It's always a challenge to find the picture to put atop a recap post, tonight I decided to go with the angriest rich guy in Detroit, Pistons owner Tom Gores. He looks like I felt at the end of previous five Sixers games. Not tonight, though. For one night, at least, the Sixers looked like a powerhouse again in a demonstrative win. (
game capsule).
Here's your rotation chart. I highlighted the unit which ended the first quarter, and then their run early in the third, mainly because I was calling for Collins to sub out the Lou/Meeks/Turner trio right before they went on a huge run. Shows you what I know:
First, this was an important win. It was important they got the job done against a bad team. It was important they leave no doubt, and they did that. Defensively, this was perhaps the best effort of the season. Even with terrible defensive rebounding in the first half, they still held Detroit to an OFR of 75.33. On the offensive end, they were clearly running plays for the first three quarters of the game. They spent very little time dribbling on the perimeter trying to figure out what they were supposed to be doing. There was much more movement off the ball, and they just looked like a team that had practiced their offensive sets. That's not something you could say very often during their bad stretch.
Second, this was a win over a bad team. A win they were expected to get. They didn't prove their slump is over, they didn't prove anything other than that they're clearly a better team than the Pistons, which everyone already knew. This game is only meaningful if they carry the effort over going forward. Finally, some bullets:
- Pretty amazing to see Lou/Meeks/Turner result in a +17 in 14 minutes tonight, considering that trio had been the team's worst perimeter combo heading into the game.
- Good to see Meeks hit a couple threes. Lou caught fire late in the third after making a couple bad mistakes that seemed like they might give DET a little bit of hope. He crushed their spirit with six straight points.
- Allen was the better of the rooks tonight, which hasn't been the trend recently. Neither of them did a particularly good job on Greg Monroe. Elton Brand remains the team's best interior defender. It's going to be imperative for Collins to find some kind of way to keep Brand's legs at least somewhat fresh the rest of the way. Blowout wins help.
- I said this during the game thread, but it's worth repeating. Anyone who has questioned Jrue's defense this season needs to go back and look at tape of the third quarter. He absolutely stoned everyone he was guarding. He was moving his feet to cut off penetration, playing the passing lanes to cause turnovers, giving up his body to draw charges. He and Andre Iguodala held their counterparts to a combined 4/18 from the floor for 12 points with 3 assists and 5 turnovers.
- Both Iguodala and Jrue shot the ball well tonight, in limited minutes with limited touches. Lou hit half of his shots, but failed to get to the line. Turner started off pretty well, but fizzled in garbage time. Meeks finished 4/7, so the lack of production from the perimeter guys disappeared for tonight's game, at least.
- Even in a 29-point blowout, there are improvements you can make. Detroit had 15 offensive boards, you can't survive that against a good team. The Sixers also turned the ball over 15 times, 50% more than their usual.
- Turnovers aside, we saw something tonight we haven't seen from them in a while. They were having fun out there. It's not as simple as saying, "Go out there and have a good time," and it's not as simple as just winning. There were times during this game where you could see them clearly enjoying themselves on the floor (the Iguodala between the legs to Thad for the massacred bunny comes to mind). That was a staple of the winning ball they were playing early in the year. The game wasn't a grind. Every play wasn't an internal debate between whether a play might lead to a turnover, or who was going to make a shot. It just sort of flowed and things worked. They need to get that back, whatever that is. It was there tonight.
Player of The Game: Thaddeus Young. Thad was a man tonight, 9/17 for 20 points with 8 boards, 2 steals and 2 blocks. The crazy thing about that line is that Thad missed three of the easiest looks you've ever seen (costing Jrue 2 assists and Iguodala another). He really should've finished this game 12/17 with 26 points, and his biggest contributions might have been on the defensive end.
Team Record: 21-14
Up Next: Gulp...OKC in Philly tomorrow night.
Jrue's Goal: A 2-2 push tonight. (2-6-1 since inception).
By the way, per TK76's suggestion, we're going to make today, Leap Day, an Evan Turner-free day in the comments. Talk about anything you want, other than Turner. We've spent way too much time on that argument recently and there's plenty of other stuff to talk about.
Good luck with that, it'll be a leap day miracle
I wish the Sixers had a big who could do things like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=KeUjEz8u0E4
Ibaka tomorrow night would have been great on the Sixers. i wonder if Thorn will be able to Turn Brand's 18M roster slot into an athletic big, instead of another "ball friendly" one. And it is a shame that Thad does not really attack the rim- he has the athleticism.
There aren't a lot of them out there. Just the big one this summer, that I can think of.
Howards defense would be a whole different thing entirely. But I'd like a plain old athletic power dunker just because otherwise it is a criminal waste of all of this team's perfect set-up men and athletes.
The Sixers with their current bigs are sort of like having snow tires on a Ferrari. Nothing wrong with snow tires, but they take away some of the joy that the car could otherwise bring.
One more Kemp vid for old times sake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYoHCmKIjxY&feature=related
I loved that Sonics team. They got after it.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SEA/1996.html
Payton/Hawkins/Schremph/Kemp/Perkins
They had some All Time backcoourt defenders on that team:
Payton/McMillan/Wingate/E.Snow
I think that there's a couple of rookie-contract bigs that might benefit from a change of scenery:
Ed Davis TOR
Larry Sanders MIL
I think both have the potential to fit nicely next to a ball-friendly C.
I was really interested in Sanders...was upset that he went 15th...was hoping he would drift lower and we could have found a way to get him. Don't know what we would have to give the Bucks to get him, but I think he would fit in well here.
I would like to know your opinion guys on Bogut..
He is an above average and very good on D center, he had a couple of freak injuries, so its not like he is A.Bynum or G.Oden, and I think he is easier to get than Dwight. Imagine Bogut holding down our D down low. What do you guys think would the Bucks want for him ? Is he the solution for the spot ? Does the one-that-should-not-be-named-today plus Hawes or Voose and a couple of picks get the deal done ? Or the Bucks would ask for Jrue or Iggy instead ?
Thanks
I have always liked him...a similar player to Hawes offensively and a better defender/rebounder. As others have said, until this year, Hawes has been a much healthier player than Bogut.
If the price wasn't ridiculous, I would definitely be interested.
Opps
forget to include Noc and his expiring contract as an opition for the deal, like he is doing nothing here anyway, he could hang with his friend Delfino there..
I like Bogut as a player (when healthy) but his big contract is a limiting factor. He makes 12-14M the next 3 year- which is probably fair for his talent level, but would not leave much cap space.
Right now Iggy+Brand use up a huge chank of the cap. Adding Bogut and Dropping Brand would mean that Iggy+Bogut+Thad would occupy about 35M of cap space for the next 2 years. Then guys like Jrue will start getting paid.
At some point this team has to move towards a more traditional franchise star model- and getting Bogut would just push that off yet another 2-3 more years (much like when they add Brand.)
35 million isn't much and still leaves you with enough space to extend Jrue. The way I see it, getting a center is extremely difficult. It the next two years the best centers on the free agent market after Dwight Howard will be Roy HIbbert, JaVale McGee and Serge Ibaka. Those 3 guys will get overpaid so that their teams can retain them. I just don't see a quality starting center falling in the bottom 10 of the 1st round.
I wouldn't trade for Bogut this year since he won't play this season. But if we strike out at getting Howard in the summer, why not attempt to get Bogut? When healthy he is a top 5 center. I know that getting Bogut would be a risk but he's only on the books for two years and his contract isn't atrocious.
Ugh if those guys are the best after Howard the league is in some serious trouble. Hibbert and Ibaka are solid but far from great but putting McGee in the conversation for top centers is an atrocity to me. The only thing he can really do is jump. I seriously doubt any coach on a good team would play him more than backup minutes.
Even average big guys does command big bucks as an exemple look at Dalembert(the sixers contract), Deandre Jordan, Nene, Kendric Perkins. So Bogut's contract is not otherwordly and I was thinking about the whole League and trying to come with some ideas for the frontcourt problem, the good bigs nobody wanna trade, Dwight don't wanna come to Philly, the team would not have good position in this particulary good big man draft, so what to do ?
By the way, who are the top 10 centers of NBA today, folks ?
-Dwight (questionable offense at the end of games)
-Bynum (Jelly knees)
-Gasol, the young one (already signed and they are not looking to trade him)
-Nene ?
-Bogut ?
-Gortat
-Noah
-Tyson Chandler
-
I struggled to come to ten..Monroe, Cousins ?
I don't think Roy Hibert is top ten material, Al Hoford is a PF.
Man, even Pat Ewing would dominate today
1. Dwight Howard
2. Andrew Bynum
3. Tyson Chandler
4. Serge Ibaka
5. DeAndre Jordan
6. Joakhim Noah
7. Marc Gasol
8. Marcin Gortat
9. Roy Hibbert
10. Greg Monroe
I really like Bogut and would do that deal (not sure Milwaukee would though). Despite his injuries being of the freak kind i am kind of worried about that. Somehow he keeps getting injured and at this point it definitely has something to do with his style of play at least so you can probably put him in the injury prone category. And i really don't like injury prone players. Too much "what if" stuff comes along with them.
Despite the good effort last night i was really disappointed that they could not get to the line coming out of the allstar break again. The lack of FTs is what keeps them from being a contender and i really hoped they would come energized and get to the line against a team that desn't have the superstar factor.
The refs were really tight w/ the foul calls last night, both ways actually. Thought Lou and Stuckey probably both deserved more FTs, Jrue as well, though he never really gets the calls.
The lack of free throws, SG, Center, young PF, end of game closer and big time rebounder. Other than that its a championship team.