I'm jealous of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Not because I think they're necessarily contenders. Not because they won the lottery even without suffering through a full-on tank season and not because they have Kevin Durant. I'm jealous of OKC because they have actually created an identity and their players are developing on an upward trend. Is that really too much to ask from a team?
I'll be at the game tonight, section 113 if you're there and want to say hi, so I'll give you my reasons for watching:
- Kevin Durant. The guy is simply a scoring machine and he's gone from being a gunner to being deadly efficient.
- Andre Iguodala trying to stop Kevin Durant from scoring. If Eddie Jordan has half a ball sack, he'll put Kapono on Sefolosha and Iguodala on Durant. If he doesn't, I may riot.
- Jrue vs. Westbrook. I don't really need to expand on that one. Jrue completely stoned Westbrook the last time these teams met. Turned him into a jump shooter who couldn't penetrate.
Honestly, that's more than enough for me. I'm looking forward to a hard-fought loss, hopefully (though I don't think I'll be able to root for that).
This is your game thread. Keep it civil in my absence. I'll check in when I get home and maybe during the game if I can.
Cheeks this morning on Durant: "He is good. He is so good. ... You could say (he reminds me of) Bob McAdoo, you could say George Gervin. The guy does a little bit of everything with the ball. He scores perimeter-wise. He scores in the paint. He works his (hesitated, smiled and didn't say a word) off."
Brooks has the young, talented Thunder -- from Durant on down -- defending. That's what it takes to win in this league.
Brooks: "I never, not one day, did I tell our team, ‘You’re young. You shouldn’t be able to do this.’ If they’re on our roster, they have to do what we want to get done. There’s no ands, ifs or buts about it. That’s the demand I put on them and they put on each other. Our practices are top-notch. That’s one of the big reasons we’ve improved. We’ve challenged each other."
As for Durant, where are all the critics saying he can't play in the NBA because he can't bench-press 125 pounds X number of times? It hasn't stopped him from becoming an all-star in his third season.
That's what it takes to win in this league.
That's a pleasant chestnut that's commonly repeated - but that all depends on how you look at defense - if you're only looking at PPG allowed - then you're not looking at defense anyway
Brian - OKC also seems to have a good coach and GM - but being in the right place at the right time for the ray allen deal helped (let's not forget the sixers had their chance to take advantage of the celtics, and our stupid gm said no)
The best model team to emulate is the Oklahoma City Thunder. i know it’s easy to dismiss using the Thunder as a model because they have Kevin Durant, but look how they modeled their roster with long and versatile players.
Kristic/Green/Durant/Sefolosha/Westbrook
It’s true that the lack of a low post presence present a problem for Oklahoma, but the idea of having long and versatile players is still great and the Sixers aren’t that far from having the personnel to do it.
If Young played his best at PF, okay now, I'm daydreaming because it’s a long shot but if the Sixers can beat the odds and land Wesley Johnson and keep Young and play them together:
Dalemebert or Speights/Young/Johnson/Iggy/Holiday
We would have something resembling the best current model team in the NBA going forward…
Halftime meetup?
Oh nm
it seems like kapono always gets rebounds somehow
Kyle Korver used to seem that way too but when you looked at it after the fact he really didn't :)
2:13 mark of the 2nd quarter. Speights gets a rebound off of a Meeks miss and gets fouled. He walks right by Brand no hi five, lo five, or any sort of jive. Nothing, meanwhile when I was watching the Hornets play a meaningless game last night there was Chris Paul and Darren Collison doing mid air chest bumps in the 2nd quarter.
I have never seen worse team comraderie in my 30 years of being a sixers fan.
So freakin' true. We literally have no team or anything close that constitutes one.
My hope is the personnel changes just as much as I hope management does this summer.
At least we have one building block in Jrue, the rest of these guys could go and I wouldn't give a shit. Although I would also like to see what Thad could become with good coaching.
Sadly a year from now we will probably be in the same position of rooting for these guys to lose. How much does that suck?!
I hope this game isn't as boring being there as it is watching it. Because there's not an ounce of life in that arena.
Anybody else gonna show up besides Andre and EB, maybe Jrue? Anyone?
Does the wachovia center have more malfunctions then any other basketball arena? Seems like it, Brian is probably getting ready to riot right about now.
It happened on that Iguodala heave at the 3rd quarter buzzer. Think the ball hit a wire or something.
The best part about tonight's game is Herb Magee is in the building. Too bad he isn't on our staff working with our many non-shootees.
Look at the kid making a great pass to Jason smith(who missed) then stripping the ball and laying out on the floor to get it. I hope the rest of these losers don't rub off on him.
Carney just looks like he 'launches' line drives when he shoots. He doesn't have any arc or elbow extension when he shoots.
Iggy is the exact opposite with his high arching shit shot.
I'll never forget what Clyde Frazier said when we played at the Garden the other week - "When you shoot that high, there's no way you can control it."
So true Clyde. Shhhhhhhhhhh.......clank!........boink!
Lol, that dude's the original shaft!
After this pathetic showing tonight, tell me again why they busted ass and beat MIL and ATL? Why, guys, why?
Andre and Jrue have 12 assists combined but.....they have 10 combined turnovers of our 16 total. ugh
For some reason, the Sixers announced with five minutes left and down 23 that Iguodala wouldn't return because of his plantar fasciitis.
I really hope that means they sit him out for the next severa games
Why did we give up a 2nd round pick for Jodie Meeks again? Hes a gunner, a shitty one at that.
So Ed would have more to show for the deadline than just his dick in his hand.
Sigh...at least Monday isopening day ...
Mo Cheeks is a helluva guy but he has to be quietly grinning in the OKC locker room right about now. All while laughing his ass off after he speaks pleasantries with Stefanski and Ed turns his back.
But deep down, he has to be shaking his head at what this once proud franchise he played and coached for has become.
Cause I sure as hell shake mine - daily or better yet, hourly. Bring back the 80's dammit!
I still think that I'm going to wake up some day in 1986 and moses malone will still be a 76er while mentoring rookie Brad Daugherty.
But the great John Nash derailed that. Didn't he? Pat Williams was already on his new Magic endeavor wasn't he?
Didn't the owner Katz get most of the heat for that move?
Maybe so, but I think Nash had taken over when that went down for Pat Williams since he was embarking on the Magic creation.
As bad as I think Stefanski is, we went from Moses and maybe Daugherty to Roy Hinson, Jeff Ruland, Cliff Robinson and the beloved cash. But in a true Ed way, we traded two first round picks for the Ruland/Robinson haul and gave up Moses and Terry Catledge to boot. Talk about a fleece.
Well, one positive - Kapono stepped into the single shower stall and put his Tankman cape back on.
26 min, 0-5 fg, 0-3 3pt, 2 rebs, 2 assts, ZERO points.
This franchise can't even tank properly. Iguodala shouldn't have been playing for the last week and a half. That surely would've erased those 2 previous wins against MIL and ATL.
Another positive (if there is such) - not sure SAC was going to catch up with us in wins but IND did beat them tonight. So that's sort of good.
Iguodala said he hopes to play tomorrow, but his plantar fasciitis bothered him tonight more than at any other time in the past 3 1/2 weeks.
Brand on the 45-28 Thunder: "I can’t really think of a team in a long time with so many young guys playing with so much poise and running their sets. They know how to win ballgames."
I was there. It was fun as hell to watch an actual team play. Durant is great, he's like an angry giraffe. Jrue got in foul trouble early and then started to get going in the second half. Like 5 of his passes were bobbled by Jason Smith and Sammie.
Iggy played well, but needs to just shut it down. The Thunder guys were so well knit. Everyone high fiving and being, well, a team.
Nash was the most overrated NBA exec I can recall. He really has never accomplished anything of note has he?
Hey, any chance Sixers will be in a position to sign durant when he becomes a free agent (is it next year or following?)?
A core of Holiday and Durant would be a helluva start wouldn't it?
Nash was not yet the GM in June 1986 -- it was still Pat Williams.
Hey, any chance Sixers will be in a position to sign durant when he becomes a free agent (is it next year or following?)?
Unless OKC is idiotic it never becomes an option - they'll extend Durant this off season before he even becomes a free agent.