Statistical analysis suggests that the Sixers are well above average at Point Guard. Each of the five postions performance and the performance of their counterparts on the opposing teams shows where each team is competitive and where it isn't based on their accumulated PER.
Obviously the best team would be one where your team has the best player in the league at every position. But the salary cap generally makes that impossible, indeed if you're team is lucky and you manage to draft them, good luck keeping all of them under contract as the rest of the league bids for their services.
The truth is that the best teams only have players at a few positions where they are dominant. Even last year's champs, the Boston Celtics doesn't have a single player that ranks first at their position. Here are their ranking per position: PG-5, SG-3, SF-3, PF-7, C-19
Compare that with Phila.'s rankings: PG-3, SG-20, SF-2, PF-16, C-20
Clearly, improving our play at point guard won't give us much benefit, compared with improving our play at Shooting guard, (isn't it obvious by now that you want Andre Iguodala there?) And the poor play at Center and PF indicates the rotation could be modified by giving Speights and Ratliff more minutes, at the expense of Green, Dalembert and Evans, who are all substandard players who actually hurt the Sixers when they're on the floor.
This ranking also shows that if we can keep our point guard and small forward performance prowess, that by making some improvement at SG and the big positions the Sixers could become a very competitive team in the playoffs. It also shows the deficiencies of the coaching staff- when they continue to put the same people at the same positions and continue to get substandard results.
You miss the point, as do the statistical analyses to some extent. I never said Miiler or Lou aren't good players, they are, they are just poor fits for this team, especially together. Why? Defense, they both suck at it. Your point about the Celtics rankings from last year illustrates the point perfectly, they were not the best at any one position, but the pieces fit well together and their defense was outstanding (one of the reasons I want Thibodeau coaching our team next year).
We suck at PF because Brand got hurt, Speights is young, Young does not rebound or block shots like a PF and few of Reggie's good qualities show up in stats. Young is looking more and more like he should be able to switch permanently to SF after another offseason of working on his handle and perfecting the form on his jumper a little more. That will move Iggy to the SG spot, correctly identified as our weakest position by far.
A healthy Brand and a year older and stronger Speights will help improve their rankings at C and PF considerably, with Sammy being Sammy. Jason Smith's return might help a little too.
What will that team need from their back-up swing man, and starting and back-up PG's? Outside shooting, primarily of the three point variety, and ball hawking, dribble penetration stopping defense. When Miller or Lou become reliable at either of those skills on a consistent basis, they will fill the bill, until then no thanks. My preference would be to move Lou for a quality swing man that fits the descrition above and draft a PG with those desired skills to back up Miller for a couple of years, with Miller on a 2+option year deal.
There is a reason that teams with deep playoff aspirations did not make a real grab at Miller at the deadline, despite his excellent offensive numbers in a lot of categories. You can win some with Miller at the point, more so if he has a good defensive back-up, but he is not going to lead a team to a championship any time soon, i.e., ever. On the Sixers he is even a worse fit because he does not shoot the three well in any volume.
