Back to the Future for Thad I don't know what Thad's deal is, but there isn't a single thing he's doing well right now. He's shooting 41% from the floor and 9% from three. He's not getting to the foul line. He's playing (or not playing) any sort of defense. He can't dribble. He can't pass. Whether we've grossly overrated him, he's off to a slow start, or he doesn't fit EJ's system remains to be seen, but something has to be done if the Sixers are going to be competitive against teams not named the Nets and Knicks. My suggestion is, he reverts to the role he played his rookie season. Remember how many times we heard "This rookie is unbelievable! He's contributing, yet there hasn't been a single play run for him!" Bingo. EJ should play Thad 20-25 minutes a game, give Jason Kapono and Rodney Carney a couple extra minutes, and not run a single play for Thad until further notice. Let him run the floor, crash the boards and concentrate on playing defense. Seriously, one defensive stand per game from Thad would be a major improvement. Andre Miller who? How good has Lou Williams been? He's been awesome. I've been thoroughly impressed with him in every game I've watched, including pre-season. Even though he gets my seal of approval, I know he still has haters. So, since my opinion only goes so far, here are a bunch of numbers to back up my claim: Percentages 53% from the field 33% from three 84% from the line Counting stats 17 points 5 assists 6 rebounds 1.6 steals 6.5:1 Assist/Turnover ratio Hollinger Stats .632 TS% (3 out of 9) Assist ratio: 26.5 (5 out of 9) Turnover ratio: 4.1 (1 out of 9) PER: 24.19 (2 out of 9) * The number in parenthesis represents his rank in these categories in comparison to 8 of the best PGs in the NBA. (Paul, Nash, Rondo, Parker, Westbrook, D. Williams, Arenas, Billups) I know I'm going to get the "small sample size" lecture, but this is all I have to work with right now, and I just wanted to show how awesome Lou has been through the first 5 games. Do I think he's going to maintain this pace? Probably not, but I still believe he'll be a top 10 PG at the end of the year. Are you kidding me? The Sixers have averaged 11 thousand fans in their three home games this season. That's good for dead last in the NBA. Dead last. The next lowest is Memphis with nearly 14 thousand per game.
Filed under: