It’s not secret that Doug Collins was not our first choice to be the new head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.  This isn’t and anti-Collins thing either.  We actually like Doug as a player, coach and broadcaster.  We simply felt for numerous reasons that better head coaching candidates were available to the Sixers. 

 Still we have to admit that Ed Stefanski could have done much worse then landing Collins and after his press conference down at the Wachovia Center on Monday, we starting to think that even though he wouldn’t have been our first choice, that Collins will get the Sixers back on track. 

In fact at times we felt like Collins was reading our minds as he addressed the ills that sunk the 2009-10 season for Philadunkia’s home team.  For this post, we re-examined Collins press conference from Monday and pulled out several things Collins said that we really liked and provided some Philadunkia commentary on the topics.  Of course the key to Collins success here in Philadelphia will be backing up Monday’s words up with action.

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The 2010 NBA Draft Combine in Chicago came to a close this weekend and even though one NBA scout told us that the current format is a “waste of time” from the perspective of evaluating the prospects on-the-court, we thought we’d hit our readers with a little Combine wrap up.  

We didn’t make the trip to Chicago this year, so we scoured the web hard and for your review we gathered information from trusted writers who were actually at the event.  We concentrated our research and this post on three prospects — Evan Turner (with ball at top left), Derrick Favors and DeMarcus Cousins.  Barring a blockbuster trade, most Draft “experts” are projecting that the 76ers will select one of those three players.  According to the info on the Draft Combine that we found online, Turner helped his stock in Chicago and Favors held his ground.  As for Cousins, well, the big man from Kentucky appears to be a mess.   

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Via Evan Turner’s Twitter account (thekidet) we learn that Turner has already picked out his suit for the Draft, watched the Draft Lottery at his grandparents house and is in Chicago for the Draft Combine where he watched the Lakers thump the Suns in his hotel room. 

610 WIP’s Howard Eskin broke the story two days ago and now everyone including ESPN is reporting that the Sixers are involved in ongoing negotiations with Doug Collins  to be their next head coach. 

We noted yesterday that several Draft projection “experts” are predicting that the Sixers will NOT select Evan Turner at #2.  Now the Inqy’s Stephen A. Smith believes we may want to give Turner a closer look.  Stephen A. talked with several NBA scouts and the consensus from his group of contacts on Turner is, “…impressive midrange shooting. His good hands. His craftiness and his basketball IQ. The problem is NBA teams also focused on his lack of speed and athleticism, along with questions about his long-range shooting. His struggling defense struggles because of suspect lateral movement is also a minus, particularly for someone considered an NBA 2-guard.”

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WOW.  That’s all we can really say about last night’s Draft Lottery results.  We can not believe that something actually went right for the 76ers.  Maybe Jrue Holiday has the magic touch or perhaps the basketball gods decided we had suffered enough and it was time to give the Sixers a break.  Who knows what the answer is and really, who cares?!  Somehow the 76ers leap-frogged from their odds slotted 6-spot in the 2010 NBA Draft all the way up to No. 2.  As the legendary Al Michaels would say, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes.”

Speaking of hockey, raise your hand if last night in between Flyer goals you actually watched the Draft Lottery and thus were sprinting around the living room when Golden State’s card got pulled at No. 6.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller? 

So maybe we were one of the few that cared enough to watch the Draft Lottery festivities.  We’re okay with that fact, because last night was a huge step forward in the effort to pull this franchise out of the NBA cellar.  However for those of you that believe it’s a certified lock that the Sixers will use the #2 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft to select Ohio Sate shooting guard Evan Turner, we have some interesting Draft insights for you. 

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According to 610 WIP radio personality Howard Eskin, barring a “significant” breakdown in the money negotiations, former Philadelphia 76ers player  and current TNT basketball analyst Doug Collins will be Ed Stefanski’s choice as the next head coach of the Sixers.

On his afternoon radio show which Howard co-hosts with former Eagle Ike Reese, Eskin cited “sources” with in the Comcast-Spectacor organization as the providers of his inside information.  Eskin went on to report that Collins who earns between $1.5 million and $2 million per year as an analyst for TNT is going to get a major raise for coming on board as the Sixers new head coach and that the deal would be for 4 or 5 years in length.

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As everyone in Philadunkia nation knows, tonight up in Secaucus, New Jersey the NBA will hold it’s annual Draft Lottery selection show.  The 76ers will have 53 chances out of the 1,001 possible combinations in tonight’s Draft Lottery.  They  can move up to one of the top three slots, remain sixth or slip as low as ninth, but that’s as far as they can fall on the 2010 NBA Draft lottery board. 

The Sixers have a 5.3% chance of winning the Lottery and grabbing the #1 spot which will give them the right to select Kentucky’s John Wall.  They stand a 6% chance at jumping up the board to the #2 slot where they will likely be over joyed at the opportunity to draft Ohio State shooting guard Evan Turner.  Finally, the Sixers own a 6.9% chance of moving up three spot to #3 which will give them a month to debate what they should do with that pick — draft a center, package the pick in a trade for a highly skilled two guard or blow it by drafting another ‘tweener forward. 

It’s plain to see from the numbers above that the Sixers chances of moving up the board tonight are not that great.  To be honest we would need some serious help.  Scratch that, we would nee a miracle to get inside the top two where we could draft a potential franchise changing player.  So while we think point guard Jrue Holiday, the future of the 76ers franchise, is a fine candidate to be representing the 76ers at tonight’s NBA Draft Lottery, we would like to suggest to Mr. Snider a few last minute substitutions for Holiday.  In our minds if any one of the following people were representing the Sixers tonight, then Phialdunkia’s home team would have a real chance to get the #1 or #2 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.

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As the 76ers head coaching search drags on we thought it would be a good idea to turn our attention away from the ever expanding candidate list for a moment and start looking at the 2010 NBA Draft.  Right now, the Sixers are penciled in at the sixth spot and there are some very talented players available at that slot.  Are any of the prospects that will be available at No. 6 “franchise changers”?  That’s doubtful, but there are a number of college kids that will still be on the board at six who could help the 76ers  get this franchise turned around. 

We reviewed a number of the well respected ”Draft Expert” projections and created a list of prospects from which the Sixers will likely pick a player on Draft Night 2010.  That Sixers projection list includes DeMarcus Cousins (Kentucky), Cole Aldrich (Kansas), Wes Johnson (Syracuse) and Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest).  Now it would have been easy for us just to profile these college players via stats and analysis, but here at Philadunkia we go the extra mile for our readers.  Thus we worked the phones and got each of these potential future Sixers to give us a few minutes so that you could get to know them up close and personal.

First up in this series of interviews we have creatively titled “With the 6th pick…” , is Cole Aldrich, the 6-11, 260-pound center from Kansas who as a junior last season averaged 11.3 ppg. and 9.8 rpg. to go along with 3.5 blocks per night. 

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As you may have read, on Sunday the 76ers head coach search committee met with former Detroit Piston “Bad Boy” and current Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach Bill Laimbeer.  The Sixers interview count has now reached six candidates and it appears it will continue to grow.  Here at Philadunkia we are evenly divided over who should be the next Sixers head coach — Larry Brown or Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau.  Yet both sides here at the Philadunkia offices agree that Laimbeer is a very intriguing candidate who could be a good fit as the Sixers next head coach.

After the interview with Laimbeer, Sixers GM Ed Stefanski released the following statement: “…Bill Laimbeer’s credentials as a player and success as a coach – including three championships in six seasons in the WNBA – speaks for itself.  We want to thank Bill for meeting with us.”  That’s not exactly a glowing review by Stefanski.  In fact that quote registered somewhere below the typical, scripted “sensitive topic” quote generated by the PR department.  However we’d like to provide Stefanski with a few reasons why he should give Laimbeer serious consideration for the Sixers head coaching job.

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Right before the 76ers tipped off the 2009-10 season and promptly got throttled by the Orlando Magic in the opener – a sign of things to come this past year –, Philadunkia posted a unique preview of the 2009-10 season.  After all the changes that went on with the 76ers in summer 2009 and a 2009-10 preseason filled with remarkable highs and disturbing lows, many fans had no idea what to expect from the Sixers this past season, so we did our best to predict what to expect from Philadunkia’s home team in 2009-10.

We’ve been kicking around the idea of revisiting that “Preview” post since the season ended, but there’s been so many other things to write about that we haven’t had the opportunity to pull the piece together.  Well, we finally decided that today was the day to post something different from all the head coaching speculation and NBA Draft Lottery predictions that have surrounded the Sixers over the last few weeks. 

So today’s post is titled “Upon Further Review” (UFR) because we’re looking back at our 2009-10 76ers Preview and ripping our predictions to shreds or calling ourselves Nostradamus when warranted.

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Was there ever a doubt that Philadunkia nation will always love Allen Iverson?  Not according to Bob Cooney’s story in the Daily News.

As we all know, the 76ers interviewed Doug Collins over the weekend and met with Avery Johnson on Monday. YAWN! 

However Phil Jasner of the DN reported that Jeff Van Gundy is no longer a candidate and that Ed Stefanski has scheduled a meeting with ESPN analyst Mark Jackson.  Now you’ve got our attention.

Larry Brown is still denying that he has any interest in working for the 76ers, “but there’s an opening at Episcopal High School in Philly,”  he said on Friday.  We wonder how much truth there is to Larry’s sly comments because as you may or may not know, legendary Episcopal boys basketball head coach Dan Dougherty recently retired after 30 years on the job.  We bet LB would love to coach his kid’s high school team.

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