Deep Sixer

It will be a miracle if this team wins 30 games. Not only do they have no talent but they are a boring team to watch--not a good combination.

Carney should be playing more minutes. Korver sucks. Watch Korver play defense on the perimeter - he is always a step or two late. Its pathetic how many minutes this guy plays.

Korver has always had issues about defense... he appears to see himself as pure shooter. However his streakiness has been going on for years too! It may be time for new team for him if they can get some good value in more defensive player.

The problem with Korver is that he isn't shooting very well right now. When he's hitting more than half of his three-pointers and scoring 18 points per game, he's extremely important to have on the court.

I just wonder who the real players are on this team. There are so many guys just sitting on the bench most of the game. I'm not suggesting either Booth or Ollie get more time, even though we all know Ollie would contribute quite nicely. We need to get the younger guys more minutes to really see if they can play. Thaddeus Young has only been on the court a total of 18 minutes this year and Shavlik Randolph hasn't been out there yet. Can the latter actually still be hurt to the point of not getting at least a few minutes per game? And, hell... since our guard play has been so questionable, why not shift AI to 2-guard and put Jason Smith in the starting lineup? It might not work as well as I'd hope, but it's definitely worth a shot.

Korver is a liability on defense as always, but as it has been pointed out, he's also a great shooter. The problem with Korver's situation is that he should be a bench player, instead of trying to fill Aaron McKie's shoes as sixth man. It's pretty clear that's what the Sixers envision him as, but he's not good enough on the defensive end for that.

I believe Korver is a Steve Kerr type player, a kind of guy who would come off the bench to score a bunch of points and get the team back in a groove.

I don't agree with putting Thaddeus Young on the floor right now, with a bad team where he can get mauled badly, i.e. Kwame Brown with the Wizards.

The overall problem with this team is that it is stocked with a ton of role players with no legitimate star, or anyone who will blossom into a star. Forget star power - there's no player with a killer instinct, or even an ego like Stephon Marbury or Ricky Davis.

Im with buck on Jason Smith...He makes his rookie mistakes, but on the whole I feel much more comforable with him as a complete basketball player than dalembert(who also still makes rookie mistakes anyway). It was a shame smith got in foul trouble last night, though.

As for 2-gaurd, ive said it before and i'll say it again - lou williams. like buck says, we have a perfectly serviceable backup point in ollie, why not use him? the knock on williams is always that he's not a natural point gaurd - so why try to fit a square peg in a round hole? Logical thing to me seems to be signing miller up long term and drafting a true point as a backup...

I think we all know that this is going to be a TOUGH year for the Sixers, but I really think the light at the end of the tunnel isn't an oncoming train this time.

The team is set at the 2 with Iggy, and I know we haven't seen him yet, but I think that Young is a quality starter at the 3.

Sammy is passable at the 5, and with Smith I think he will become a quality 1st big off the bench.

Lou Williams fits in the 3rd guard/instant offense off the bench.

Those are 5 pieces of what I think will be a contending team.

What they need:

1. Point guard of the future. The draft this year is chock full of them. My personal favorite right now would be Rose from Memphis.

2. Fire the free agent bullet wisely. We all know that they like Brand and with him coming back from the Achilles, he's likely to come a bit cheaper than normal. Most important is for this team to acquire a low post scorer with this cash.

3. Trade Korver for youth. Say what you want about his lack of defense. Put him on a contender like Phoenix or San Ant. or Houston and the guy would be deadly. My choice would be to call Portland and ask about a Rodriguez/Pryzbilla package.

4. Deal Willie Green. Yeah...He's overpaid and yeah...he's gonna be tough to move. But moving him with Korver and/or Miller will be beneficial in the long haul.

5. Oh yeah...Trade Andre Miller. The problem here is that the contenders who need a 1 (Miami, Boston, Cleveland) don't have anything that would excite me. Jason Williams, Dorrell Wright and a #1? That seems like about the best you can do here. Unless you actually want Eric Snow back.

Which leaves you with for next year

PG: Rose, Rodriguez
SG: Iggy, Williams
SF: Young, Wright, Carney
PF: Brand, Smith, Randoph
C: Dalembert, Pryzbilla

A team young enough with enough draft picks to stock itself as a contender by 2010.

I actually think that miller would be a good fit in atlanta, and they have some players who could help here in the future.

I've come around on lou williams, but he still shouldn't start. I don't want to do the undersized SG thing again. It limits the type players that you can start with him.

Patience is a virtue with this team.

Korver sags too much into middle in "help mode" defense, and cannot get out to defend the "3". He should stop "helping" and deny the pass to his man on perimeter. He cannot finish under basket, and is too slow around screens. Having said this, I like his pure shooting ability. He may be twisting his wrist slightly at moment of release to have so many "rim" in and out.

With the emergence of Bobby Jones out in Denver,and with Kyle Korver struggling on Defense and Offense,how many of you Korver fans are still happy that they got rid of Bobby Jones?

Bobby jones would be sitting on the bench, just like the rest of the sixers talented players. I don't care what people say, we need to start lou and carney, and have thad come off the bench. The sixers ,I think, wants to be a fast break team, but the fastest players are sitting on the pine. This supposed to be a developing year, now lets starting playing are young players. So when we do sign a superstar, they would have something to play with. It does not matter how many draft picks the sixers get, they don't know how to draft! The sixers have demonstrated this over and over again.

"...the Sixers can’t get down on themselves..."

Nope.

If you get knocked down...get up, and, if you get knocked down again...and again and again, get up again and again...and again.

Don't quit, Sixers, and keep in mind something that I have recognized in my own personal life...

Those who must work twice as hard...become twice as good.

Willie Green and even Andre and Lou just don't play acceptable defense on the perimeter. Andre and Carney are decent with their D. I just don't get it, Mo Cheeks was one of the greatest defensive guards of his time. Willie Green needs to go. Move Lou to two, give Carney more time, let Ollie get more minutes, and please, please bench Wilie.

I disagree with criticizing the Sixers drafting. They're actually quite good at finding talent pretty much all over the draft. I know it's a factor of not having a very good team but this squad has a ton of 2nd rounders (Williams, Korver, Green) in their rotation as well as Hill, who I think is a potential nice backup.

I do agree about the Sixers perimeter defense which has been pretty bad this year. Miller is older and was never the quickest (another reason to deal him now), but Williams is so quick with the ball he has no excuse. Same for Green.

Calderon and Ford just abused the Sixers guards, and you just can't ask Iggy to guard the 1 plus score 20. That's not realistic.

Personally, I am grateful that the early season schedule is going to bury this squad before they get the bright idea to make some short term deals to sneak into the playoffs.

We're playing for 2010. Stay the course.

What will it take for Michael Beasley to be in a Sixers uniform next year?

"What will it take for Michael Beasley to be in a Sixers uniform next year?"

He's a good name too and he definitely fits the Sixers needs.

If you think you can get another young point guard somewhere else (Rodriguez, Colderon, lower #1 pick like Lawson or Collison) then I'm all for Beasley.

Realistically, I think he goes no lower than the #3 overall pick.

tough loss, considering they did play well for 3 quarters as Marc points out. It's obvious they don't have the talent to match up with Dallas, even when they're playing really well. They've got some really good players on this team though. Just not enough talent to be a winning team.

Given the really low attendance this year, how can the Sixers management stay with Billy King as the GM? His willingness to overpay players has been well chronicled here and in other places, but I always thought that the management types ignored the mediocre performances as long as the arena was reasonably full and plenty of number 3 jerseys were selling. Now not only is the team losing, but box office money is way down, and they can't be doing well on merchandise sales. Pretty much a complete failure from a management perspective.

And with King and Cheeks in the last year of their deals, all that cap money coming off the books, and those rumors floating last year that they were looking to sell the team, I wonder what's going on behind the scenes. It's strange to have the GM, Coach, and best player all unsigned for next year. This is pure, uninformed speculation on my part, but doesn't that seem like the kind of thing a team would do to attract a buyer? Wipe the slate clean so the new guy can start fresh.

Personally, I see signs that King has learned from his mistakes of overpaying for marginal talent, being to beholden to a star who won't or can't sacrifice for the good of the team, and taking on other team's problems to get rid of his own. He showed restraint in his negotiations with Iguodala, showed CWebb the door, and resisted the urge to take on another contract to get rid of him. It's not like there's a GM school, and he's learned on the job. Wouldn't it be ironic if King, who kept his job for years despite making all those mistakes, gets fired after this season, and then the Sixers start to win because of the good moves he made late in his tenure.

The three main components for any winner are 1) Defense 2) Rebounding 3) Ability to get easy baskets.

If you can't do #3, then you better have a team that can shoot the '3' really well.

Right now, the Sixers are mostly dreadful on D. The frontcourt players aren't bad, but their backcourt is very below average. They can't stop penetration.

Offensively, when they aren't running, and they aren't hitting '3's' - which is most of the time - it's painful to watch them execute a half-court game.

When they played the Twin Towers last year, they were able to make up for most of the backcourt's defensive faults.

A-Miller's game seems to have really dropped off as well. Right now, they have a lot of the same type of pieces - athletic, wing players that don't shoot particularly well and don't play much defense.

They need to have defensive stalwart added to the backcourt/wing and a low-post threat of some sort before they can be a winning team. I'm also in favor of shipping Andre Miller.

Hey everybody. I gave the Sixers a six point attack for tonight against the Hornets. You just have to click on my name here to find it. Also, the commenter who asked about Beasley is right on. We don't need Rose. Beasley is better than Durant. Go Sixers!

Maybe KM should be the next GM... I like the moves...