Deadline Passes, Time To Get To Work
Pull up a chair, get comfortable. Barring an ultra late-breaking story, the Sixers did not make a move. The roster will remain unchanged and the Sixers will go to battle with the roster they've had all season.
Is this a disappointing turn of events? Potentially, if Andre Miller walks for nothing at the end of the season, or the Sixers overpay to keep him, we'll look back on the trade deadline as a failure. For now, though, there's nothing to be done about it. It's time to start thinking about basketball again, and that puts a smile on my face. After the jump some perspective. Think back to this time last season. February 22nd, to be exact. We sat on the edge of our seats then as well, waiting to see if Miller would be moved. On that day, the Sixers were 24-32 and flailing a little bit. They came out of the All Star break and lost 2 of 3 games. Once the deadline passed, the Sixers went on a 16-4 run, including impressive wins @ Boston, @ Detroit, @ Phoenix and at home vs. San Antonio and Detroit. They played loose, they played fast, they imposed their will on other teams. Could we be in for a similar run this season? I think so. It's foolish to think that a bunch of twenty-somethings have the composure to block out the pressure of a deadline. This team seems to be affected by off-court issues more than most, and it's understandable. They thrive when they have a clear idea of their roles and stability. Well, they're going to have that from here on out. I'm expecting a big finish from this team, which will hopefully start on Saturday afternoon in Miami. By the way, the first game the Sixers played after the deadline last season was at Miami as well. They won that one in overtime. The MRI on Miller's calf was negative, he's listed as day-to-day. My money is on seeing him playing in his 502nd consecutive game on Saturday night. 12 Comments | Leave a commentLeave a commentLatest Posts• Games Of Interest: 02/19/09 • Iguodala Video • Deadline Passes, Time To Get To Work • Happy Deadline Day • How To Blow A Golden Opportunity • Games Of Interest: 02/18/09 • Rebound Game? • Miller And Salmons Traded To Chicago • Wednesday Trade Chatter • Sixers Sluggish, Pacers Ferocious • Games Of Interest: 02/17/09 • Keep The Streak GoingSearchBlogs in The NetworkSixers BlogsPassion and Pride Sixers 4 Guidos Liberty Ballers Recliner GM PhillyArena Heard In The Cheap Seats | ||||||||||||||||
I wish I could share your optimism. I see this team continuing to be streaky. Any team with so many young players and devoid of shooters and post players is bound to be either horrible or streaky (so I guess I'll take streaky?)
They might go .500 the rest of the way, but i doubt they show much consistency. They seem particularly ill equiped to make any kind of noise in the playoffs (for the same reasons as last year.)
Brand was a win it now move. Keeping Miller I guess keeps to that philosophy. I just have a big problem buying into it. The cool aid tastes funky.
Lou has regressed, Thad is still a year or three away, and Speights also needs a few years. The only "win now" players on this team are Iguodala and Miller.
Lou's regression worries me, but I don't see how you can look at last year's team vs. this year's team and think they aren't headed in the right direction. People seem to forget how close they were to winning that first round match-up last season.
They need to be no lower than the #6 seed, if they can pull that off, they have a shot at the second round.
I also think you're letting the last 2 games obscure the 20 previous games. They haven't played like a .500 team for over a month.
They aren't perfect, they aren't complete, but they're a better team than you're giving them credit for.
One more point. If you want to see Speights and Thad completely waste their potential, the best way to do it would be to trade Miller and count on Lou to be your point for an extended period of time. Any semblance of organized offense would be completely thrown out the window and you'd have a bunch of young guys battling for the right to play one-on-one basketball for 35 minutes a night.
I think the last 2 games and the 14-4 run before that are jsut more streaks for the reasons I mentioned above.
Since the AI trade they have made runs of 18-7, 19-6, 14-4. Yet overall they are about .500 over that stretch. That is what they are. Not bad, not good. Just average in a streaky kind of way.
Adding Brand was supposed to address part of this by adding a vet go to scorer. He probably will help some net year, and Miller will still be good next year... but iMO that still does not add up to consistency of 50 wins because the pieces won't fit well.
Not trying to be all down. I'm not upset about no trades, just not very high about the next few years (which I was heading into last summer.)
It's understandable. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Hey, that's why I'm posting at "Depressed Fan."
I sort of had a hunch this Fall that after such a great offseason it was bound to be a dissapointing year... but that's just part of being from Philly, Right?
I'll admit, the team surprised the hell out of me with their runs last Spring. It really came out of nowhere.
Last spring almost made me change the name of the blog.
16-4? No - not likely - 800 ball between now and the end of the season seems unlikely - though i haven't looked deep into the schedule to see who they are playing. It was an unreal run last year (and they stll finished under 500) - that they're unlikely to repeat -
If they go 12-8 in the last 20 (which is 600 basketball, nothing to sneeze at) I'll be happy - they'll get into the playoffs most likely - possibly win a round and most likely get crushed in the second round.
Then i hope miller gets re-signed at a 3 year reasonable deal
16-4 probably isn't going to happen. They're 14-6 in their last 20. I had them finishing 18-11, so that would be 45-37 on the season. Still possible w/ the remaining schedule, probably good enough for the #5 seed, maybe #4 depending on how Atlanta handles their tough schedule the rest of the way.
no move = good move.
I am with Stefanski, and apparently Hollinger approved that too.
We have to get Miller back, we are a D-League team without him, and it showed. Let's hope he doesn't rush the comeback, though, the Brand example should be ketp in mind.
Brian I made a little research about shooting woes for some of our players and I found scaring numbers.
You might want to analyze those more in depth in one of your next posts, like you often do, I think it could be interesting.
I can go to bed pretty happy :-)
Not making a move is better than making a bone-headed one. I think having Andre Miller here for the next 2-3 seasons is the best scenario for this franchise. I'm quietly optimistic that he'll re-sign with us if we offer him a fair deal (I'd take 7m per year for 3 years)
I'm quite sure we could have gotten something decent for Lou + Sammy.
Why are you quite sure they (the sixers) could have gotten something decent for Lou + Sammy. Sammy is no better or worse than Tyson Chandler, and the hornets got bubkis in that deal and lou is underperforming in the first year of a five year deal.
Considering most reports are that the sixers were actively shopping Sam and being turned down at every corner (Oooh...best offer out there i heard was sam for kaman and that deal stinks) - I don't agree in you certainty - i doubt they could have gotten much for sam alone - let alone the bench guy with the five year deal