Usual caveats aside (it’s early, the Sixers have some new
faces, the team started far slower last year, etc.), what the Sixers have shown
us thus far into the young season is both distressing, and enough that we can
fairly criticize. 

After back-to-back losses in Florida the team spent four days in the lab primarily
trying to correct these three things:

1. Spacing
   and shot distribution: Coach Cheeks wanted to put his players in a
   position to make plays.  I’ll ignore
   the fact that that is an admittance of a lack of playmakers for now, and
   instead focus on what could be improved: the 76ers weren’t used to playing
   with something who can score out of the post and were crowding Brand when
   he got the ball, bringing the double team and not opening space on the
   floor.  As such, players who shouldn’t
   be shooting but often had the ball in their hands (Andre Miller, we’re
   talking about you here) ended up taking three times as many shots as EB. Problem.

2. Proper
   defensive aggression.  The wing
   players were helping off the ball even though Sammy and EB were waiting
   down low, and opposing teams were getting threes off because of it.  On top of that the team wasn’t getting
   steals.   Basically the wings needed
   to stay at home, or gamble on passes instead of doubling on the wing -
   especially against mediocre wing players. Problem.

3. Taking
   care of the ball.  Call it new
   players, call it new positions, call it forcing plays, call it declining
   talent, or call it whatever else you want: the Sixers turnovers are way
   up, and that’s an easy way to lose games they should win. Problem.

Well, last night – after four days spent trying fix problems – the Sixers lost again, this time 93-80 to the Utah Jazz. Andre Miller took 16 shots from the floor
and 8 more from the line while EB had just 13 and 1 (admittedly, Miller was
hitting and five of Elton’s chances for shots ended when he gave the ball away)
and the team combined for just 17 assists (none from the bench!), the Sixers
managed just four steals to Utah’s 10, and the team handed the ball off 17
times, a number which actually improved their season average.

And oh yeah, despite handing out well over $160 million worth
on contracts over the summer, the arena was empty once again.

Ron Cortes | Philly.com

“Everybody is a little uncomfortable.” – Andre Iguodala

Three lines on their world:

1. Tim Lincecum is the National League Cy Young winner

2. Even with Josh Smith sitting injured, the Hawks continued to roll

3. And the Penguins took out the Red Wings in the first matchup between last year’s Stanley Cup finalists

Three lines on ours:

1. Sixers lost

2. Flyers lost

3. And Brad Lidge finished fourth in the Cy Young Voting

Phillies, Birds, Sixers, Flyers and what everybody is talking about, after the jump

EAGLES

Rich Hofmann explains what’s wrong with the running game: a lack of a run-blocking tight end or an NFL fullback.  I don’t know why we don’t hear this explanation enough, it’s dead on (despite what just about all the commenters are saying). READ

John Gonzalez passes along a note he picked up on from Google alerts (a blogger move if there ever was one), then complains about Mo Cheek’s coach-speak (Gonzalez thinks Cheeks saying that he has to put his players in position to make plays is akin to Reid saying something similar.  I think it’s not.  Reid is giving an obvious non-answer, Cheeks may well be calling out his team for not being able to make plays.  If Westbrook doesn’t get his it could be the fault of the line, the coach, the QB or the defense.  If AI2 can’t beat him man it’s on him, and he knows it. Ah, but I digress) and gives you an incomplete list of websites blocked from the Eagles’ press box – a creepy point, especially considering that the other three teams in town don’t seem to block any site, or me. SKIP

Paul Domowitch calls out Andy Reid for fucking up another obvious personnel decision by not having a real fullback on the roster. READ

Reuben Frank looks at the Eagles’ habit of beating the bad teams and losing to the good ones, but doesn’t even give the obvious answer as to why. SKIP

SIXERS

Sam Donnellon says Andre Iguodala is looking lost on the court. SKIP

Bob Ford looks at just why Andre Iguodala is so uncomfortable these days. READ

Kate Fagan’s notes point out that Thaddeus Young didn’t make the all-star ballot, and look at the upcoming schedule. SKIP

Phil Jasner catches up with Dino Radja??  READ?

PHILLIES

Todd Zolecki looks at the Cy Young vote and more. SKIP

Randy Miller says Charlie wants job security, and will probably get it. READ

FLYERS

Sam Carchidi’s notes look at Scotty Hartnell’s benching, the latest Shanahan non-news, and more. READ

Ed Moran looks at Josh Gratton’s first time playing in Jersey and more. SKIP

Wayne Fish reports that Danny Briere is back on the shelf. READ

TODAY and MORE

The Sixers are in Toronto to take on the Raps as part of their four games in five days stretch. 

Dick Jerardi ranks his top 15 NC2A teams.  I’ll say this for the man: he’s not swayed by traditional top-25s – I’ll keep this handy and see how he stacks up at the end of the year.

As always, feel free
to email
with any questions, suggestions, comments or complaints.  

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 9:16 am and is filed under Morning Rounds. 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.