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.

via assets.espn.go.com

I've seen enough. The Sixers were out-played, out-classed and out-coached in every aspect of the game tonight. The Celtics showed why they are the defending champs, playing ferocious defense, displaying intensity, hunger, heart and all those cliche terms used to describe a championship team. The Sixers were the anti-Celtics tonight. They looked confused and one of my least favorite announcers, Tommy Heinsohn put it best when he said the Sixers looked like they were thinking, "We cannot beat this team." He was absolutely right. As currently assembled, the Sixers are not a championship team, they are not contenders and they might not even be a playoff team.

(Here are a couple quick things I liked that I didn't want to get lost in the shuffle of the horrible game:

-Elton Brand came to play tonight. He's starting to look like the guy we all thought he would be. He came out and score 18 points on 8-14 shooting, grabbed 8 boards and did not commit a single turnover. Bravo Elton, bravo.

-Lou-Will had a vintage Lou-Will line. I'm not worried that it was in garbage time, because that's where he got most of his playing time at the beginning of last season. This game can be a nice confidence builder and maybe he'll get back on track. Tommy Heinsohn was obsessed with him. He scored 15 points on seven shots, dropped 6 dimes, got 3 steals and went turnover-less. Love me some Lou-Will.

-Marreese Speights had some nice dunks in garbage time, and a hard foul with 43 seconds remaining. It got him ejected, but at least he showed he isn't afraid of the big, bad Celtics. He has a lot of elements. He needs more playing time.)

I'm fully aware that 16 games into the season is not a good time to pronounce and team dead and I'm not doing that. I'm saying, without some sort of change this team will not be good and I think that is very evident after watching the first 16 games. A change needs to be made, and made soon. I cannot reiterate that point enough. Before I delve into anything else I want to look at the upcoming schedule.

Next 7 games:

Chicago

@Chicago

Lakers

@Pistons

New Jersey

Cleveland

@Cleveland

If the Sixers play like they have been, they could easily lose six of their next seven or all seven. The Bulls are all of a sudden playing solid basketball and I don't know if you've heard, but they have a monster point guard by the name of Derrick Rose. I can't wait to see how badly he destroys Andre Miller. The Lakers are probably the best team in the NBA. The Pistons are still good and you know Iverson is going to get himself up for that game. The game against the Nets is winnable, but not a foregone conclusion with a backcourt of Devin Harris and Vince Carter able to go off any given night. Then two straight vs. the Cavs, who are destroying every one in their path right now, led by King James. That would leave this team sitting at either 8-15 or 7-16. If that happens and a move isn't made immediately, I'd be shocked.

What kind of changes are we talking about? Well, there are some possibilities.

1. Fire Maurice Cheeks.

The consensus among Sixers fans has been this change indeed. The poor half-court offense can be put on Cheeks for not having good enough plays, if any, or offensive sets. The poor defensive rotations can be put on Cheeks for not coaching the players on when to leave their man and when not to leave their man. Ray Allen shot 21,567 uncontested shots tonight and while it was good for my fantasy team, it should never happen with a shooter as good as Jesus Shuttleworth. The poor substitutions are definitely all Mo's fault. He needs to stop playing Willie Green, Reggie Evans and his new favorite player Theo Ratliff. Marreese Speights needs to be on the court; he brings so much more to the team. So what if he makes a couple rookie mistakes, he's still way better than Evans and Ratliff. I'm still convinced that if Stefanski didn't step in last year, Thad and Lou would still be stuck on the end of the bench and Philly wouldn't have sniffed the playoffs.

No one is questioning whether Cheeks is a good person. I like him as a person, just not as a coach. We all remember this. He seems to know his players and his players seem to like playing for him. He's probably pretty basketball smart, being the point guard of a championship team, but for whatever reason it doesn't translate to his coaching. Usually when a team with a lot of talent and expectations fails to live up to the hype, the finger is pointed at the coach. There is no way this team should be 7-9 and possibly even worse in the next week or so. It might not be completely Mo Cheeks' fault, but he'll be the first one to go if things continue.

Possible replacements are Avery Johnson, Jeff Van Gundy or Eddie Jordan. I have no explanation on why I threw those names out there. They seem like logical choices, but as I've learned throughout my sports fandom, things never work out the way I think they should. If Cheeks was fired the Sixers would probably hire someone the fans like even less than Cheeks. It'd be a change nonetheless, and that is what's needed.

2. Trade either Andre Miller, Samuel Dalembert or both.

Andre Miller has been garbage all season. From the games where he tried to take over to the stupid half-court shot with three seconds left (sorry, I just can't let it go) he completely sucks. He's shooting 42% on the season and if history tells us anything, it's that his shooting percentages aren't very good when he's teamed with Elton Brand. When they played together on the Clippers his field goal percentage dropped from 45% the previous year to 40%. Sound familiar? Last year he shot 49%. That's far from his 42% this year. The common denominator in the huge drop off is Elton Brand and he isn't going anywhere.

The question remains, what kind of trade value does Andre Miller have? Not much. The only two contenders I can find that might be interested in a veteran point guard are the Blazers and Rockets and I'm not sure they'd rather have Andre Miller instead of Steve Blake or Rafer Alston respectively. Both Blake and Alston stretch the defense. Miller doesn't. The only value Miller might have is an expiring contract, which carries a little more weight these days with the summer of 2010 fastly approaching.

What would I want in return for Miller. A capable shooter with enough talent to be our starting point guard for the time being. I even like the idea of acquiring a shooting guard who can actually shoot and start the Andre Iguodala-point guard experiment. That would never happen though; the Sixers aren't that desperate yet.

On to Samuel Dalembert. He's overpaid. He has the lowest basketball IQ in the NBA and is just standing in the way of a Marreese Speights explosion. I realize that sounds a bit inappropriate, but I'm going to leave it for comedy purposes. Point being, Speights is just as good, if not better than Dalembert at this point and much cheaper. Yes, Dalembert is a better defender... sometimes. Dalembert has shown stretches, or quarters where he absolutely shuts down the opponent's best big man, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett specifically, but that was last year. This year he has failed to do barely anything of value and if we aren't going to contend, we might as well get rid of our horrible contracts and get a little younger. Give Speights some time to develop and he will be a monster. 

The market for Dalembert would be higher than for Miller. The Pistons could use a center, the Heat could use one, the Mavericks, the Spurs, just to throw some names out there.

3. Make a lineup change

This could go hand-in-hand with number two. If Miller or Dalembert is traded, obviously their would be a change in the starting lineup. Otherwise, I think this is the least drastic and most realistic change possible. Cheeks might attempt to save his job and bench Dalembert for Speights. Dalembert did play very well off the bench early in his career. Thad or Iguodala could also be moved to the bench, not necessarily as a demotion, but to help the second unit. The first unit obviously isn't clicking and a Lou-Iggy backcourt in the second unit would be pretty productive. I'm open to nearly any lineup change as long as it doesn't involve Willie Green. Don't even get me started on him. He needs to be cut.

Something needs to be done and I think it will be after the upcoming seven game stretch. I have faith in the greatest GM on planet earth.

Player of the Game: Elton Brand

Box score

Record: 7-9

Favorite Open Thread Comment: "And that was goaltending on the pussy"-jemagee

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.

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.

Here's another one of those things to ponder until opening night, which is now only 12 days away! Wooooo! Anyway, how do we think coach Cheeks' rotation play out? Will there be any surprises in the starting lineup? (Better not). How will all the new players mesh?

Here's a very brief article on the rotation from the Smallwood/Jasner blog.

The rotation guys: Figure forward Reggie Evans, center Theo Ratliff, forward/guard Kareem Rush, guard Lou Williams.

I'd be satisfied if that was the final rotation. The problem is, we all know how Coach Cheeks ODs on the Willie Green Kool-Aid and it was very apparent last game against the Knicks. Willie "insert bad nickname" Green was the first one off the bench. Why Mo, why? Why must you torture us? I'm on record saying that I think Willie can be effective in 8-10 minutes a game, but I'll retract that statement if it means no Kareem Rush and/or less minutes for my main man, Lou. We all know the stats, the poor shots, etc., so I'll go to a quote straight from a Liberty Ballers reader to sum it up. "Willie Green sucks so hard!!!"--dp8039

Now that we've established the no Willie G clause, what should the rest of the rotation look like? Here's my suggestion.

Starting Lineup: Miller, Iguodala, Thad, Brand and Sammy...no surprises there.

Rotation: Lou-Will HAS to be the first guard off the bench. Reggie should be the backup for Brand because of his energy and rebounding. Kareem Rush comes in for occasional periods of the game when we need to stretch the D and get some 3's. And Theo as Sammy's backup.

Minutes have to increase as season goes on: Mo Speights. He can play both power forward and center, so watch out Sammy, Reggie and Theo. He's coming.

If I see you on a regular basis someone is hurt or Mo Cheeks is trying to win Worst Coach of the Year: Willie G, Donyell and Royal Ivey.

In danger of being cut or sitting on the bench in street clothes the entire season: Jared Reiner and Antywane Robinson.

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Will the Brand/Dalembert combo work?

If the pre-season was any indication, I'd say no. I haven't been able to watch the games, but looking at the box scores, Sammy seems lost on both ends of the court. He has only 1 block this entire pre-season and has only played 19 minutes a game. Is that due to Elton's arrival, Sammy's sucking or his sore knee?

This preseason, Dalembert has played the fewest minutes (19.0) of the projected starters, in part to take it easy on a sore knee, in part to allow Cheeks to take a longer look at first-round draft choice Marreese Speights.

Hopefully it's more his bum knee and the emergence of M16 rather than him just sucking or Brand's arrival. I've been defending Sammy a lot on this blog, so he better come through.

Speaking of Speights, he's been impressing everyone this summer from the Maloof brothers and Rick Kamla to the man in charge of his minutes, Mo Cheeks.

"I just liked the way he was playing, the energy he was giving," Cheeks said. "He made some great defensive plays. He plays with a little poise."

Don't forget his finger-wag!

Speights showed some personality on the block of fellow former Florida player Lee, wagging his finger a la Dikembe Mutombo afterward.

"I just got caught up in the action," Speights said. "I didn't mean to do that. That's my boy."

Man, he's quickly becoming one of my favorite players.

As for my other boy, Lou-Will, it looks like he'll keep the role he had last year.

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.