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.

That's right folks. 3-0 under new head coach Tony DiLeo. Let's find it in our hearts to look past the three (Well, two. They just played one twice.) horrible teams they feasted on. Coach DiLeo is now 2-0 against the Washington Wizards, but it was far from a blowout.

I ended up watching the first half intently, then was forced to tape the second half for numerous reasons. The first being, I had to wrap ALL my Christmas presents, since we're opening them tomorrow--kind of lame I know, but we're leaving for Connecticut on Sunday. Another reason was I had to attend a friend of mine's little brother's high school basketball game. It was much more entertaining than I thought it would be, especially since the couple next to me were yelling such horrible things to the refs, cops actually had to show up. The game itself was a blowout, an all-athletic black team vs. 12 slow white guys didn't bode well for my friend's brother's team. Finally we watched The Promotion and I don't recommend it at all. Don't let Stifler and John C. Riley fool you; it sucked. It's funny that I write this stuff like you care and/or it's interesting because it's not, but I felt the need to throw it in.

After all my extracurricular activity and the successful quest to shield myself from any NBA scores I finished watching the game and since I'm tired as balls, I'm going to give you my thoughts in a short and sweet list. Here...we...go.

-Andre Miller is a monster. I take back every bad thing I've ever said about him. I still think Philly should try and trade him, but not because I don't like him, because he's old and in a contract year, and oh yeah, this team isn't very good. Send him to a contending team while he's still got something left, because the Sixers are at least a year or two away from being serious contenders.

-Again, tonight was not as easy a win as I thought it would be, but in the NBA and with the 2008-2009 Philadelphia 76ers nothing anything is possible.

-No Brand=No falling asleep. The Sixers gave up 103 points. Whatever. They won the game and it was entertaining to watch.

-I love Louis Williams. He's on fire and earning that contract. DiLeo loves him too and it shows with his 28 minutes per game since he became head coach.

-The Lou-Will/Mo Speights connection. Those alley-oop dunks are fan-tastic. They're the future of this team.

-Sometimes I can't stand Andre Iguodala. From the bricked jumpers, to the complaining, to the fancy-pass-attempt-turnover, to the missed free throws, sometimes I wonder why he got paid so much money.

-Willie Green and Sammy D combined for 30 minutes. That's so awesome.

-I'm still not sure why Theo plays. Speights should be getting all of his minutes.

-Kareem Rush can be effective in short stretches.

Overall it was a fun game to watch and I'm glad we pulled out the win. Nothing is going to be easy with this team from here on out, so we should take whatever we can get. Someone mentioned an Iguodala-bad-shot counter and until I figure out how to make it a widget on the website, I'll bust it out in the recaps. Tonight's number was 2. Iggy had a fadeaway airball and a pull up jumper that hit nothing but the backboard. By the way no one was covering him on the second shot.

It's time to hit the sack now. Tonight's basically my Christmas Eve, so I suppose I should get a little sleep. Tomorrow we get the Pacers at home before beginning our brutal road trip. It starts at 4:35 my time, which will be my pre-game Dallas Cowboys time, so I'll be watching the game, but not until the Cowboys game is over. The game thread will still be here though, for those of you who want to chit-chat. Until then, peace, love and happiness. 

Wow, first let me start by saying I've had an interesting day. It's began with two cortisone-like shots in my wrist and elbow and ended with a Sixers victory with a flurry of snow and an Elton Brand Dislocated/Seperated shoulder, depending on who you talk to, in between. 

First the snow. Why is it significant? Because I live in Vegas. It hardly rains here and never, ever snows. Well, today it did and no one knew how to react. Driving was a nightmare and I missed the entire game because of it. Luckily, I had a gut feeling I should tape the game when I woke up this morning. Normally I would be insanely upset that I missed a game and had to watch the recorded version due to anything, but I fully enjoyed the whole snow fiasco considering it will probably never happen again. Three inches here is like 10 feet of snow somewhere else. Check it out.

To the game. It wasn't as easy of win as I thought it would be. I knew the Bucks had talent, but one guy I didn't mention pre-game was that dude who's name I will never pronounce correctly. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, I believe. He was all over the place and was basically a replica of Andre Iguodala, ugly jumpshots and all. His defense was pretty impressive. He was also the player who took out Elton Brand, or at least stood there while Elton took out himself. More on that in a minute. The Sixers fought their way back into the game and pulled out a victory. 2-0 for DiLeo. Here's what I liked and didn't like.

Likes:

-Lou-Will is really back to his old self. He's getting to the rim, he's getting to the foul line and playing a meaningful role during the crunch times of games, just like last season. I think the biggest reason for his turnaround is consistent playing time. Early in the season Lou would get in for short bursts and try to do way too much. Now he's getting in the game for long stretches and doing his thing. 25 points on 17 shots tonight. Not bad, not bad at all. He led all scorers.

-Andre Miller. He's really ballin' as of late. He looks like the Andre Miller who led the team to the playoffs last year and I'm not sure whether it's best to roll with him as the point guard and extend him, or to trade him during his hot streak. I'm leaning toward the latter because I'm ready to get a little younger and let Lou take his shot at starting point guard to see what we have before making any drastic moves in the off-season.

-Tony DiLeo's substitutions. He's using a 9 man-rotation. He's giving everyone the minutes I think they deserve and he's not playing Ivey, Ratliff and Marshall. I love that he plays Lou a lot more than Cheeks did and the same with Speights.

-Mo Speights. M16 had 12-7 in 18 minutes tonight. He was all over the court, dunking on people's skulls, taking charges, snatching rebounds. Our boy put together a very nice game and the 17-20 minutes per game range is very fair for M16.

Dislikes:

-The Elton Brand injury. I haven't really read anything on it yet, but it didn't look good when it happened and it doesn't sound good either. If you've ever played basketball, you've been a part of the play where someone under the basket catches the ball and pump fakes, a defender falls for the pump fake, goes flying by and lands painfully on the court. That's exactly what happened to Brand, but he used his arm to try and soften his fall and dislocated/separated his shoulder. That sucks if he's out for the season, but it might allow Stefanski to unload Miller and/or Sam and look toward next season. We'll see.

-Andre Iguodala. I don't really want to get into it, but he was bad, really bad.

From Phil Jasner

Brand will have an MRI exam, but his long-term prognosis is unknown.

I'll wait on the tests to form my opinion on what the Sixers should do. Until then, peace love and happiness. I'm going to go make a snowball, throw it at someone, then play some Madden. Stay sexy.

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 www.nba.com

"i forgot what happiness felt like."--SexualTyrannosaurus.....Me too.

(Alright, I'm exhausted, so here are some quick thoughts then I'm going to bed. Oh yeah, and excuse me if I react like we just won the championship. I've waited all year for a win like this. Let the overreacting begin.)

-Donyell Marshall aka Fat Ludacris for MVP. He made a monster three and then came down and got a block on the game-tying shot, which pretty much sealed the game. I love Donyell.

-I hate defensive basketball, but I loved the Sixers heart, I loved the Sixers energy, I loved their fight, I loved their defense and their solid turnover numbers. This game reminded me a lot of the playoff series. Big win; the Sixers are showing signs of turning this thing around.

-People might say the Sixers play better without Elton, and tonight I think that's 100% true, but in the long run, the team with Elton has a much higher ceiling than the one that played tonight.

-The Andre's are playing much, much better. Iggy's shot is looking smooth, but took some questionable shots down the stretch.

-Lou is playing better and playing crunch time minutes a la last year. 11 (or 12) points in the fourth, smart decisions, beautiful!

-Speights was alright in his first career start. He showed some jitters, but also some good things. No worries, he's young.

-Donyell Marshall is my hero.

-Thad was Thad. He's been in a slump as of late, but tonight he made a bunch of smart basketball and committed no turnovers.

-Sam continues to ride the pine for most of the game.

-Theo also played quality minutes.

-Reggie played solid.

-The Sixers were once down 15 at the end of the third, in the Palace and came back and won the game without arguably their best player. This is the win that gets 'em going! I feel it!

-Overall, this was the most satisfying game of the year for me, by a mile. It reminded me why I was so excited about this team.

Goodnight!

Kool & The Gang - Celebration (via universalmusicgroup)

Player of the Game: Fat Ludacris

Box score

Record: 9-11

Favorite Open Thread Comment: "Holy hell."-jemagee

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.

via weblogs.newsday.com

I feel a little like my boy T.O. up there. I'm sad. I spent the entire summer waiting for this season. I haven't been this excited for basketball in forever. All the moves felt so good. Our GM could do nothing wrong. I thought this team was going to be good. I really did. I thought wrong. Now, I know it's a long season and they still could develop into the team I expected them to be, but the first six games really opened my eyes. Not only have they been horrible, but nowhere near fun to watch. The lone bright spots, Thaddeus Young and Marreese Speights are the only things keeping me sane right now.

I can't blame one person for this depressing start, so I'll blame everyone. Let the "Blame Game" begin.

Andre Miller: I start with you Andre. You are supposed to be the leader of this team. You're supposed to run the offense. Andre, do you know you lead the team in shots? That's right, a team with a career 20-10 guy in Elton Brand, a potential 20-point per game scorer in Iguodala (I'll get to you later), an Allen-Iversonesque scoring machine in Lou Williams and an emerging star in Thaddeus Young and you're taking the most shots? Andre, you and your ugly line drive jumper should be taking less shots than all these guys. Get 10 assists a game please. You are not a scorer. You will never be a scorer, so stop shooting! It also doesn't help you're cause that you are shooting 38% from the field. You are definitely my number one culprit for the early season woes. Oh, and while I'm at it, stop throwing stupid alley-oop passes dude.

Andre Iguodala: So you think you can sign a monster contract and come back and play worse, not even the same, but worse than you did last year? That's not going to fly man. You claimed that you have been working on your jumpshot all summer and maybe you have been, but you still can't shoot. You're shooting worse than Andre Miller's 37%. Stop trying to show off with your fancy passes. Stop driving to the basket to commit a charge or turn the ball over any other way. I can't tell you what to improve, because apparently you already worked extra hard on your jumper. I have an idea; just give half of your new contract back.

Another thing. Last night I was lying in my bed, watching the end of the other TNT game between the Blazers and Rockets. Neither one of those teams would have been in that game if not for their go-to, "ice in the veins", clutch, killer instinct guys, Tracy McGrady and Brandon Roy. Iggy, until you develop a real jumpshot, you'll never be able to be this type of player. That might be alright though, because it looks like we're developing one of our own. I love you Thaddeus.

Lou Williams: I like you a lot. You are extremely fun to watch and remind me of another player that used to b all here. You might have heard of him-Allen Iverson. However; you're not as good, obviously. You should probably stop dribbling around so much and pass a little more often. Have a better shot selection and turn the ball over a little less. These are all things I know you can do and they're fixable. And you are only playing 20 minutes a game and shooting a higher percentage than both of the Andres. You're a little to blame, but not too much. I'm not going to blame you for you're inability to run the offense, because that's not who you are. That's on your coach.

Willie Green: You just suck.

Mo Cheeks: Mo, I'm one of those people who thought you were a good coach. Shame on me. Number one, this team does not look like they are being prepared for games properly. They are playing horrible defense and they looked befuddled with Elton in the offense. They don't seem to be feeding him the ball as often they should and when he does catch the ball, he is immediately doubled and tripled team. The team does not know how to react to this. This can all be pointed at you, Mo. Lou cannot play point guard, so stop playing him there. Marreese Speights should be our number one big man off the bench. And Willie Green should never play. Ever. Play Lou Williams more. Play Kareem Rush more. At least he can shoot a three. Willie Green sucks so hard, so quit playing him. We've already established he's good for four good games per season, so when he enters the game there's a 2:41 chance that he'll have a good game. Get it together Mo.

Ed Stefanski: You put this team together, but I can't bring myself to blame the Greatest GM on Planet Earth.

Ahh, that was therapeutic. I'm not trying to bash any of these guys (Well, maybe Willie Green) or the team because I still think the Sixers can be good and most of their problems are fixable. I was just venting a little, after all it is the "Blame Game". The team has four days until the next game and I sincerely hope and believe that these problems will be addressed. It doesn't get any easier from here though. Tuesday the Sixers host the Jazz and then travel to Toronto the very next night. I'd love to see the Sixers play disciplined and inspired ball, regardless of the final score, but no matter how bad they suck, I'll still love 'em, each and every one of 'em. Even Willie Green.

That's my team, those are my Sixers.

P.S. Check out dp8039's dope FanPost to the right. That's what a FanPost's supposed to be folks. Let's get some more of those going.