Messages

31

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: August 03, 2009, 09:03:12 AM »

Royal Ivey expected to officially be signed by Wed or Thurs.  Feel the excitement.

My wife will be pleased, she does not follow the Sixers much, but she likes Royal Ivey's name.  He would make a good super-hero with plant powers or something like that.

Wow, you know the off-season sucks when that is the best thing I can come up with to post.

32

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: August 02, 2009, 12:51:36 AM »

Kevin Ollie signs with OKC, Royal Ivey rumored to be headed back to Philly, wow, this should knock the Phillies and Cliff Lee right off of the sports page.   

33

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 29, 2009, 10:27:25 AM »

The C's are said to be looking to deal Gabe Pruitt.  Anyone watch him in college and think he is worth picking up on the cheap for backcourt depth as a guy who still has room to grow?

34

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: Willie Should Start at PG Over Lou Will

« on: July 29, 2009, 10:25:51 AM »

Is it me or is this whole thread the equivalent of over arguing whether committing suicide is better by gunshot or hanging?  Neither is capable of a good outcome, that is the bottom line.

35

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 27, 2009, 11:40:46 PM »

Chandler for Okafor.  Wow- did not see that one coming.

And still Sammy just sits there.  Apparently LB did not feel Okafor had the proper fire in his belly to play basketball.  No, really, you can't make that crap up.

36

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 25, 2009, 11:52:59 PM »

I agree that Iggy will start at the SG spot mainly because I don't think they will bench Sammy if he can't be traded, although they may limit his minutes.  The starting line up I see is Sam, Brand, Thad, Iggy and Lou.  Holiday will need to come on really fast, but I don't see that happening.  He needs time.

37

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: Willie Should Start at PG Over Lou Will

« on: July 25, 2009, 11:50:03 PM »

The fact that this is even a semi-legitamate point of discussion makes me sad, real sad.

38

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 10, 2009, 08:55:08 AM »

If that is the plan, which it very well may be, then Brand has to rebound strongly this year and get moved.  Otherwise, even if we wait to sign Thad until after making a FA acquisition, like the Brand/Iggy signings, we would have major tax concerns and Snider would likely not sign off on that.

The other option is to try to package some of our young talent with some of those expirings next year to grab one of the big time FA's in a S&T, getting a real superstar.  With the cap and tax going down, those teams that cleaned their closets of contracts for next year won't be in as good of  ashape as tehy expected, and any FA can get more in a max S&T that a straight max FA contract.  We will have a nice mix of cheap young talent and expirings to entice those teams and still enough talent to retain to entice the FA who wants to win.  Don't bet against that.

39

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 07, 2009, 08:32:06 PM »

Waiting out a slow market for the cheap guys and seeing what happens with Miller first.  They are obviously trying to capitalize on having cap space in two summers or having expirings to trade next summer and won't be taking on any players looking for more than a one or two year deal unless they can add a core guy, which they can't with the MLE.

I would prefer they not blow future cap flexibility with stupidity this summer.

40

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 07, 2009, 09:27:26 AM »

If they intended to overpay Miller, they would have already done it.  Two years or less or he is not going to be here is their motto so far.  I would be very disappointed if they cave at this point, and I don't see it happening.

41

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 07, 2009, 08:23:26 AM »

Interesting views form management on Speights and Holiday's performance in the summer league game yeaterday.  Despite his underwhelming stats they seemed quite pleased with Holiday, while Speights scored a ton (on 11 of 26 shots though) and had 11 boards and management was not pleased at all with a lack of execution and a propensity to jack up three pointers.  A lot to read into there.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20090707_Mostly_positive_reviews_for_Sixers__rookie_Holiday_in_Orlando_Summer_League.html

and

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20090707_Sixers_get_look_at_Holiday_in_summer_league.html

42

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 06, 2009, 04:03:00 PM »

I had much higher hopes for Williams as a scoring PG until I saw him play in person last year.  He was awful at leading ot outletting on the break, something a PG on an uptempo team needs to do well no matter what halfcourt offense they run.  He sees passing lanes where there aren't any and misses obvious ones, it was painful to watch. 

My seats were directly above and behind the basket, it was like sitting in a place where you would put a camera to record game films, you could really see each play develop with no odd viewing angles.  Great seats for being upper level, actually, but the important thing was seeing how Lou could not read the opne floor court at all.  On the dribble he was fine, but as soon as he went to pass it was a horror show.  Until I saw him that way I never realized how bad he was at being a PG.  With Hiliday's size, he and Lou can make a nice combo off the bench with lou mostly running off the ball, where his slashing skills will indeed play nicely in the PO.  But if he is the starting PG, we are in huge trouble.

43

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 06, 2009, 10:52:21 AM »

Seeing the floor is one of those innate abilities that you either have or don't have, IMO.  Lou Williams does not have it at all, in fact he is quite deficient at it.  It is one of those things that separates PG's from short SG's like Williams.  He also can't defnd his own shadow.  Burst of offense off the bench is what he is, a valuable commodity in its own right, but he will never be an adequate PG in any offense.  even in the triangle or PO to need a PG who can shoot, something he does not do well, at least so far.

44

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 06, 2009, 01:51:14 AM »

from Depressed Fan:

And now the second list. These are the guys who teams spent the MLE on, against better judgment, and are still paying the price.


Brian Scalabrine
Nazr Mohammed
Vladimir Radmanovic
DeSagana Diop
Jerome James
Tim Thomas
Steven Hunter
Kwame Brown
Marquis Daniels
Greg Buckner
Brian Cardinal
Darius Songalia
Trenton Hassell
Eduardo Najera
Antonio Daniels
Morris Peterson
James Posey
Jared Jeffries
Chris Duhon
Earl Watson
Chucky Atkins
Damien Wilkins
Beno Udrih
Jason Kapono
Reggie Evans
Marcus Banks
Mike James
DeShawn Stevenson

A lot of mistakes have been made using the MLE on mediocre players.

Absolutely true, but one thing teams might do this year is give short term, part MLE deals, using it as more of a fancied up minimum salary exception.  No need to give the full MLE for 5 years.  But say we sign Miller or get Blake and have between $2.5 - $4.5 million in room before hitting the luxury tax.  I think you can sign another good shooting swingman, probably a young guy, for say two years and $6 million total.  If he works out, great, and you retain his Bird rights after those two years I believe, but no long term commitment or tax payments.

I get TK's point about having a full boat rotation wise, but that is assuming that Kapono and WG are guaranteed rotation minutes.  I would like to see more depth and some competition for those guys, no way either one should get minutes if we can find someone who can outplay one of them.  Of course, moving Sammy and/or WG (for equally bad contracts certainly) might change where the needs are.

45

Philadelphia 76ers / Re: The Sixers free agency thread.

« on: July 05, 2009, 11:04:09 AM »

I think that the Hedo switcharoo makes a Miller => POR more likely.

IMO, the key to a Miller S&T is to only take Blake in return.  He's a guy that fits the team's needs and is on a short term contract. Anything else isn't worth the flexibility under the luxury tax that you'd surrender - Outlaw just clogs the roster at the 3/4, Webster was limited athletically before his injury and is reportedly recovering slowly, etc.

Having some flexibility under the tax is more valuable than spending right up to it on mediocre, redundant pieces (Outlaw, MLE non-starters).  Especially in this economic climate, having the flexibility to move some of your youth for a big piece is important - as teams get nervous about giving out a big FA deal they will want to sell early and ensure a return and controlled cost.

And we get even more flexibility if we get a decent sized trade exception in return in  Miller/Blake deal.  That would be fine by me.