The Sixers have played 50 games so far and are 19 and 31. With only 32 games left, it they don't lose any, they could win 51 games, but that's an impossible expectation.
Just to get to .500 though, they need to go 22 and 10 the rest of the way. That's a 687 winning percentage, better than all but two teams for this season. That would be a tremendous accomplishment, but it also seems to be unrealistic considering what the Sixers have done thus far.
The playoffs are only good for measuring your team against the better ones. In a multi-game series, you get to find out which team is really better. During the regular season, the schedule and injuries can play a big role and you really don't know who is better until the playoffs.
So for evaluation purposes, it is good for the team to make the playoffs, it can reveal where you are weak and where you aren't. But I thought the plan was clear. We got to the playoffs and pushed Detroit one season and Orlando the next. We decided we couldn't score inside and that was our big problem. So we decided to get some additional players.
Since then we have added Elton Brand, Mareese Speights and Jason Smith, along with journeyman Primo,who we never see. Of these four, only Brand gets consistent playing time, and while he produces, the team rebounds worse than it did last season.
The play on the floor isn't better. In spite of a better, deeper line-up, the team is playing worse than in the past. The problem shouldn't be with the players. It is far more likely that it is the coach. To turn from a running team into a post team isn't easy. It takes a little discipline to learn how to make an entry pass and play with a big man. Lou Williams is a great guard in a running game, but no one has taught him how to use his speed to get a big man open and get a pass to him. Spacing is important and synchronized movement between multiple players enables plays to be successful. It takes practice.
Since there's only one big man who can score in the game, we don't see a lot of post-up play, three seasons after we decided that was what we needed. Now, some think we should blow up the team, in spite of the fact that we still don't put our big men on the floor! I said the coach was a problem, and it comes down to his unwillingness to play Smith and Speights eighteeen minutes a game.
This is all the Sixers need to do to find out if they can contend or not. Just play the players that were brought in to address the problem. IMO, this will make the team better and increase their chances of making the playoffs, but even if they don't, seeing them play will tell us a lot more about what the team is capable of.
I want to know what happened to the plan, why did it get so screwed up? I thought Stefanski brought in the right players,the only mistake he made was in hiring Eddie Jordan. That we're this far into the season and our two- 2nd year big men are sitting on the bench not playing is the problem. Either they can make us competitive or not, but we'll never find out if we don't play them and integrate them into the offense. Finding that out is what I thought this season was about, not learning some idiotic scheme that takes seasons to learn and is being taught by a man who doesn't understand it.
