So many people say picking at #17 won’t provide the type of impact player this team needs to turn the corner.  Why not?  Anybody see what Rondo has done for the Celtics without a healthy KG?  Now he’s not the shooter we’d like but nobody can’t tell me if that same person was in the draft this year he wouldn’t be a top 5 pick in this draft.   And he was the 21st pick in the first round.  Let’s just hope this organization’s doing its homework and find a good, not necessarily great player at #17.  Enough good players can help them win a lot of games. Enough bad players like Dummy Bear, Evans, Ivey will continue to keep this team hovering around .500 every season.  I’m hoping ES makes his coaching decision before June 25th.  Maybe that would give us all a sense of what type of player they’ll look for in the draft. 

-Brand…coming off major knee and shoulder injuries
-Lou…coming off an atrociously terrible season (although, mysteriously as others have mentioned it seems many columnists around the league are not privy to this)
-W Green…pretty clear by now he’s considered, rightly so, just an energy guy that can play D and slash a bit.
-J Smith…coming off a major injury.
-D-Bere…after a year under Mo where he averaged a double double, resorted back to inconsistent form, putting up an 6.5-8.5-1.8.  

Ratliff and Rush are going to be let go.  We’ll probably keep Marshall and Ivey.  Lord only knows what the A-Miller situation is.   Many teams I’m sure like Reggie Evans’ game, but not at the $4-5 million price tag.  ”Trading Iguodala” was the item of last summer…it is clear we are, and should be, keeping him now.  

Given all that, if you were another team, would YOU want to take a flier on any of the above five players?  Unless you are the Timberwolves or Memphis and in desperate need of a Center that can rebound/block…or a Golden State, N Orleans or the Clippers that could use some backcourt punch off the bench…our pieces kinda suck to move around in packages that could net us something in return.

That said, I DO think it’s very possible to improve our bench through the draft.  I think we should look to make some tweak trades involving Lou Williams and Willie Greene to teams that are backcourt starved, and have lower 1st round picks that won’t be very useful to them.  I’d very happily love to use our 17th pick and maybe a second 1st round pick in the 18-23 range to nab us a backup SG/SF that can shoot 3′s, and a legitimate backup PG.

The biggest loss in losing Brand last year was the fact that we never got to see what we got.  The decision would be easy to make if we knew Brand had game left, but he couldn’t fit right with our pieces.  That means this year needs to be our “last year”…we need a year to see how things gel before making a sideways lateral move like Hinrich/Thomas.  

Mentioned this in another thread, curious to see what others thing (ignoring logistics)…if Memphis takes Rubio, what would people think about pursuing Mike Conley Jr?  He improved his shooting immensely, hitting 90 threes at a 40% clip last year.  Throwback guy that gets others involved first, and is young, extremely athletic, and a little dart of energy to team with Iggy and Thad.  

First let me say if you’ve followed this blog at all I’ve said for a very long time that it takes an elite player (HOF pretty much) to win a championship.  Everyone around here already knows my opinion on that.

Second I have to ask, is it realistic to think a single trade would get the Sixers to the finals?  If someone knows of it please let me and more importantly Ed Stefanski know.  Most of the championships that are won the elite level player was with the team since they were drafted.  What Boston did took more than a single move.  So to dismiss a deal because it doesn’t get them to a finals again is shortsighted.

What this deal does is get the Sixers from underneath Brand’s contract (he isn’t the elite guy so the money probably could be better spent elsewhere) but it also nets you the type of point guard this team needs (younger, defensive shooter) considering our wing players AND most importantly (the last paragraph in the post) it regains cap flexibility to try and acquire that elite level player necessary to win a championship while maintaining the young core.

BTW, came to your site from the basketball reference Brand page sponsorship .  I’ll follow along to see how much reality is here.

Long-time Philly guy stuck in HBG for a while.

Right now I think there is belief he actually can still play the game at a high level.  Forget the injuries I am talking ability to play the game and produce.  That is still an unknown in my opinion.  If we keep him and he comes out next season and doesn’t/can’t produce consistently that is when he will be at his lowest and 100% untradable.  Conversely if he comes out and can play, stay healthy and produce why then would you move him?  I don’t think Stefanski would move him if that turns out to be the case so the idea that you wait until he proves he can play before you move him just doesn’t hold with me much.

You could make the argument to sell him now to a team that thinks like many fans and the Sixers do that his injuries were unrelated fluke type injuries that doesn’t suggest physically he is incapable of playing before the worst case scenario happens when he shows he can’t even get it done on the court when he is healthy.

Good feeds today, Tom. 

Chris Ford this afternoon on his interest in the job: “Once a coach, always a coach.”