Early Tuesday afternoon, ESPN’s NBA Draft Insider Chad Ford reported that UNLV freshman forward Anthony Bennett will be out four months after surgery on his rotator cuff in his left shoulder that is expected to go down today.

Agent Jeff Schwartz confirms Bennett will be out up to 4 months.No draft workouts or summer league for Bennett

— Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) May 7, 2013

 

That timetable will sideline him for the NBA Draft Combine and likely all of Summer League as well, but he will be scheduled to return for training camp.

Bennett will now join Nerlens Noel and Alex Len as the crop of talented big men that will enter the 2013 NBA Draft injured. Noel’s torn ACL might have knocked him out of the top pick in the draft and Len’s ankle surgery will also likely hurt his draft stock, too.

So, if Noel, the one-time shoo-in for the No. 1 Overall pick in this year’s draft, can have his stock lowered by a devastating injury, why can’t Bennett’s stock drop as well?  Could it drop enough so the 76ers have a chance at drafting him?

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One day after the Brooklyn Nets failed to defeat the Chicago Bulls on their home court in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Bill King and company announced they would not retain interim head coach P. J. Carlesimo.

Carlesimo took over the reigns of the Nets in their opening season at the Barclays Center after the team fired Avery Johnson on December 28.  Brooklyn went just 3-10 in the final month of 2012 under Johnson.   After assisting Johnson, Carlesimo came into the head coaching role and let his players play freely and their natural games.  Brooklyn responded and finished the rest of the season 35-19.

Brooklyn’s improvement under PJ wasn’t completely due to his stellar coaching.  A significant portion of Brooklyn’s success over the last 54 games was because the Nets finally got healthy and Deron Williams suddenly played the final 50 games of the season like a franchise point guard.

Still, Carlesimo does deserve some of the credit for the Net’s turn around and with the 76ers currently in need of a turn-around of epic proportions, shouldn’t Josh Harris, Adam Aron and Tony DiLeo at least explore the option of bringing in Carlesimo to fill the head coaching vacancy?

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The other day, I wrote how the 76ers should approach building a real contender by tanking and trading for superior but injured players.   Today, we will assume that their are enough parts in place to build something.

Like a hostile takeover of a corporate entity, cutting the dead weight is an obvious first step.  From there we will look at some undervalued assets around the league, similar to what was done in (A plan for 13-14).

What to do with “The Enigma”, Evan Turner?  It’s quite simple actually.  Whomever the GM for the Sixers is, he needs to call ET into his office on a weekday morning.  From there, they should ask, “Evan, if we can trade you to another team, is that something you would be interested in?”

The obvious answer will be yes.  The next move is to pick up the phone and call every single NBA team.  It will certainly be a humbling experience for Mr. Turner.  A combination of quick hang ups, laughs and outrageous demands (give us your lottery pick, is Thad coming too, We will give you Beasley/Bargnani/Ellis for ET, we require all the tea in china etc etc) will make it obvious to ET that the NBA truly has no interest in his services at $6,700,000 for the 2013-2014 season.

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According to a report over at Yahoo Sports by Adrian Wojnarowski, the 76ers have received permission to interview Golden State Warriors assistant Mike Malone as well as Utah Jazz assistant and former Sixer Jeff Hornacek for the franchise’s head-coaching vacancy.  According to Woj’s sources, “Malone is considered a serious candidate for the Sixers job.  The Sixers have been doing a great deal of research on Malone and getting excellent feedback”

Earlier this week, Dei Lynam of csnphilly.com fame posted a story in which her sources said the 7-6 have “contacted” Pacers’ associate head coach Brian Shaw about their vacant head-coaching position.  Obviously the Pacers are currently in the playoffs and hold a 3-2 lead over the Atlanta Hawks in their first round series, so it could be sometime before Shaw will actually interview for the Sixers job opening.

Now, I know the rumor mill is going to churn out a lot of these stories until the opening is filled.  Some of them will be accurate and others not so much.  And I am happy to see that the Sixers front office is doing their due diligence and interviewing a number of prospects.  Lastly, let me just say that I have nothing against giving any of these alleged candidates (so far) a look see.

Still, I have to ask, ‘Has anyone in the Sixers organization even sent Phil Jackson so much as a introductory text message?’

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Last night, I watched the Denver Nuggets narrowly defeat the Golden State Warriors in the Pepsi Center in order to extend their first round series to a sixth game.  Naturally, I found the Warriors play through the first four games of the series refreshing and thrilling.  But, in Game 6, the Nuggets morphed into the Pistons of the “Bad Boys”  era with a touch of  pop and pizazz and secured a win.  The player who pushed the Nuggets to the win last night was former Sixer Andre Iguodala.

The once heir apparent to Allen Iverson, Iguodala dropped a line of 25 points, 12 boards and 7 assists in 40 minutes of play on 10-17 shooting from the field.  On the series, Iguodala is averaging 16.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game while shooting 53.4 percent from the floor in 40.2 minutes per (Those stats are much improved over his regular season numbers of 13, 5 & 5 and 45% shooting from the field).

With his playoff averages, Iguodala would have ranked second on the Sixers in points, tied-second in rebounds, second in assists, second in field goal percentage and first in minutes during the regular season. And, the dude is doing this in the playoffs no less against a stingy defensive team in the Dubs.

Regardless, I still say the Philadelphia 76ers are better off with Iguodala elsewhere.

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Few could have imagined the season turned out the way it did.  The 76ers were supposed to be this, that and the other thing.  What came to pass was the realization that this past summer was one of the uglier summers in NBA history.  

Now the Sixers are a team left with holes larger than just the void in the middle cause by Andrew Bynum’s knees.  As I have mentioned ad nauseum, the 76ers are in a very bad place going forward with no clear path to anything.  

After the jump, are some trade possibilities that can be a change for the better next year or the long run.  The premise is to do all of these trades or none at all.  Part 1 will be for the future, “Hello, 25% shot at Andrew Wiggins and the return of the Anti-Gravity Treadmill”.  Part 2 will assume the future is now

On last note, while the ESPN.com trade machine says the salaries don’t work, once Jrue’s $9.2 million salary kicks in, these trades would work.

 
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After the 76ers announced their acquisition of a new D-League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers (a.k.a. “the Sevens” — insert laughter here), the Philadelphia Inquirer’s John Mitchell crafted an interesting story based off a discussion with team owner Joshua Harris while the two were down in Newark, Delaware for the “big” 87ers press conference.

In the article, Mitchell discusses a general theme that the Sixers will approach their head-coaching search diligently and steadily. However, the Inquirer columnist said that Harris and current GM Tony DiLeo will be the two men conducting the process.

“Harris, who doesn’t talk publicly about contract extensions, said that he and general manager Tony DiLeo, who has an expiring deal on June 30, are running the search.  And he noted that while they have yet to interview anyone, they have several candidates in mind.  In fact, Dei Lynam of csnphilly.com is reporting that the Sixers have already reached out to Pacers’ assistant coach Brian Shaw.

Whether DiLeo remains the general manager will be resolved in time.  But right now DiLeo is the basketball mind that Harris, who inherited Collins from the previous owners, is leaning on to fill the franchise’s most vital position.”

Now, it’s important to remember that the last time the Sixers hired a head coach, Ed Stefanski and Ed Snider were running the front office and spearheaded that job search.

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On Saturday the 76ers announced that have acquired a D-League franchise and will move it Delaware…Ladies and gentlemen please welcome your Delaware 87ers…Wait, what?  It’s not a misprint.

Brian at depressedfan.com is not very excited about the D-League announcement.

A quick “76ers” search on craigslist brings back this signed gem from the 1983 team.

Dei Lynam at csnphilly.com reported that the Sixers have contacted Pacers assistant coach Brian Shaw.

nbadraft.net has the Sixers selecting 11th in the 2013 Draft and picking Giannis Adetokoubo who plays in Greece.  Check out the video of this 6-9 kid.  I’ve seen bigger crowds at Chester vs. Lower Merion district playoff games.

Hoops Habit predicts the Sixers will grab Glenn Robinson III with the 11th pick in 2013.

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Growing up in the late 90s and early 00s, I developed an affinity for the Cartoon Network program, Ed, Edd n Eddy. The animated show featured three boys who wrecked havoc on their parents and really just lived their daily lives in their cul-de-sac kooky pandemonium.

Thus, when the 76ers, who were then led by Chairman Ed Snider and General Manager Ed Stefanski, fired former head coach Eddie Jordan, I wrote a crafty blog post that constructed a conspiracy on how Ed Stefanski and Eddie Jordan in 2010 (who had been friends from their days with the New Jersey Nets) worked to derail this dilapidated organization.

Now, looking back on my adolescence, and knowing what I now know about the NBA, I realize that the only legitimate conspiracies in the League only involve officiating and injuries.  However, I still truthfully believe that the Ed, Ed and Eddie era of the Sixers set back this organization to where they are now.

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Luring LeBron James back to Cleveland will no longer include Phil Jackson as the Cavaliers announced yesterday that they’ll be rehiring coach Mike Brown who previously found great coaching success with the Cavs.

Brown went 272-138 previously with the Cavs, teaming with LeBron James on a run to the NBA Finals in 2007.  He also had two seasons where he won more than 60 games in 2008-09 (66-16) and 2009-10 (61-21).

The move seems sudden for the Cavs, as just three days ago they had apparently been courting Jackson over the open job position with the team.

This leaves Jackson at the way side again, much like he was back in November when the Lakers fired Mike Brown after the teams 1-4 start to the season.  Rumors swirled at the thought of Jackson being rehired for the Lakers’ job much like his name was before Brown got the job with the Cavs, but the Lakers impatiently grabbed Mike D’Antoni instead.

If the Zen Master indeed wants to take to the sidelines one more time, which it’s been said he’s “itching” to do, then why not look at a proud organization like the Philadelphia Sixers?

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