Speights might start?

[Derek Bodner]

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20081025_Speights_shows_signs_of_making_Sixers__staring_lineup.html

Article talks about Dalembert practicing today, so it doesn't appear to be injury related, and it's at least under consideration.

[bebopdeluxe]

Definitely sooner than I expected...but I'm not that surprised.  Can't say that I have seen a ton of his play, but from what I have seen, he is an athletic kid that has great hands and footwork, an outside stroke at least on par with Dalembert, more tools in his low-post offensive game than Sammy, and has a big enough body that he can defend in the low-post reasonably well (that weak-side block on David Lee was pretty impressive).  While it is likely that - at least initially - Sammy is still probably the better low-post defender, I think that Speights will eventually mesh MUCH better with Brand (especially on the offensive end) than Sammy will.

I just figured that it was summer league/preseason flashing, but I trust the coaching staff to know if it is for real or not.

I would still think that Sammy will be the starter on Opening Night (ex injuries), but he should be on notice: time to tighten up your game, son...

[Derek Bodner]

Oh, I think it's surprising.  Anytime you have a rookie who should be a junior in college starting over a 10 million established center, it's surprising.  I do agree long term he's the better fit, but I think he has quite a bit of way to go defensively at this point as well.

[jemagee]

I hoped that at some point speights would out play sam, but even I don't think he's done it that soon...i was thinking by next years camp, or ASB this year at the earliest.  Maybe it's some sort of 'Sam Motviation' - history indicates that it won't work

[sixers hoops]

I think the guy who wrote the headline wrote it poorly. The first paragraph says that Speights may crack the rotation from the start, but not the starting lineup. I'm guessing, until clarified, that he meant rotation because Jasner himself never mentions starting lineup in my quick skim of the article.

[jemagee]

I kind of thought it was fait accompli that speights would crack the rotation once smith went down...then again i thought he would have out played smith in the pre season anyway - and reggie evans is a limited player

[bebopdeluxe]

I agree that the headline was poorly written...and I think that Sammy will still be our starting center for a while...but I see no reason why - with a year under his belt and some additional strength and weighttraining - he can't be pushing for Sammy's job next season...

Which is GREAT.

[rickortreat]

Speights gets to start the season on the IR, so it's pretty clear that the writer was hoping and reading more into what Cheeks said than he intended.

I think Speights will be big part of the teams success, and the sooner he can develop into a reliable player that won't make a lot of mistakes the better the Sixers will be.

Center is the Sixers weakest position.  Sam D. is statistically an average center and that's probably not good enough for a team with Championship aspirations. Stefanski may have gotten very lucky in getting a player like Speights, who I suspect will develop into a much better player than Sammy, eventually.  In the Sixers last preseason game he had 18 pts. and 7 boards in a bit less than normal starters minutes.  Sam hardly ever scores than many points.

He's tall, athletic and has better hands right now than Sam or Reggie.  He already has better inside moves than any Sixer big man not named Elton Brand.  If he can become good enough to play ahead of Sam when the game is on the line in the 4th quarter, it will mean the Sixers have upgraded the Center spot, and it will also mean the Sixers are a much better team.

The Sixers didn't get just one low post player over the Summer, they got two and that might very well be enough to put them into the finals.  If Cheeks tries to get him the playing time he needs to develop the Sixers could be ready by the time the playoffs start.  If he just sits him on the bench or IR, the Sixers should get rid of Cheeks.