As they stand right now, the 2011-12 76ers — if they ever take the court next season — have some very obvious issues.  Finding a big man in the middle who can contribute nightly and doing a much, much better job on the defensive boards would be two items at the top of that list.   

Still despite the above ills, in our collective opinions it is NOT unreasonable to think that in this upcoming season the Sixers could win 48-50 games and a playoff series.

Some of us here at Philadunkia would be be as bold as to say that anything less from the 2011-2 season is unacceptable.  

However, there is one issue on the Sixers roster that is being overshadowed by the more pressing problems mentioned above.  It is possible this one underlying issue could derail a 50-win season for the Sixers next year.  The problem we are talking about is, ‘What do the Sixers do at the two-guard spot in 2011-12?’ 

So the question put to the scribes here at Philadunkia was, ‘Can last year’s starter Jodie Meeks supply enough game from the 2-guard spot to help the Sixers reach the above goals in 2011-12?’

If your answer was “No”, then our writers were asked to explain their ideas for what should the Sixers do to solve their 2-guard issue so that they can achieve the goals mentioned above for next year.

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Players Association executive director Billy Hunter says, if he “had to bet on it”, he would wager that there will be no NBA season.

Zach Lowe of SI.com is slowly ranking his top 100 NBA players.  So far, three Sixers have made the list. 

Last Sunday we skipped the 76ers annual Beach Bash because there no players on site, but the CSN Philly cameras where there and filmed this interview with Doug Collins.

dimemag.com has an interview with former Sixer Darryl Dawkins in which he reveals the origin of his “Chocolate Thunder” nickname.

Over at Philly.com Kate Fagan learned that Joshua Harris is “the most competitive human being” his friends know.  Really?!?  A billionaire who is super-highly competitive — what a shocker.

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We all know that the center position was / is a glaring weakness for the 76ers and here at Philadunkia we don’t see the combo of Spence and 2011 draftee “Big Nik” solving those issues in 2011-12. 

Of course, that is if there is a 2011-12 NBA season.

We also don’t believe that the Sixers are going to acquire Dwight Howard any time soon.

With those premises in mind, the Philadunkia scribes were charged with submitting a name from the long list of former Sixers centers that each individual thought could cure the 7-6’s ills in the middle for next season.

There was only one rule — you could not choose Wilt.

One other note – it is assumed that these “dream” centers who would be inserted into the 2011-12 Sixers lineup would play at their “prime” level that we witnessed during their Sixers career. 

Each writer also included several lines of text in defense of their choice.

We think Doug Collins would be very pleased with our selections.

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The 76ers annual Beach Bash is this weekend.  This year’s edition should be interesting as no players will be allowed to appear at the event, so it will be just Doug Collins, Hip-Hop and the Sixers Dancers.

Starting Monday, Jrue Holiday will be hosting his summer basketball camp in West LA. 

This really has nothing to do with the 7-6, but here’s video of John Wall killing some clowns in a summer league game down in Baltimore.  These NBA player videos pop up every summer now and just once I’d like to see a video on Youtube where a member of the Sixers is featured destroying foes in a summer run. 

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As you most likely know by now, two of the legendary summer league’s in this country — The Goodman League in Washington, D.C. and The Drew League in Los Angeles — have set up an all-star, streetball style showdown .   

This highly anticipated game will take place in the District on August 20th.  The Goodman squad will feature NBA ballers such as Kevin Durant, John Wall, Gary Neal and Michael Beasley.  The Drew League team will counter with Brandon Jennings, James Harden, DeMar DeRozan and other LA area stars. 

All of the excitement surrounding this run inspired some conversations here at the Philadunkia offices about which former 76ers would make for the best summer league / streetball team.  Obviously we could not agree on one single roster, so each Philadunkia scribe was charged with assembling their own ultimate 76ers (1983 to present) summer league / street ball team. 

The criteria for creating a winning playground hoops team is certainly very different from that required for assembling an NBA championship team, so keep that in mind as you read through the rosters and the reasons why the former Sixers were chosen. 

Full squads after the jump. 

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Anthony Macri  at hoopsworld.com has some tips on how Mo Speights can improve his game.

A lot of folks are saying that buying the Sixers was a stupid business move for Joshua Harris as he got onlythe team.  Billy Lyon at phillysportsdaily.com writes that Harris is too smart to make a horrible business decision, so he must have something planned.  

Sixers.com recently caught up with Sixers legend Bobby Jones.  He’s living in Charlotte, NC now and coaches basketball.

Zach Lowe at The Point Forward writes that Allen Iverson can still contribute to an NBA team.

Andrew Unterberger at The Basketball Jones ranks the top 8 basketball moments from HBO’s best-show-ever, “The Wire”.  Elton Brand is on the list as is Iverson.

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Yesterday in what was a hopeful but ultimately futile act, the NBA officially released its 2011-12 schedule.

With the lockout still going strong and with no sign of an end in sight, it’s hard to take seriously the schedule that was sent out on Tuesday.

Still we thought we’d take some time to break down the 76ers 2011-12 schedule just in case the the upcoming NBA season begins on time (Insert joke here.).

In this breakdown post, we assumed that the Sixers current roster will be intact for the 2011-12 season. 

We think you’ll be pleased at how the Sixers could potentially come flying out of the gates next season.

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As you all know by now, the sale of 76ers by Comcast to New York billionaire hedge-fund guy Joshua Harris was completed yesterday.

While Harris is a very well respected and obviously successful man in the business world, his basketball pedigree is non-existent.  So all of Philadunkia nation is very curious and perhaps a little nervous about what kind of moves the Sixers Mark Cuban in-the-making will pull off. 

This post is the first in a two part series in which the Philadunkia scribes attempt to predict what changes Harris will make to the 76ers organization.  Today will examine the Sixers front office — Rod Thron, Ed Stefanski, Tony DiLeo and Courtney Witte — and try to forecast whether or not these executives will be employed by the 7-6 for the 2011-12 season.

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This one comes to us from the fellas at thebiglead.com…

Apparently during his long trip to Europe Jrue Holiday is doing more then just making appearances on behalf of adidas and working out with his brother. 

It seems that the 76ers rising point guard also has a significant and personal rooting interest in the US Women’s National Soccer team. 

While it has yet to be “officially” confirmed (and not that it needs to be), thebiglead.com looked at the evidence on Twitter, the connected then dots or Tweets in this case, and it appears that Holiday (@Jrue_Holiday11 ) is dating former UCLA soccer star and current USWNT player Lauren Cheyney (@laurencheney8).

It seems pretty obvious that the two world class athletes probably met during their days at UCLA together.

Catch the evidence after the jump…

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On Saturday Dei Lynam at csnphilly.com landed an interview with Andre Iguodala.  The bonus was that the interview took place right here in the City of Brotherly Love.

What was AI9 doing in Philladunkia nation this past Saturday? 

Well Dre was at Cherashore Playground (10th and Olney) for the “Part of the Solution Community Day“.  Hosted by Philly native Mustafa Shakur (who is Dre’s former Arizona teammate), the event is a day long festival of clinics for kids, food, games, guest speakers and a 3-on-3 men’s basketball tournament.

Among the interesting items from Lynam’s interview with Dre is that he said he “enjoys being here” in Philadelphia and that his comments after the Miami series were “taken out of context”.  In the vidoe Dre does seem to be genuinely relaxed and haopy to talk with Lynam.

Still, to us Dre sounds like a guy who realizes he may be stuck in Philly for a while and needs to make the best of what he views as a bad situation.

Watch the full interview after the jump. 

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