lets go sixers?

Sorry not to break this one up with pictures team. Maybe in an edit;


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As Summer turns to Autumn many things change here in 9stabsLand: trees’ leaves begin to turn from the Eagles green to the Mets’ fallen and dead; summer ale’s magically become local octoberfests; we get to officially award a ‘C’ for the season (Whoo Jackson); and, of course, I take back up with love a sport I “officially” and unsuccessfully swore off at the end of it’s previous season. In this instance the sport I am swearing off is football (bye week) and the sport I’m picking back up, reservations and all, is pro basketball.

During the NBA playoffs Ru and I debated how to appropriately build a championship team. We argued about style of play, emphasis of position, how and where to allot appropriate amounts of money, what to look for in the draft, etc.

This is relevant not because we came to some clear-cut conclusion – or even because there is some clear-cut conclusion – but rather because we just assumed that the natural discussion to have when discussing the composition of a basketball team is how do players play both with each other and within a given system.

We used the example of the Spurs – who deemed the best way to build a team is to have a defined star, two next-in-line type guys who can win a game by themselves but generally don’t, and fill 4-12 with men who will run through a wall for the team. And the example of the Warriors – who exploit individual talents by running a fast-paced iso game where every man understands that they are expected to take the first good shot they have.

We could have used the example of the old Lake Show teams – get two stars and a group of one-dimensional shooters, rebounders, and defenders; the Suns/Nets – surround a point guard whose good enough to act as a coach on the floor and surround him with athletes; the old Mavs and Blazers teams – established talent at the sake of an alpha dog; the Riley Knicks – a team based around thugs who would beat you to death; the AI Sixers – one star with a team of players who look to him to score all of their points, etc. etc. etc.

All of this (and the unfortunately abrupt ending of the NL East Champion Philadelphia Phillies) brings me to the topic of tonight’s lecture: our 2007/2008 Philadelphia 76ers.

As this century of Sixers basketball has shown – and the most recent summer has confirmed – Billy King does not seem to view a basketball team in these terms. It is not that this team has a bad identity, it has no personality at all. This is not a house built without a solid foundation, it is a shack of sticks held together by glue. Jason Smith, a 7 foot white power forward from Colorado is on billboards around Philadelphia. That isn’t a complimentary statement about the team.

For example, our team recently committed a good deal of money into what it imagined to be its emerging cornerstones – Andre Iguodala and Sam Dalembert – two players whose games are built on using their speed and athleticism to defend well and generate easy buckets (at least before Canada broke Dalembert’s foot). This would seemingly lend itself to a basic teambuilding strategy, i.e. likeminded players and a general emphasis on athletic defense which turns to easy buckets. Instead, we traded AI (a player who certainly could have fit this likeminded mold) for a half-court point guard whose game is built on guile and court knowledge, signed Kyle Korver, a smooth shooter small forward with minus athleticism and worse defense, and Willie Green who if is has a discernible basketball talent it would be “mediocre scorer” and made a move for Reggie Evans, who can only play in the half court and whose next two fast break points are going to be first. All of this and I haven’t even mentioned the Calvin Booth signing, who is neither young, athletic, nor a noted a locker room leader.

This isn’t to say that Andre Miller, Reggie Evans, and Kyle Korver are inherently bad players (Dre is a smart PG, the ball-grabber can hit the boards, and Korver would be a great option in an offense built around an elite big man with good hands) or to say that Dalembert is an inherently good player (he’s not), but rather that they are players who don’t make sense within our system at all.

However, that could be a system in itself, stockpiling assets to use in later trades a la the pre KG Celtics, but it isn’t.

In looking over this summer’s roster moves one thing jumped out at me: the Sixers traded the 30th pick (Petteri Koponen) for the 42nd pick (Derek Byers, who Mo Cheeks decided wasn’t good enough to even dress for the first preseason game!) and the 38th (the hilarious Kyrylo Fesenko) pick to Portland for the 55th pick (Herb Hill). When Billy King put AI on the block he held out strongly for two first rounders, than he took the second of those and moved it straight up (in basketball assets at least, there was a cash exchange) for a second rounder.

He traded down a total of 29 picks and picked up nothing. What is worse is that both Koponen and Fesenko are expected to be stashed in Europe this year, meaning that he traded two real assets for two guys are struggling to get preseason minutes.

In the game “how much would you pay?” I’m not sure if I have an answer to “see Billy King’s draft board.” Did he have one?

All of this is not meant to be solely an attack on the sixers however, and the team does have some positives. Even if talent wise, Miller and Igoudala shouldn’t be your clear cut two best players, they are both positives on both ends of the court and could easily be acceptable 2nd and 3rd options on good basketball teams, and I guess its plausible that the Thad Young/Rodney Carney combination gives us 12/3/3 every night, but when those are the upsides the team may be in trouble.

Deep down I am a hardline sixer fan, and despite all of my grievances I’ll be stating my complaints from the WAC all season, but I am asking for something. Losing I can take, losing philly can take (what we lack in grace we make up for in frequency) but at least give us positive losing. Let us go to war with a bunch of kids and believe that we’re going to be something eventually. And maybe I’m wrong, maybe Calvin Booth and Reggie Evans are taking us to the promise land (quick tip: they’re not), but in the meantime can we please just build a team with a concept?