Sixers

In the quest for lottery balls, today's loss more than cancels out the surprising win against the Raptors two days earlier. This loss had it all. Atrocious defense, crazy lineups, blaming his star players, a coach who looked like he didn't car, turnovers galore, and a rookie continuing to evolve.

Quick Thoughts:

• Jrue Holiday is now leading the team in points per minute over the last 5.
  
• On Jrue, he obviously had another good game scoring the ball, and had another good game from downtown (2-4). He got beat a couple of times on dribble penetration, and had some lazy turnovers late, but overall was one of the few bright spots.
  
• Dalembert also played well, although surprisingly had the worst plus/minus on the team. That being said, why we decided to run our offense through him and his midrange game to start the game I'll never know.
  
• Like Eddie Jordan making a substitution then forgetting there was only one second left on the shot clock?
  
• Young hustled. Like the defensive rebounds. He was a threat to turn the ball over every time he put the ball on the floor or tried to pass.
  
• Similarly, Louis Williams had more luck throwing to the Pacers tonight than the Sixers.
  
• Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala played, I think. Jordan sat them for the final 19:28 and 15:21, respectively. When asked about it post game, Jordan said he stuck with the guys who gave him energy at the end. When pressed on whether Iguodala and Brand failed to provide energy, he said not as much as the group at the end.
  (any time you're playing Kapono over Iguodala for extended periods of time, I disagree with the coaching strategy. Since we're trying to tank and get Jordan fired? I'll live with it.
  
• Meeks made his first field goal as a Sixer. Beginning of an era.
  

Charlotte on the tail end of a back to back? Another losable game. If the Sixers can go 3-10 over their last 13, this team may be on the precipice of blowing up internally, if they haven't already.

I don't normally do this, in fact I believe this is the first time on this site, but I was reading Jordan Sams piece on keeping Jrue Holiday in perspective, and I disagreed quite a bit with both the conclusion and the methods used to reach that conclusion, to the point where I thought the topic was interesting enough to make into a post here.

First, I want to state that I respect Jordan and the work that he does quite a bit, and read his site regularly. I disagree with this piece, but that's not indicative of anything larger than that.

Second, I find this a little bit of a shame. I was a Jrue Holiday fan before the draft, and I posted on draft night from Madison Square Garden how much I liked the pick. The problem? It was obvious he wasn't a fully developed package, and I stated that if he put it all together, his upside for this year was he could end up having a Thaddeus Young type rookie year. Start off the year getting spot minutes, work his way into the regular rotation due to hustle and effort, and continue to improve to the point where he deserved decent minutes.

The problem is, rather than looking at a kid showing great promise and a faster-than-expected learning curve, we're instead lamenting that he's not a finished product. We've thrown analysis out the window, instead relying on advanced stats to prove something that we all knew coming into the season: that Jrue Holiday is not a complete package. Rather than looking at his tools, his progress, and his glimpses of greatness, we're instead expecting him to produce in the same way Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings and Darren Collison are.

In short, we've lost our perspective.

Here is the link to Jordan's original piece that prompted my response. I've copied my response in below, which you can view after the jump.

Howard Eskin reported on NBC10 that he has sources inside the Sixers organization that say Jordan will be gone at the end of the season. He brought up four names of coaches on their list of replacements, all of whom were mentioned during last years coaching search:

Jeff Van Gundy
Jay Wright
Doug Collins
Avery Johnson

I'm not sure how shocking of news this is, as I think most people following the team figure this is almost a foregone conclusion. Still, it's nice to see "confirmation" coming from sources.

(BTW, I think there's virtually zero chance Jay Wright would leave Villanova for this situation).

Samuel Dalembert has been removed from the starting lineup today for disciplinary reasons. No word yet on what prompted his benching.

This ended a streak of 319 straight starts for Dalembert.

I'll update when I have more information.

When analyzing the Sixers future, certain players are often labeled as members of the core to build around. Whether to include Andre Iguodala and Jrue Holiday in your core to build a defensive group, or perhaps including Marreese Speights and/or Thaddeus Young if you feel they'll reach their offensive potential, is a different topic of conversation than the one I'm going to tackle tonight. My argument isn't going to ask "who would you build around", but rather whether the Sixers are in the position to really have anyone labeled as a core.

The NBA is, and has been for quite some time, a superstar driven league. Immediately when I say that, people are going to conjur up images of high scoring, one-dimensional scorers. That's not what I'm getting at., I'm a firm believer in the two-way superstar. There's a reason Tim Duncan has 4 NBA Championships and Zach Randolph has none.

(It's also why Chris Bosh should be considered a notch below the cream of the crop this summer, but that's another article).

You can go back over the last 30 years of NBA champions, and, with the exception of that Pistons team a few years ago, you would be hard pressed to find a team that didn't have a hall of famer. From Magic to Isiah, to Hakeem, MJ, Duncan and Shaq, superstars win. Go through the teams on pace to win 50 games and a similar story is told. From LeBron to Dwight, Carmelo, Durant, Nash, Dirk and Kobe, the cream of the crop have superstar players. Guys who present mismatches, who have gameplans devised against them, and who generate open looks for their teammates.

I look at Iguodala and Jrue Holiday as "the guys I'd most like to keep" rather than a core. My preference would be to obtain a superstar player while keeping these two young and versatile talents in my back pocket. Add Kevin Durant to these team and all of a sudden Iguodala's deficiencies are virtually unnoticed, while his strengths shine brightly as a complimentary piece. The distinction is not letting them get in the way of acquiring that level of a talent.

Just a reminder, the SixersBeat Radio Show will be online in just about an hour, 8 PM Eastern. Feel free to listen live, and you can call in at the number below.

Tom Moore should be on tonight as well.

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(917) 889-3649

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Word is coming out that Iverson's wife is filing for divorce. This will be the one, and only, post I'll make on the matter. If you're looking for running updates on the Iverson/Tawanna saga, you'll want to look elsewhere.

By and large, I'm going to keep the articles here focused on basketball. I don't care about Iverson and Tawanna's differences, just like I don't care about whether Iguodala fathers another kid out of wedlock.

When a personal problem makes an impact on the basketball court? Then it becomes relevant to the site. For example, if gets caught carrying a gun without a permit and could get suspended, it becomes relevant.

Should Iverson's marital problems turn out to be the personal reasons he left the team rather than his daughter's condition? Then it becomes somewhat relevant, although in the end it doesn't change my opinion on whether it was a valid reason for him to leave, and until it's proven I'm not going to speculate on that.

I'm a fairly big believer that athletes should have personal lives, as much as they can. If it doesn't affect the basketball court, don't expect it to be covered here.

One of the often stated strengths of Jrue Holiday coming out of high school was that he was a good finisher with either hand. Watching him last year at UCLA, it seemed he almost preferred driving left. This year in the NBA, it's becoming increasingly obvious. I decided to look at the stats and determine whether the stats backed up our anecdotal observations.

After the jump we'll take a look at Holiday's tendencies on isolation situations, and how efficient he is during those situations. The charts include breakdowns from both his 1 year at UCLA and his rookie year in the NBA (up to this point). Data courtesy of Synergy Sports.

If only Eddie Jordan had some leaders, things would be different.

If only the players had a little bit of passion, Eddie Jordan's team would be in the running.

If only Ed Stefanski had gotten competent players, Eddie Jordan wouldn't look so bad.

Watching the game last night, many possible story lines floated in my head. Jrue Holiday's career night was the story coming out of the first quarter, but by the third quarter that was quickly overshadowed by the porous team defense. Iverson's reported break from the team was big, as was Brand missing last night with a game-time decision due to what was at the time reported as a calf strain, but has since turned into Achilles tendinitis.

All of that became a side-show to Jordan's post-game press conference.

If there's any value Jordan's providing to this ballclub, it's to be a lightning rod. Should Marreese Speigths and Thaddeus Young turn the corner on their disappointing seasons -- both of whom certainly have the chance to do so considering they're only 22 and 21 years old, respectively -- they can thank Eddie Jordan for shielding his players from the venom and vitriol of a largely apathetic fan base, who are now focusing their attention on the coach instead of the underachieving players.

In all my years of watching sports, never have I run into someone more infuriating than Eddie "pass the buck" Jordan.

In another effort to distance himself from the players and management for this 22-37 debacle, Eddie Jordan let out a series of infuriating, despicable and deplorable tirades after last night's 105-126 embarrassment.

"We lost the passion to compete. We saw some poor body language and in a couple of timeouts we addressed it. I wasn't going to have it. I addressed it a couple of times, I addressed it just now [after the game]"

But that was only the beginning.

Numerous sources, including Dei Lynam, Bob Cooney, and many others have confirmed that Iverson will not be with the Sixers for the remainder of the season, and that he could be released as early as today.

Stefanski said the following about the situation:
"After discussing the situation with Allen, we have come to the conclusion that he will not return to the Sixers for the remainder of the season, as he no longer wishes to be a distraction to the organization and teammates that he loves very deeply. It has been very difficult for Allen and the team to maintain any consistency as he tries to balance his career with his personal life."

In the end, I'm glad the experiment is over. I didn't like it from the beginning, and nothing positive has happened to change my mind. I look forward to Jrue Holiday (hopefully) getting a consistent 25+ minutes per game. I do hope that the previous Yahoo! sports report that this is the Sixers decision and not Iverson's is false, although we may never know exactly who pressed for this to happen.

According to Bob Cooney, Elton Brand has been playing through a right calf strain since Feb. 19th. He is currently listed as day-to-day.

Brand's been playing awful during that stretch, so hopefully this is at least a partial explanation (although, truth be told, he was playing extremely inconsistent even before that).

Also, I agree with Brian that Brand should not rush back, and that hopefully this yields some some more minutes for Speights and Dalembert together, although I have a feeling it'll just mean more Thad at the 4.

When I find out information on his availability tonight, I'll update.

One thing I've noticed anecdotally -- and something we touched upon in last night's SixersBeat -- is that the shot distribution since Iverson's been out seems to have been pushed further out towards the perimeter, with less going towards the rim. Having attempted 18 and 19 three point attempts the past two games, nearly three attempts per game above their season average, made me curious enough to look it up and try to get a little more detail.

After looking looking up some shot distribution data provided by HoopData, the results are somewhat interesting, even if there's not a large enough sample size to really establish a trend.

Below is a chart, which breaks down shot distribution based on different locations from the rim (at the rim, less than 10 feet, between 10 feet and 15 feet, between 16 feet and 23 feet, and three point attempts).



Thoughts after the jump.

Just a quick update on the Iverson story from the other day. Ed Stefanski has denied the Yahoo! Sports report that said the Sixers are leaning towards letting Iverson go.

I do hope the Yahoo! Sports rumor turns out to be false.

Yahoo! Sports is reporting two tidbits of information on the Iverson situation:
1) Allen Iverson will miss the upcoming three game Western Conference road trip to continue to be with his daughter. He had previously missed five games to be by her side earlier this month.
2) The Sixers are leaning towards breaking ties with Iverson due to his being in-and-out of the lineup affecting team chemistry.

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated has confirmed this rumor with NBA sources.

Update: The Sixers have issued a press release concerning the matter, stating that Iverson is out indefinitely.

My thoughts after the jump.

I have to thank the Sixers for so definitively clearing up any potential confusion on their basketball aptitude. If anybody was left wondering whether the team was "going uptown" by winning 6 of their previous 8, especially after a particularly impressive win over San Antonio the night before, that question has been answered.

In fairness, it has been answered repeatedly before, including the game immediately preceeding the spurs game, a 105-78 drubbing at the hands of the Heat. This is simply the latest reaffirmation.

Winning 6 of 8 hasn't changed who this team is, what their problems are, and what the future holds for this team. All it did was put a mask over the teams problems while hurting their chances for a top 5 pick.

Typically, this part of the post is reserved for "those crazy lineups Eddie Jordan through out", and "how badly the Sixers played defensively when Jrue and Dalembert got the short hook from Jordan". Last night that wasn't really the case. The game was lost in the second quarter, beginning while both Holiday and Dalembert were on the court. Did it get worse when Young was brought in for Dalembert? Yeah, but it was already snowballing at that point, and scoring 1 point over the final 4+ minutes of the second quarter is going to lose more ballgames than not. Also, in the world of crazy lineups, Holiday, Iverson, Iguodala, Young and Brand are one of Jordan's tamer ones.

To be honest, my desire to write lengthy game recaps is dwindling. How often can you nitpick at the same mistakes repeated over and over? As tedious as it probably gets for you to read, it's equally tedious for me to write. As such, expect post-game posts to be more of the bullet-point, quick thought variety than full recaps.

Thoughts: