Thaddeus alley-oop

Thaddeus fake-behind-the-back dunk @ the 1:03 mark

Box Score

Pounding the Rock

If you didn't watch the game, the Sixers we're down 40-19 after the first quarter. San Antonio hit 15 threes. The Sixers battled back to tie it only to have their hearts broken by an offensive rebound followed by a game winner at the hands of Tony Parker. The shot was a difficult rainbow-fadeaway at the buzzer and it was absolutely devastating.

I'm in no condition to write a coherent recap, so I'll go with the good old, scrambled observations approach.

-Games like these from Andre Iguodala make me want to take back every negative thing I've ever said about him. He played one of the most complete games I've ever seen from him. It would've been awesome if he could've topped it off with a game-winner, but never got the chance. He was 10-15 from the field, 5-5 from the line, had 25 points, 8 boards and 8 assists. Not to mention a few monster dunks. MONSTER.

-Say what you want about Andre Miller. He made a questionable pass, thus committing a bad turnover at the end of the game and "allowed" Tony Parker to get the offensive rebound and hit the game-winner, but it was because of Andre Miller that the Sixers were even in the game. He committed only one turnover and was 12-14 from the field. He looked like an all-star tonight.

-Theo Ratliff played great defense down the stretch.

-Speights played 18 minutes, but none in the second half. He's nowhere near as good defensively as Ratliff or Dalembert and that's why he didn't play in the second half. Once he improves his defense the sky's the limit.

-Lou had another solid game off the bench. It wasn't spectacular, just solid.

-It cannot be said enough. Willie Green is absolute garbage. I dislike him a lot.

-Thad Young continues to show flashes and that jump hook is starting to look less like luck and more like skill. I'm confused on why he didn't play in crunch time and why Royal Ivey, of all people, took his minutes. He should've been out there. 

-The Sixers showed a ton of heart tonight and hung in there with the Spurs. I'm proud of the team tonight and even though they lost they did a lot of good things. No one likes to lose like that, but they could've easily laid down and gotten blown out after the 40-19 first quarter, but they didn't and played one heck of a game.

Box Score

Highlights

SLCDunk

I got caught up in some intense Madden earlier--nearly 6 hours worth. Due to my addiction to re-building the Detroit Lions franchise, I was forced to tape the Sixers game and began watching it at 3 o'clock in the morning. (It doesn't look like you guys missed me too much.) Thank God I have the week off.

My TV clock now 4:40 A.M. and you know what, even though the Sixers got owned yet again, I'm completely at peace with my decision to stay up until four in the morning to watch my team lose. Maybe I'm high off Madden ecstasy, maybe I've realized how bad the Sixers are, maybe it's the fact that I have missed two straight ball games, but for whatever reason I actually enjoyed watching the game tonight.

The Sixers lost to an under-manned Utah Jazz team. The reasons to the loss were very similar to the reasons this is a 12-18 basketball team. The main one being the inability to shoot. Here's the telling stat. Sixers: 1-9 from downtown, Kyle Korver:2-4. Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2008-2009 Philadelphia 76ers. Oh, how I miss Kyle Korver.

Observations before I go to bed:

-Lou Williams has definitely returned to form. I love to watch him play. He reminds m of A.I. That could either be a good or a bad thing, but as of right now he's probably the Sixers best offensive option. Sure he makes stupid mistakes sometimes, but you have to take the good with the bad. Not to mention he's still only 22 years old. I'd love to see him get a chance to run the show if anything happens to Andre Miller somewhere down the road, via trade or injury.

-Marreese Speights is extremely talented offensively. He's very raw, but you can see it. He's going to be special. On the other hand, his defense and rebounding needs a lot of work.

-If a person were watching this team for the first time, I guarantee you they wouldn't guess that Andre Iguodala is the highest paid player with Brand out. His dunks are magical and he still does some spectacular things on the court, but I question his contract at least 90 times a day.

-I don't care how much better of a defender and rebounder Sam is than Speights, he needs to go. He looks completely lost out there.

-Thaddeus Young was pretty impressive tonight. He had NBA.com's 2nd top play tonight. If you didn't get a chance to see the play, click the link out and fast forward to play number two. It's well worth it.

-News-flash: Willie Green still sucks so hard.

-Deron Williams and AK47 are beasts.

-Despite the fact that the Sixers suck, they're still entertaining. The fast break is really clicking and they have at least one or two ridiculous dunks a night.

The Sixers are now 12-18 and by the time Elton Brand comes back this team could be completely out of the playoff picture. They haven't played any basketball this season that leads me to believe that they will turn the season around, barring a major trade. And now that the idea of being a lottery-bound team has sunken in, I'm fine with it. Speights is awesome. Lou-Will is awesome. Thad is awesome. Iggy's awesome, only if he's being groomed for the team's third or fourth option once we're  actually ready to contend. And those four players are only going to get better. Add a lottery pick and Jason Smith to the mix and we start turning into the Portland TrailBlazers, stockpiling young talent and one day it will all click. The best thing about sports is it's never-ending. When we're all dead and gone the Sixers will still be around. Once Brand, Iggy, Lou, Speights and Thad retire, there will be a new batch of players ready to take the helm. We might not be as good as we thought we were going to be, but I see the light. There is talent on this roster and I trust Ed and company to figure out how to fix this. My advice to you is not to get too upset about these losses, because until Elton returns and probably after he returns this team will do plenty of losing. But instead of throwing an object at your television, screaming curse words or feeling sorry for yourself as a Sixers fan, enjoy the bright spots. Go buy yourself a Lou-Will jersey or a Mo Speights jersey. Enjoy the electrifying dunks and fast-breaks that the Sixers break out night after night. I know I will.

Now 4:47 A.M. on the west coast, it's time for bed. Good night Sixers fans.

It's been an interesting holiday season to say the least. I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas/Hanukah/whatever holiday you celebrate. While I was away, I missed two Sixers losses. I was far from surprised; I actually predicted it.

As you know, I'll be out of town for the first two of the road trip and I fully expect to come back to a 12-17 team.

The losses included the beatdown in Boston and supposedly the most disappointing loss of the season-- the Carmelo-less Denver Nuggets fighting back from 17 down for a win. From the reading I've done, I'm actually thankful I missed both games. I would probably be as pissed off as other Sixers' fans (You'll see in a second.), but instead, I'm a somewhat level-headed and am finally starting to see the big picture. I'll give you my take in a second, but first, here are some key quotes from other Sixers observers to best sum up the holiday-season-losses (Mainly the Denver one since losing to the Champs in Boston was pretty much a given).

Depressed Fan:

Maybe they aren't being properly motivated, but whatever it takes, someone needs to light a fire under them.

ReclinerGM:

Oh My F'ing God! Are you kidding me. So not only do we have a terrible basketball team with no mental toughness, we have idiots and the LAMEST $80M player I have ever seen in my entire life!

Andre Iguodala is a slug. You don't give the ball to slugs with the game on the line.

Ball Don't Lie:

Yo, Sixuhs. You only have Toronto to beat in terms of the "massively disappointing, only have to look slightly better under the interim coach, while working with huge gobs of excuses" strata. Congrats, so far.

Pickaxe and Roll:

After playing such a solid defensive game it was shocking to see the 76ers just roll out the red carpet with the game on the line.

The Sixers were not done with mental errors though.  Andre Iguodala traveled in the middle of the lane with only 2.9 seconds left to give the ball back over to Denver. 

The 76ers played very well, but they put up two of the worst shots I may have ever seen from the lane.  Mareese Speights, who is going to be a very good player, airballed a dunk attempt.  He tried throwing down a monster one handed windmill, but he was a little too far away and came up a little.  As a result he spiked the ball and it went out of bounds.  Louis Williams, who I think can be a very good player one day too, one upped him though.  After driving baseline along the baseline from left to right tried throwing up a reverse layup that was so far off he shot it on the wrong side of the backboard.  He missed so badly that it did not even hit any part of the rigging holding the backboard up. 

Here's my quick take. As a team, we sit at 12-17, which in case you didn't know, isn't very good. It's clearly not what I expected from this team, nor is it what most "experts" expected. Our prized off-season possession will be sidelined for at least the next three weeks and after 29 games the Sixers are who they are. A God awful basketball team.

Andre Iguodala is our franchise player whether we like it or not, at least until we miss the playoffs by one game, win the lottery and draft Ricky Rubio. Until something drastic like that happens, Iggy is our go-to guy. I don't know about you, but I come close to vomiting when that statement enters my mind. No NBA team will ever win a championship with Iguodala as their best player, and most likely not as their second best. However; that's subject to change if he vastly improves over the next couple years. In the mean time, I don't want to see him get the rock with the game on the line. He wets the bed nine times out of ten. I recommend Lou Williams or Andre Miller.

No matter how unpolished they are, we still have some promising young players. Lou, Thad and Speights are all going to be pretty good NBA players and could be great. All three of them make bonehead plays regularly, but I'll chalk that up as inexperience. These three guys will get me through what looks to be a long second half of the season. 

At 12-17, without Elton Brand and a tough stretch of games coming up, things don't look too good in Sixerland, but no worries. Obviously things didn't work out like anyone planned and as of right now I'm not so sure this team is even good enough to make the playoffs in the EAST. And that's saying something. This however, is the quote that gives me and all Sixers' fans hope.

"You’ll never hear ‘patience’ coming out of my mouth."--Edward Stefanski

Change is coming. It has too. There's no way Stefanski can watch this pitiful team for much longer. He pulled the trigger on Cheeks at the right time and I'm sure he's on the phones day and night searching for something, whether it's a player to improve the team in the short-term or a salary dump to prepare for the future. There's still hope Sixers' fans, at least that's what I keep telling myself, because without hope all we have is a God awful basketball team. In Ed We Trust.

Next up is the Jazz in Utah. And oh yeah, and it's good to be back.

It's been a while, so this might get ugly. I'll probably spurt off into a couple of tangents. Bare with me. 

Today, December 11th, marks the end of my finals which means I have a month free of papers, exams and all the stuff that goes along with college. Yes! The past week or has felt like hibernation. I've barely turned on my TV. I've barely used my computer for pleasure (I love to re-read my post to find dirty sounding sentences, and leave them in regardless). I've been buried in papers, finals, work and working out. Last night I weened my way back into the sports world and it was like I never left. The Sixers continued their disappointing season with another loss (which I'll get to in a second) and today I reluctantly turned on ESPN and find out Romo and T.O. are having a conflict. Awesome. I don't like ESPN anymore and I have my reasons.

Anyway, today begins the four-week vacation I've been anticipating forever. My work hours will be bumped back up to 40 a week and I'm going to try and hit the gym before the holidays, so I'll still be a busy dude, but not nearly as busy as I have been for the past week or so. Why do you care? Well, you might have noticed Liberty Ballers has been lonely during finals, but I'm here to tell you that I'm going to be posting much like I was before finals and I'm going to do everything in my power to improve the site before school starts again. I'm going to attempt to add new features, possibly a  new writer (Please don't ask me; I'll ask you), a skilled graphic designe who's also a Sixer fan (That's going to be difficult) and whatever else I can think of along the way.

The only bump in the road during next four weeks will be the week of December 21-27. I'll be in Connecticut, yeah Connecticut, celebrating Christmas with my family. I'll probably bring my laptop, but I know from experience, every year, the week that I'm there usually means no TV, computer or sports for me. I'll do my best to update the site everyday, but I can't promise anything. This could possibly be an audition for a writing position with Preview/Recap FanPosts. The games I'll miss are @ Boston and @ Denver.

Now to the Sixers, who sit at 9-13. Here are some observations I have what's been going on lately.

Andre Iguodala has really been rounding into form as of late. His line for the month of December looks like this: 21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 53% shooting and 79% from the foul line. He's still turning the ball over too much and shooting poorly from beyond the arch, but I'll take 21-8-5 from Iggy any day. His last game was the most impressive. He nearly played a perfect game, guarding LeBron, taking smart jumpers, making smart passes, limiting the turnovers and rebounding the basketball. Hopefully this trend continues. 

(Random: I still haven't turned off ESPN, and Thank God I didn't because I just got marriage advice from Michael Wilbon, "Threesomes keep it interesting." Thanks Wilbon.)

Andre Miller is looking like the player who balled himself into a career year last season. I'd bust out some numbers for you (actually I probably wouldn't because I'm lazy), but why do that when I can just hook you up with a link from my boy, Brian's website. Miller's getting his legs under him.

Cheeks is fighting for his job by changing rotations and changing starting lineups. He's done a few things I've liked, like moving Thad to the bench and Willie into the starting lineup. Don't get me wrong, I'm the biggest Willie Green hater there is, but this lineup is beneficial because it allows for the Lou-Thad combination to come off the bench and provide spark to the second unit and it allows Andre Iguodala to play his natural position. And I don't know if you've noticed, but Iggy at small forward is a lot better than Iggy at shooting guard. I'm also a fan of Cheeks playing Donyell more. He's shown he can rebound, play solid defense and shoot the three. He deserves to be in the rotation. 15-20 minutes should do the trick.

Speaking of Thaddeus, he's really struggled lately. He's finally starting to look like the 21-year-old, second year player that he really is. In December Thad is averaging 8 points, shooting 33% and 14% from downtown.

Elton Brand has been injured and I hope that's the reason he looked like Reggie Evans last night. Six points on 27% shooting and seven turnovers is not going to cut it. He keeps saying he's healthy, but he looked far from it against Cleveland last night.

Sammy D sucks and is slowly losing his job.

Lou Williams is back to the old Lou Williams. He's scoring, he's playing a better point guard and he's doing most of his damage in crunch time--the fourth quarter. He's shooting 48% and scoring 14 points a game in December. He's not necessarily shooting jumpers better, but he's getting to the hoop and finishing around the rim. His free throws attempts have also doubled.

Speights fever has tailed off. He's still a monster talent, but he's going through some growing pains. I'm not too upset about his playing time, but he should definitely get the nod over Theophilus Ratliff in most scenarios.

The Sixers are 9-13 after 22 games and I've revised my season expectations. My expectations are now much like last years. If we get in the playoffs we do and if we don't we don't. If we get in and make some noise, I'll be geeked, but I don't expect the Sixers to contend for a championship anytime soon. For the last 3/4 of the season I want to see growth from players like Lou, Iggy, Thad and Speights. I want to see the coaching situation to be resolved. I want to see one of Ed's "plans" put into effect, whatever that might be. And I want to see the Sammy D, Andre Miller situations resolved.

Tomorrow night they get another shot at King James and the Cavs, in Cleveland. Good luck Sixers; your going to need it.

This game could be bad, real bad. One of the Sixers biggest weaknesses is their perimeter defense and tonight one of the best 3-point shooting teams come to town. This is the second matchup with the Magic this year. If you don't remeber the first one, here's a quick recap: Dwight Howard got in foul trouble, the Sixers couldn't capitalize and got embarrassed on national TV. They only lost by 10, but the score could've been much worse.

Here's the good news. That loss was in Orlando. Tonight's game is in Philadelphia and the Sixers play significantly better on their home court than they do on the road. 

More good news. Today's my Friday, and hopefully everyone else's Friday. This game comes on the eve of my second favorite holiday of the year. Here's to the Sixers giving me and everyone else an early Thanksgiving present. The Turkey just won't taste the same without one.

And since Thanksgiving is near I'm going to forget about the poor coaching, Willie Green, the bad perimeter defense and the mediocre record. I'm going to be thankful for what we have.

-I'm thankful for Ed Stefanski. In the time that he's been here, he's done a superb job of building this team. He has a genuine passion for Philly sports and most importantly winning.

-I'm thankful for Andre Iguodala. Most people think he's having a down year, but he's contributing in different ways. He's also very fun to watch. The dunks are electrifying.

-I'm thankful for Thaddeus Young.

-I'm thankful for Marreese Speights.

-I'm thankful for Lou Williams, even though he's disappointing me right now.

-I'm thankful for Sammy D's blocked shots.

-I'm thankful for Reggie Evans hustle.

-I'm thankful for having players with cool first names like Thaddeus, Marreese and Theophilus on the team.

-I'm thankful for Elton Brand.

Check out Third Quarter Collapse for post game reaction to Mo Speights posterization of Superman! I feel the power of M16 coming on. He's having his coming out party on ESPN!

TV: ESPN

Record: 7-7

Prediction: (Does his best Lee Corso impression and puts on his Hip-Hop headgear and predicts a Sixers upset baby! *Crowd goes wild!*)

101-95 Sixers!

This is an open thread.

I was starting to wonder if I was the only one infatuated with Mo Speights and Thad Young. Nope.

Here's a look at what bloggers from around SBNation have had to say about our future stars, along with some so-called "experts" opinions.

"Marreese Speights is a terrifying human being and a shoe-in for the Jason Maxiell All-Stars. At one point, he blocked David Lee's dunk attempt and wagged his finger like Dikembe Mutombo. I don't have proof, but I'd bet good money that Speights occasionally eats toddlers."--Seth from Posting and Toasting 

"Thaddeus Young was an absolute beast, making the Sixers' small lineup change the game. He finished with 25 points including a couple of vicious putback dunks."--Cornrows from Indy Cornrows

"Thad Young can ball. While Wolves fans will always be upset about Foye over Roy, Brewer over Young will increasingly sting over the years."

Canis Hoopus gives us a double dose.

"They have some great young talent in Young and Marreese Speights."--Stop-n-Pop from Canis Hoopus

"Marreese Speights looks pretty special too."

As does ClipsNation.

"Thaddeus Young is a monster.  I find it fascinating when Mike Smith kept talking about how they don't run plays for him.  Here's an idea - RUN A PLAY FOR HIM!  He's really good.  They're clearly underutilizing him."--ClipperSteve from Clips Nation

"... the only player exceeding expectations is second-year manThaddeus Young, a future star."--Eric Karabell, ESPN

"Wake up everybody -- this guy is a stud."--John Hollinger, ESPN in regards to Thad

"... he was the closest thing to Amare Stoudemire that I'd ever seen."--David Thorpe, ESPN in regards to Speights

I'm not imagining it! We do have a future!

Pre-season is finally over. Thank God. At this point, we are entering the final weekend before the big night. Did I mention Pre-season was over?

This pre-season was one of the weirdest I've ever experienced. It was one of the first time in my life where I asked myself this question, "Ehh, do I listen to a Sixers pre-season game on the radio or watch the World Series?" Most of the time, I could care less. This year was different though; I was dying to see the new team play. The pre-season was finally intriguing to me. We finally had something new, something to be excited about. We went though a frantic period of time which included, "We're gonna beat the Pistons!" to "Josh Smith! Yes!" to "Elton Brand! Championship!" to "Mo Speights?" to "Iggy and Lou are locked up!" to "Hooray for veteran players I've never liked, but now I do." I wanted to see the re-amped team play. I wanted to see EB, Lou, Iggy and Thad. I wanted to take my man-crush with M16 to the next level; I was robbed.

Out of the seven pre-season games, only one was for my viewing plesure. One! I saw the second half of that game. Trying to follow the rest of the pre-season games was a mess. I watched half of a game. I listened to two and a half games and I followed the play-by-play for the other four. To top it all off, NBA.com didn't even have highlights available for most of the games. Anyway, here's what I got out of the underwhelming pre-season:

Thaddeus Young-He's the real deal and looks like he's ready to take that proverbial "next step". His jumpshot is much improved, especially from downtown and he has a certain confidence to his game that was missing last season. He was the team's third leading scorer in the pre-season, shot 47% from the field and hit 8 of  his 22 three's. The only thing still in question is his ball handling. Watching half a game and listening to bits and pieces of others don't give me enough evidence. When I saw him in the Summer League, his dribbling looked just as bad, if not worse than it did before, but so did his jumpshot, and that obviously didn't mean anything. I guess we'll find out in 4 days.

Marreese Speights-He's developed the nickname M16. It's not very original, but it's easy to write and sounds like some type of weapon or airplane, so I like it. It sure beats typing Marreese all the time. M16 didn't disappoint me after I fell in love with his game at the Summer League. He shot 53% from the floor and 81% from the line, which is always a plus for a big man. His minutes were limited; although he did start two games. None of his numbers really jump out at you, but everybody from the Sixers Radio guy to SBNation's Knicks' blogger was impressed with him. It doesn't hurt that he ended the pre-season with a bang, scoring 18 and grabbing 7 boards in the finale. Get this guy some minutes! I'm prepared to get my "Free M16" sign out if he rides the pine the entire season. Some have gone to the extreme saying he's going to take over for Sammy D sometime this season. I don't see that happening, but Cheeks should definitely consider giving him more PT over Evans and Theophilus.

Andre Iguodala-Nothing spectacular, nothing disappointing. He was 8-20 from beyond the arch which is encouraging. Other than that, no surprises.

Andre Miller-See Above.

Elton Brand-Our big, bad free agent signing. The dude that's supposed to lead us to bigger and better things. Well... he wasn't very good this pre-season and when I say wasn't very good, I mean, he was terrible. Check this: He ended the season shooting 39% from the field, on 56 total shots and in one of the games against the Knicks he was 10-13 from the floor. If we take that game away, he was 12-43 shooting this pre-season. That's 27%. Ouch. I know, I know, it's just pre-season, he's coming off Achilles surgery and he's getting acclimated to a new team, but don't those numbers have to worry you just a tiny bit? I'm a little worried. As a sports' fan it's almost impossible to be 4 days away from opening night and have no worries at all. And if you happen to be one of those fans that don't worry, you're in for a rude awakening. Just ask 2008 Dallas Cowboy fans. Like I said, I'm just a little bit worried, but I'm sure he'll be fine.

Lou-Will-No real surprises here either. He did have 3+ turnovers a game (so did Iggy), but I still love him. 

Sammy D-He sat out a couple games with a bum right knee, but wil be fine. While he did play, he seemed kind of lost next to Elton. He had a whopping one block in 76 minutes of pre-season play. That's unacceptable. 

Rest of the bench:

Willie G-Yep. Still sucks.

Kareem Rush-Surprisingly solid.

Donyell Marshall-He had 7 threes and 6 steals in only 3 games. He had a very nice pre-season and slightly out-performed my expectations.

Royal Ivey-I don't really have an opinion on the dude yet. Hopefully he rides the pine enough, where it'll stay that way.

Reggie Evans-Still my favorite role player. The energy. The hustle. The passion. The inappropriate touching of big, white, goofy centers. You can't get it anywhere else.

Theo-Ehh. I'd rather see Speights get his minutes. He'll be more valuable come playoff time... if we're lucky enough to make it. I can't jinx us this early.

Overall-I am a little more nervous about the season that I should be. For some reason, all of a sudden I'm having doubts. Maybe it's just nervous energy; either that or I've developed some sort of sports related mental disorder. I swear it's been like a month since I last said this, "Only 8 days until the season." It's a lifelong Christmas Eve.

DISCLAIMER: Some of these posts may look familiar to the loyal readers from Sixersoul. You are not crazy. These posts were taken from my old site, edited and added to Liberty Ballers. This helps us avoid starting with a blank blog and it also gives any new readers a chance to accommodate themselves with the writing, so they know what to expect at Liberty Ballers. If you've read this before, bare with me. The posts will be brand new after these first 3-4 posts.

Fantasy basketball. It's where the Henderson Bumholes reside. It's where three months of research doesn't help. It's where a certain someone always takes Samuel Dalembert three rounds too early. It's where setting your alarm for two in the morning, to see if a player cleared waivers happens. It's where "my sleeper is better than your sleeper" happens. It's where losing a championship by one steal happens.

Fantasy basketball is must for any die-hard NBA fan. I was invited to join a league my freshman year in high school and life as I knew it, changed forever. For better or worse, fantasy has always been there. I prepare for months. I participate in numerous mock drafts. I work the waiver wire, and I tally up stats on Sunday nights to see if I pulled out the victory. Although we're still 24 days from opening night (thank god for football and fresh prince re-runs), it's never too early to break down the upcoming season, fantasy-style. Since this isn't a fantasy blog, we'll just be looking at the Sixers, and what to expect fantasy-wise. As the season gets closer, I'd be happy to do a brief fantasy preview (something like top 100 rankings and sleepers) for the entire league, as long as the that's what the majority of my 5 readers want.