When you think of Thaddeus Young there are the two things that come to mind, 6’5.75 and $35,521,738?  They should, because that is his how tall he is without shoes, and how much he is owed the next 4 seasons (year 4 is a $9.72 mil player option).  

If the Sixers front office truly had a plan, Iguodala would have been traded this past off-season or at the trade deadline.  Reason being, the front office and fans would have a full season or half a season to evaluate Thaddeus at SF.  Instead, the 76ers still have Iguodala, whose trade value is hugely diminished (has an early termination option after this season and the 7-6 has to trade him now or risk losing him to free agency) and drafted Maurice Harkless as the heir apparent at SF.

If we want to say Thaddeus is a PF, it makes sense to compare him to Paul Millsap, Kenneth Faried, Trevor Booker and Brandon Bass.  Each measured between 6’6 and 6’6.25 without shoes according to draft combine numbers.  Thad measured 6’5.75 without shoes.  After the jump a close look at how all these players match-up.

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Much to our excitement, the 76ers schedule for 2012-13 schedule was released yesterday.  And while there are still some decisions to be made about the Sixers roster as well of those of the rest of the NBA, we took a stab at analyzing the upcoming 82-game slate.

Since most NBA rosters are no yet finalized, we had to make a lot of asssumptions based on what the teams looked like last year and the pieces they have subtracted and/or added this off-season, so we reserve the right to make some changes after the free agent season comes to a halt. 

With those assumptions in mind we believe Sixers fans will be very pleased to learn that after a potentially brutal kickoff to the 2012-13 season, we are predicting a solid first month for the Sixers in 2012-13.  However, a fast start may be cancelled out completely if the 7-6 can not keep it together during the brutal stretch the scheduling gods have planned for Doug Collins and Co. in December. 

Merry Christmas Philadunkia nation, from the NBA scheduling gods. 

 
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$1,680,000

That was what it cost to win an NBA regular season game in 2011-2012.  The 7-6 won 35 games this past season and paid $53,951,238 to do so.   It’s supposed to cost $58,800,000 to win 35 games.  Given those numbers let’s look at the value each member of the 76er’s brought to the regular season roster. 

The salaries have been adjusted to a 66 game season.  Value $ is equal to WP*1,680,000 – Salary.  The wins produced are a mix of advance stats calculations that take into consideration the players entire regular season.  The numbers are not exact and the wins produced for the 76ers is off by .91 wins.  In the calculations below, the .91 is adjusted for and subtracted from the equation which is noted below.

Also in this article, I will give a list of the 50 or so most productive regular season players in the NBA last season.  In this calculation, as well as the full Sixers evaluation, minutes played and efficiency are both hugely important.  Defense is calculated into this as well, so elite defenders and Matadors are both properly accounted for.

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Yesterday, several media outlet’s announced that the Sixers had a high level of interest in landing former Grizzlies and Trail Blazers assistant GM Tom Penn to replace current GM Rod Thorn.

Thorn is entering the final year of his 3-year contract as president/GM and has entered “lame duck” status as it was announced earlier this month that the franchise is searching for his replacement.  However, the deal he signed in August 2010 with then-chairman Ed Snider included a provision for Thorn to become a part-time consultant for 5 years after his contract expired.

According to the ESPN report, Penn has interviewed with the Sixers, and will meet again with team representatives today in New York City.

Currently Penn works as an NBA analyst on ESPN where he frequently discusses issues like the salary cap, the NBA Draft, trades, and collective bargaining issues.  Most recently, Penn spent four seasons as assistant GM with the Trail Blazers where he worked hard to wipe away the image of Rasheed Wallace’s “Jail Blazers” and if it weren’t for several key injuries could’ve brought home the Larry O’Brien trophy during his tenure with the team.

 
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There are several unresolved issues surrounding our 2012-2013 Sixers as they are currently constructed.  Sure they added some athleticism in Harkless and Moultrie, and shored up the perimeter shooting with the additions of Dorell Wright and the hot-handed Nick Young, but the interior personnel is still an enormous problem.  The Sixers did not have the most formidable frontcourt last season, and by dropping Brand, their most consistent post player on both ends of the floor, they have only moved backwards.  The combination of Spencer Hawes, Lavoy Allen, Nik Vucevic, and the recently-acquired Kwame Brown, may be one of the slowest and least skilled front-lines in the League, leaving the Sixers extremely vulnerable, especially on the defensive end. 

If the team doesn’t shake things up perhaps by moving current Olympian Andre Iguodala for some inside support this off-season, which appears less likely with each passing day, it seems that Sixer fans can look forward to the least inspiring starting frontline of all time in starters Hawes and Kwame Brown.  This dynamic duo lacks both the speed and strength necessary to compete with most of the League at large, let alone the elite teams.  Picturing these two getting consistently posterized is just painful. 

 
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On Tuesday my colleague Steve Toll wrote a post that pulled no punches in explaining how he believes the 76ers have truly dropped the ball this off-season and in fact may have ruined the franchise for the next several years.  Based on the reactions in the comments section, it’s obvious that most of you strongly disagree with Steve’s analysis of the Sixers’ recent moves.  Yes, a few of you did agree with Steve, but 90% of you were calling for his head.  To be honest, my analysis of the Sixers off-season falls somewhere in between Steve’s “the sky is falling” post and the glowing comments most of the readers typed up over the last two days. 

Yes, I can read between the lines on the recent deals / moves the Sixers have made and I understand the long range plan the 76ers front office has put together and to me it makes sense — build around a young core; remove parts that cut into those player’s minutes and impede their growth; maintain cap flexibility and avoid the escalating luxury tax.  It’s a smart plan and I like it.  However, I think that long range plan could have been adhered to while at the same time using this off-season to put us in a better position for 2012-13.

After the jump I’ll look at Steve’s points and provide my own analysis…  

 
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Nobody in Philadelphia expects a championship in 2012-2013, that’s one thing the Sixers have going for them.  But did you expect the 7-6 to be Lottery bound in 2013?  Sports articles rarely talk about the reality of situations and often boast about the “best case scenario” when that scenario is based on fantasy, rather then the facts of the situation.  This is NOT one of those articles.

The 7-6 won 35 games this past season.  It will be a struggle to win 35 games next year in what will be an 82 game season.  The Sixers have essentially ruined the franchise for the next 5 years by their actions this off-season.  There are so many good sources of basketball stats on the Internet.  While many of my points are generalized a few minutes looking through basketball reference, court vision analytics, basketball value, 82games, wages of wins, the NBA geek and other stat based websites.  All the arguments made below are facts or historically relevant information and not influenced by cognitive bias and other things that betray humans when we make assumptions about players and coaches based on the “eye test”

After the jump, I will review the mistakes by timeline that the 76ers’ front office made this off-season:

 
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It’s been a tough week for our 76ers down here at the Orlando Pro Summer League.  The Sixers finished the week 1-4 and were plagued by injuries.

The story of the week was supposed to be rookies Arnett Moultrie and Maurice Harkless.  But it was announced prior to the start of OPSL action that Moultrie wouldn’t see the floor because of a sprained ankle he suffered in pre-draft workouts and early in day two Harkless suffered a strained hip-flexor, sidelining him for the remainder of the week.

The Sixers were also without big man Nikola Vucevic for the week.  As we all know, ”Big Nik” performed well early in the season last year, but saw a decline in his minutes and his confidence as the season went on.  So we were hoping that Nik would have a solid week and build some positive momentum for the 2012-13 season.  Instead Vuc suffered a strained left Achilles in the first practice of the week and never saw the floor in O-town.

After the jump I wrap up the rest of the Sixers week in Orlando…

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It was a tough end to the Orland Pro Summer League for the 76ers, who lost their fourth game of the week to the Detroit Pistons 71-67 this afternoon.

The Sixers were once again led by big man Devin Searcy who recorded his second straight double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

It was a total team effort early on for the 7-6, with seven different players scoring in a first quarter that had the Sixers leading 24-18.  The full effort was epitomized by coach Aaron McKie’s five-man rotation.

“We just wanted to even the minutes out,” McKie said.  “I wasn’t going to sit over there and wreck my brain.  Towards the end of the week guys start to get tired, and they try to tell you they’re good but I can see out on the floor they’re not.”

Lavoy Allen got off to a nice start for the Sixers and finished with six points and four rebounds.  Justin Holiday only had two points in the first half and finished with five for the game on a tough 1-8 shooting performance.  It was clear that some players were losing their legs a bit.

After a wonderful performance yesterday Searcy once again made his best pitch for the 76ers roster.  The former Dayton Flyer not only recorded a double-double but added three blocks while playing good defense against Andre Drummond, the ninth overall pick in this year’s Draft.

 
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We had a summer league thriller, if that’s possible, down in Orlando today.  The Sixers went into two overtimes before finally falling to the Magic 77-75.

Forward Devin Searcy led the way for the 7-6 with 12 points and 10 rebounds.  Clay Tucker also got things going after a tough first half of the week, leading the way with 15 points.

Early in the game it was once again Justin Holiday for the Sixers, with a little help from Lavoy Allen.  Holiday would only play limited minutes however, getting a little rest, and finishing with 10 points.

“He’s been playing heavy minutes and I don’t want to wear those guys out,” coach Aaron McKie said.  “I want them to have their legs and be able to give us their best run.  This is an opportunity for those guys to showcase their talents and we don’t want them out their running on fumes.”

 
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