EVAN TURNER’S NEW LIFE

Posted by: Jeff McMenamin
01/26/12 2:00 pm EST

Every year the NBA draft lottery comes to Secaucus, New Jersey where GM’s of teams who sat and watched the NBA Playoffs hope desperately that David Stern will pull their teams ping pong ball out of the lottery machine for the chance at a high draft pick.  For the 2010 NBA draft, Philadunkia nation knows all too well that for once the ball had bounced in their favor as the 7-6 received their first top five draft pick since the awful selection of forward Keith Van Horn with the number two pick in 1997.  The pick they received in 2010 was also the second pick and in a weak draft the Sixers were left with more questions then answers come that draft day.

The clear cut number one selection was point guard John Wall who had dazzled the US with his incredible quickness and leaping ability as a freshman at Kentucky.  Wall led Kentucky to a number one seed in the NCAA tournament where they lost in the elite 8, but it was enough to show the country and league GM’s alike the leadership and potential that Wall possessed as the Wizards ended up taking him with the number one pick.

The second pick wasn’t nearly as clear cut as the first. 

 
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GM 18: RAPID REACTS

Posted by: Tom Sunnergren
01/26/12 7:31 am EST
New Jersey Nets 97 Final

Recap | Box Score

 90 Philadelphia 76ers
Elton Brand, PF 28 MIN | 6-10 FG | 4-5 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 16 PTS | -6

Another day, another high efficiency, albeit losing, performance for EB. With the Sixers frontcourt thin and getting thinner by the day, here’s hoping he’s got a few more of these in the tank.
Andre Iguodala, SF 41 MIN | 4-12 FG | 4-4 FT | 6 REB | 4 AST | 12 PTS | -10

There was more bad than good tonight for Iguodala. Though he made a couple large-sized, quintessentially Iguodala plays—his tip-in off a Brand miss to bring the 7-6 to within 77-75 stands out—he was brutal from outside. In the final analysis, our best guy (him) wasn’t as good as their best guy (Deron Williams) and that made all the difference.
Tony Battie, C 13 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 2 PTS | -6

With the frontcourt ravaged by injuries, and the team relying on him to contribute, Tony Battie came through with a classic Tony Battie performance.
Jodie Meeks, G 36 MIN | 2-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 8 REB | 1 AST | 6 PTS | -2

Meeks somehow ended up covering the aforementioned Williams on the two crucial possessions that came immediately after the Sixers took a 90-88 lead in the extra period. Deron promptly hit a two to tie the score, then drained a three to give the Nets a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The Sixers worst defender on the Nets only scoring threat, while he was on fire?
“[It was] a switch on a pick and roll,” Meeks said after the game. “He’s an All-Star for a reason, and he made a good shot.”
My head hurts.
Jrue Holiday, PG 42 MIN | 5-13 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 7 AST | 14 PTS | -11

The good: he hit two fourth period threes—one that tied the game at 72, the other that gave the Sixers a 78-77 lead—scored 12 in the fourth period and overtime—including a dunk off an inbound steal at the other end that, temporally, put the home team in the driver seat with 1:18 left in OT—and his seven dimes were a welcome sign considering he entered the game 35th among point guards in assists per 48 minutes. The bad: he got torched by Deron Williams to the tune of 34 points and was invisible in the game’s first three periods. Dude’s got aways to go.
Lou Williams, PG 32 MIN | 7-15 FG | 2-4 FT | 1 REB | 6 AST | 17 PTS | +6

Lou Williams took a dumb 23-footer with the game tied at 80 and hit it to put the Sixers in the lead. Lou Williams took a dumb 23-footer with the Sixers down 93-90 and missed it to ensure a loss. There’s a moral here somewhere.
Thaddeus Young, F 27 MIN | 5-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 2 AST | 10 PTS | +7

Doubt his centrality to what the Sixers do? The matchup nightmare’s back injury was the anvil that broke their…well, back.
Lavoy Allen, PF 18 MIN | 2-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS | -1

Lavoy Allen got abused by Kris Humphries tonight. When a man is capable of that kind of physical violence, it’s no surprise his marriage only lasted 72 days.
Evan Turner, SG 29 MIN | 3-10 FG | 1-2 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 7 PTS | -12

He was active, but tonight that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. His shot was off and he didn’t finish inside. He kept doing his thing on the boards though, and leads all SGs in rebounds per 48 by a wide margin. Silver linings.

After the Jump, Six Things We Saw Last Night


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NOTES, LINKS & TWEETS

Posted by: C. Smith
01/25/12 2:49 pm EST

The Sixers wil be without the services of Hawes and “Big Nik” again tonight vs. the Nets.

Which means that hopefully the Lavoy Allen lovefest will continue .  We know it’s only 2 games, but does Lavoy’s emergence signal the end of the Craig Brackins era in Philly — before it even got started?

NBA.com has a preview of tonight’s Nets at Sixers game.  The Sixers have won 8 straight against the NJN and had a +15 point margin of victory average in their 4 games from 2011-12, so we are loving the -11.5 point line that Vegas has established for the  Sixers tonight.

Sixers.com has a host of video from today’s shootaround that previews tonight’s game, including this interview with Jrue.

According to John Finger at csnphilly.com, you can forget those ideas about ‘Sheed coming home, but Francisco Elson will be in for a workout on Thursday. 

Back to Lavoy…he was a guest on csnphilly.com’s “Lunch Break” show today.

In his latest power rankings, ESPN.com’s John Hollinger has the Sixers sitting pretty at #2.


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INSIDE HELP

Posted by: Jerry Scherwin
01/25/12 9:57 am EST

On Tuesday, Philadunkia’s Tim Parker wrote about the Sixers brevity at the power forward and center positions on the current roster.  He discussed the existing lineup of big men and their ample offensive effectiveness from any spot on the floor, all the while making it a point to unearth their lack of bone shattering physicality on the defensive end.  Though the 7-6 are sitting among the League’s elite in the first quarter of the 2012 NBA season, it seems as though the bubble could burst soon.

Or at least deflate.

Though we agree that Spencer Hawes and his team of gangly goons can light it up from 15-20 feet on any night (opening up the floor for Sweet Lou and Jrue Holiday to run rampant among a wide open lane), they lack that special something that makes guys like Kevin Garnett and Tyson Chandler coveted “Bigs” in the NBA for their actions on the defensive end.

Yes, it may seem like we are finding nominal intricacies to complain about among the first place 7-6 and yes, I at least (as I’m sure Tim is as well) am ecstatic about that happening (even if the Sixers schedule has featured more powder puffs than giants).  But (like Tim said, “there always is a but…”), the current assimilation of big men is worrisome.

So how do the Sixers fix it? 


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GM 17: RAPID REACTS

Posted by: Tim Parker
01/23/12 10:52 pm EST
Washington Wizards 83 FinalRecap | Box Score 103 Philadelphia 76ers
Elton Brand, PF 29 MIN | 8-14 FG | 1-2 FT | 9 REB | 1 AST | 17 PTS | +15

Brand was solid and needed to be, as the Sixers were without the services of 2 of their rotational big men.  He battled for loose balls and gave an excellent effort even in the garbage team that the fourth quarter was.  Most impressively, Brand was very aggressive on the offensive end.
Andre Iguodala, SF 32 MIN | 3-5 FG | 0-2 FT | 7 REB | 11 AST | 7 PTS | +13

Iguodala’s play set the tone for the entire game.  His 1st quarter was outstanding.  His stellar defense set up great fast break opportunities that started the rout of the lowly Wizards.  He was a facilitator and was a perfect set up man for his teammates.  He had 6 assists in the 1st quarter alone.  The box score does not tell his whole story.
Tony Battie, C 17 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 2 PTS | +13

Without Hawes and Vucevic, one would think Battie would have had a bigger roll in the contest. – Not so much!  However, he did a nice job defending Sixer killer JaVale McGee in the 1st half.
Jodie Meeks, G 26 MIN | 5-9 FG | 2-2 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 15 PTS | +12

When his three ball is working, the Sixers bring their offense to another level.  Not only did he have the outside game going, he evn took the ball to the cup at times and got it done.
Jrue Holiday, PG 37 MIN | 8-15 FG | 0-1 FT | 4 REB | 4 AST | 17 PTS | +15Holiday showed flashes of elitism against the Wizards.  Though, that may be not be the hardest thing in the world to do. He knocked down tough shots and played well.  He showed off his great ball handling skills, shot well, all while playing within himself.  He only had 1 turnover.
Lou Williams, PG 26 MIN | 5-12 FG | 4-4 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 14 PTS | +9

Williams was just another one of the many Sixers who were able to run on Monday night.  Still, he, as usual, got his shots up and made his showing on the stat sheet.  He never takes a night off.  Though, on this night he very well could have. There was no energy lacking from the Sixers in this one.
Thaddeus Young, F 26 MIN | 5-10 FG | 4-7 FT | 7 REB | 4 AST | 14 PTS | +9

Young was very impressive, using his unique combination of size and skills. He made incredible moves down low, resulting in points for the Sixers.  Young, even had his post game working.
Lavoy Allen, PF 17 MIN | 5-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 10 PTS | +2

The Temple grad looked pretty good.  He showed off his jump shot and at times he even made some nice interior plays on offense and defensively.  He even broke out the hook shot.  Though, he will most likely be remembered for delivering the Wells Fargo Center their free Big Macs that they begged for in the 4th quarter.
Evan Turner, SG 28 MIN | 3-10 FG | 0-2 FT | 4 REB | 5 AST | 7 PTS | +10

Turner started off the game well but got sloppy in the second half.  He forced the issue and went away from the things that got the Sixers a big lead in the first place.

After the Jump…Six Things We Saw Tonight


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BIG PROBLEMS

Posted by: Tim Parker
01/23/12 10:13 am EST

With the 18th pick in the 2008 NBA draft, the Washington Wizards took JaVale McGee.

With the 17th pick in 2008 draft, the Indiana Packers took Roy Hibbert.

With the 16th pick in the 2008 NBA draft, the Philadelphia 76ers took Marreese Speights.

If this were a multiple choice test, which featured the question, “Which of these were the mistake?” undoubtedly every Sixers’ fan in the Delaware Valley would probably have a resounding unanimous answer.

Not only, do the Sixers no longer have Speights or his lack of production, they currently lack the inside post physicality needed to go toe to toe with the top big men in the NBA.

As great as Spencer Hawes looked early on the season, much of his noteworthy contributions have come as a result of his mid-range shooting and not his interior paint play.  The story gets even worst defensively.  As Chris Bosh, Nene, Greg Monroe, Andrew Bogut can testify, there is no intimidation factor when driving the ball against Hawes and the rest of the Sixers’ bigs.

 
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GM 15: RAPID REACTS

Posted by: Tom Sunnergren
01/20/12 11:00 pm EST
Atlanta Hawks 76 FinalRecap | Box Score 90 Philadelphia 76ers
Elton Brand, PF 37 MIN | 5-11 FG | 0-0 FT | 16 REB | 2 AST | 10 PTS | +18

No Spencer Hawes? No problem. The veteran flung the team on his surgically repaired shoulders, posting a season high in rebounds and tying his season high in shots blocked. The minutes are a concern though, as the oft-injured 32-year-old played for 36 just two nights after going for 38 against Denver. This is a situation that bears monitoring.
Andre Iguodala, SF 40 MIN | 5-12 FG | 1-2 FT | 6 REB | 6 AST | 11 PTS | +14

Iguodala will dominate the highlight reel in this one—the alley-oop he took from Holiday in the third to push the Sixer lead to 58-51 stirred the crowd to near 2000-01 level bedlam—and with good reason. After his misadventures at the line on Wednesday, it was a nice bounce-back performance for Iggy, who also notched his 1,000th career steal in the second half.
Nikola Vucevic, C 29 MIN | 4-11 FG | 0-0 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 8 PTS | +11

We thought the soft-spoken Montenegrin looked a little out of his depth starting in Spence’s stead, but Doug Collins begged to differ, identifying his presence inside as a key to the Sixers strong second half.
Jodie Meeks, G 27 MIN | 4-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 12 PTS | +10

Meeks hit a quartet of timely threes, but didn’t do a whole lot else. He didn’t need to. On account of the big three pointers. You get three points for those things after all.
Jrue Holiday, PG 36 MIN | 6-16 FG | 4-4 FT | 6 REB | 11 AST | 16 PTS | +15

Holiday continues to be a little too trigger happy for our taste — he’s taken 80 shots in the last five games — but on Friday, it was a defect more than made up for with his playmaking. He intercepted an inbounds pass early in the fourth and, without even turning his head, unleashed a canny no-look pass to an open Andre Iguodala as he strode down the court. He also did a better job of getting his teammates involved during the huge 3rd quarter run.
Tony Battie, C 7 MIN | 0-1 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 2 PTS | -3

If Tony Battie were a horse, we’d have turned him into glue by now.
Lou Williams, PG 19 MIN | 1-9 FG | 4-5 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 6 PTS | +2

Williams delivered a game about as pretty as Madonna’s bicep vein and for the second time all season, he failed to hit double figures.
He failed to hit pretty much everything Friday. This didn’t stop him from trying.
Thaddeus Young, F 23 MIN | 8-11 FG | 4-4 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 20 PTS | +3

On an evening when the other “Night Shift”- ers struggled, Thad decidedly did not. Coming off a season high in scoring, Young netted two fewer points on Friday, but on 11 fewer shots and in 15 fewer minutes than the loss to the Nuggets. Gotta love the hook shot. He seems to.
Evan Turner, SG 23 MIN | 2-5 FG | 1-2 FT | 5 REB | 2 AST | 5 PTS | 0

Evan Turner has become a winning proposition. When he’s good he’s very, very good, and when he’s bad…well, he’s not really that bad. ET struggled Friday—looking out of sync with the offense and not standing out defensively—but he got his rebounds, didn’t turn the ball over, and only missed three shots. He doesn’t hurt you.

After the Jump, Six Things We Saw Tonight…


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GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN

Posted by: Jerry Scherwin
01/20/12 9:48 am EST

As Ice-T famously coined in the late 80’s, “Pimpin’ ain’t easy”.  Well, neither is winning in the NBA.  As the 7-6 faithful know full well, the road out of the depths of David Stern’s armpit and personal torture chamber to an Eastern Conference sleeper is lengthy, rotten, disturbing, inauspicious, infuriating, and any other negative adjective you can think of.

Most times teams try to buy their way out; adding a big free agent here and a mid-level free agent there.  Sometimes it’s successful, and other times it burns and fades faster thanDallas’ chances at repeating as NBA Champions. 

Even before Shaq teamed up with Kobe, championship teams were built by “buying” superstars, only to then pair them with a home grown talent; the likes of which were more times than not, threatening to leave without proper additions that would shed the teams previous losing ways. 

Today, even your regular run of the mill and early exit playoff teams are built on this very philosophy.  All of them pray that a few All-Stars mixed with the Matt Barnes’ of the world equate to the raising of a banner.

So often though, these teams spend much of their vital salary cap on guys unworthy of the status quo of being a highly touted/highly paid free agent.

Simply put, they fall victims to a thin market and their individual basketball habitat.  

When you take a look at the current NBA landscape, what do you see?

 
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GM 14 RECAP: THE CLOSER

Posted by: Jeff McMenamin
01/19/12 9:54 am EST

Sometimes there are games during the course of an NBA season that you have to sit back and enjoy.  This was the case for Wednesday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets in Philadelphia.  The Sixers were a team at 10-3 who were riding the momentum of a three game win streak, the Nuggets a team at 9-5 who had just dismantled Lebron James and the Heat just nights ago.  To add to the storyline of this game was the Sixers home record.  The Sixers entered the game with a perfect 6-0 record at home which was second in the NBA behind the Spurs who were 9-0.  Each team was also nearly identical when it comes to scoring as well, the Nuggets entered the game second in the NBA in scoring with  104.1 points per game, while the Sixers were third at 102.5 points per game.

Each team has been so successful this season because of the play they have gotten out of their benches.  For the Sixers Lou Williams, Thaddeus Young, and Evan Turner have shown all season great production when their names have been called to help out the 7-6, for the Nuggets there is Al Harrington, Corey Brewer, Andre Miller, and Chris Anderson who have played their part in the Nuggets success.

On this night there was one bench player which out-shined them all, and one who is very familiar with the Sixers.  Andre Miller who served as a nightly stat-machine in his playing days with the Sixers, showed why at the age of 35 that he’s still got it.  The classy veteran had 28 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assists, and 2 steals in nearly 39 minutes of work to lead the Nuggets to a 108-104 overtime victory.


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FO’ with the FOES: DENVER NUGGS

Posted by: C. Smith
01/18/12 3:00 pm EST

This season, for a number of reasons, we ditched our traditional 76ers game preview posts.  However, since tonight’s contest against the Nuggets is being viewed by many of our readers and the ‘experts” on sports radio as a real litmus test game for the 7-6, we decided to dust off our “Fo’ with the Foes” preview series…   

This late afternoon edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” — Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series which with the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents — features tonight’s foes, Danilo Gallinari and the Denver Nuggets (9-5), who should provide us with a decent measuring stick for this Sixers team. 

This should be an excellent game tonight as the Nuggets will present some interesting challenges for the 76ers defense.  Denver is the second highest scoring team in the League right now (104.1 ppg.) and have been held below 100 points just three times this season.  So the Sixers defense — arguably the best in the NBA right now – will need to be it’s usual tenacious self. 


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