I'm fine with the lineup- O'Brien has a wealth of talent now, and doesn't need the Big dog starting or even playing to win.
That's a good thing- he's always lacked motivation as a player and complacency is what turns a talented player into a waste of money. Benching Big Dog will either push him to play harder when he's in, or end up costing him a lot of money when his contract is up.
With the depth of talent at the forward spots with Igoudala, Williamson, Thomas, Robinson and Korver the only thing that concerns me is rebounding. Thery can all score and pass and Korver can really shoot from outside. They move well enough to cause any defense problems and Thomas and Willliamson are both decent inside scoring threats.
I'm a little surprised that Dalembert is comming off the bench, but that's ok too. He needs seasoning and can get some of that while watching from the bench. It also puts enourmous pressure on the oppossing team's second unit, since his shot-blocking and rebounding skills are pretty good. The Sixers are still a little weak at center with Jackson, Skinner and Dalembert, but there aren't too many teams in the league that have a better group at Center to exploit that, especially in the East. Dalembert still needs to work on his positioning skills, but he clearly has huge upside potential.
I would expect that when the Sixers play some of the bigger teams out west, O'Brien may start both Dalembert and Jackson to keep them competitive on the boards. Maybe they can try to work a trade for Robinson to find another center.
The guards are still very strong for the team, with Iverson at the point, the Sixers will naturally be an up-tempo club. With the depth of talent, they can run a lot of teams out of the building. Green, Ollie and Salmons are all decent backups, and as long as they can stay agressive in going to the basket, and work hard on defence the team will be in good shape. It looks like they didn't need Snow after all. I was out in Ohio and saw an exhibition game between the Cavaliers and the Celtics. Eric ran the team very well when he was in there, and played solid defense. But he is short and a little slow, compared with the ones we still have.
I was very impressed watching the Sixers dismantle Utah last night. The defense looked better than it has in a very long time, agaisnt a team that really works on it's execution. Utah doesn't have the height to control the boards against the Sixers, and they weren't quick enough on defence to keep them from scoring.
The Sixers apart from Iverson, Mckie and Robinson are pretty young so there's a lot of room for these players to grow and the team to improve. As it is now, I think they're a playoff team, and in the Atlantic division, probably the best right now. They may have enough talent to challenge Detroit and Indiana in the conference, but time will tell.
