Casual Friday Liberty Links Lounge: Will The Sixers Ever Win Again? Edition

Welcome to Casual Friday LLL!

Quick things:

• You may have noticed a few FanPosts (one from dweebowitz and one from soconner76) were promoted to the front page this week. This is part the new SB Nation Re-Design Re-Design. If you ever decide to write up a post, we'll take a look at it and if it's great enough we'll move it to the front page! I'll also even link to the article in this weekly post. So get busy writing, friends. In the words of our fearless leader Michael Levin: "We like it when other people write good stuff so we don’t have to!"
• It's never fun to think about your favorite sports team leaving your city. Sign this petition to allow a Sacramento buyer to match any offer on the Sacramento Kings and give Seattle an expansion team.
• Please go like the LB Facebook page now if you haven't already.
• Don't forget to follow all of our wonderful writers on Twitter:
  Mike Levin (@Michael_Levin)
  Tanner Steidel (@tsteidel)
  Derek Bodner (@derekbodner)
  Dave Rueter (@wheresbenrivera)
  Justin F. (@JustinF_LB)
  Brandon Lee (@BrandonLeeSBN)
  Roy Burton (@TheBSLine)
  Rich Hofmann Jr. (@rich_hofmann)
  Mike Baumann (@MJ_Baumann)
  Kami Mattioli (@kmattio)

BEST OF LIBERTY BALLERS:

Evan Turner, Delayed Initiator
As we all know, the Sixers only have two ball-handlers even capable of steering an NBA offense for more than a possession or two. One is the starting point guard and unfortunately, the other one is the starting small forward (weird team, huh?). So obviously Doug Collins has to stagger Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner’s minutes if the team has any chance of staying competitive, even though this exercise defeats the main long-term goal of evaluating how these two players develop on the court together. But hey, it is what it is.

How Has Rest Affected the Sixers Performance?
The Sixers have struggled mightily in the second match of back to back games. What's the reason for this?

NBA Tweeter of the Year: Your Candidate, Lavoy Allen
The dry-witted Allen joins 15 other ballers in HoopsHype's Tweeter of the Year poll.

NBA Free Agent Day: Grading the New Sixers
Today is 2012 SB Nation Free Agent Theme Day (2012SBNFATD). Or, in simpler terms, the chance for me to dust off my favorite writing gimmick - grades! I will read any article which hands out grades. Draft Grades! Trade Deadline Grades! Mid-Season Grades! Ground Beef Recipe Grades! Across the SBN land today, team sites will be evaluating their off-season free agent signings. But, given the magnitude of last summer's transactions, I've decided to also include players acquired via trades.

VIDEO: Sixers Are Bad But It's Okay: LB Google Hangout
Mike and Rich take to the internet to save themselves from the Sixers' reckoning. Or something.

SIXERS LINKS:

In defense of Kwame Brown, sort of. - Liberty Ballers - FanPost by dweebowitz
I want to get this out up front: I hate Kwame. You hate Kwame. We all hate Kwame. We know his staggering limitations offensively. He can't catch. He can't jump. He can't pass. He's basically unwatchable. He's boring on the team plane. But how horrendous has he really been?

Thaddeus Young's Newfound Identity - Liberty Ballers - FanPost by soconner76
Doug Collins is largely responsible for making Thaddeus Young an awesome basketball player today

How Evan Turner stopped running himself into walls - SB Nation NBA
For oft-criticized former No. 2 pick Evan Turner of the Philadelphia 76ers, patience is a virtue he was never afforded until this season.

The One About Willie Green, a Missing Woman, an Anonymous Letter Implicating a Camden Cop and a Boston Chop Shop - The 700 Level
Here's a story that sounds more like the plot to a movie involving Mark Wahlberg than an actual real life tale. A Chester County woman was out partying in 2009 and ends up at the home of former Sixers player Willie Green. There's some hubbub when she's asked to leave around 5:00 am, then she disappears and is never seen again. The pro basketball player is cleared of any wrong doing, but years later an anonymous letter shows up at a private detectives office claiming a Camden cop paid the letter writer to dispose of the missing woman's car at shop in Boston. Shady.

The Sixers Have Become Tough to Watch - The 700 Level
It doesn't seem all that long ago that the Sixers were a .500 basketball team. But rattling off a stretch of games like they have -- 5-straight losses, only having won three of their last sixteen -- and all of the hope surrounding this season is getting swept away like all of that rare confetti at the Wells Fargo Center.

---------------------------------------

REMINDER - RULES OF THE THREAD: As long as you keep it clean (no cursing and please remember to bathe before threading) and avoid touchy subjects like religion/politics/etc, it's fair game. It's your thread - use it as you see fit.

Now, discuss! Happy Friday!