Surprisingly the Detroit Pistons have been playing worse basketball than the Sixers. They are on an 11-game losing streak and have been losing games lately with their full compliment of players. Does that mean the Sixers will actually win a game tonight?
I think not. This team, as a whole is a loser. It starts with the players and is perpetuated and helped along by the head coach and GM.
The GM put together a mismatched group of talent. Hired a bad coach in general, but worse yet one that doesn’t like the roster or knows how to maximize them. On top of that he either hides or makes spineless comments.
The coach is a straight up dope. He clearly has no clue how to coach NBA basketball. He doesn’t understand what wins games. And he doesn’t know how to teach, motivate or manage players. He is a clown.
The players lack toughness, a will to win and general basketball smarts. They get leads and blow them with poor play regardless of who is on the floor. When was the last time this team gutted out a win? Right now they are losers in my view and a serious shake up is in order. Some guys have value but many do not.
This team makes me sick. I hate the coach for sure and he isn’t putting the right players on the floor or in good positions to succeed. But you’d be dumb to think he is the only reason this team sucks. Specifically, not holding the guys on the floor accountable for not getting the job done when they are on the court every night.
It’s just disgusting and I am right now of the opinion that I want them to lose as many games as possible. NOT, to simply to tank for the draft. More talent is needed and a top draft choice would supply that. But more so because horrible results usually lead to change. And that’s the only way things have a chance to improve is if there is major change on this team and in the franchise.
Tonight
No Iverson tonight. His knee can’t take the back-to-back. I have not heard who will replace him in the starting line-up. Hopefully it’s Jrue or Brand if he is able to play tonight. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Willie starting though.
Sixers games typically go one of two ways. They play a solid quarter or half of basketball. Build a lead and blow it late because of porous defense and shots not falling. OR they stink it up most of the game and whether they get blown out depends entirely on whether the other team punishes them or not.
I don’t expect tonight to be much different.
Like many people the Eagles game gets preference tonight on my TV. I’ll catch the rerun tomorrow at noon.
Willie starting tonight. Good call. Dumb EJ.
no comments huh? i take it everyone is still shocked/depressed from the smacking the Girls gave us. dont take it too hard.
hey like they say in Philadelphia; “Next year’s our year”.
I guess no one knew how bad the Pistons were, having lost 11 straight. The only reason for the win.
TT32: its thinking like that that misleads ppl. we could have very easily lost to them. remember this is the 6ers we are talking about. I’d say it has more to do with holding a team to under 100 pts for the first time in 7 games, than Detroit’s current mire of poor play.
give Eddie Jordan credit for this victory. without his invisible guiding hand, who knows how this team would have folded in that game.
EFJ finally did something right. Early in the 4th the lead was slipping and he made the right move. He put 4 of his best defenders on the floor for most of the rest of the game. Sam, Brand, Iguodala and Jrue (along with Thad at SF.) Per Brian, at depressed fan, this strong defensive line-up had only seen the floor 2 minutes prior to last night.
BTW, Brand looked like the best offensive player on the floor, and Jrue played like the only true PG on either team… which he was. Not only did he punish Detroit for trapping, but he got the ball to Brand, who was the hot hand, on almost every possession. Really excited to see this kid running the show for the foreseeable future. He looks to be the best defensive PG with true PG instincts since Cheeks (Snow was a great defender, but not a real creative passer or floor general like Jrue looks to be becoming.)
I know a lot of you are bummed that we did not take Ty, but Holiday is worth a look.
An encouraging thing is a short leash on Spieghts, probably from above, along with the recent practice time spent on defense.
Dannie, any interest in A.Jefferson? Would you give up this years #1 in a package?
Speights?— defense? i’ll believe it when i see it.
Suede - No, not really. Speight’s projects out to produce at the level that Jefferson does with more minutes and shot attempts and it’s not like Jefferson is a stalwart defensively or an accomplished passer, the two areas Speights really needs to improve.
The last few weeks Speights has been a somewhat more willing passer. Defense is unchanged but still better than last year.
He will never be a CWebb type passer, but I still feel he is a more capable passer than Sam or even Brand… just not a willing passer. As far as defense, at least he has the tools, unlike many players.
Overall, I’m still unsure where Speights will be in 2 years. He likely will have 4 or 5 coaches in his first 3 seasons, which is not good in terms of consolidating NBA defensive principles.
I think too much is being made of this.
I think that occurrence was nothing more than random chance (just like the first time was) and I have absolutely no clue why anyone would be giving either Eddie Jordan OR Ed Stefanski for thoughtfully making the decision to play that lineup.
For one, Iverson wasn’t available to play so looking at the occurrence of that lineup as something to look forward to the rest of the season because that game isn’t likely to be indicative of the situation going forward.
That lineup would come at the expense of playing time for Lou and Iverson and I just don’t see that happening at all.
His team has a 26 point lead and 4 slightly different lineups gave up 14 points of the lead so he tossed that one out. I actually think there reason to believe the lineup was on the floor for over 6 minutes is because they were actually scoring (13 points in 6 minutes and 40 seconds), not because they were locking up OR perceived to be the lineup to lock up defensively. In fact the lineup was a net negative (-2) during their time on the floor.
I think we see that lineup more ONLY if they are scoring.
Also, I think there might be a misconception that Ed Stefanski would do what he did with Cheeks and Dileo with Eddie Jordan. I am not 100% sold that Stefanski would tell Eddie Jordan what to do directly (i.e. play Jrue, focus on defense etc, etc.).
I think the situation was set for him to do that with those other guys because Cheeks wasn’t his guy and Dileo was just an interim who was Stefanski’s side kick. While Jordan is a close friend of Stefanski that doesn’t mean we would take it to the point of telling him directly how to coach the team. Even with the team struggling as it is.
What I DO believe Stefanski would (and has) done is get his message across by making public comments.
I think you are right for the most part. I wish AI was not signed. AI has played well and not dominated the ball… but if there was no AI believe Holiday would get major minutes moving forward. E.J. has messed up priorities, but if his only choices are Lou, Green, Holiday and Ivey then Holiday would get 18+ minutes by default.
1. I’m not bashing AI. Just don’t think this team should have signed him.
2. I’m long term excited to see Holiday grow into this teams starting PG. I am intentionally ignoring all things EFJ (Jordan), since it is a short term issue out of anyones control except E.S.
Also, I’m hoping EFJ decides Jrue runs the P.O. better than the other guards. The other night he was really controlling the team like a true PG and seems to have a good grasp of how to execute the offense. I’m not sure they are really running the P.O., but overall their offense has started to seem a bit more efficient.
But you are right that AI and Lou will get the bulk of the minutes. But there’s always arthritis.