Sheed, center and circled, playing in Philly’s own Sonny Hill League

via www.sonnyhilleague.org

Detroit Bad Boys is a Pistons’ blog that has been mentioned, deservedly so, by the Detroit Free Press, Deadspin, and SLAMonline as a fantastic source of Pistons news and analysis.

They recently ran a guest column entitled “in search of dance partners for Joe Dumars, looking at possible trades” In which they deduced that the most logical trading partner may be our very own Philadelphia 76ers.  Some of their proposed trades made sense, some we could laugh off – I’m here to address their primary offer and give a Sixers fans opinion of the proposed trade.

As usual all standard disclaimers apply: i.e. I’m responding to a blog, not an actual trade proposal and while all trades work financially under the cap it is unlikely that any proposed trade actually goes through, or becomes seriously discussed.  So feel free to comment or speculate, but don’t start thinking that Eddyie Stefanski and Joey Dumars are BFFing it up just because of anything here.

DBB had this to say:

Truthfully, I believe this may be the best trading partner on the market. The Sixers have a true post-presence in Samuel Dalembert, a legitimate point guard in Andre Miller should we choose to swap point guards, and plenty of other assets (Willie Green, Thaddeus Young, and more) that could have Joe D.’s interest.

My take: woah, he thinks Willie Green is an asset, let’s talk trade!  Other than that even though I think he has heart and is a warrior, I’m completely sympathetic to trading Dalembert, and wouldn’t put it past Stefanski to look at moving any and everyone on the team so I don’t think that he’s off the table

Proposed Trade:

Samuel Dalembert/Willie Green for Rasheed Wallace/Arron Afflalo

My take:

Pros:

• Sheed is the man. I’m probably skewed here because I love Sheed – I think he has all the talent in the world and that he still can play at an elite level.
• Dalembert isn’t cheap. Dalembert, playing at what at least seemed like over-his-head towards the end of last year was still just earning his huge contract (TK $ over TK YEARS).  Maybe he’s taken the leap – he did start playing basketball older than most and it isn’t like he’s on the wrong side of 30 or anything, but I see him as at best being the center he’s paid to be.
• Sheed’s contract. If Stefanski doesn’t think we can win this year – and we can’t, having two big expiring contracts (Sheed’s and Andre Miller’s, along with our draft pick, Utah’s draft pick, and several young chips could land the Sixers a true superstar – both Garnett and Kobe were on the trade block last summer.)
• No more Willie Green. I’ve pointed this out before, and chances are I’ll point it out again. Dave Berri, who has shown that he knows basketball better than you or I do, wrote that Willie Green is “as far below average as Kobe is above the mean.” Kobe, you’ll remember is the national basketball association’s reigning MVP, an award generally assigned to the league’s most valuable player.  So moving Dub G back to Dey-twa might not be the worst move we can make.
• Afflalo is a decent prospect, who didn’t show anything his rookie year, but comes cheap and if he gives you anything it’s a bonus.

Cons

• We’re moving sideways.  Sheed can be / often is an emotional center of a team, but he’s not a leader, not in the traditional sense.  The Sixers lack someone with a killer instinct, someone who can put a game away late and he’s not that guy
• Buckshot and 9th Wonder. Further, much of the credit for the Sixers turnaround was given to chemistry, a team that got along on the court and off it and didn’t have troublemakers.  Sheed is definitely a troublemaker and on a team without a strong presence (Cheeks is a players coach, Andre Miller is more comfortable sitting in the corner watching film than he ever could be getting in someone’s face he may well mope, pout and kid around.  Further, if Stefanski believes that the team as assembled can go somewhere it seems counterproductive to
• A 5 for a 4. Rasheed Wallace isn’t a true center, so trading the only true center on the roster whose name isn’t “Calvin Booth” might be a risk in grind-it-out games.  Yes, the Sixers had success going small last year, but much of that success was based on their ability to go small around Dalembert.  Even though Sheed is a comparably-talented defensive player (I’d say better) he’s a different type of player and our team may be more geared to Sammy’s type.
• Downgrade the two.  Willie Green should not your starting off-guard, but he’s nicer than Afflalo and can immediately contribute in several different ways.  For a team that lacks any two guard, giving up our best one could be scary unless we make an auxiliary move.

Takeaway:

DBB also listed five possible alternatives to this move but I don’t see the Sixers trading Thaddeus Young (thanks for asking, no way) or giving Andre Miller and his contract for a declining Billups who is at his best at levels the Sixers might not make it to.  This first one though? If I’m in charge we got ourselves a Sheed.  Worst case he explodes, destroys and the team, and the young team starts again next year with sick cap room and a high draft pick.  Best case … Sheed!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Dalembert, Sixers, basketball, trade talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.