 Sixers @ The Garden Later tonight, the Sixers will look to move their preseason record to a sparkling 4-0. Meaningless? Perhaps. But still, you want your team to play to win every time they take the floor. Winning begets winning, that's my motto. I'll be at the Garden tonight, among all the loyal Knicks fans in their Eddy Curry jerseys. After the jump, a few things I'll be keeping my eye on.
I usually make it to one Sixers game at the Garden every year, and one in the swamp. Tickets were dirt cheap on StubHub, so I figured I'd make the trek early this season. Knicks fans, though rapidly dwindling in numbers, are easily the most delusional fans in the world. I'm not sure if I go for the basketball or the debate about things like why isn't Nate Robinson an All Star. Or my all time favorite from a couple years about how Marbury wasn't playing because the coach (Isiah Thomas) was a racist. Here's what I'm looking for from the Sixers tonight:
I'm not sure if any of you guys are in NYC (I remember Mike used to live in Brooklyn, but I think he moved), but if anyone's going to the game, let me know. According to the background chatter on the video below, Rodney Carney didn't make the trip and won't be playing tonight. Royal Ivey should be back, however. It'll be interesting to see if Ivey leapfrogs Jrue on the depth chart again. Jrue was off the bench early in Friday's game, but didn't return at any point in the second half. 
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This later tonight stuff really confuses me, because that's tomorrow, though not technically. In preseason news, Curry continues his shooting struggles, Morrow continues to dominate, and Sam Young had his second huge game. I thought he looked so raw in college, but he could have a poor man's Corey Maggette kind of career. Anyway, that team is one huge stockpile of redundant talent. If Iverson behaves, I'd look for him to be traded away so he doesn't completely stifle Conley, Mayo and Gay's development. At least that would be the logical move, but if they were thinking about anything other than ticket sales when they made the signing, they never would've done it in the first place. One gets the sense that with impending free agency insanity, and with a lot of the peculiar rosters assembled out there, this year is going to be an unusually interesting one in the NBA. Except for in Philadelphia, where the biggest drama will be Sam's pratfalls as the high-post passing centerpiece of our offense.
Looking for Memphis to do anything that makes sense is a fool's errand.
They moved Morrow into the starting lineup. 32 points, 5 boards, 4 assists, 4 steals, 2 blocks and only 1 turnover. Wow.
He is a ridiculous shooter. It's only preseason but even last season some of us were commenting on the high % of shots he was making.
Oh, and the "later tonight" thing...I usually write the post for the morning right before I go to bed, and set the publish time as like 8am so there's something up for people to read in the morning. I'm not a morning person so if I waited until I had a chance the next day, the blog would be stale until 1pm or so.
Oh, the publishing at 8 must not have worked, because I saw the post at 1.
Brian, Friday they didn!t cut till the 4th quarter, would like your scouting report on player movement. And your impression of Kapono!s other facets besides shooting, thanks!!!
I'll keep an eye on Kapono's defense, etc. Mainly, with Kapono I want to see a willingness to shoot threes. Personally, I don't think he takes enough. I don't want to see too many two-point jumpers from him.
I'm looking foreward to (hopefully) watching this game. I'm hoping they have made some progress in terms of installing the offense, and a Knick game usually brings out the best in terms of offensive flow.
If EB is going to pick a game to physically dominate this preseason, this would be the one. Anyone remember his game against the Knicks at the beginning of last season?
I remember that one, Brand and Miller was so awesome I ran out of superlatives.
I will be there! So excited to see them in person for the first time this year. It will be interesting to see what we try to do with the pace against a team that looks to run.
Curious to see our transition defense put to the test. I'm a little concerned that all the focus and concentration necessary on offense might lead to sloppy play getting back on D. Noticed this a couple time during the Toronto games. You could almost see the gears shifting in their heads causing a second of hesitation.
http://sixers.realgm.com/articles/128/20091008/2009-10_season_preview_philadelphia_76ers/
I just read this at RealGM, they quite fancy us.
anyone have a link for tonight's game?
streamingan.net/template_live.php?ida=2092
Thanks man
Random observation: CDR is having a nice preseason. Productive and efficient. If he unexpectedly blossomed into a substantial contributor, that could help make them better than people have predicted.
Maybe it's the fact that it's D'Antoni's Knicks, but the defensive rotations look slow as hell. And I don't see any movemnet on the offensive end, a lot of one-to-one.
23 turnovers in less than 3 quarters is pitiful. The only reason the Sixers are still in this game is because the Knicks are hell bent on practising their 3-point shooting.
So, did Jrue finally get his 1st assist of the preseason or did he even get in the game?
While the players certainly have to execute, we can all thank management for the bevy of turnovers. A draft pick that wasn't and isn't ready and tight-wadded one year deals to free agents. And didn't Arroyo just sign with the Heat for only one year?
Jrue - DNP (CD). What a disappointment, I actually had a chance to watch him this time.
I don't want to sound like I am beating up on the kid but there was no way to reasonably expect him to be ready for the transition to this level, considering he couldn't even beat out Collison for the starter's job at UCLA. And when he isn't earning minutes over Ivey and Willie G then that is the tell-tale sign right there.
I just can't grasp why Stefanski and the brain trust were enamored with a PG that plays 'defense'. With the no-hand-checking rules in today's game, it pretty much doesn't matter how good of a point defender you are. Especially if you have a shot blocker to clean up most mistakes. A more offensive-minded penetrator-type would have seemed to be a better fit which is why I favored any of the trio that went right after our pick.
While I am pissed at management for making the pick they did, I still want to see the kid succeed. I mean, he does still play for my favorite team. Maybe he can come around. But to make a choice that 'could' pan out in 2 more years is confusing after dumping all of the cap in Brand's lap when he was already approaching the age of 30. It's like they had a win-now-mode but changed to a maybe-we'll-win-in-a-few mode. And Ed Stefanski clearly stated upon accepting the job that 'fans should not have to wait'. Really confusing.
And with Kate saying he doesn't appear to look ready for meaningful minutes for two more years, I guess management wanted to get all the life out of Willie G's contract they could before Jrue 'maybe' becomes ready.
Eddie said, "considering he couldn't even beat out Collison for the starter's job at UCLA."
Don't understand that statement at all. Did you expect UCLA to bench one of the best college PG's? It made sense to try and play both of them together, and Jrue obviously was the only one with the size to play SG. Collison surprised everyone by returning to school last year.
The point was, if he couldn't come in and take a college job from Collison then we shouldn't reasonably expect him to come in and take a backup spot from Royal or Willie G - two NBA veterans.
Your statement of - 'did I expect UCLA to bench one of the best college PG's?' is a tell-tale statement also. No, I didn't expect them to do that but I DID expect our brain trust to take one of the best college PG's. And there were a few there for the taking.
i did not watch the game, but these turnover #s are really bugging me
Jennings with a 10 pt, 12 assist, 4 turnover night. Miserable shooting though. It's nice to see that Brand had a good game, although if he can't have a good game against the preseason Knicks, I don't know who he can play well against.