directional trouble surfaces), know matter what offense is being employed.
LW clearly isn’t that guy. Great example in Kidd, an exceptional floor leader.
Still disagree with you on E. Jordan: he’s a lightweight-to-middling NBA head coach, wrapped in a gimmick (the Princeton offense), presented to Philadelphia by a steadily bungling GM.
correction on #23: “know”(line 2) should read ‘no’ [my spelling coach just called a timeout]
This is turning into grammar 101. @jjg I’m sorry to knock your post but if Speights keeps playing the way he is I’ll take it. IF Brand were to have come away with 26 active points even in that blowout I would have said ok maybe he is on his way back. Speights looks like a younger healthier Brand. Dalembum, Iggy and Brand are supposed to be the defensive stoppers so I’ll take an offensive forward with skills any day. Another dismal game from Dalembum and Jordan should start Speights in front of him.
Here is the interesting thing. Everyone is saying we should start Speights instead of Sam.
I am inclined to say start Speights next to Sam. That way we can put Sam on the bigger and/or better offensive big and “hide” Speights to a degree.
This is of course if Brand continues to to suck. I think a Sam/Speights front court is more flexible defensively. You can’t put the undersized Brand on taller guys.
That allows the post offense to run through Speights and Sam to continue to be on the floor for defense and rebounding.
By the way, I know I am not the only person to observe the fact that every time the ball went into Sam on the block or even in a short corner or elbow, everyone else on the floor just stood around and watch waiting to see what he would do. Is that really the way the offense is designed to play out? Pass in to Sam see what he does with it? From last night’s game that is exactly what happened 98% of Sam’s touches. The other 2% was some sort of hand-off, particularly on the baseline.
Sam took 8 shots in only 16 minutes (really just 7 minutes). But from my viewpoint he almost had no choice as his teammates essentially baited him to shoot by becoming spectators. Not every time he got it immediately made a move. A few of those possessions he caught, looked, no one did shit so he took it.
JJG I still have a lot of faith In Eddie J, it’s the talent that he was dealt with that I have a problem with.
Dave T, how much did Eddie tinker with his lineups in DC? If a guy like Speights is just killing people off the bench how long do you think it will take Eddie give him 30 plus minutes?
Dannie – I agree 100%, If Speights were to start of course. I am not on the Brand is done wagon yet, need to see more. If all Speights has shown is he can provide SOME help defense, Im not a fan of the thought of an undersized PF playing center with a PF that hasn’t shown he has really any defensive desire or capabilities.
I noticed the same thing with the offense with Sam, everyone was moving for the most part when others had touches. I think that it is mostly because they all think like most of the fans do…OH No he has the ball, what the hell is going to happen now?
I think we might be looking too much into the offense of last night’s game. We put up 106 points shooting 50%. Granted, a lot of it was against Orlando’s second unit (which is one of the most improved benches in the NBA I think). I know the offense was stagnant and didn’t look pretty, but I have to believe that Eddie Jordan will turn it around. I mean we did hire him for a reason right? I’m not going to make a big deal about the offense just yet.
The thing we should be focusing on in my opinion is the defense. The perimeter defense in particular. The Magic shot 16-29 from three (55.2%). 6 of Orlando’s players scored in double figures. The Magic were on pace to score 140, after scoring 70 in the first half. We expected Lou to stink and Speights to be outmatched by Howard… but for at least 2 years now… our perimeter defense has sucked. The Magic are a great shooting team, but a lot of their looks were open/clean looks. We have to be smarter and quicker on defense if we want to compete.
Dannie, I think the main reason Lawson isn!t here is because he can!t play with L.Will..The organization put a lot of eggs in L.Will.!s basket, they better be right. I just wish Jrue can show what he can do BEFORE people rip him, its nothing against Ty, I like him as a player.It looked like L.Will. was up for the “Jameer” challenge early but his effort dropped off when white chocolate entered the game, “unexceptable”. The irony in our Elton situation is we said we needed shooters to spread the defense for him in the post but now the shooters we have don!t have a solid post player when Marreese isn!t in the game. I hope we don!t have a “15 mill. per year Reggie Evans” on our hands.
Last night: started off competing (adrenaline), sagged then surged a little to get it close [1st Q over] collapsed [2nd & 3rd Q done], played energetic pick-up ball [game complete] … hardly an auspicious EFFORT, forget the quality of the opponent. And Brand, Iguodala and Williams – the 3 big talkers – are the worst offenders.
Greek, I’m glad you do; maybe you’re right. I only know that having watched Jordan interview (since being hired) and coach last night, I thought of John Lucas and his chirade while viewing the game.
About the Jrue versus Lawson debate..
Like most of us in here I was on the draft Lawson bandwagon and was very dissapointed when we drafted Jrue. But I must say that I loved what I saw from Holliday the few times that I was lucky enough to see him play in the preseason. Jrue has won me over, now like the rest of us I just wish that he could get minutes.
As far as Lou goes, whenever I think of the future of this team it always looks better when he is not on our team. I wonder if this is the year that Stefanski does something at the deadline because if Lou keeps on starting I guess that we should all start scouting to top ten talents in college in preperation for our lottery pick.
RRose, Thanks, but, as I see it, you didn’t knock my post, you just expressed a different opinion. I like that; keeps things interesting. You can have Speights, I’ll take slower, lesser-talented Kendrick Perkins to help my team. Personal preferences make the world go ’round.
Ok Iggy doesn’t suck but I’m sick of the franchise trying to sell me a “3rd banana” as some sort of all star. I also have grown sick of his comments on things, saying stuff like yea its one thing to put up points but I like to do all the other stuff, acting like its some easy task to put up 25 a game but to average 5 assists and 5 rebounds is some gigantic task. Now I know what some will say hes like 1 of 3 players to average that like lebron and kobe, lets be honest his numbers are inflated by the lack scoring on this team and the amount of time he handles the ball. He wants to be the leader of the team you don’t come out and put up 8 points have bad turnovers and play bad defense.
The leaving shooters open from 3 is one major thing I don’t get how has that been a problem for this team since Larry Brown left town. Different players different coaches it doesn’t make sense to me.
Also, I want Dei back, she was the only female sports reporter who’s opinion I respected. Donyell Marshall post game was awful he sounds like he has marbles in his mouth.
What Wayne Winston was talking about on TrueHoop really intrigued me, so I’ve decided to on two things this season: a) following how the lineups do, and b) (a secondary interest) looking at the betting lines for the Sixers. I’ll try to stay commited (don’t hold your breath) and I’ll try to get better at both as the season goes along. That’s if you don’t mind, Dannie. It’s something I’ve been dying to explore and play around with, but I’m too lazy and don’t really care enough to start my own blog. I can take my musings elsewhere if that’s not the type of chatter you’re looking for.
Anyways, what I’m gonna do is simple – look at popcornmachine.net after every game (and watch the games) and look for patterns and trends with the lineups; I hope there’s a lineup formula for winning in there somewhere. If anyone knows a site where they keep better track of this stuff, please let me know.
About the Orlando game, the best lineups:
4Q, +10: Carney Kapono Lou Smith Brand
4Q, +6: Iggy Thad Kapono Speights Ivey
3Q, +1: Iggy Thad Lou Speights Brand
1Q, +1: Iggy Thad Lou Speights Brand
the worst:
2Q, -9: Iggy Thad Sam Brand Green
2Q, -7: Carney Kapono Williams Smith Speights
3Q, -4: Iggy Thad Kapono Speights Ivey
* Speights and Brand playedwell together. There wasn’t a single lineup throughout the game that had both players that was a net negative.
* That -7 lineup went from a -7 to a zero when Lou was replaced by Willie Green. That -9 lineup is the starting lineup except for Green, but when Lou was with the starters he was a net -3. I’m gonna take from this that when Lou plays well with the starters and not the bench guys, but Willie plays well with the bench guys.
* You can’t really take much from that +10 lineup since it was garbage time and the Magic really had no offense on the floor. But Speights and Smith together were a net -12 for the game and I wonder if that garbage time lineup would’ve been worse had Speights been in the game instead of Brand. And I wonder why Brand, an old vet, was even in the game at garbage time – did Jordan want to see how he would pair up with Jason Smith? Because Brand and Sam together were a net -12, also. A handful of games down the road, if we’re BAD, coach Jordan might mix things up with the frontcourt starters, and we’re gonna have either Speights/Brand or Smith/Brand starting. I’d personally like to see Speights/Brand, because Sam and Jason on the floor together in the 2007-2008 season wasn’t too bad of a frontcourt in terms of +/-.
Zack – That sounds good to me. If you want, I could post your musings rather than you sticking them in comments all the time so they don’t get buried. Up to you.
Other resources regarding +/-, line-up and general NBA data is: