It still comes back to Cheeks. He hasn't defined the offense yet, so players don't know their roles. I see no evidence of any strategy to take advantage of mismatches, or exploit other team's weaknesses.
The substitution pattern is very erratic and poorly thought out. Typically Dalembert is the first starter to go out, and he is replaced by Reggie Evans, which makes the team UNDERSIZED and without a shot blocker or interior defense. This is just plain stupid, and the basic reason why Cheeks should be fired. He seems to have no awareness of court balance. It is so obvious that Speights should be backing up Dalembert that the fact that it doesn't happen should be sending us alarm bells!
In the Orlando game Speights got 4:38 worth of PT. Cheeks decided to go with a small line-up to match Orlando, since Dwight was in foul trouble. That is plain stupid, you don't match up with 3 pointers, you use your height advantage and pound the ball inside. The Sixers could never get back into the game because Cheeks is too worried about what the other team does. He doesn't understand that he needs to make the other team make adjustments to what his team is capable of doing.
Cheeks also doesn't know when to pull a player who's stinking up the place. A. Miller got 34 minutes a playing time and took more shots than anyone shooting 7-24. That's too many shots and it's also a terrible percentage.
Dabods is right about the timing, and it pains me to want to axe a coach who was a legend as a player here, but I just don't think that Cheeks has it in him to be a good NBA coach. Seriously, he's not someone who's going to out-think a Phil Jackson is he?
