Poll: High-scoring Offense or Lockdown Defense

by Jordan Sams on Sep 8, 2009 5:15 AM PDT

With all the talk of excitement lately, I've come to the realization that the Sixers will probably be a more exciting team to watch this season. Running the Princeton Offense means higher scoring games, and winning games 120-115 is usually more exciting than grind-it-out 91-87 wins. But will the Sixers be a better team?

New coach Eddie Jordan brings along his fancy Princeton Offense which made All-Stars out of Gilbert Arenas, Antwan Jamison and Caron Butler in Washington. He also brought out the best in offensively challenged players like DeShawn Stevenson and Brendan Haywood. EJ could very well come into Philly and make first time All-Stars out of Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young. Heck, maybe even Lou Williams. But is that necessarily a good thing?

What makes an All-Star? I'd say the two "S"s: Stats and Success. In order to be an All-Star in the NBA you have to put up good numbers and be on a semi-successful team at the break. Arenas, Jamison and Butler all fell under this category. Defense doesn't factor into the equation -- unless of course you have outrageous stats to back it up. Has Shane Battier ever made an All-Star team? No. Is he a better basketball player than some of the guys who do make it? Yes.

My question is: would you rather see the Sixers roll with EJ's high octane offense, become "All-Stars" and play in more exciting games, or continue to play solid defense and win grind-it-out games? Now, there's a good chance they can accomplish both. After all, they weren't exactly world-beaters defensively, especially against the three. My only fear is, the Princeton Offense will turn Andre Iguodala into an "All-Star", but he'll sacrifice some of his lockdown defense to do so.

Poll

Would you rather see...

A high scoring offense?

63 votes

Lockdown defense?

71 votes

Or do you think the Sixers are capable of both?

88 votes

222 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 12 comments | 1 recs |

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Comments

just wanted to cheer you

and thank your for keeping the Sixers topics up in this boring period of the year.. thank God Euro2009 started at least I have some actual hoops to watch

take care Jordan, keep up the good work !!

http://sixers4guidos.wordpress.com/

by Ricky - Sixers4guidos on Sep 8, 2009 6:46 AM PDT reply actions

Thanks Ricky.

Liberty Ballers.com.

by Jordan Sams on Sep 8, 2009 11:55 AM PDT up reply actions

You asked if they are capable

Of course they are capable of doing both! If you ask me are they going to do both, I would say no, not for the 1st half, and yes on the 2nd half of the season.

They may even surprise us this year and be a very good team? Or, may not suprise many and be a very bad team (based on what I read at other blogs!).

by DeanH on Sep 8, 2009 7:12 AM PDT reply actions

I think they're capable of doing both too.

The Princeton offense should improve everyone’s offense, and we have at least four above average defenders.

The question is: will they?

Liberty Ballers.com.

by Jordan Sams on Sep 8, 2009 11:57 AM PDT up reply actions

Rec'd

by guitarmouse35 on Sep 8, 2009 9:18 AM PDT reply actions

Randy Ayers defensive system is supposed to be pretty good so I think they are capable of doing both.

fightlockdown.com

by The Legend on Sep 8, 2009 10:45 AM PDT reply actions

Who cares?

Even if he inflates the offensive numbers, I dont think the record will change much. To me, the Sixers took a little step back this year. Add in Brand, subtract Miller. I dont think it will matter if they become more offensive minded, I think it will still be the same 7/8 seed team that loses in the first round.

by philiafan14364 on Sep 8, 2009 11:38 AM PDT reply actions

I think the Brand/Miller swap is a wash, and I think Lou is better suited for the Princeton Offense anyway. The reasons I think they’ll be better than last year are: improvements from Thad and Speights, the return of Jason Smith as a solid bench player, and the additions of J-Kap and Holiday.

My realistic expectations are somewhere between 42-45 wins.

Liberty Ballers.com.

by Jordan Sams on Sep 8, 2009 11:55 AM PDT up reply actions

while watching high scoring games are more fun to watch i would rather see them have a lock down defense. Look at the Suns, they had a high scoring offense and still did not win a championship. Look at the Pistons, they had a lock down defense and rode it to a championship. If you can be great at both, all the better but i think we need to start with a lock down defense and build from there.

by Ben16 on Sep 8, 2009 12:37 PM PDT reply actions

I would just like to throw this out here and see where the wind takes it...

I think the sixers have the potential to be a better team this year if everything goes according to plan.

1. They have an offensive system this year. Last year was “run n` gun,” which is not really a system you can rely on.
2. I think their run and gun offense had some negative impacts on their defense, mainly because guys would try to set up to cherry-pick. Often times you would see an offender on the opposing team shoot a jumper or a three and immediately a sixer would break his defensive position and begin to run up the court, hoping someone on his team (namely an unreliable dalembert) would get the rebound and pass out. If the defender didn`t get the rebound (they often struggled at times letting other teams get too many offensive rebounds) this would give the opposing team the advantage.
The sixers were too focused on trying to do this and that may have off-set their defense.
3. With a better strategized offense, this could help their defense in that they may not look to run n` gun so often.
4. In their hearts, they wanted to defend last year, but just didn`t have the maturity to do it consistently. Other teams would eat them alive with this, at times. If they can learn from last year`s mistakes, they might be better. Also, we don`t have to worry about Miller not being athletic enough to keep up with younger, faster PG`s.

by jefu on Sep 9, 2009 5:39 PM PDT reply actions

I think the run n gun has actually helped us over the past few years. Overall, I think talent wise were a little behind most other teams in the league, and the run n gun made up for that since we had young guys that could run for 48 minutes and other teams couldnt keep up.

by philiafan14364 on Sep 11, 2009 12:17 PM PDT up reply actions

I don't think that's entirely true

Oftentimes the sixers had trouble closing out games. Although they are a very athletic team, you could see them tire, or become complacent during games. The run’gun, although effective, is not reliable. When they were dependent on it, I think it hurt their overall game, including their defense. Teams that didn’t know how to control the sixers’ athleticism were bogged down by it, but of course this is not true for every team. Strong defensive teams with quick, active point guards (ie Celtics, hornets, jazz) were able to perform well against the sixers.
If they can use the run’gun to their advantage, with an effective offense system as their foundation, I think they can be a better team.

by jefu on Sep 13, 2009 6:37 PM PDT reply actions