Brand should enhance the uptempo style on the defensive end by strengthening the Sixers defense and rebounding. He won't be a finisher too often, unless he's slow up the floor and gets some by cherry-picking.
Iggy and Thad will be the runners, with Miller or Williams passing the ball forward.
Brand will have the most impact when the Sixers aren't getting easy baskets. When they are forced into a half-court set, their execution should improve dramatically over the past season. Brand will be the primary scorer in the half-court and the options will depend on how the oppossing team defends him. It is unlikely that Brand will be guarded by one man in the post, few teams have the personnel to do that. The other player that comes over will leave his man unguarded. Most likely it will be Sam's man more often than not, so Sam could see a lot of passes come his way when he is unguarded.
This is sort of a problem, since Sam isn't a great finisher or passer, but he will have lots of easy targets in Iggy and Young.
The Sixers will be able to keep the defending team off-balance using Brand as a decoy to spring Iggy and Thad loose.
The additions of Rush and Ivey also enable the Sixers to spread the floor and thin out defenses. Teams covering the three will leave Iggy and Thad one on one and able to beat their men off the dribble. Teams that stay with Iggy and Thad, and manage to contain Brand will still have to worry about the three ball.
The Sixers seem to have dealt with all of their apparent weaknesses. Now it's a matter of finding out if the new players really did address the problems. I would project that the Sixers will improve dramatically this season, the core that was so successful last year is intact, except for one minor player in Carney, and they have added three free agent players which addressed their needs, along with a first round pick that supports the Forward and Center spot.
At this point, it's a matter of how well they execute against specific teams. Most nights their talent should be good enough to win games for them. Against the better teams, we'll find out how close we really are to contending, that is have the weaknesses been overcome to the point where they are strengths?
Shooting percentage was very poor last season and so was the overall plus-minus. In game terms they were weakest in slower tempo games, unable to execute in the half-court. The team did improve in that area late last season, but were still subpar. Against Detroit, the Sixers were unable to generate sufficient offense. This year with Brand and the others, the Sixers have a much better shot.
Cheeks was unwilling to go big and put Thad at the 3 and Iggy at the 2. This is quite ironic and somewhat disapointing, since an injury forced the Sixers to play that line-up in a regular season game in Detroit, which they won. This season, with Thad at the three, Prince now has to play someone his own size, and Billups has to play someone bigger. Rasheed and McDyess will have their hands full with Brand in the middle, and Rip will have to try to stay with Lou Williams on the defensive end.
I think the additions mean that the Sixers now are a better team than the Pistons of last season. That implies that they will now be an elite team. They still won't be able to run on the Pistons, but it won't matter, they will execute better than Detroit in a half-court set, which means the Pistons will have to try and run to get easy baskets. They are now too old to run with a team as athletic as the Sixers.
