Sixers 2011-12 Season: What's Wrong with Realism?

I’m an optimist. I want to see the team win. I think the team was really close to doing some really good things last year, as evidenced by their pythagorean wins (45) and their record in games decided by 3 or less points (3-8). A couple of things go different ways (they were in all but one of those games against the Heat) and we’re talking about an up and coming team in the East. I think they should have traded Andre for Monta Ellis to get that closing scoring punch, and it is definitely possible for Turner to become an all-star (let’s not forget many people thought he could be the #1 pick 2 years ago). So what does that make me? Contradictory? IDK.

Now please, by all means, discuss away!

Realists unite. Optimists make a case, but ultimately be wrong. The grass is greener on acknowledging weaknesses and addressing them side.

I agree with Wally. I think you’ve summarized well the points on which we all agree, covered the basic points on which we disagree [albeit with self-serving labels], rendering further discussion unnecessary.

Still, glad for the forum – and to be watching Sixers basketball again.

…he was drunk all the time, and still managed to kick everyone’s butt. Gotta like that.

The realist point of view you present is a narrow minded way of building a contender. You’re basically saying the only way to become great is through the draft. It is a way to build a great team, but not the only way.

Take a look at the teams that contended last year. In the East you had Chicago, Boston and Miami. Chicago got extremely lucky and got the number one pick with the 8th best odds – I think? Other than Rose their team isn’t made up of lottery talent. We don’t even need to discuss Miami or Boston.

In the West you had Dallas, LA, SA and OKC. Dallas has had a steady build up of great teams, built around a guy picked 9th and an owner who’s willing to shell out the money for a winner. LA is built around a guy picked 13th and raped other teams via trade. SA had a tank year and got a lucky ping pong ball. And then you have OKC – the team who I can assume is your model of success. A team who sucked for years on end and amassed elite talent through the draft.

So out of the seven teams who had a reasonable shot last year, you have three teams who it can be said built a team your way. Two of which got elite talent from single fluke years.

Elite teams are built around elite players and getting other elite players to come play with them. Granted, the draft is a way to do this, but its not the only way. It also deserves to be said that the sixers have players (Jrue and Turner) that could become elite building blocks, but there’s no guarantee they will.

I think people get pissed when it’s presented to them that this year will just be pointless – Just another year of marginal improvement. We’ve all experienced a lost year all too recently. And we got a lucky ping pong ball out of it. No one wants to hear that we should do that again.

Teams fortunes can change overnight through trades or free agent signings or extreme player development. Just take a look at 6 of the 7 contenders from last year.

Sorry but this is pretty smug dude.

I’m so glad to have found this blog community a few days ago. The Internet is now saving me from the purgatory of listening to knuckle-head callers constantly take turns saying, “Fire Andy Reid!…Iguodala sucks!”

The reason I mention this is because Mike and Jordan’s columns were BOTH convincing and intriguing. I found both perspectives to be based on sound reasoning and insight.

This notion is what I loved about the discussion. This is not a world of “blacks and whites.” Realizing the reality of both is what enables us to see the shades of gray. So let’s all keep this fine discussion alive…both without being talking heads like Cataldi.

P.S. Mike, it’s ok to label oneself a pessimist. Calling yourself a “realist” only serves to cheapen and depreciate your opinions.

I’m not sure how realistic anyone is when their expectations are for championships. It’s as though they think that if the owners were really slick and drafted the right way and got the better of their trade with other teams that we’d be the ones with titles.

There are 30 teams in the NBA all with dreams of filling their ceiling rafters with banners commemorating year after year of Division and Conference Titles and NBA Championships. All playing by the same basic rules, some with a lot more revenue and deep pockets than others.

Realistically, you want your team to be above average, more entertaining and more successful than the other guys. Your proud of your Sixers, but you wish they had success like the Lakers, who have managed to stay relevant almost every year since they met the Sixers in the Finals.

Can’t do anything about the past, so you want them to become like the Lakers have been NOW. It doesn’t work that way, everyone who made a trade had some gimmick like former Laker Jerry West peddling Pau Gasol, or Ex-Celtic Kevin McHale giving Boston Garnett. Miami got away easy, lots of players want to play with Flash.

The Sixers don’t have Flash. Iguodala is a nice player, and Howard likes him, but probably not enough to come to Philly. Every team is trying to assemble a championship club and what they have in common is hoping and praying that somehow they get the next Tim Duncan, or Olajuwon or Shaq. In other words they have talent, but not all the pieces.

There’s no way to know who that player will be or how the Sixers will get him or if they can manage to have the top pick in the year when that player comes out. That’s what makes a great team, having that pick in the right year- some team has to get that pick and it makes all the difference for that franchise as long as that player is at the top of their game, like Kobe or Wade. That’s realism for you, it’s almost as hard as winning the lottery is for any of us.

It’s too early to know how good the new owners will be. We all know who they have and what they are and are not. There’s nothing we can do about it except try to enjoy what we have and argue about which moves we could have made and should have made. If you are only a fan when your team has a realistic chance at winning it all, most of the time your going to be an unhappy sports fan. If you want to see a team build, first you need that superstar to built around. It was great to watch the Sixers try to construct a team around Iverson.

You want the Sixers in a Championship sooner, figure out a way to get Dwight Howard out of Orlando.

I don’t really know where to classify myself, but here’s where I see the Sixers going in the next 3 or so years and reasons why I think they should go this way instead of tanking.

1. Jrue and Evan emerge into a great backcourt duo and become mainstays of the sixers backcourt for the next decade as they are both incredibly young and will grow together. Tanking will likely mean they are not playing well and/or might hinder their growth as we’ve seen with other teams (see: Clippers any year pre 2010). These two become our main reason as to why a superstar (not all star) center/big man want to come here, in addition to having tons of cash with the departures of Andre/Elton…

2. Trading away Andre/Elton for nothing (which is what the NBA is offering) will not help the young talent mentioned in point 1 grow into the players they can become. I do not think that Evan/Jrue are ready to completely carry this team until the start of the 2013-2014 season when Jrue has already become a perennial all-star and Evan is coming off of an all-star appearance in his 3rd year of the league.

3. Everyone makes the case that we don’t have the huge amounts of money to go after free-agents, well that’s because we used it all on Elton and annointed him our 20/10 king that would take us to contention…Well that didn’t happen folks and until 2013 we won’t have him off our books in order to spend like NY on a guy that would play here for Elton’s inflated salary. With Dre/EB off of our books, and still cheap young talent like ET/JH we could throw some huge cash piles at 1-2 big name guys and get them to come here for the money, the big key will be developing our talent into so people want to come play here with them.

I’m not saying it’s a fail safe plan, but the draft is an absolute crapshoot get rich quick scheme that didn’t work for a lot of teams. So many more teams have tanked in order to get a high draft pick and either pick a bust, or there not be a deep draft pool, or not even get the draft pick because of the wrong lottery bounce that no one here seems to mention it is incredible the benign neglect in overlooking those failed franchises that have floundered at the bottom of the league like a fish out of water. The way we are built as a team with DC at coach and the players right now we are building for the future that is a year or two away and stay patient and steadily climb the ranks.

Do you know what is unrealistic? The idea that losing ever makes your team better. Losing is bad for a team, it decreases interest from fans, the media, and potential players. While Elton Brand’s contract does kill our cap flexibility, waiving him to sign (who was good and wanted to sign here this offseason? tell me when you have some names) another player that could be had at his salary would have done very little. Not to mention we still have Andres Nocioni’s awful contract riding the very end of the bench. We shed Nocioni’s contract and Brand’s contract and don’t foolishly throw away a player in his prime, and we could have a great team.
Realistically, the Sixers right now are a team that will be well-positioned to make the right kind of deals and attract the right kind of players to become a contender in 2012-13. Giving away Iguodala for nothing and having a losing season will not help the Sixers accomplish that goal. Losing is always bad for a team, unless they win the draft lottery and are lucky enough to pick a player who can produce in the NBA at a superstar level. There are maybe 3 of those players per year and there’s no assurance the Sixers would get one of them.

The Ownership:
The Sixers now have new owners who just spend several hundred million dollars to buy the team. All of their promotional actions show their goal is to attract more fans back to the Sixers and make money on their brand new investment. Making the playoffs every year and staying competitive accomplishes that for them.

The Coach:
Doug Collins has made moves last season in terms of playing players for wins over development at times. From everything he has said and done shows he plans on improving this team and thinks they can be real competitors. He also plans on keeping players like Iguodala around who could be a good trade asset for rebuilding.

The Team:
This team is a young, athletic, and competitive team who should make the playoffs as high as a 5 seed. Jrue looks like he is a player who could be great and is already really good. Turner was a second overall pick who could be a player like Iguodala and has a lot of potential. Lou Williams is a BOSS who can be a source of scoring off the bench, but take a lot of shots. Thad is a raw mismatch scorer of the bench who has potential but needs to improve his jumpshots, defense, and rebounding. Brand is aging and isn’t going to be here more than the rest of his contract. Meeks is a nice shooter but that is it. Finally, Hawes and Vuc are unathletic centers who aren’t to be relied on for rebounding or defense, and can provide some offensive support (as long as they don’t take those stupid jumpshots). This team has no superstar, and isn’t going to improve to the point of being a title contender. This team is a big man and a star away from becoming a title contender.

Summing It Up:
The ownership wants fans in the seats, the coach wants to win with this team, and this team is several pieces away from achieving anything more than the playoffs. This all points to the team continuing on with being good enough to make the playoffs and that’s it. This will result in drafting in the middle of the draft, which is not where superstars are drafted. Not much is gonna change. I don’t think that it is necessarily good or bad, just is. I am just going to be a fan and try to enjoy the experience. I don’t know if I am an optimist, pesimist, realist, or whatever. I am just going to enjoy the Sixers with the guys from the Liberty Ballers.