Fresh off an uninspiring win over the hapless Cavs, a date with the 43-16 Dallas Mavericks looming and the team remains focused. Doug Collins has them saying and doing all the right things, they've come together as a unit. A few topics for an open discussion to follow on our (hopefully still) surging Sixers to follow.
- Here's an honest question for you. The Sixers start a terrible defensive center, a limited shooting guard and a power forward who clearly doesn't have the athleticism he once did. Andre Iguodala is an absolute beast, but Jrue Holiday, by just about every metric and simple observation, has been a disappointment on the defensive end. Off the bench, they have a rookie, an undersized combo guard and an undersized PF. That's their 8-man rotation with Tony Battie and Marreese Speights sprinkled in as another big off the bench to get spot minutes. How the hell is that group #8 in defensive efficiency rating after 59 games?
- Trivia: Who scores more points per-100-possessions, the Sixers or the Bulls? I'll give you a hint, it's not the team with Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng. I guarantee you if you asked every national writer to rank these players on offensive ability, Rose, Deng and Boozer would be 3 of the top 4, at least: Rose, Deng, Boozer, Iguodala, Holiday, Brand, Lou Williams, Thad Young.
- Mike Bibby is reportedly heading to the Heat after being bought out by the Wizards. Does Bibby help them?
- Will Troy Murphy have an impact on the Eastern Conference if he gets bought out and goes to the Celtics? What if he goes to the Magic?
- If the season ended today, would Doug Collins get your vote for coach of the year?
- Would Elton Brand get your vote for bounce-back?
- Not really a question, but only two games really grab my interest on the schedule tonight: Hawks @ Nuggets and Clippers @ Kings. Watching Felton play more minutes than Lawson will be a pleasure or a golden opportunity for the super-duperest superstar to get the sixth road win of his illustrious career against the Kings and DeMarcus Cousins. Over/under for turnovers+fouls for Cousins = 11.
Have at it. I'll be around later tonight.
How the hell is that group #8 in defensive efficiency rating after 59 games?
Effort - Defense is about effort first and foremost - and Collins somehow has guys who don't normally have the effort on defense stepping up.
The Heat's issues come playoff time aren't solved by Mike Bibby (Or Troy Murphy) but Haslem being healthy might help.
I would vote for Thibodeau of Poppovich for coach of the year
I dont think murphy will go to the magic, but he would be absolutely incredible there. Unlike ryan anderson and lewis he can rebound pretty well and also play a little 5, while still being that stretch 4 that they like to toss up 3 balls
I agree that effort and a solid gameplan can go a long way on the defensive end.
I think that Bibby helps the Heat with his experience and ability to hit shots, but not enough to get them into the Finals.
I think that Murphy helps the Celtics, but that's b/c I think Big Baby is garbage. For the Magic, I think they're better off sticking with Ryan Anderson.
Yeah, agree about Bibby. He is a guy who is not afraid of an open shot And the non-big three always get a ton of open looks. And teams won't really be able to exploit him all that much on defense when Wad and Lebron take the tougher covers.
Poppovich really impresses me and I think he deserves the nod if they finish with the best record, but Collins is a close second.
I'll be honest, I can't even think of Brand's competition for "Comeback Player". Who else has resurrected this year? Anyone?
"I guarantee you if you asked every national writer to rank these players on offensive ability, Rose, Deng and Boozer would be 3 of the top 4, at least: Rose, Deng, Boozer, Iguodala, Holiday, Brand, Lou Williams, Thad Young."
Is that not correct? I might put Thad ahead of Deng... but certainly Rose ahead of Williams and Holiday and Iguodala, and Boozer ahead of Brand. And Deng, purely in terms of scoring, I'd put ahead of Iguodala. You could argue Iguodala has more of an impact offensively with his passing. He's ahead of Iguodala, though, in offensive win shares, for whatever that's worth.
Given the right match-up both Thad and Lou are pretty impressive scorers. They are far ahead of any of the starters in per minute scoring. Lou is top 20 NBA in per minute scoring for guys who paly 20+ minutes. Thad's TS% and eFG% are very good for a scorer. And since Collins uses both about 25 minutes off the bench- he can pick and chose the match-up.
So I agree that Thad is better than Deng - my list is Rose, Boozer, Thad, Deng. I guess your list is Rose, Boozer, Thad, Lou? I mean, Lou is kind of a black hole, and Luol's a little more efficient, he's just used less.
Deng is certainly a more well rounded player than Lou. A more efficient scorer- but Lou puts much more pressure on a defense. If you need a guy to rack up points without others setting him up- then Lou is above Deng (maybe even Boozer.) Within the flow of a well executed offense Deng is the better choice by a wide margin.
I just think the reason that our offense is better is that they have only three offensive players and we have six.
Collins: NBA is talking about the Sixers:
http://ow.ly/45avV
I would Agree that EB would get my vote for comeback player of the year after such a serious injury.
Do they give out comeback player of the year
And does Richard Jefferson have a claim?
I would vote brand Richard Jefferson should get some consideration and maybe Michael beasiley
BTW - Jamsions finger broke on Saturday night - he's out for the season.
I didn't see it happen - did Evan Turner do it?
Did Carmelo and Amare playing defense look scary or was it an abberation?
Melo played just horrendous defense most of the night, and Amar'e did his standard solid help-side D awful man-on-man defense. Heat lost that game, Knicks did not win it.
Who are these free agents the Nets are going to attract this offseason who will get Deron to stay in 2012?
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=FreeAgents-11-12
Other than Dwight (and CP3) its mostly RFA's like Love, Eric Gordon and Gallinari. But you figure some other guys could always force a trade.
How the hell is that group #8 in defensive efficiency rating after 59 games?
I would say the defensive scheme that Curry puts together and the way Collins has brought this team to play as a unit has made us a top 10 defending team.
Does Bibby help the Heat?
He may get them 1 or 2 more wins but playoff time he will be irrelevant.
If the season ended today, would Doug Collins get your vote for coach of the year?
He'd get mine but Collins would only receive a few votes nationally. As you read GoSixers articles referencing doug collins COY talk by national experts, they are lukewarm on giving Collins the award. I would say if we finish the season on say a 17-6 spurt then yes. 43-39 won't get COY with some other strong candidates. Does he win COY if the sixers finish 47-35?
Would Elton Brand get your vote for bounce-back?
If they have this then yes he would get mine. It seems like he gets criticized for this big contract when he was hurt but now that he's playing well no one besides philly fans are noticing. Jefferson will probably win because he plays on the Spurs.
A shooter's never irrelevant in the playoffs. Horry continued to be relevant long after he lost his game.
I just feel that Miami won't utilize him for what he still may be worth. Not that he couldn't help any team. The Heat just wouldn't call his number.
I don't know, they make good use of Eddie House. And Bibby can actually play the point. I think you'll see him take some big shots in the playoffs.
The Nets just missed winning on a Humphries tip-in by a tenth of a second. Williams had 18 assists. He's 0-3 as a Net.
The Kings have Jim Gray as a courtside reporter tonight. He's a prick, but still, fifty times the talent of Marakovits.
The best confrontation in Philly tomorrow may be in the stands (or 'the tunnel')
"Mark Cuban and writer Buzz Bissinger -- who is known for his book Friday Night Lights -- clearly don't see eye to eye on the NBA's future. Earlier this afternoon, Cuban Tweeted "Buzz Bissinger is a coward," which suddenly set off the fiery Bissinger, who questioned why Cuban was calling him a coward over Twitter. That led to consecutive Tweets from Bissinger where he called Cuban a "spoiled rich boy," as well as other derogatory names. While it wasn't clear at first why Cuban had decided to call Bissinger out, the writer believed it had something to do with a recent column he wrote about the NBA's waning popularity. Based on their Twitter conversation, that's still currently going on, they're in the process of trying to meet up at Tuesday night's game between the Sixers and the Mavericks."
Cuban... why give Bissinger more attention for something so stupid.
It does sound pretty funny though... both of them have egos as big as any guy in the NBA
Video: Collins on the strong benches of the Sixers and Mavs, and Speights' importance:
http://ow.ly/45iiJ
Very bad night for Lawson and Cousins. Lawson sat on the bench while Felton led Denver to the win, and Cousins has really lousy numbers. However, Gallo fans here will be pleased to learn that Gallo prefers small towns:
And while he was occasionally recognized [walking around in Denver], it was nothing compared to a stroll along Times Square.
“The pace is completely different from New York,” Gallinari said. “I like it.”
HA! Lousy numbers doesn't even begin to describe Cousins' night: 1/8 from the floor, 3/10 from the line, 6 turnovers. 5 magical points on 19 beautiful possessions! That might be a record for futility.
In all seriousness, though, you have to realize that had the Sixers taken Cousins he wouldn't even be close to sniffing the floor right now. He has 174 turnovers in 1550 minutes. Jrue has 157 in 500 more minutes, as a friggin' point guard, and that's too many for Collins. Lou and Iguodala combined only have 165 in almost 3,100 minutes, and they both handle the ball all the time. Cousins is just beyond pitiful.
Given our reluctance to play Speights ever, I guess it is possible that we wouldn't play Cousins. However, I would still play him over Hawes. He's a better rebounder, defender (see tonight's 9 boards and 3 blocks, even in a career-worst game), has way more offensive ability even if he's using it very poorly. I'm sure Collins would rein him in a bit more than Westphal. They actually encourage Cousins to take lots of shots and to pass from the high post. He does occasionally pass very well - tonight he threw a perfect alley-oop to Donte Greene - but running offense through him is pretty insane. And Collins isn't insane, so I think you'd see a less turnover-prone, less excessively used Cousins here, and, in all seriousness, a Cousins who would be exceeding what Turner's done for us.
I love how you think Cousins would suddenly be a sponge of coachability if he were on the Sixers. None of this horrific production is his fault in the least. Westhphal wants him using 28% of the team's possessions, turning the ball over at a record level and generally killing his team. I mean, Cousins is doing exactly what the coach wants out there, that's why he was sent back to the bench and he's been suspended a couple of times. I'm sure if he was on the Sixers, he'd suddenly be a perfect teammate and only take good shots. It has absolutely nothing to do with him become a complete nutjob with an inflated sense of his own abilities.
Oh Clippers, how do you lose these games?
Marcus Thornton and his scoring, which the Hornets didn't need. They'd rather start and hold onto Willie Green.
The Sixers are playing pretty good defense, that's nothing new, and actually they have been a pretty good defensive team with a lot of the same players in the 2 playoff years as well. Actually in the 2007-2008 season i think they were a top 5 defensive team in the league.
The one thing that stands out to me is the offense. Their offense is the best in years. I cannot remember when was the last year when they were able to efficiently score in the half court. They were and still are a great transition team, but this year they have elevated their offense to at least average in the half court.