 Well, You Can't Blame The Andres I'm going to try to avoid sounding like a broken record tonight. It's going to be a challenge, because this team's poor performances follow such a pattern, but I'll give it a shot. First, let's focus on the positive. Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller did everything you can ask of your best players, and then some. They deserved better than a 98-91 loss to the Hornets. We'll get to the rest of the team after the jump. Well, my keys to the game were almost on the money, only they didn't result in a win. Iguodala went for 25+ (30, to be exact) and Speights nearly saw 20 minutes of action (19). It still wasn't enough. If you want to know why the Sixers lost this game (and keep in mind, we aren't going to mention three-point defense because that falls into the broken record category) , there's one simple reason. Pick and roll defense. I had a feeling this would be the case, so I decided to track how they would defend the pick and roll. Here's what happened, I tracked how the Sixers defended it and the result of the play, in parens: First half
I also have to add that the Sixers got lucky tonight. Chris Paul's jumper was off from the get-go, had he been hitting, he would've had the opportunity to drop about 50. The Sixers were, by and large, confused by the pick and roll, and couldn't decide how they'd defend it. Every time they tried to double Paul, the double was lazy and Paul would split it. Lou Williams played a hands-off defense against the pick, basically running away from it and creating a sort of zone effect which gave Paul about 8 feet of air space to work with. Of the bigs, I agree with Bob Salmi, Speights was the best big at defending the P&R, that's probably why he saw extended minutes. In fact, Speights was also the team's best rebounder, and while this was, by far, his worst offensive game of the season, his play was overall a positive. I started this post out by saying you can't blame the Andres. Here's what I meant. Andre Miller + Andre Iguodala = 23/34 from the floor (68%), 10/10 from the line (100%) for 58 points. The rest of the team = 13/56 from the floor (23%), 5/8 from the line (62%) for 33 points. When you have your two best players both go off for huge games, it should be a win. Plain and simple. The rest of the team let those guys down tonight in a big way. Players of The Game: Andre #1 and Andre #2 Team Record: 29-30 Up Next: @ Memphis on Saturday. We have four off days to fill up, I have one idea for a statistical/graphical way to look at games that I'll try out, we'll talk some on-court strategy, on both sides of the ball and hopefully forget about these past two games before what should be a successful stretch of upcoming games. 
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Thought you might be pleased to know that Mark Cuban, according to the Mav's player evaluation system, rates Iggy the fifth most "money" player in the league, just after Chris Paul. Thad comes in at a surprising 28th.
This is really the second statistical study that ranks Iguodala really high as far as "clutch" shooting goes. I'm sure this one will be ignored as well. Didn't you get the memo? Iguodala is an over-paid second banana.
The Andre's have been great since their slow start. I guess in theory you add in a reliable 20/10 PF and you should have a winner.
That's why we were all so high on the Brand signing. Its hard to keep that in perspective watching this team.
Unfortunatley, 2 of the three will likely decline in the coming years, and I'm not sure they complement each other (in the absence of great shooters at the other 2 positions.)
You want a great shooter at center?
Memo Okur will be a free agent.. And I think he's the only player in the NBA who fits the description.
I'm wondering if he'll opt out after all. If I had an ETO this summer, I'd think long and hard about what's happened in baseball and what's happening economically in basketball as well before I turned down guaranteed money.
Not usually, but if you can't shoot at PG, SG and SF then you need shooters wherever you can find them. Dirk, Okur and Troy Murphy are bigs that shoot. The Sixers have Smith and Speights. In fact Speights starting next to Brand could provide some of the shooting they need to spread the floor.
I don't think the sixers need a great shooter at center - i think they need better defenders (on the pick and roll) some better rebounding (maybe Brand makes that better, I don't know) and some perimeter shooting.
The sixers aren't really that close to contending for a title - and I hope the front office isn't in the billy king 'one piece away' mode that was the post Larry Brown years.
Something I'm surprised I haven't seen mentioned here is Sammy's recent trend of thinking he has offense. Over the past 8 games or so (dating back to before the break) he's been less active on the glass, hasn't defended as well, and has tried far more jumpers and is putting the ball on the floor more. I'm guessing this at the behest of the coaching staff based on the theory that offensive touches for Sam seem to get him going on the other end, but it seems to have simply gotten him out of his game. During that nice streak of wins before the break he really looked like he was zoned in on his exact role on the floor (the Salmi "anchor of the defense"). Now he looks much more like the scatterbrained Dalembert we've all come to expect over the past several seasons.
I don't think I see it. In the past three games he's only attempted 6, 5 and 4 shots. And his rebounding has been stellar (24 boards in 60 minutes or 14.4/36 minutes).
Last night he was horrible against the P&R, so he barely played. The previous game he was in foul trouble.
Sam is pretty consistent, some areas he's consistently bad in, others he's consistently good in.
The bench was especially bad, shooting a combined 4-of-18 and scoring 13 points in 61 minutes. Williams (2-for-9) had another subpar outing.
Check out this stat: The Sixers have not hit more than 6 3-pointers in any of the past 14 games and are 6-8 in those games (3.7 3FGM per; 52 total) after having 7+ 3FGM six times in the 11 games prior (6.5 3FGM per) in going 9-2 in those games
Yep... just imagine this team if they were even a mid-level three-point shooting team. It's frustrating.
yep they're the old phoenix team without any shooters. but they play better D. that team would have been mediocre too.
First. Iguodola looks like Urkel in the picture for this story. As far as the Sixers...they cant seem to beat anyone decent lately. Im thinking Dileo is losing the team a bit...they arent THIS bad. Iguodola has been money, Miller has played well. The rest....filled with inconsistent play. I guess it will take time with this group.