Tuesday's Sixers Links, Featuring Doug Collins and Toasters

Yo, yo, chilin with my boy D.O. what's good?  Sending ya'll back to the super fun hood!  I think my censorship is better and more friendly than Pat Patterson's don't you?  The only thing that could have made that beatboxing rendition better would be to have Paul George singing the hook.  The group name you ask: PPD (Pat, Paul, and Daniel).  But I digress...

Yesterday gave us the chance to introduce ourselves to the new coach of the 76ers, Doug Collins (to read reactions from commenters and to see the entire press conference click here).  With a day to let everything settle in, what are we going to give you?  More information on Doug Collins!  Now if that's not the best way to spend your Tuesday then Pat Patterson isn't the greatest beatboxer of all-time (can you tell I loved the audio Derek got?).

Check out those links after the jump.  Gotta catch 'em all, Linkemon!

Important Quotes from Doug Collins

Unlike his predecessor, Eddie Jordan, who brought his Princeton offense and insisted it would work no matter the talent, Collins will wait to assess his players before implementing a system.

"You can't say, 'I'm going to take this group and play this way.' What you have to do is say, 'What do I have?' And then you've got to build your team around that. Every year that I coached I ran a different system because I've never had the same team. And that's what coaches have to do. They have to adjust and they have to play to their personnel."

"I think Jrue Holiday has a chance to be a terrific on-the-ball defender, that's where it all starts. Andre Iguodala should be an all-league defensive player at the small forward position. Thaddeus, I've got to get him back. He had a tough year, but the year before he played terrific.''

"Sam [Dalembert] with his shot-blocking and rebounding. We've got good guys coming off the bench who can do some things in [Marreese] Speights and Lou Williams and Willie Green. Jodie Meeks played well at the end of the year. There's some pieces, now it's up to me to put it together."  

Question Marks Surround Collins and Sixers

If you stick Andre Iguodala at the small forward position and leave him there, will his production improve? Can Elton Brand still be a useful player, maybe as a high-post center? Is Marreese Speights the worst defender in history, or just a kid who needs the proper motivation?

"There's no way you can tell me Thaddeus Young is not a good basketball player," Stefanski said, picking out one example. "I traded [Kyle] Korver in order to get him on the floor, and he responded. Then, to go where he was last year doesn't make any sense at all. It just doesn't make sense."

"Toughness is one of the most underrated skills in the sport," Collins said. "Right now, we're very much a finesse team. In practice, you can create competitive toughness, and one thing I have always done is reward competitors."

Collins sounds as if he is leaning toward playing Iguodala, Young, and Brand together in the frontcourt, which will make the team undersize at each position. If Jrue Holiday's development is force-fed with added minutes at the point and if shooting guard Evan Turner is the draft pick, the Sixers will be painfully young in the backcourt. Still, it has to be done, and it isn't as if last season was pretty, either.

"There are no quick fixes," Collins said. "If it's quick, it won't last. These guys have had a lot of coaches. They've heard a lot of different voices. I've got to create a relationship with them. If there's trust, then they're more apt to listen."  

More on Collins Hooray!

"I feel like I'm the bus driver. I've got to get the right people on the bus, and, more importantly, I've got to get them sitting in the right seats."

The roster, the one that crashed so dramatically this season, is viewed by most as a hodgepodge of mismatched parts that don't fit together.

"This team, 2 years in a row, was in the playoffs and won 41 games [in 2008-09]," Collins said. "We have some players on the team that I am going to have to revitalize, get their joy in the game back."

"The NBA is a point guard-driven league," Collins noted (speaking about Jrue Holiday). "That's why I'm excited because I think we've got a terrific young point guard to build around."

"I'm a positive guy. I see it as this guy has some talent and I've got to get it out of him. Relationships don't happen by accident, they happen on purpose. You build trust, and once you have trust you have more of an idea to listen." 

Ed Snider Backs Up Ed Stefanski; Never Any Doubt About Employment

"When did I ever say he wasn't the guy?" Snider said. "He's the general manager. He's got two more years on his contract. I never said anything negative. Have I?"

"We weren't giving ourselves a vote of confidence, let alone Ed," (Comcast-Spectacor COO Peter) Luukko explained. "When you have a very disappointing year, as we did, you've got to take a couple weeks away from it, a couple steps back, and try to get the emotions out, then begin to build it back."

Just a note to Snider and Luukko -- saying nothing when people start speculating about your GMs job is generally a sign you're thinking of making a change. People assume if you're not saying anything it's because you can't say something nice. Next time, give the man a little public pat on the back.

Completely Un-Sixers-Related (but sort of related) News of the Day: Team Logo Toasters to Fill Christmas Stockings Across America

Want to eat what Michael Jordan eats for breakfast? What Gerald Wallace eats? It ain't Wheaties, my friend. It is toast. Bread emblazoned with the logo of the Charlotte Bobcats. Burned in by special toaster.

A company named Pangea has created toasters that burn the logo of your favorite team into your favorite bread. Seriously. And that toast is part of a nutritionally balanced breakfast.

The cost is just $39.99, but that is a small price to pay to have the Sacramento Kings logo burned into your toast every morning. You know Tyreke Evans does it. You just know it.