Deep Sixer

No burn for Ollie tonight? Not one damn minute for Carney? And with Rasheed out tonight, they had 6'7" Maxiell playing center. Sammy should have killed that guy!!! Maybe Louis A. would have brought some hustle.

Sammy is absolutely mailing it in. Miller and Green are mailing it in. And Mo keeps playing them. We know Bily King is one of the worst 5 GM's in the league, but he has to be at least smart enough to trade Miller for an expiring contract, to see if Sammy and Green have at least a little trade value, and to make sure Thad, J Smith and soon Herb Hill will get some burn...isn't he???

Still happy that the Sixers took Thaddeus Young over Nick Young,I'm not.With Glbert Arenas on the shelf after more knee surgery,Nick Young is finally showing everybody why he should have been picked higher,where as the other Young looks,well,too young.And would it be too late to say that I also wanted Sean Williams as well.Williams has'nt played 20 games in the NBA so far,and already he is better than Dalembert.But why should we complain when we can throw out on the court Willie Green,Calvin Booth,and Dummybert.

It seems to me the Sixers give too much help on defense, so that players are constantly left open. It is one thing to stop someone driving to the basket, another to try to double team on the perimeter when there is plenty of time left on the shot clock.

And they don't give enough help, i.e. screens, on offense.

I watched the Detroit game and the formula is very simple: the Sixers are as bad as they have ever been when it comes to scoring the rock. Of course a Kyle Korver on top of his 'A' game helps, but even he struggles in a half court set when the opposing D is tight. But to have the go-to guy be Iguodala - that's just not going to work more times than not. They're trying to set him up as Mr. Everthing and he's not the guy for that. He has a nice extension on his shot now but that's just not his game. If I glean any positive it is that there are some workable permanent pieces and two good player additions (1 draftee and one free agent) will make this team much better one year from now. And if they are watchable as they were last night, I think I can live with that as a fan of this time for 25 years.

While I think Rodney Carney is a fringe player, I do think that Thaddeus Young is going to be a contributor in this league. A Caron Butler type who needs to polish his jump shot. I think that will turn out to be a good pick.

Well, Angryman

I do think you are overreacting to the Young pick. Give Thad some time, he's going to be a player.

Here is a question for Billy king I read in the USA today about free agent Brandon Bass described as a 6-8 250 pound athletic guy who can bang inside averaging 9.2 points 5.3 rebouds and 1.0 blocks in 22 minutes for Dallas. He was used sparingly for New Orleans and is costing Dallas a whopping $826, 000. How did you miss him Billy

It will be a shame if the Sixers don't take total advantage of this development season to devlope Smith, Young, Williams and Carney. We Know this team is not going to the Finals, and if we are going to prepare for the future then let's play the future. Players learn the X's and O's from the bench but the player will only get better through practical exercise.

The first 11 games of this season have told us a few things:

1) Lou Williams needs to start. The Sixers aren't making the playoffs, so we might as well see what Lou can do in extended minutes for a block of games. Start Lou at the 2 and send Willie Green to the bench. Enough with trying to turn a pure scorer into a PG; use his scoring ability to help the team from an offensive standpoint. And even though you'll see Lou get burned on defense a bit, he'll more than make up for it on the offensive end. This is a no-brainer.

2) Trade Andre Miller. He's clearly overmatched when going against the league's better PGs. His defense is atrocious (partly due to his slowness, partly due to laziness) and has floor generalship has regressed from last year. To this point in the season, he's nowhere near the PG that he was during the 2nd half of last year. That said, there are definitey some teams like Cleveland, Miami, and the Lakers that would greatly upgrade their PG position with Miller and can offer expiring contracts in return.

3) Get Kyle Lowry, Sixers PG of the future. It appears (correctly so) that Rodney Carney doesn't really fit into the plans here. So, move Carney and a pick (if necessary) to Memphis for Lowry. Memphis runs the Phoenix style of offense and can never have too many wing players. Carney would be a good fit down there and, as an added bonus, was an extremely popular player and the 2005-06 Conference USA Player of the Year at Memphis. As stated here many times before, Lowry is clearly the odd-man out at the PG position in Memphis with Mike Conley and Damon Stoudamire (2 years left and unmoveable) on board.

If the Sixers accomplish the above 3 goals, the following effects take place:

1) We see by season's end if Lou Williams can man the 2 spot in the NBA, or if he'll be more of a Vinnie Johson-type combo guard that can provide quick offense and energy off the bench. Either way, you re-sign him to a long-term deal; remember, Lou should be a college junior this season (Shawn Kemp, Jermaine O'Neal as examples here).

2) Cap Room galore with the unloading of Andre Miller's salary. With this move, you allow yourself to address both the 4 spot and 2 spot (if necessary) via free agency and the draft. Elton Brand (regardless of the injury) is the key target here, hands down. You need to blow him away with a mega-offer so he doesn't even have a choice in the matter.

3)Address the C or SG position in the draft. Let's face it, Sam Dalembert is never going to be a 40-minute / night player, so the Sixers might as well look to draft his eventual replacement (also, maybe a playoff team down the stretch will look to add an athletic big man...especially one that is among the league leader in blocks with a nice touch from the outside). C Roy Hibbert from Gtown is definitely atainable in the first 8 picks of the draft. If the C spot is not addressed, if can never hurt to add another SG on the team (added insurance if Lou Williams doesn't pan out from a defensive perspective). A guy like Eric Gordon from Indiana probably tops this list.

That's all right now. However, it's important to note that the Sixers need to get moving on the above since moves in the NBA usually don't happen overnight.

Why give up Carney? Can somebody explain to me why Coach Cheeks has a short bench for the first month of the season? Why do the sixers wait for the defense to be set. There offense don't start to the other team defense is set.

Dean, I agree with a lot of what you said, but I'm not so sure that Lowry is the odd man out. He's averaging 25 mins a game coming off the bench. I actually think he's better than Conley. He's hurt right now, anyway. Memphis will probably wait to see what they have.

Get what you can for Miller now.

Mike Beasley would be my target...

The Grizz aren't exactly ready to trade lowry especialy with conley out for god knows how long.

Sam isn't mailing it in, Sam just isn't very good, but with his contract he's here forever.

Millers trade value decereases on a daily basis, he should have been traded before the draft, you'll get less now than you could have gotten.

Iguodala has got to improve his ball handling...whatever the reason, his turnover numbers are unacceptable.

Mo Cheeks is a terrible coach.

The Warriors are coming in for a game tonight, and I wanted to write two things about my 2nd favorite ex-sixer.

A. Who would you rather have, Kyle Korver or Matt Barnes? (assuming, of course, that Mo Cheeks isn’t your coach…)

Answer: Barnes, hands down. If you compare their stats from last year, Kyle Korver does Matt Barnes better in several offensive categories: ppg, fg%, 3-pointers made and 3-point %. But if you look in every other category, it’s clear that Matt Barnes had a much bigger impact on games: steals, blocks, rebounds and assists. Those stats also show that Barnes is also a much, much better defensive player, which means he wouldn’t be such a liability at the end of games. Time and time again, Korver gets scorched by small forwards and guards who can drive or create their own shot, but that doesn’t happen as often with Barnes.

And speaking of driving or creating their own shot, how often do you see Korver do that? Korver is a one-trick pony who we all wanted to improve and get better (so we gave him a ridiculous contract), but he never has, both offensively and defensively. And his three-point shooting isn’t as useful to this team as it could be because we don’t have a single low-post threat, someone who’ll get double-teamed and will need to kick it out to his shooters. With Barnes, you get someone who can drive to the basket at the end of games and get fouls, be better defensively, and still provide you with decent 3-point shooting at the end of games. Yet another Billy King bad decision…

B. I think it’s hilarious that Mo wants to keep team issues in-house. Is it because if those issues aren’t kept in-house, he won’t feel comfortable enough to verbally abuse his players? Remember what Matt Barnes told SI last year? "He's the biggest a--hole in the world," says Barnes [of Cheeks]. "He talked to me like I wasn't a man. Other players saw it and would tell me, 'don't let him talk to you like that.'”

Igoudala shoots 4-17, 2 were dunks. that math adds up to 2-15 shooting the ball. And he's our #1 option. Sixers , withdrawl your offer now. One more thing, offensive rebounds are a sign of hustle and grit, He had (0). He's not worth that much on the open market, as some people may lead you to believe. The problem about championships, the Mo Cheek's and the Bobby Clarke's of the world won't go away..I'm still seeing Bernie Parent and Bill Bergey's,all the time. PLEASE, ENOUGH ALREADY..

I've been watching the drexel game...can the sixers go to summer camp with bru flint to learn some D?

Judging Mo Cheeks on his body of work for the previous 2 seasons and 11 games is unfair. He wasn't even allowed to coach the first 1+ seasons, as he had to deal constantly with the Iverson / Webber dramas. He's had dogsh*t to work with in terms of offensive talent since the Iverson trade. Iguodala is the best option on offense currently (maybe Lou Williams soon) - enough said.

And please stop with the Matt Barnes talk. He was released or not re-signed by 5 teams (Cavs, Lakers, Kings, Knicks, Sixers) before he landed with Golden St. While he had some good games with the Sixers, he was BY ALL ACCOUNTS moody, aloof, and beyond inconsistent. You can't fault the Sixers for not re-signing him.

Finally, Memphis did not invest a #4 pick overall in Mike Conley (who's 19 yrs old) to not let him be one of the future cornerstones of its franchise. While he's currently imjured, he avg'd almost 15 mpg in Memphis's first 5 games with a better than 5 to 1 ast to turnover ratio. Lowry's isn't even averaging a 2 to 1 ratio. Not what a "Phoenix-style" offense is looking for. Memphis will move Lowry the first time they get a better than average deal so that they can commit to Conley being "The Guy." The Sixers should pull the trigger now so that more teams don't become aware of Lowry's tenacious play.

Lowry can't get on the floor in memphis, and ahs shown nothing in his time in memphis, if he didn't go to villanova, most people wouldn't drool over him (similar to how people want the sixers to trade for jameer nelson, which contrary to the magics contract, isn't worth that money either)

Lowry isn't the answer...bench miller / trade miller, find out what louis williams is or isn't befor eyou pay him for 5 years.

Would people PLEASE stop making excuses for Mo Cheeks? He's a bad coach, he manages time outs badly, he draws up plays badly, his teams come out unprepared and unmotivated....that's on the coach. It was a problem in Portland, it's a problem here. I'm sure MO is a nice guy, and it's great that he was here in 83 and sang with that scared little girl, but so what...he's a terrible freaking coach, top to bottom, always has been. STOP with the nostalgia hires already, didn't work for the phillies, isn't working for the Sixers. The only reason I would say let Mo keep is job is if the replacement is Larry Brown. If Brown takes over this team again, it'll be short term success to rebuild his legacy followed by more long term pain when he abandons the ship headed to the iceberg (again).

The problems with this franchise start with Ed Snider. Until he's gone the sixers are no better off than the Knicks.

All I have to say is....Allen Iverson can opt out of his contract at seasons end...he hasnt committed to Denver....we all make mistakes in life and he and the Sixers just need to patch it up and move ahead..

No...they don't...bringing Iverson back is almost as stupid as fanboys who try to put together Kobe trades that would make the lakers AND kobe happy to trade with Philadlephia.

THERE IS NO QUICK FIX

The fans, the media, they need to realize this.

The sixers brass needs to grow a pair and stick to their plan - if they really have one -instead of panicing every damn off season (or six months)

I HATE BOSTON,I HATE BOSTON,I F###ING HATE ALL BOSTON SPORTS TEAMS!!!!!!!!