A Liberty Ballers Mid-Offseason Retro and Poll
by Michael Levin on Jul 14, 2010 6:00 AM PDT
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PrintHappy Hump Day, MC Hammerses! I know it's early, but I'm concocting (h/t Prideoux) a long, thoughtful, and error-riddled piece on what to expect for this season. Put that in your tickle files for another day.
If you've been in a coma this offseason -- a likely story -- you've missed out on a few things. For our hibernating friends, I will outline those events in bullet point format and shameless self-promotion! Raise your hand if you've read all of these. The Blog Czars don't count. Go!
- Eddie Jordan was fired. Relive the thread.
- The First-Annual Jodies were distributed.
- Presumably, you all bought your "I Survived the Eddie Jordan Era" T-Shirts at 12:01 on the first day.
- We thought Larry Brown would butt his way in as coach.
- We made a lot of big boards.
- The Lottery brought us good fortune.
- Tanner hand-delivered us this gem.
- Derek rocked the combine.
- Jordan debated with himself.
- Doug Collins got all hired and stuff.
- The First-Annual Rickos were distributed and internationally praised.
- Hey, we got ourselves a regional site! Now we're as good as the Dallas-Fort Worth area!
- Samuel Dalembert was traded for Spencer Hawes and Andres Nocioni. Thoughts ensued.
- I bonded with Evan Turner in a media day elevator, then with a microphone.
- Then we drafted him...
- ...While I was bonding some more, shaking in my credentialed boots at the NBA Draft.
- TAFKAMB, jsams, and tsteidel died in a fire of irresponsibility and youthful vigor. Grizzled, wizened, and hardened veterans emerged like Phoenixes. Phoenices? Phoeni? Feeney?
- The summer league came.
- The summer league went.
This has actually been a pretty cool offseason, looking back on it from the midway point. While there's a lot of time left to make a few moves, I expect this to be more or less the team you'll see take the court come late October. How many wins does that mean to you? What should be the goal of this season? Answer in the poll, comment in the comments. Be sure to differentiate what you think will happen and what you think should happen.
Thanks for coming along for the ride, folks and folkettes.
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I did vote for the gloom, but I would think that it’s the high end of gloomy. 20-25 wins. I base this prediction on the total lack of anything resembling an NBA-caliber frontcourt player on the Sixers’ roster at this point. Barring a stunning trade (does Minnesota have anyone left that they might like…I’m pretty sure Kahn is the only executive stupider than Stefanski), they are left dependent on the Axis of Crappy to play the 4 and 5 spots. They still have no real three-point threat to stretch the floor for their slashers. Their presumably decent perimeter defenders (this is including an assumption about Turner not based on any factual observations in a Sixers uniform up to this point) have zero margin for error, as there is no interior defense to speak of.
This is not necessarily a Bad Thing, long-term. There is nothing wrong with building through the draft…in fact, I am all for getting a few top 5 picks in there. But the vote wasn’t for “Are the Sixers starting to move in a long-term direction that might get them, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, into contention in 4-5 years?” The question was “How many games do you think they’re going to win this year?” And between the total lack of quality forwards and Turner’s inevitable growing pains (people who think they’re going to be better than this are counting on a LOT from Turner, who clearly isn’t ready to live up to that level of expectation on Day 1 (I don’t think his summer league performance, or lack of same, is any indication of how good he will be eventually, but I think it might be at least some indication of what we can expect Day 1…he’ll be good in the long run, but he’s going to suck initially, and that’s OK), I expect that’s going to be a very low number.
22 wins. Top 5 pick. Count it.
Handing out the last Jodie was the best career move I’ve ever made. I slept with every Sixers dancer at an after party. At the same time.
I’m right at 35-36 wins. Definitely somewhere in the 30’s.
But looking at how the Sixers are sort of capped out for 3 years- I’d rather be in the 20’s for wins than 30’s. If you are going to be bad for a while, might as well be very bad and have more chances to upgrade through the draft.
This team has a low ceiling. Their only shot is bringing in a Superstar in 3 years after Brand expires. And I’m not going to get excited about some kind of pie in the sky scenario that is 3 years away. Meanwhile, the team’s goal is to return to the 40-41 win range they were at before last year.
I guess that makes me:
by tk76 on Jul 14, 2010 8:00 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
In terms of our record, what I think should happen and what I think will happen is about the same – 40 wins, give or take a few. At worst we will be drafting Thad part 2 in the 12-14 slot and at best losing in the first round against the magic/heatcavs
In terms of player development: What I think should happen is we see if Speights can play legit defense in the front court or look to package him with Lou for a defensive big. What I think will happen is we see no trades at all and we become one of the weakest front court teams in the league.
I would like to see Turner/Jrue/Iguodala thrive together on both ends of the court. I would also like to see Brand playing better and playing, if at all, limited minutes at the center position. I would like to see Nocioni with a rainbow-colored mullet. Oh, and Willie and Kapono should rot at the end of the bench next to the waterboy, J-Smith.
"I admire his competitiveness. As much as I admire it, I thought that he was trying too hard."- Eddie Jordan
They like rainbow colored mullets in Greece....and it would open some cap space..
According to the Greek media, Panathinaikos could be one of them. The Greek club could be also interested in two other NBA players, still under contract: the Spanish guard Rudy Fernández, from the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Argentinian forward Andrés Nocioni, recently traded to the Philadelphia 76ers.
http://thehoopsmarket.blogspot.com/2010/07/luis-scola-considering-two-offers-from.html
Voted 26-35, Collins should squeeze about 5-6 extra wins out of this team, which I think is a 23-27 win team at best. What I would like to see is an abysmal season in terms of W-L, with the development of Turner becoming around the level of Jrue in terms of confidence and knowing how the NBA works. I want to see Jrue and Andre be leaders on the court, Jrue especially as this will be his team eventually. I want to see Speights improve his defensive fundamentals particularly his post D and conditioning. I’d like to see Jodie become absolutely deadly consistent shooting the three, and continue his hustle and defensive tenacity. I would hope to have a top 5 lottery pick, seeing as how this draft seems to be much deeper in terms of top tier talent than this years. Ideally, Thad and Hawes play above their level and, seeing a contract year for what it is, Stefanski deals at least one of them for a late first or a young piece. Ed would also deal Kapono and WG at the deadline for any pick in this years draft, like I said I’ve observed this draft to be extremely deep and many good players have the potential to be in the second round.
What will happen, is Turner coming into his own about 3/4 of the way through the season after people have written him off, Collins will work with our young core and make them gel together and grow as one, improving their defense along the way. Kapono and WG will expire at the end of the year and, like Andre Miller, we won’t get anything for them. Speights will continue to impress on the offensive end, and attempt to play better defense, but he will generally underwhelm in this area. Meeks will become a solid bench player, becoming the offensive threat he was when he played for Kentucky, and his annoying defensive will be effective. Collins will lead us to roughly 34 or so wins, and a top 10 pick seems likely.
Assuming we don’t get violated by the team trading for him, Trading Andre has a few positives.
1. Makes us horrible, which could be good, ya dig?!
2. Young player and picks
3. Shows that FO has acknowledged it’s “rebuild time”
Negatives:
1. No more thunderous dunks (Except from Jodie :)
2. Defense becomes worse than it already is, leaving us with one proven defender in the NBA, Jrue.
3. Offense is significantly weakened.
I’d gladly accept the negatives assuming the positives.
by Jordan Sams on Jul 14, 2010 11:16 AM PDT up reply actions
So any body want to do a list of teams worse than the Sixers?
I’d have to say New York and maybe New Jersey. Possibly Toronto as well from our division. Detroit and Washington may have worse squads than us. Out West, the only team I’m willing to say will be worse is Minnesota.
I put us in the 26 to 35 win bracket. But hoping we’re worse. I want another top 3 draft pick. Honestly the team isn’t going in the next 3 years if the front office says the playoffs are the target. I’d love to know who all the optomistic people are, that think we’re a possible first round playoff contender.
Voting for mediocrity makes me feel all warm inside. My guts says...
36 wins. My gut also says I need to go to the bathroom right now.
There can only be one Noce!
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