At 7pm tonight we can stop the guesswork. We can stop hoping, dreaming, dreading. Finally, we can simply start watching. The Sixers will play a basketball game that counts for the first time since their embarrassing Game 6 loss back in April. As fate would have it, their shot at redemption will come immediately in Orlando. After the jump, we'll take some time to discuss what you can expect from this blog over the course of the season.
I figured before the season started I'd lay out exactly what my plan is for coverage here on the blog. Every game will have a preview post, in which I'll take a look at the matchups, provide some stats and maybe point out a few trends for the Sixers. This post will also serve as the open thread for the game. After every game, I'll sum up my thoughts. Usually, the following day I'll take a closer look to add some perspective and update the stats I'm tracking. So a minimum of two posts, per game, sometimes three. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep the conversation going even when the team has an off day.
Stats: As I've said many times before, one of the biggest advantages to manically following a team, watching every second of every game, is you can track certain things which fall through the cracks in the box score. I thought long and hard about what interested me, what I'd find the most useful, and I came up with a handful of stats to track.
- Substitution patterns - Elton Brand is back, Jrue Holiday is here, Andre Miller is gone. But the biggest change for this team will be their head coach. From opening day I'm going to keep track of Eddie Jordan's rotations, and unit performance. As part of my postgame wrap I'll share the spreadsheets with you guys so we can play the guessing game of figuring out which combinations work and which don't. I think these sheets will be extremely informative as the season wears on.
- Dead-ball plays - Think back to when Larry Brown was the Sixers' coach, what happened more often than not when he called a timeout at a critical time in the game? If you answered, "The Sixers got a clean look at the hoop on the ensuing play," you're right. This is a great way to judge a coach's x's and o's ability. I'm going to track the Sixers' success in these situations as another barometer to grade Jordan's performance.
- Advanced stats - Just like last season, I'm going to track the team's performance in the four factors, on a game-by-game and season basis. I'm also going to add the team's pace to these calculations and I'll waste a couple of hours every once in a while creating colorful charts to illustrate the obvious.
As the season wears on, other stats of note will pop up and I'll track them when able, but these three stats will be the staples of my "work." It's not as witty of the good 'ole
Johnny Damon Deforestation Project, but it should be more useful.
I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for the season to begin, so excited, in fact, that I may have to watch the first game on TiVo. There's about a 50% chance I'll be going to game one of the series tonight, but either way, I'll have the preview up this afternoon and a wrap later tonight.
Leave your initial opening night thoughts in the comments.
Brian, its a shame they open up tonight, I gotta ask, what is your series prediction? I say Phillies in 7 !!!
Is it 7 pm yet?
What a shame they open up the same night the Yanks begin their return to their perch atop the baseball world, but this is way better than last year so no complaints here.
The guys will need big contributions from Speights, Smith, maybe even Primoz, and Sam of course, on the big fellah. Use up the fouls and send him to the line, limit his layups and dunks tonight.
And for good measure, Yanks in 5!
Brian - I forgot you were a Yanks fan. My co-blogger Pete covers the Phillies hard. Check us out for the Phillies side of the coin. Pretty good debate going on now on his series preview. Some Yanks fans have made their way over.
Dannie,
That is the only problem I have with Brian. He is a Yankee fan. But, maybe, after seeing the Phils beat the Yankees in 5 (as Jroll predicted), maybe he will see the light! So, Go Phils and Go Sixers. Let's make it a Wednesday night sweep by the Philly teams and begin shocking the world again!
It's going to be an interesting NY/Philly weekend. Sixers @ Knicks on Saturday night, Giants @ Eagles on Sunday afternoon and game 4 of the series in Philly on Sunday night.
Hey, I checked out the preview. I don't think he mentioned Lee's 8 HRs allowed in 52 innings against the Yanks or his 1.58 WHIP :)
I have the Yanks in 7. They win 2 handily, 2 close ones. The Phils have one blowout win (probably a Burnett start) and win two close ones thanks, in part, to idiotic managerial moves by Girardi.
Looking forward to the series, this is really the first time I don't truly despise the Yanks' opponent. It's a weird feeling.
Sounds like a great plan, you know we come here for the savvy breakdowns as much as anything else. But I do wonder if/how you're going to manage some context for points 1 and 2? I mean, how will we know if Eddy's bad (or good) compared to other coaches?
It's going to be more relative comparison and anecdotal evidence. Like, for example, if there's a unit that performs very well, but he doesn't it use it enough, I'd see that as a bad sign.
Or if the team produces much better when Speights is on the floor with Dalembert, so Jordan uses him in that situation more, that would be a good sign.
For the dead-ball situations, I'll probably just look at production on a per-possession basis. If they average less than 1 point per dead-ball possession, that's not good. Things like that.
The stats alone won't tell us if Jordan is doing a good job, but tracking rotations etc can tell us how the team is responding, and how he's adjusting things to make the team better. That interests me greatly.
LOL people talk about the Phillies also when commenting the post of Sixers' season opener
HOOPS, guys, hoops !!
Brian, have a great Sixers year, I'll be there exchanging comments and links as usual, keep up the great work
SIXERS BASKETBALL !!