At least a game like this makes it easy to point out where a team went wrong. Here's a hint, when you collect only 54% of the available defensive rebounds, you are not going to win. In fact, if you're playing even a halfway decent team, you're going to lose by about 30 points. If you're playing a team as bad as the Pistons, however,
Your strange rotation chart, featuring more subs than any other game thus far, another DNPCD for Jrue Holiday, a different starting lineup for the 3rd quarter than the first (I can't remember the last time this happened without an injury) and the disappearance of Jason Kapono:
Pretty much from the opening tip, the Sixers were dominated on the defensive glass. I have to assume the coaches realized what was going on, and I also have to assume they thought playing their best-rebounding combo at C and PF (Sam and Elton) for only 10:13 was a good way to remedy the problem.
Anyway, no one rebounded well on the defensive glass, so I'm not sure how much rotations had to do with it. This game was, hopefully, the worst effort we'll see this entire season. Detroit is a bad team, and we looked worse. That sentence sums up my feelings pretty well.
For a couple of brief stretches it looked like Iguodala was going to take the game over, but he disappeared after giving the team their first lead midway through the first quarter. Actually, he didn't disappear, he just decided he was going to shoot nothing but jumpers from that point on. Come to think of it, he relied on jumpers most of the game, he just stopped hitting them late in the fourth. The first time he touched the ball, he backed Stuckey down into the lane, all the way to the hoop, elevated and scored easily. That was the last time we saw him working in the post, even though Detroit had no one who could guard him down there.
Elton Brand had another disappointing game. Again, the team didn't get him the ball anywhere near where he'd be a threat with it, but I'm pretty sure that alone doesn't explain away his lack of production. His rebound numbers look good (9 in 29 minutes), but five of them were on the offensive glass, so he wasn't helping too much on the defensive end.
The big news, if you've followed the Sixers for a while, or the NBA in general, was the use of a different starting lineup at the beginning of the third quarter. This simply isn't done in the NBA very often. Sammy barely played in the first half, Speights was decent before the break, I suppose. Not sure there was a tangible reason for the move, I didn't notice any deficiencies in Sammy's game, no glaring mistakes. Perhaps it was a nod to Speights improved play over the first 5-and-a-half games of the season, perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that the superior offensive player would get the start at the five sooner rather than later for an Eddie Jordan team. I'm not sure. I'm not even sure how I feel about it. This team isn't going to defend, that seems pretty clear to me. Defense is not a priority. If that's the case, starting Sammy is counterproductive, I suppose. Speights has shown a little more effort on the defensive end, and Brand can help him out around the basket. Maybe it's time. I'd definitely give Speights the start tomorrow night, considering the success he's had against Amare and the Suns in the past. Hopefully, Marreese is able to shake off the knee/thigh issue that chased him from the game today.
Eddie Jordan's perfect record in games the Sixers should've won has been broken (although if things continue down this path, we're going to have to re-evaluate "should've won"). They're 3-3 after 6 games, which is where I had them at this point, although I had the results of the past two games flip-flopped.
The only positive I can draw from this game is that we won't have to live with it for long. The Sixers are already back in Philly, awaiting the Phoenix Suns who are coming off a 12-point win in Washington (A Washington team that's now 2-5 after losing 4 straight). We can turn the page quickly with a strong effort tomorrow night. I can't say I'm expecting it, but stranger things have happened.
Player Of The Game: Speights (Only player with a positive +/-). 15 points (7/9 from the floor), 6 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks and only 1 turnover in 23 minutes of action.
Team Record: 3-3
Up Next: vs. Phoenix, tomorrow night.
A couple notes, I uploaded the latest version of the rotations spreadsheet, it has a new tab on it called cumulative. This page is a running tally of all the sheets.
It should be filtered by the positions, so you can go in there and create your own splits. So if you want to see how the team did with Speights at center (they were +9) as compared to with Sammy at center (they were -3), you can do that easily (set the filter to whatever player names you want to see, then simply highlight column N to calculate the +/- for the units in your sample).
You can also do any combo, so if you want to see how they played with Speights at the 5 and Iguodala at the 2 (they're +29 in 62 minutes). All you do is filter the center position to show speights only, then filter the sg position to show iguodala only. Check it out, and let me know if you have any questions.
Willie Green and Ivey should never be playing together at the same time.
Also, according to your spreadsheet, I'm liking the combination of Speights at center, then the rest of the starters. I think this line-up won't be effective for every team, but definitely against the Suns tomorrow.
I've been calling for Speights to start next to Brand, but now I'm not so sure. I still think Speights could jump start the P.O. but would be a defensive liability.
I was assuming Brand's excellent defense and rebounding would help mask some of Speights' weakness, and that Brand could cover some of the bigger centers, using strength and length.
The problem is that I don't see Brand offering all that much on the boards or even defensively. Frightening as it sounds, Sam is playing at a much higher level then Brand (at least defensively) and Sam can finish easy looks inside, which Brand cannot. And those outside touches Brand gets could be put to good use in Speights hands.
So, crazy as it may sound, I'm calling for a starting line-up of Sam and Speights... with Brand left at the rest stop to eat his milk and cookies and then take a nap. He can return to the starting line-up when he is better- whenever that is.
Yes it's small sample size and yes it's early in the season, but Dalembert over Speights doesn't seem to make the sixers a better rebounding team or a better defensive team
http://www.82games.com/0910/0910PHI2.HTM
He's also, from the same small sample size of statistics, neck and neck with Kapono and Smith to be the worst defenders on the team in terms of oPER.
Interesting how his PER at C is significantly better, but his oPER at PF is significantly better. probably has a lot to do with who he's playing with. Probably also has a lot to do with small sample size. I would expect both of those numbers to converge close to a mean.
I have no doubt that it will even out, but my long standing dislike for Samuel Dalembert obviously slants my view and I know it :)
I still believe that any 'positives' Dalembert brings defensively he costs the team offensively, and right now, he's not a positive on the floor in terms of defensive rebounding. Yesterdays game was an atrocious affront to basketball and if 'young kids' get benched for playing like garbage I see no reason Sam shouldn't be benched for tonights game against Phoenix
Wow, check out some of the rebounding rates for those lineups. 22.5% for Sam, Thad, Kapono, Iguodala and Lou. That's laughable.
Like I said in the post, Speights should get the start tonight.
I'm actually in support of starting Speights in place of Sammy. From the naked eye, it seems his defense (at least his defensive effort) has been better, although at this point the numbers (neither on/court off/court of who he's defending) support that. He does seem to be a + rebounding, where he wasn't year. If that holds up, and his offensive productivity remain, it's going to be hard to keep him from playing upwards of 30 mpg.