There seems to be a lot of different opinions regarding how the Sixers should handle the 2013 off-season.

Some of Philadunkia nation thinks that the organization should still plan to build around Bynum, while a large percentage of people don’t want to see him anywhere near this team or city again.

Then there are those who feel that the Sixers actually aren’t too far away from contention and could compete with a couple tweaks.  However for every one with this view there are at least two others who feel that the team needs to be  completely blown up.

The only thing certain now after the disappointing season that was for the Sixers, is uncertainty.

The hiring of Sam Hinkie is the first stride on a long staircase the Sixers are facing this summer.  Finding a “basketball guy” to support Hinkie’s analytics, selecting a head coach, making draft picks, and filling out the roster with free agents are all still left on the agenda.  With a new regime in town it is difficult to tell exactly how any of this will turn out.

With that being said, the smart thing for the Sixers to do this summer is — as little as possible.

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“Hope is a dangerous thing.  Hope can drive a man insane”

That quote from Shawshank Redemption holds true for 76er fans, now more than ever.  Hope is all that is left, I guess.

Seriously, sit back and think about the Philadelphia 76ers for a moment.  Not much, right?  Maybe Sam Hinkie pulls a rabbit out of his hat, a bunch of other things go right and certain guys elevate their game in 2013-14.  Still, how much will that help?

$12,000,000 in cap space is just enough to do something stupid, but not enough to pull off a miracle.  Between Turner, J-Rich and Kwame; the 76ers have more than 25% of their roster as dead weight.  Even getting players at their true value won’t be enough to do anything but keep the team in an awkward spot.

Our man Bynum looks ready to screw the franchise for the next 5 years by being Shawshank quote incarnate.  If not Bynum, it will be some other player.  Let’s just hope that Hinkie’s advanced analytics inform him that he should avoid the players I am write about after the jump.

(WARNING: LOOK AWAY NOW if you really like OJ Mayo…)

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The Sixers need a scorer.  It seems like a pretty simple sentiment.  In fact, there will be those that criticize this post as being too simplistic.

“Of course, every team could use a scorer.”

“We want a name!”

The point of this post isn’t to postulate about potential players, but rather to point out a decade long problem.

The Sixers have not had a legitimate go-to-guy since Allen Iverson was shipped to Denver, which happens to be about the same time that the franchise’s success stalled.

This is not a coincidence.

Every team that has found extreme success in the NBA over the past decade plus (Heat, Mavs, Lakers, Spurs, Celtics) have a clearly defined go-to-guy.  This is also not a coincidence.  The best NBA teams are well-structured and well-rounded, as a one man show rarely makes it very far (save for an ’01 Iverson and an ’07 LeBron James).

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The Sixers have been abandoned again.  It was another three seasons of wasted basketball instead of moving closer to the ultimate goal of a championship.  There were risks taken, hearts broken and blood vessels busted.

Yet, taking a trip down memory lane, what if I told you that the Sixers’ woes began way before the Andrew Bynum trade last summer?  What if I told you that if the Sixers had just taken my advice that they’d be in the hunt for an NBA Championship right now as you’re reading this?

Without tooting my own horn too much, I’ll just let you see for yourself…
http://philadunkia.com/?p=263

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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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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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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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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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Here at Philadunkia it seems to be a consensus that the first item on the “Honey Do List” for Josh Harris and Adam Aron this off-season should be to find a new General Manager for this franchise.

It’s not that Tony DiLeo has done anything wrong, but it’s apparent that he was hand picked for the job by Doug Collins  last year and it’s time to wipe the slate clean from the DC era.  Removing DiLeo is especially important  if DC is going to have an active “consulting” role in the Sixers front office going forward as we will need a strong willed and independent thinker who can sift through Doug’s input and only use the sensible thoughts.

If the Sixers decide to look for a new general manager, the Philadunkia scribes have some suggestions for Harris and Aron as to who should receive job interviews.

After the jump are a few suggestions for a new 76ers General Manager.

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