Cheeks is gone!!! - Liberty Ballers

Apparently Tony DiLeo will serve as the coach for the rest of the year.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 9:33 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

So the Sixers are going to take tonight off to mourn the loss of their coach, right?

Right?

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by JakeTheSnake on Dec 13, 2008 9:35 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Or they are going to go on a monster run like they did

when King got fired last December.

All I’m looking for is an entertaining game and I think that’s what I’ll get.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 9:43 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Here’s what I wrote somewhere else on the DiLeo hiring and why I think it makes snese (though SAS agrees with me which is scary)

I got the text in costco and tried not to do a whoop

I don’t know that DiLeo is a comment on the assistants. What I thought as soon as I saw the DiLeo name in the text was that Stefanski doesn’t want to muddy the waters. No matter how the sixers finish out the season, I think Stefanski knows who he wants to coach this team going forward, and thus appointing someone who has no head coaching aspirations means you can have him work out what’s best for the franchise (more thad and speights and less willie and reggie) long term instead of a guy trying to prove he deserves the job.

SAS on ESPN News said the eddie jordan is the long term guy who will get the job (probably after the season) – but he has no inside information – he’s putting pieces together and spit balling – but it’s a name i liked the moment he was fired – and if Stef wants him to be the guy – it makes sense to appoint a guy who won’t want the job but knows the roster.

by jemagee on Dec 13, 2008 10:40 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

That's a very good way to put it.

I couldn’t agree more.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 10:49 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The thing is

Eddie Jordan’s shortcomings are just like Cheeks.’ He doesn’t play his young guys enough and relies too much on his plucky overachievers. Plus, his teams don’t play defense well.

I’m not sure he’s a great fit, to be honest. All these gripes about Thad, Lou and Speights will come back.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 13, 2008 10:50 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Uh oh.

From the guy who knows Eddie Jordan very well.

To be honest, I’m on the Avery Johnson bandwagon. Don’t ask me to explain why, because I don’t have a legitimate reason yet. I just like him and think he’d fit.

But I still agree with John that DiLeo won’t isn’t coaching for his job, so he’ll do what’s in the organization and Ed’s best interest in the time being.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 10:54 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The sixers have much better young guys than the wizards, sorry but young and speights are better than blatche or young or whatever, plus they don’t have maturity issues constantly reported on about the wizards young guys.

He got screwed in Washington this year, he took the fall for your GMs stupidity and injuries to key players – it was the most undeserved firing of the season – and immediately i wanted him as the coach of the sixers.

The wizards front office (and their fans) don’t realize how mediocre their roster really is so they blame jordan – i feel the sixers have a better roster than than the wiz and that arenas is a poor mans allen iverson (with a bigger chip on his shoulder and the inability to play hurt)…

Sounds like sour grapes to me from a bitter wizards fan realizing that the team isn’t good – period

by jemagee on Dec 13, 2008 11:01 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm gonna go with Pradamaster on this one.

I know he knows his Wizards.

And as much as I like Speights and Young, Nick Young and Andray Blatche are just as talented at this point in their careers.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 11:05 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Young is in his second year – Speights is a rookie

If young and blatche are just as talented as Young and Speights, I’ll take Young and Speights going forward, not to mention that neither of these guys have had the maturity questions towards them since they entered the NBA that the wizards young guys have.

Oh yeah – i’ll also take brand and iguodala over the over paid jamison and arenas.

Elton Brands contract is for less money than gilbert arenas – so people need to stop calling him a max player already

by jemagee on Dec 13, 2008 11:16 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Jordan is a lot better than Cheeks.

But there will still be complaints.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 11:17 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

You are totally missing the point

Like, completely, in your never-ending quest to prove that you know more about the Wizards than a Wizards blogger. You don’t see me in here professing expert knowledge on your team.

The point is that Eddie Jordan has displayed in D.C. that he is unwilling to play the younger guys who are outproducing their veteran counterparts. Nick Young did not start over DeShawn Stevenson. Andray Blatche was buried behind Darius Songaila. Hell, JaVale McGee didn’t start for the longest time over Etan freakin Thomas. The actual relative ability of said youngsters to Philly’s youngsters is completely besides the point.

The point here is not to say that Eddie Jordan is a bad coach or even a worse coach than Mo Cheeks. The point here is to say that, if the primary complaint against Mo Cheeks is that he didn’t play his young guys enough, Eddie Jordan ain’t exactly much of an improvement in that regard based on past history. Maybe he changes his ways, but I doubt it. If the new coach’s primary job is to get more out of his young guys, you’re best going in a different direction.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 13, 2008 11:22 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs

The playing of the young guys.

It isn’t really a huge complaint of mine. I mean I’d like to see Speights develop, but winning is the number one priority.

My biggest complaint with Cheeks is the lack of offensive sets, the lack of play calling and the lack of X’s and O’s basketball coaching in general. Not to mention the fact that I don’t think he’s a very good motivator.

Fans will always complain about not playing their favorite guys enough, which are usually the young and exciting guys.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 11:32 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Well in that case

Eddie’s a good fit. Very good Xs and Os guy. Not good with player rotations and such.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 13, 2008 11:36 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Not a home run.

But, I’d rather have a guy that’s good at one of those things rather than a guy who sucks at both.

It’s also a plus that he looks like a swollen Terrence Howard and has my first name as his last name.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 11:39 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'd still welcome Eddie Jordan with open arms though.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 11:06 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

This is just food for thought

arenas is a poor mans allen iverson

I will post these numbers and go away because we could argue about this all day. Still, guess which player is which. All these numbers are single-season numbers from the year in which each player was 25 years old (for Iverson, that’s his 2000/01 MVP season).

Player 1:

26.7 pts/36
3.9 ass/36
2.2 stl/36
3.3 reb/36
32% 3PT%
44.7 eFG%
51.8 TS%
24 PER
23% assist %
10% TO%
35.9 Usg% (% of possessions while that player in on floor that ended in a shot, turnover or free throw by said player)

Player 2:

25.8 pts/36
5.4 ass/36
1.7 stl/36
4.1 reb/36
2.9 TO/36
35.1 3PT%
48.4 eFG%
56.5 TS%
24 PER
27.2 assist%
11.2 TO%
31.4 Usage%

Beyond these, Player 1 was on a better team, is probably a better defensive player (but played with much better defensive teammates) and did this in fewer possessions than Player 2.

Player 1 is Allen Iverson in 2000/01. Player 2 is Gilbert Arenas in his last healthy season (2006/07). Both were 25.

Arenas beats Iverson in most categories. He’s a more efficient scorer, a better passer and a comporable ball-handler who committed the same rate of turnovers in more possessions. Arenas, for all his supposed ball-hoggery, used far fewer possessions than Iverson. Arenas is also a better rebounder, though that’s hardly a surprise.

Again, just food for thought. But I don’t see how Arenas is a poor-man’s Iverson. He’s comparable, at the very least.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 13, 2008 12:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Arenas was a stud before he got hurt.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 1:04 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Ahh forgot the link

Cardinal sin!

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&p1=arenagi01&y1=2007&p2=iversal01&y2=2001

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 13, 2008 1:05 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I love being right. 9-14 and then Cheeks getting fired. Granted, it wasn’t a difficult call to make, but I am still gonna revel in this for at least a day.

by FuquaManuel on Dec 13, 2008 10:46 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

What I think is that the wizards fans, the wizard management and most of the basketball playing public grossly over rated the wizards roster, and has for years, gilbert arenas just ain’t that good, when he was injury free, to be worth 100+ million dollars.

Expectations haven’t been realistic in wizard land for a couple years now and jordan took the fall.

I never thought the sixers were better than a 3rd place team this year and I never wanted Mo hired in the first place – so anyone who doesn’t think eddie jordan is a step up from Mo i’m not sure what to say.

As for ‘not playing young guys’ – i’d like to see some research done on that – the ‘common wisdom’ is that larry brown doesn’t play rookies – but a very smart man over at realgm and his own site did a little research once and larry brown doesn’t play rookies any less than other rookies (on average) picked at the same spot in the draft.

Mo Cheeks however plays crappy veteran players (like willie green and reggie evans and even Sam Dalembert) over guys who have shown already that they are better than said veterans.

Mo was not a good ‘young guy’ coach either, so I don’t think Eddie Jordan will be worse than Mo – and in terms of things like PLAYS and having an offensive philosophy he’ll be much much better.

LIke I’ve said repeatedly, I believe the deeper issues with the sixers are offensive and blaming the defense was a smoke screen Mo threw up to cover the fact that he was clueless on any sort of offensive planning or system.

by jemagee on Dec 13, 2008 12:34 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

This is just annoying

Expectations haven’t been realistic in wizard land for a couple years now and jordan took the fall.

And then…

I never thought the sixers were better than a 3rd place team this year and I never wanted Mo hired in the first place

In case you weren’t aware, expectations in “sixers land” were quite high this year, your disagreement notwithstanding.

I find it remarkably ridiculous for you to assume on one hand that I speak for “wizards land” and then for you to turn around and say that expectations for the Sixers were also ridiculous because you always felt they were no good. Congratulations. Way to spin things so you are right. Why don’t you respond to stuff I write instead of assuming I speak for all Wizards fans? If you don’t feel like doing that, then don’t unleash your anti-Wizards fan rant on me.

I find it really hard to believe that Mo Cheeks wasn’t fired because of inflated expectations. Expectations which, by the way, were higher than Washington’s expectations. Which makes him different from Eddie Jordan…how…exactly?

Eddie is a better Xs and Os guy, and like I said with jsams, if that’s the real problem, then Eddie will help. The only thing I’m saying is that you will still see your young guys buried behind underproducing veterans. It’s something we’ve seen for years in D.C. The quality of said youngsters is irrelevant, because they are clearly outperforming the veterans.

If you’re still cool with that (which it sounds like you are now), then Eddie fits in well. He is a better coach than Cheeks. But don’t expect Eddie Jordan to cure all the teams’ problems.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 13, 2008 12:45 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

Well see – I was aware – i just said MY expectations were low
and i never wanted mo cheeks to be the sixers head coach anyway

Never said I expected Eddie to cure all the sixers problems – you have know idea what i expect from the sixers
But after your pompous ‘i blog so i know more’ statement i moved on anyway…

by jemagee on Dec 13, 2008 1:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Same goes for Jordan in Washington.

Mo Cheeks however plays crappy veteran players (like willie green and reggie evans and even Sam Dalembert) over guys who have shown already that they are better than said veterans.

These are just as bad.

The point is that Eddie Jordan has displayed in D.C. that he is unwilling to play the younger guys who are outproducing their veteran counterparts. Nick Young did not start over DeShawn Stevenson. Andray Blatche was buried behind Darius Songaila. Hell, JaVale McGee didn’t start for the longest time over Etan freakin Thomas.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 12:38 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Thank you for making my point for me

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 13, 2008 12:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

In 3 years i’d rather have the sixers roster than the wizards roster

by jemagee on Dec 13, 2008 1:43 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

What the hell?

This has nothing to do with anything in this discussion. Where did I say the Wizards had a better team than the Sixers?

This is what bothers me so much about you. You built a strawman and changed the goalposts of the discussion just so you could throw in your two cents about the team I blog about. I didn’t appreciate that, particularly when you’re telling me that my team isn’t as good as “everyone” thinks they are. I never said anything about the Sixers that was not evident in jsams post. I kept things on topic. You didn’t and crapped on my team in the process. Not cool.

I don’t care whether your claim about the Wizards is right or wrong. Really, I don’t. But it honestly doesn’t matter. You’re just trying to create an argument and I have no interest in participating. Why must you do that?

I simply came on to suggest that if one contention with Cheeks was his inability to play his young guys, which jsams wrote, that was the same contention Wizards fans had with Eddie Jordan. I didn’t come on to argue about Wizards vs. Sixers or even to suggest Eddie Jordan was a bad coach that did not deserve to be fired. When jsams mentioned that the young guys issue was not the only problem with Cheeks, I listened and changed my view. I didn’t argue. I tried to learn from someone who watches more Sixers ball than me. Something you could have done too by not changing the frame of the discussion.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 13, 2008 3:01 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

jemagee has a lot of straw – thus he builds a lot of straw men. It’s just what he does. If you spent more time around this blog and thegoodphight.com you would get used to it. I have.

He is purposefully argumentative for no apparent reason at times. I have mixed it up with him in the past and we get along fine now. Sometimes it just helps to ignore.

by FuquaManuel on Dec 13, 2008 3:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, sorry about that bro.

I wouldn’t appreciate the treatment you got here over at Bullets Forever.

Like FuquaManuel said, jemagee is a opinionated guy and like’s to play devil’s advocate, but he’s a constant contributer here and sometimes it’s fun to stir the pot. I don’t always agree with what he has to say, but he does bring up good points a lot of the time.

I don’t think he’s trying to offend you in any way, just the way he is.

Pimpin' ain't easy and neither is being a Sixers fan. I manage to do both. Join me at Liberty Ballers, the SBNation 76ers blog. Don't make fun of the name either. It has nothing to do with the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

by jsams on Dec 13, 2008 4:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs