Willie gets no respect from anyone, and it appears common knowledge that he's not a good player, listening to the self-appointed sports authorities in the city. As I see it, Willie is an above-average journeyman NBA guard. He has an adequate handle and a decent outside shot. On most teams he'd be a starter or the first guard off the bench. In Phila, he's the 4th guard, with Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala and Lou Williams ahead. In the last preseason game Miller was out, and Green led the Sixers with 7 assists, and also put up 14 pts. in a backup role.
It should be noted that the Sixers also brought in free agents Kareem Rush and Royal Ivey in an attempt to address their outside and trey shooting, but neither of them was able to push Willie out of the fourth spot.
The Sixers look better on paper than they have this preseason. The offense through Brand is not fluid and the rest of the team doesn't know how to play with a legitimate low-post threat. With that said the Sixers have 7 guys who are potential double-digit scorers every night, and the outside shooting has improved thanks to some hard summer work, by Iguadala, Young, Williams and Green to improve their three-point accuracy.
The defense has been non-existant so far, none of the ball-trapping, hard-switching pressure defense that made them a strong running team last season.
The Sixers did some major retooling this summer, by adding Brand, Ivey, Rush, Ratliff and rookie Marreese Speights. The media covered the Brand trade, but hardly anyone has noticed the emergence of Speights as a legitimate Center and a significant upgrade over Jason Smith as Sam Dalembert's backup. In the final preseason game, thanks to Dalemberts' injury, Speights put up 18 points, 7 boards and and 2 blocks in in 32 min. It's not unreasonable to ask if Dalembert would have done any better!
The Sixers are deeper and more talented than they were last year, and they are taller as well, with the addition of Brand, Speights and Ratliff, plus the emergence of 6-8 Thad Young as the small forward. They are young, athletic, aggressive and persistent. With the addition of Brand, they should be able to score in the half-court, and the improvement of their young players suggests they should be able to spread the floor and give Brand room to work.
Cheeks now has sufficient depth to enjoy exceptional flexibility as a coach, he can play small or big and won't ever have difficulty finding a player to match-up with an opponents star. No more relying on undersized players to play the 4 or 5 spot. No more worrying about Sam Dalembert getting into foul trouble.
The Sixer's 2nd team would be good enough to win 40 games by itself, with Williams, Green, Evans, Ratliff and Speights and they even had third string players behind them who are all legitimate NBA players- there are no stiffs on the squad.
I think it will take a few more weeks for the team to jell and figure out how to work together, but their first few opponents apart from Toronto are fairly weak and the Sixers could get off to a fast start even while they are working things out. I'd give them a C+, but that's because I wanted to see more of their last-years style of play and Cheeks wasn't focused on defense.
Should win more than 50 games this year and possibly 60 depending on how fast they learn to play together. Can't say their better than Boston yet but it looks like they should be able to contend for the EC title. The best edition of the team since their finals appearance, and this team is much more talented than that one.
