 Adios, Orlando At one p.m. the Nets/Sixers will try to avoid leaving Orlando with an 0-5 record and their tail between their legs. Honestly, I don't see it happening. They're a sad, ragtag collection of players with no coach, no cohesion and really no common goal. Now that the week has been wasted, what's next for this team? If you follow Iguodala (AI9) or Thad (yungsmoov21) on Twitter, you already know they're in Georgia with Lou Williams and Jason Smith, working out with Mark Price. Excellent team-building exercise. Obviously, the more work this squad does on their jumpers, the better. I don't know how long they'll be down there, but I hope Jrue and Speights join them directly from Orlando. Tom Moore mentioned on RealGM last night that Sam Dalembert stopped by the Summer League game in Orlando to lend support to Speights and Holiday. He said he also plans to meet with Eddie Jordan while he's in town. This has to be a positive sign, right? I honestly wasn't expecting to hear from or about Dalembert at all this Summer. I figured he'd be off pouting somewhere about the trade rumors and the talk of him being benched. Perhaps he's seeking Jordan out to tell him he's going to buy in to the new system and be a positive member of the team (one can dream). I highly doubt he showed up in Orlando to demand 10 shots a game, but I guess you never can tell. While we wring our hands and scour the wires for roster moves, it's easy to lose sight of the players already in the locker room. Iguodala, Thad, Lou and Jason Smith are setting an example right now. They're working out, they're doing everything they can to get better, to move this team forward. I assume the other guys are doing their part as well, or at least I hope they are. At this point, a drastic move to improve the roster is an extreme long shot. I expect them to add some nominal depth at PG, C and on the wing. That's pretty much it. If we're looking for this team to improve, it's going to have to happen in the guys who are on the roster. That's disappointing on one level, but there's reason for optimism as well. The core of this team has yet to reach its prime and the one player who isn't on the upside of his career hardly played at all last season. Replacing Andre Miller's 8.6 win shares won't be easy, but consider this. Over the three seasons prior to his Achilles injury, Brand averaged 12.3 win shares. His career low was 6.0. A healthy Brand should even things out for the loss of Miller, from a statistical standpoint. Whether the team improves or backslides is going to depend on the development of the young core, and that improvement begins now, with hard work during the dog days. I only hope we'll continue to hear about steps they're all taking to improve their games and move this franchise forward for the rest of the Summer. 
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I hope Ed S. fulfills his promise (in that season ticketholder meeting) and hires a full time shooting coach for the team. But it is definitely good the majority of the team is down there trying to get better. If the Sixers have an tough season this year but the youngsters develop further and get some seasoning I'd call it a success. Even with Miller back (or probably anyone but LeBron or Kobe) this team wouldn't be a contender this year anyway.
We're not playing in the Summer League? What's up with that?
Well they aren't playing in the Las Vegas summer league, the orlando trip is an actual summer league. Comcast has some BS excuse but I see it as cheap ass money saving move that wasted two weeks of Speights and Holiday off season.
Hey brain - in your win share discussion - this is what i'm interested in seeing, not just miller / brand but
the combo of miller/green vs lou/brand?
Lou has out-performed Willie in win shares by at least 1 win in the past two seasons, so if Brand = Miller, then the duo of Lou/Brand should out-perform Green/Miller. Make sense?
Yeah, makes sense, but was just curios to the 'new' starting line up vs the old one :)
Where do you get your yearly win share stuff?
b-r.com, under advanced.
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/20090710_Jrue_Holiday_impresses_scouts_beyond_his_numbers.html
Good read. I saw that three he hit, the scout was absolutely right. Catch, shoot, no thought, everything looked right on that one.
Nice to see he hs the instinct, the confidence comes through repetition, and playing time.
If Lou and Jrue are the only options the sixers bring in and Jrue works like I hope/expect I wouldn't be surprised to see my 2011 timetable advanced by a full season.
There I go getting all optimistic
realistic post Brian. The players we have are what has to get better as there really is no "savior" for this group...we need to get one from who we have. Even next year theres no guarantee any high profile FA comes here...philly is a 500 team that is a long way off to being in the championship mix. You know Sam interests me. Hes an athletic 7 footer who blocks shots and rebounds...he has the tools to be great. I tend to think he could be worked with to be great....his hands can be improved with work, so can his shot. I really think he has potential and his issues are mental...not physical.
I mean guys like him are hard to find...he must have a really bad rap around the league.
What do you guys think ? Mental or physical ?
It's equal parts mental and contractual with Sam. He's got all the physical tools. Even his production has been pretty good, it's just no one knows where his head is at, no one knows why he doesn't work on his game, and no one's willing to gamble $26M that they'll be the ones to get through to him.
look at what you wrote about his tools to be great, he could be worked with to be great...etc...
and now think about how long he's been in the league and how little improvement he's shown...that points to a questionable off season work ethic
then he got booted off the canadian national team when they were trying to make the olympics - how many other nba players have been kicked off a national team desperate to make the olympics
then there's public comments, all the way back to the Jim O'brien days, he makes when things don't go 'his way' or the sixers start to mess with 'his minutes'.
A lot of Sams rep around the league is going to come from a lack of improvement - he's been in the league long enough - a terrible offensive game, prone to being in foul trouble, questionable 'impact' on a team locker room due to public comments, AND the fact that his contract runs 'long' in that everyone wants money off the cap for the '2010 bonanaza' which is looking a lot less like a bonanaza with cap projections that came out this week (I wonder if the NBA sort of made up those projections to cut down on all the talk for next summer).
Sam had some 'spin control' comments in todays philly papers as he watched the sixers at summer league, but I don't buy it until we hear about him showing up with the rest of the team either with marc price of pcom or somewhere workingo n his game in the off season
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/07/09/jrue-holiday-philadelphia-76ers
Agree with everything but Gortat, but that just semantics at this point.
and that '2 small forwards' comment :)
Guys, thanks for checking out the column.
Re: Gortat, while obviously I'm not as high on him as you (Brian) are you are right that that section was more about the lack of a game-changing free agent than it was about any particular player.
Re: two small forwards, I certainly agree that AI2 _can_ play the 2, just that his natural position is at SF. If the 76ers did play best with him at shooting guard last year I'm guessing its because a B+ version Iguodala is still a significant upgrade over Willie Green's 'A' game. I kinda doubt I'm in the minority with that opinion.
re: the gatorade high school player of the year, I wasn't suggesting that Jrue is going to step in and be LeBron, rather that the kid's ceiling worth writing home about and on a team that realistically isn't close to winning a championship, one's ceiling is far more important than one's floor.
Meh. I know y'all wanna pump a pro-Jrue article, but it was just weird how he says the Gatorade award is a major barometer then jumps in at 2001, the year once-in-a-lifetime phenom LeBron makes the scene. The award's been around since 1985. There was an obvious reason for that (sheesh, did he think noone would look?): the previous three winners haven't done anything of note in the NBA. Two of 'em weren't even drafted.
I mean, is he really trying to suggest Jrue's probably in the same league of impact with LeBron, DHo, Oden and Love? Really? How about some years the high school talent isn't that strong, but somebody's gotta win the trophy.
Also not too keen on lumping Lawson, Maynor and Teague in like they're all of the same level, too. Lawson is obviously a couple cuts above and that's why those Jrue vs. comparisons are always torqued into something sketchy.
Jrue's ceiling is arguably higher, but there's not a whole lot of debate over whose floor is lower.
p.s. what was with all that potty-mouth? ah, online "journalism."
I paid the 15 bucks for the vegas summer league. It's worth it there is actually instant replays and much better camera work and commentary.
They took the loss again. Let us hope this is the last of these combined teams. I don't think it helped any of the kids from either team really learn anything since it ran neither team's offense and each part of the team had differing goals.
Good write up above.
Did you guys also notice Holiday not being able to stay in front of Maynor on multiple occasions? Hence the five fouls on Jrue and the 7 out of 7 from the line for Maynor. And Maynor is another rookie that hasn't even sniffed the league yet himself. Guess we'll all have to go thru the growing pains together. Being known for defensive capabilities seems to be a different animal when compared to staying in front of a lower rated and drafted point guard. Mebbe he'll come around.
Sixers are gonna suck this year. They have a very young team that loves to fast break and the PO might give trouble to even Brand. I know we can live without Miller but I sure would love a veteran point right about now.
Sorry if that wasn't clear. I mention that the teams gonna have to work their asses off on tbeir jumpers and half court game to even be a half decent team
I gotta say, with it looking increasingly unlikely that we will re-sign Andre Miller, I'd rather see Holiday starting than Lou.
Tom moore's saying there may be some interest in sign and trade to Knicks. AMIL for Duhon.
I can't buy the knicks interested in miller for more than a year - does he fit the system d'antoni likes to run?
Now Speights is getting it too. Check this out:
"Speights, who averaged just 14.2 points on 39 percent shooting, was downright frustrated with his performance. ``I thought I would (dominate), but things happen I guess,’’ he said. ``It just didn’t go my way all week. I gotta get back to work on my post game, like I did in college. I’ve got to go back and get used to playing down there again.’’"
It seems all the Sixers youngsters know what they need to do for the team going forward.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/2009/07/10/afflalo-a-nugget
If it's true that Detroit want to trade Arron Afflalo I'd like to see our FO try to get him. He's a defensive specialist who can shoot the 3 (.402 last season) and we need a backup wing anyway.
Most reports indicate that the pistons want to trade Afflalo to clear a bit more cap space.
Guess what the sixers can't help anyone do at this time?
John, Seems like Miller wouldn't fit that system. Certainly, not a 3 pt shooter and wouldn't a 3 year deal impact a Lebron signing?
I don't think so at all...I have no idea what's going on with the knicks this off season, I have to wonder if they're just being played by agents to get better deals in other places, kidd and hill made no sense on that roster...and I don't think Miller does either. With Portland signing milsap to the offer sheet there's only the MLE out there right now for Miller exccept for a S&T.
Multi Year to miller makes no sense for the Knicks
So are we really going to start Lou at point all year, or however long it takes before Holiday's ready?
I wouldn't mind Duhon at all. But given a choice Lou or Holiday, I'm for Holiday. Lou is much more suited to come off the bench.
I wouldn't hand the ball to Jrue day one, but I'd make it an open competition and hope that Jrue can win the job.
Jarret Jack got a 20 million dollra offer from the Raptors?
Yep... $5 mil/year for four years... that's pretty much what I expected it'd take to get him away from Indiana.
FWIW, so far in summer league Curry's sure not shy about showing off his gunner tendencies. Jeepers.
But Bob Knight says he's one of the absolutely greatest passers of all time.
LOL! ;-)