The thing is, Thaddeus doesn’t get better with his buns cemented to the bench. Or, contrariwise, they don’t find out that Thaddeus sucks ass and doesn’t get a new contract with his buns cemented to the bench.

I suppose they can’t re-trade Nocioni…I’m not up on league rules, but I know there’s a restriction on turning around a player you just traded for.

Hopefully at least sour-cream and onion (he is, or at least was, a halfway decent bench player…people need those). And preferably sour-cream and onion that doesn’t tie up cap space for any longer than Nocioni himself does.

I suspect the trade of Sammy had more to do with his “bad attitude” and constant desire to be traded (to a team that immediately thereafter drafted DeMarcus Cousins and Hassan Whiteside) than a desire to develop young players who don’t yet exist. There aren’t any players, young or otherwise, who come anywhere close to duplicating Sammy’s skill set currently on the Sixers roster. And yes, he was infuriating to watch sometimes, with his low basketball IQ, particularly on offense. I am not blind to the large holes in his game. But there is something to be said for interior defense, rebounding, and shot blocking.

OK, that was tangential. But anyway, while I believe that at least Collins feels that the team is far from contention (who knows what Stefanski thinks, or what the Evil Empire wants to believe?), there is the immediate goal of getting back to being an easy first-round playoff knockout, rather than a stinky-ka-ka bottom feeder (who gets high draft picks) for a few years. I guess I understand the impulse not to rebuild, but it’s a stupid impulse nonetheless.

I blame sports talk radio talking heads for the front office’s unwillingness to just blow it up, melt it down, and start from scratch. There is an assumption that the fans who call into these shows are representative of the fan base, and they want a winner right now, always. The more thoughtful fans, the ones who don’t call into radio shows, generally, are far more willing to be patient and build a winner properly, through drafting well, shedding bad contracts as possible, and developing young talent, over the course of several years.

At least, the quality of sports talk radio in Philly is so execrably bad that inferences could be made about its effect on equally bad front office decisions. The Sixers want so badly to be “relevant” to their fans that they will sell any future, and with it any chance of being what their fans really want them to be (a legitimate contender), just to finish eighth in the conference and to be annihilated by the Magic or Heat or Celtics. After last year’s fiasco, there is an impression that that would get fans excited…“Look! Improvement! We are getting somewhere! Show up to our games! Please?”

This line of thinking assumes all fans are idiots. This opinion of the fan base must have come from somewhere. It didn’t come from here, for the most part, where the vast majority of people seem to get it, in terms of building a team for the future. I am guessing it comes from talk radio callers.

Then again, I could be wrong.

The thing is, I would actually pay to see a team that was stocking young talent and shedding bad contracts of non-productive players, even if they weren’t good this season. I believe in rewarding good behavior. But there is no way I would pay to see a team that isn’t very good now, has zero identity, and peaks out at mediocrity. I like the idea of being there at the beginning of something special and watching them grow into a real contender. I don’t like the idea of being there as the Band-Aid Brigade limps to another .500 season while the young guys rot on the bench and Willie Green and Nocioni get 25 minutes a night.

Why wouldn’t ET start? If he is good enough in preseason them there is no way he shouldn’t start. Playing bad in 5 pickup ges after four months of not playing basketball is no reason not to start him.

Seriously? Iguodala for Birdman or Varejao? Um. No thanks. Besides the contracts not matching up. There are more reasonable packages to be put together for someone like Birdman or Varejao (although I think he makes too much money to be valuable).

How about something like Willie Green’s Expiring Contract plus Lou Williams (a future MVP!) for someone like Blatche? Maybe not Blatche because they have John Wall, who is basically a vastly superior Lou Williams. But how about maybe Nene? I hear Denver would trade him?

Hopefully he suffers a season ending injury so not to steal time from players who matter

we had bruce bowen