Straight from the head coach to the players and fans ears:
“There were two different teams out there tonight. One team (the Grizzlies) rallied around each other and the other team (the Sixers) fragmented. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. We had five different guys go five separate ways. It’s about team vs. non-team. It’s a game we could’ve won if we’d have had some camaraderie and positive energy.
It’s an old saying that if you don’t bite as puppies, you’re not going to bite as dogs. If you didn’t rebound as a young man or teenager, you ain’t going to rebound when it’s time to be a man. We just don’t happen to have those types of guys right now.” ~ Eddie Jordan
This is the second time he called the team out for being soft. The first came after the Jazz loss…
“Maybe if the bully pushes us around long enough, maybe we’ll wake up and say it’s time for us to push back. That time has not come yet. If you really have a passion for the game and a passion for winning and competing, you won’t get pushed around. You learn your lesson. I guess it’s still early in the season. I don’t know.
I’m from a different neighborhood. I just don’t get pushed around. If I did, I’m responding back. Hopefully our guys will respond to that sooner rather than later.” ~ Eddie Jordan
I agree with him, how could you not. Maybe he shouldn’t say this publicly but he damn sure isn’t wrong and something needed to be said by someone. This is getting ridiculous.
I have been saying it for the last two years. We just happened to have soft “player coaches” who never called the team out when they consistently playing poorly.
This team needs a reality check. You see excessive celebrating after marginal plays in games they played horribly. You have to question guys individually. What are they thinking? Do the know how bad they have played and how bad they look? Do they know that they have been pushed around and bullied in more then a few games?
Maybe this is Jordan’s way of letting them know this is not acceptable play and that you can’t win playing like this. Maybe his coaching, practice time and motivational speeches aren’t reaching these clowns. At least he seems and sounds genuinely pissed off about how the team is playing and losing.
Thad is a cupcake. Been saying it for the last two years. Lou is light in the ass. Sure he scored a lot of points and played well offensively. He still takes no pride in defending his man straight up and his steals were either gimmies or Allen Iverson type gambles that were successful – this time.
Andre Iguodala is fake tough. All that muscle and athleticism for what? To get completely torched by Rudy Gay every possession? Where is his leadership?
When Jordan calls out the team for being fragmented, a “non-team” and lacking camaraderie and energy it starts with Iguodala. He is suppose to be the guy. He got the money. He clearly talks like he is/wants to be the guy. He tries to act like he is the guy (exhibit A - B – C). Yet when something goes wrong he is the first player with negative body language. He gives you the “Iguodala Salty Face”
Be honest, how often have you seen that look from this dude? Sickening.
Brand unlike the rest of these clowns IS tough and does play hard, unfortunately he lacks the physical tools to maximize it.
There is a reason I don’t like anyone on this team and haven’t since A.I. left – they aren’t winners. And on top of that they show boat like they’ve done something in this league.
This team and these players make me sick. Thank god college basketball has started.
Oh and best believe Eddie Jordan is not off the hook.
He is a flat out moron. He clearly has no clue what he is doing or how to effectively coach basketball.
You play a small line-up when your team is getting out-rebounded by 20? There were stretches where Thad had to check Marc Gasol. That’s just not going to work.
You can’t even begin to explain what the hell he is doing or thinking game-to-game.
We know this…
No Eddie Jordan team will play any defense. The Sixers were already bad, but they are beyond horrible this season.
I said in the comments that I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tony Dileo back on the sidelines in 10 game. I don’t see how this team wins a game at this point.
End of the day both the players and coach have a lot of bitchassness in them…
And you just can’t win until you get rid of it.
I am done. I am just so pissed.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Dannie, rest assured you are not alone, we feel the same as you!!
Coach is panicking. Wondering why these players are not putting out for him and his inconsistant ways. Hard to believe you can loose a team in 10 games.
I never thought I would say we missed Miller!s physicalness but L.Will., who I try to defend, was allowing a guy, who can!t shoot, to get into the lane all night. Thad was abused and did nothing offensively. If our coach wants to make a statement , without words, he sits L.Will. and Thad tonight , the whole game, and plays Jrue,Rodney, and Ivey all of their minutes. Coach, put your words into action. My top 5 as far as defensive effort were Elton,Jason,Rodney,Iggy and Sam. Jrue didn!t play enough to show that effort. Stafanski has to do something but what I don!t know.
Wow Eddie Jordan is a moron. Sometimes I look at the lineups he has on the floor and I’m baffled. Also are we even running the princeton offense I can’t tell looks like the same dribble handoff’s I have seen for last 3-4 years from this team and worse defense.
The players mins are so sporadic they make no sense players need to know what is expected of them and what they can expect in terms of mins to acomplish their task. Perfect example is Thad has no confidence at this point, he was passing up open shots last night to force bad passes to covered teammates. The one game he comes out on fire than sits the rest of the first half. Donyell Marshall mentioned it on the postgame show of that game. Now to me looks like he is pressing. We are getting killed on the boards in this game and Sammy is sitting for almost the whole second half, one thing Sam can do is rebound.
Oh and back to Eddie Jordan, plays coming out of timeouts in the fourth WTF One was Lou hold onto the ball then give to Iggy for a contested jump shot, I was thinking this is the play they called in the timeout. There was also another terrible play out of timeout later in the game isn’t he supposed to be some offensive genius. Those looked like Mo Cheeks plays.
I think tonight Rudy Gay made some tough jumpers Carney contested well on two of them in the fourth and iggy on another.
Dannie good call on Iggy’s face he always looks pissed off. He is always smacking his hands together angrily. I don’t know what his deal is. He has weird celebrations like slapping five with some random guy in LA instead of with his teammates and grabbing his balls in Orlando. He is a fraud.
I think Lou has played better than we thought he would, I mean nobody thought he was gonna turn into rondo on defense. He has played under control for the most part and has been pretty consistent on offense. Brand seems to be coming around. I don’t really care at all about this season I just want players to put up good numbers to make them somewhat tradable.
I love the fact that Eddie Jordan publicly called out the whole team. I don’t care about keeping things in house when it comes to that. If it’s individual players, yes, but team play? I’m glad he lashed out in the media and basically called the Sixers a bunch of sissies. Unfortunately, that’s just all talk, and we’ll have to see whether this actually makes a difference on court.
My experience of watching Eddie Jordan closely in DC is that he often said the right things and often took a tough stance without it having much effect. There were many press conferences when Wiz fans would rally around him and go, “Ah…we’ve got a tough cookie in charge!” …and, we do, because he is…but in five years the Wiz not once played a lick of defense, and Arenas’ progression of becoming a more unselfish as a player was more on his own shoulders and not the influence of EJ. So I am not optimistic.
One line of defense for EJ: I will add though that while his player substitution patters this year are flat out bizarre and how he’s utilizing mismatches and putting our players in certain spots is flat out terrible so far… I’m not going to go so far as calling Eddie “a clueless moron of a coach.” He really did do wonders for a Wizards team offensively and successfully managed to mold that team into an offensive juggernaut. They really bought into his version of the P.O. and it showed, developed even more over time, and he showed an excellent ability to utilize his role players in magnified time to make his team competitive, compensating for the massive injury toll that Washington has taken the past few years. But he does have huge weaknesses, and right now they are shining bright and clear. From the get go I preached one guy’s name and still hold to it that the right coach for us should have been…
Avery Johnson – This type of “leadership” issue is exactly why I thought Avery was the right hire for this team. We have no alpha personality dogs. We don’t have a single player that can keep ANYONE in line or chew them out and actually have the player that committed the transgression listen. We needed a COACH that could step in and provide that role because our roster does not have it. Avery has knocks against him about overcoaching and losing to the Warriors, but if there’s one thing that’s for sure he’s a winner, he doesn’t back down from anybody, he challenges teams to play at 110%, calls out people for being lazy and unmotivated, and will sit guys that are playing like punks in a heartbeat. He is a drill sergeant that doesn’t tolerate excuses and gets people in line and ready to play. We are sorely lacking that at the moment.
Iguodala = fake tough. Call of the day Dannie.
DaveT., I am hoping Elton can become that alpha dog as he gets more minutes and becomes more of a factor. Iggy is definitely not the leader type personality wise , though his overall hard play should help the other guys to get it at least. Jordan needs to set a regular rotation as soon as possible. What I would do is start Carney and allow Thad to be more of the focus offensively with the 2nd unit, and when Marreese gets back pair him and Sam and Jason and Elton as much as possible. With these 4 bigs there is no reason to play small unless you plan on trapping and picking up the games pace for a 5 minute stretch here and there. Kapono looks lost, he needs a more defined role along with the rest of these guys and defense has to be stressed.
Suede – I’m with you and desperately hope like the rest of us that Brand can regain the form of the player he once was. Even 85% of the old Brand would go a long way towards helping this team not be painful to watch.
But Elton Brand is not an alpha guy with personality. He could put up 30 pts and 15 rbs and he still would not be the proper type of guy we need on this team as far as a locker room presence. He is a pro’s pro, works his ass off, does his job without complaint. But he has always been a lead-by-example type, or the type that will mentor other guys and give them pep talks about how to improve such and such or handle xyz better…but he’s not a guy that is like KG, Kobe, LeBron, CP3, Chauncy Billups…or non mega-stars like Jason Terry, Jameer Nelson, and others who are either all natural leaders or have grown into form as one over time.
To me, the player in the NBA most similar to Brand’s personality from everything I’ve seen of the two in interviews, practice sessions, games and other players/coaches/media commenting is Michael Redd. Again, a pros pro, genuine, humble, nice, takes people under his wing, goes and does his job…bonafide NBA talent but not a superstar…and someone that leads by example, but does not have the makeup to chew someone out and WILL a team to win.
Iguodala = fake tough = ‘fugazzi’……like Tim Thomas called Kenyon Martin a few years back.
are people seriously calling for AI to come back to Philly ? Dannie, do you really think AI is a winner? i know the current team is a bunch of losers but AI is the king of losers. his leaving Denver to Detroit single handedly made Denver great and Detroit stink. this proved absolutely what we knew all along. and when he took us to the finals, that was was the worst Eastern conference in the history of the NBA. the top 6 or 7 teams came out of the West that year
Iggy’s fake tough is a good call even though he mostly guarded Mayo and locked him up…Gay absolutely destroyed Thad, Got him in foul trouble and kicked his ass any other time.
From my perspective I just don’t see much hustle or urgency from Iggy. He kind of seems to coast when he should man up and take the game to the opponent. Also I dont understand why he played Mayo so much, who was off all game. A guy like Kobe sees an opponent dominating a teamate, and he switches off so he can defend the hot hand(or he did before they got Artest)
This is the best thing Eddie Jordan has done so far, and being in the 3rd row last night and seeing the confused looks coming out of timeouts, it makes me wonder if its bad coaching, or bad player execution due to low basketball IQ. Given Eddie Jordan still puts out fucked rotations and coming out of a timeout down 3 or 4 down the stretch I think Kapono should be in just to keep the defense honest, but I think its good for him to call these wimps out.
The character of the team and coach were best on display the Bull’s game. Coming off of an embarrassing defeat to Utah they jumped out to a 17-4 lead. Bulls called a TO and the Sixers started celebrating, cracking jokes and were all laughs coming out of the TO.
Needless to say they immediately gave up a 16-0 run and trailed by the end of the quarter. They then folded in the final 15 minutes where they went small ball with both Brand and Speights on the bench. They made a last gasp run to make the score look respectable, but they had trailed by 17 with 6 min remaining, so it just masked a sound drubbing.
So they played with intensity for all of 6 minutes and then got pleased with themselves and let the other team immediately back in a game. Then when the chips were down EJ went small, with predictable loser results. The team finally showed a pulse at the end when the Bulls let up and the Sixers were able to score some meaningless points to protect their ego’s from taking a huge loss on the scoreboard.
Mot exactly the heart of a lion, or the type of team and character this city gets behind.
If Jordan wants to send a message about toughness in a game this is what I’d do. The best public statement would be to start a 3rd quarter with a “effort” line-up (maybe Jrue-Ivey-Carney-Brand-Smith.). Then call a TO after 2 minutes and bring the real starters in. That would publicly call them out in a way that rewards the players giving effort, maybe raising the profile of those players with their teammates so that they can build from within.
But waiting until after the game to call out his team in the press is bush league and shirking his own culpability IMO.
TK76 – Completely agree and completely disagree. Ha
I agree the first step is to go with a 100% reserve type line-up. The problem with that is he already does that every game normally because he has no clear or set rotations. At one point last night he did have a line on the floor of:
He does this every game. So it’s not like the starters are always the ones in their entirety on the floor getting their ass kicked.
I disagree that it’s “bush league.” This happens all the time in the league. Coaches do it all the time in most leagues. Now maybe within the first 10 games is too short to blow a fuse like that publicly (twice). But the act of doing it is pretty standard from my experience.
Where he has slipped up is taking a lot of it on his own shoulders regardless of his view of the players performance. If you are going to call out the players like that you also need to call yourself out as well a la Andy Reid.
It’s funny those guys are the exact opposites. Reid rarely if ever publicly calls out players and always puts it on him “I gotta do a better job yadda yadda yadda” for 11 damn years.
Jordan seems to be setting the tone that he will be bashing softness right off the bat.
And I don’t disagree with him. This is a weak minded and soft physically team.
Ed is largely to blame for the make-up of this roster. And he is to blame for bringing in not only the wrong coach strategically but a coach proven to be a loser.
I would have rather an unknown head coach then a guy that has had talent and done very little with it.
Seems everyone is quite clueless in this organization.
As an individual EJ might be a tough guy. I’m also sure he is bright. But I’m not sure his teams have ever reflected toughness (unless you want to give hime credit for the Kidd led Nets teams?) So if toughness is an issue, Jordan does not have the credibility in my book to address it.
Sure, in DC he used lots of Ruffin to try and insert toughness in his squad. But that is like throwing Reggie Evans out there. It is not building a physical defensive scheme like Boston has or LB had. It is like when an NHL team sends out a thug alongside a bunch of soft scorers. It does not pick up team defense.
BTW, agree Iguodala is a bit of a poser, but he does bring a high level of effort on both ends and does not back down. Unfortunately his is not much of a leader, and does not inspire his teammates to bring effort. If anything, I think he discourages them.
“his” should read “he”
Yeah Dannie I think the thing you said about Reid and how he puts it on himself. Jordan should be talking about, how HE will make the team stronger, and that he should have worked on the squads physical & mental toughness in practice instead of throwing the guys under the bus and basically calling them bitchmade.
Another thing that annoys me is Thads pathetic excuse for a 1st step. If he is going to play SF, he needs to learn how to do a jab step/1st step dribble move, without traveling EVERY(I emphasize EVERY) single time. I think this is what is handcuffing him early in the season. Defenses get all up in his shit when he is in the triple threat position and dare him to take them off the dribble and not walk.
Im intrigued by his “We dont have those types of guys right now”…What does that mean? Are their moves to come?
Toughness hmmm Byron Scott? TT? Avery Johnson?
There are options for that type of coach out there.
I don’t usually question Iguodala’s effort (although he gets lazy offensively and defensively and it’s always obvious when it happens). But his energy a lot of the time seems misguided and I agree that has a discouraging effect.
And his body language just flat out sucks 90% of the time.
I stick to my guns, 10 more games and some major change will either happen or the ball will get rolling on it.
Right now the coach is going at the players and the players seem to never have bought into Eddie Jordan the coach or how he wants them to play.
And again most of this falls on Ed because he is the hiring manager.
My company has a statement that they live by:
Change the people, change the company.
Well this organization needs a lot of ppl changing if they ever want to seem consistent winning around here.
“He said something like that when he came in here,” starting forward Thaddeus Young said. “That doesn’t do anything when a coach is telling you stuff like that. That doesn’t do anything but make us go back to the drawing board.”
Um, Thaddeus Young, welcome to EJ’s doghouse.
BTW, Iguodala sort of complained about Jordan also:
Dala you are correct. The problem is you clowns have been going out there and playing poorly with significantly more regularity than you play well.
Umm Thad it doesn’t do anything to loser players.
Good and more so great players get the message and play better. Everything is a challenge to them. Everything drives them. They use anything to motivate themselves.
I see none of that on this roster.
The thing that pisses me off the most is NO ONE is taking ANY responsibility or accountability for the overall crap this team has displayed so far this season.
This has nothing to do with game-to-game comments. This team has barely played ONE good game yet and no one is saying anything or showing any emotion.
I just question this rosters toughness and will to win and fire.
Effort and fire/passion are completely different things for me.
This team did seem to give good effort (if not execution) under Mo and DiLeo.
I bet the communication between coach & players was 100% better in those situations.
Like I posted at Brians’s site, Brand, Iguodala and Thad have already publicly complained about the coach. If this escalates I’m not sure what ES will do.
Those 3 have been ID’d by management as the team’s core. If they are at odds with the coach that represents a huge problem.
Great pictures Dannie (especially with Diddy)! I love Mr. Softee ice cream, but that’s not the flavor I want my teams to play by. This team’s rebounding has been down, which is why the Sixers have lost some games (Detroit, Utah, Memphis). Do you think the loss of Reggie Evans really makes this much of an impact in rebounds and toughness? Both Andre Miller and Reggie Evans really displayed their toughness on the boards and this team used to be one of the leaders in the NBA in rebounding. Rebounding equals more possessions.
Also, Iguodala thinks he is his best friend Kobe and following the Kobe mannerisms. At least Kobe has the intensity and the competitive spirit to back it up. The one thing I love about Kobe Bryant is his competitive nature. Iguodala cannot back it up and shows the immaturity side of him and his young squad. Only Elton Brand at least has that maturity and defensive intensity, however his leadership must improve. Iguodala has very little leadership and instead throws players under the bus instead. Dannie’s pictures of Andre Iguodala are very telling and are perhaps the things that disgust me the most about him, along with some sloppy ball-handling.
However, it is early in the season, but how long can I keep saying that? I have no idea why, but I think the Sixers will come out with more intensity tonight against the Cavaliers, similar to what they did last week. But why does coach Jordan have to remind them about intensity constantly? Things are to be implied even without someone reminding them.
I think the Sixers need some leadership in the roster and perhaps Antonio Daniels might be that guy. He has played in Eddie Jordan’s system before and has won a Championship with the Spurs in 99. Plus, he would be a much better backup for Lou. Ivey should only play that Lidnsey Hunter type of role and Holiday needs more development. Holiday should play in the NBDL, similar to what happened to Lou early in his career!
GO SIXERS!
Do like the Phils did with soft players. Give them to the Yankees like they did with Abreu and let the young players emerge. Too bad the stupid NBA cap doesn’t allow it.
We can hoot and holler about toughness and leadership all we want, but it’s still not going to matter unless we start playing better defense. And maybe that does tie into defense/leadership, but everytime we made a bucket last night, they would come right back down the floor and score. The most angry I’ve been all season (which has been a very frustrating one) is last night when we NEEDED a stop. Andre guarding Oj Mayo who passes to a WIDE open Rudy Gay for the jump shot.
SERIOUSLY? The dude has 31 points and you are giving him that shot? Watch this defensive breakdown: (around the 1:55 mark).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3keguXH7Rr8
As you can see, our defense had a complete breakdown and let the best player on the floor have a wide open shot.
The funniest thing about this play? Look at Elton Brand at the 2:06 mark of the video. He literally shoves Rodney Carney towards Rudy Gay. By then, it was too late. And right after that Andre makes “that face” right on cue.
I like the way the Brand is playing. I like the fire and energy that he brings. Many of us here have been killing Iggy for his stank faces for years, this is nothing new. That guy is no leader, never was and never will be.
Trade Iggy for a real shooting guard like a joe johnson type. Also as I stated earlier in the week trade Lou W now, when his value is at its highest and freaking play Jrue no matter how unready he is.