Senior year of high school I bought my first car - a 2000 Chevy Cavalier. I had saved up some money over the years and was ready to buy a car and ended up deciding on buying the Cavalier because it was about the most expensive brand new car I could afford at the time. It was a pretty sweet ride in my mind.  It was black with a pretty bitchin’ racing decal on both of the doors and had a CD player which back in 2000 was still somewhat of a novelty for someone in high school.

Enjoy the ride Sixers fans!

I thought it was pretty sweet, and for a while it was.  For a while, I had the nicest car amongst my friends.  Then I realized something.  All I did was lock my self into a pretty crappy car for the next eight years before I bought something nicer last spring.

Instead of just buying something to get me by until I was out of college and working and could afford a decent car payment, I spent all I had saved up on the Cavalier.  Now I got some good use out of that.  Me and that car had some good times together.  I drove that thing to Canada multiple times and a bunch of other random road trips.

By the time I traded her in though, she was missing the stereo (stolen), had a dent in the hood (thank you route 76), had a whole lot of scratches to the bumper, and had a giant scratch in the back (thanks street parking).  I ended up holding on to that car for a while too because I wanted to get my money out it.

The current situation with the Sixers and Elton Brand is starting to remind of my Cavalier just a little too much.  After years of suffering through bad contracts and no cap space the Sixers entered last summer with tons of cap space and were ready to be major players in free agency.  The only problem was last summer’s free agent market was pretty weak.  So what did the Sixers do? Instead of being sensible and signing someone to get them by, they went out and spent all of their money on the best that was available at the time.

Now they’re locked into Brand for the next five years and he’ll be coming off a second major injury in two years when the 2009-10 season tips off next fall.  Nevermind the fact that it looks like there’s two perfectly good power forwards who are both much younger on the current roster in Thaddeus Young and Maresse Speights who fit the style of play the Sixers are best at.  What happens to those two when Brand comes back?  None can really play center.  Young might be able to play small forward, but so far that experiment hasn’t worked out all that well.

So what do the Sixers do with both of them when Brand comes back?  Do they trade one?  Can they even trade Brand?  Do they change their style of play to accommodate Brand?  Look how well that’s worked out for the Suns with Shaq.   If Isaiah Thomas was still running the show in New York, I would say maybe we could ship Brand up 95 next year, but he’s not and to my knowledge Billy King isn’t a GM anywhere either.  Who knows, maybe Ed Stefanski can convince Steve Kerr to take Brand off our hands - he took Shaq off of Miami’s hands and gave the Heat one of the best all around players in the game last year.

One Man's Loss...

As you all know, Elton Brand’s season ended 2/5/09, despite the 76ers releasing MRI results that very day suggesting Brand’s shoulder was “improving”.

His shoulder dislocation requires surgery, and although he will be able to move around by the end of the season, the surgically repaired shoulder will not be able to handle the physical contact needed for Brand to put up the 20 / 10 that the Sixers signed him to contribute.

So where does this leave the 76ers?  Believe it or not, I actually think that Brand’s injury may be a blessing in disguise.  Not only that, but I still have faith that the signing can help the Sixers in the long run.  How?  Here’s how.

2008 - 2009 Season -

• Let’s face it, the’08 - ‘09 Sixers weren’t going to make a dent in the Eastern Conference playoffs with Elton Brand, and they won’t without him.  As it stands now we hold the 7th seed, which would line us up to play Cleveland and LeBron James in round 1.  Best case scenario would be the Sixers attack the 2nd half of the season and move up to the to the 4 seed, giving us first round home-court advantage and a shot to get to the second round.  Even still, there is no way we can take a seven game series from Boston, Cleveland or Orlando.
• In 29 games, brand averaged 13.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks per game.  Clearly below the expectation that his contract created.  However, he was working his way in and put up 27 points and 9 rebounds v. Washington in the game before he was injured.  Brand wasn’t playing as consistently as I would have liked, and building chemistry will be in the focus of the upcoming offseason.  Well, that and working his cardio instead of banging on that shoulder.  We will need him to get out and run if he will ever be a factor in Philadelphia.

Is Another Man's Gain

Growth of Young Sixers -

• One man’s loss is another’s gain.  In Brand’s absence, young guns Thaddius Young, Marreese Speights, and Samuel Dalembert (young mentally) will continue to be relied upon heavily down low, and Lou Williams will be counted on to put up points off the bench.
• In the case of Young and Speights, these two are looking to be vital cogs in the future of the Sixers, and their playtime will increase as a direct result of the Brand injury.  Their growth as players this year will dramatically impact where we stand in the coming years, and may even make players like Brand, Dalembert and even Andre Iguodola expendable.
• When it comes to Dalembert, it’s time to show and prove.  Six years deep in his career, and he makes more rookie mistakes than the rookies.  I would love to see him build a trade market for himself in the second half of this season with strong play.

2010 Free Agency -

• The all important offseason, in which the NBA is going to get flipped on it’s head.  LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudamire, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Redd, Joe Johnson and  more are set to hit the free agent market.  Will the Sixers be able to get a piece of the action considering Brand’s recent mega-contract?
• The answer is yes.  Andre Miller’s $10 million contract is set to end this year, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be back.  As it currently stands, the only Sixers set to make more than $10 million in any single year moving forward are Brand, Iggy and Dalembert.
• Finding a way to clear Dalembert’s contract off the books before the 2010 offseason is the true key to signing a real difference maker in that offseason.  If Ed Stephanski could pull this off, the Sixers could potentially sign a max-contract player to throw into the starting lineup with Brand, Iggy, Young and Speights.

The Sixers have done a good job building a strong young nucleus of players.  Guys like Iggy (25), Young (20), anad Speights (21) will only get better with the experience they gain from this year, one that no one expects them to go anywhere anyway.  Brand will come back determined to prove himself next year, and he will have to in order to win over the Philly fans who were starting to boo him prior to the injury.

In terms of the future, the Dalembert contract ($11.4 mil in 2009 and $12.2 mil in 2010) is weighing the Sixers down harder than Brand’s ($14.9 mil in 2009 and $16.0 mil in 2010).  Brand still has a lot to give to this team and can help us grow into a championship team.  But he sure isn’t going to do it alone.  Or this year.

Maybe We'll See Elton Soon Than Expected

Following up on an item from last night, Elton Brand’s status is very much still up in the air.  However, the Sixers have released some news with a fairly positive spin, I would expect this is in an attempt to subdue speculation that Brand may pack it in for the remainder of 2009:

Philadelphia forward Elton Brand, who played a limited role Tuesday night in the 76ers’ 100-99 loss to the Boston Celtics, had an MRI exam Wednesday morning, which showed his right shoulder injury is healing.

Brand’s comments sure have not reflected this progress, has he as complained of pain as well as a restricted range of motion.

The results of the MRI don’t mean much if the guy can’t play, and although the Sixers are reporting Brand will be available for tonight’s game vs. The Pacers, as previously reported this is the sort of thing that could get knocked off-track with one wrong move.

SOB will keep you posted as the situation continues to unfold.

Get Comfortable Big Man

Per Philly.com, the Sixers are considering shutting down Elton Brand’s season following an 8 minute, zero point performance against Boston last night.  Following the disappointing loss, Brand admitted:

“It’s hard when you’re feeling pain and you can’t straighten your arm out on your shot. I have a little flip shot I’ve used all these years, and I can’t do it. That was why I tried to wear the brace, but that didn’t really help. It’s just disappointing.”

This would be the manifestation of everything that could possibly go wrong with the Brand signing, an aging, oft-injured forward who doesn’t fit into the 76er’s uptempo system.

I wouldn’t call him Chris Webber v2 yet, but the similarities are only growing.

The return of the shoulder injury shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, considering that Dr. Craig Morgan gave Brand a 50-50 chance of the reaggravating the separated shoulder upon his return, which would then require season ending surgery.  “After three weeks, when the pain is gone, he just needs to come back and play basketball and find out if it will hold up,” said Dr. Morgan.

Sure doesn’t seem like the shoulder is holding up, even with that ridiculous Underarmour shoulder guard he had on last night.  Somewhere, Billy King is laughing his ass off.

The Sixers played a hell of a game tonight, but came up just short of upsetting the defending world champions thanks to a last second buzzer better from Ray Allen.   Allen was a thorn in the Sixers side in the 4th quarter - he hit 5 of 7 shots and scored 12 of his 23 points int he final stanza of Tuesday night’s game.  His three pointer with less than  0:01 remaining in the game stole what would have been a very nice win away from the Sixers and pushed two 2 games below .500.

The Andre’s both hit big shots in the final minute of the game to give the Sixers two point leads on two different occasions in the final 60 seconds, but both shots ended up meaning very little after Allen drained his game winner.   Here are some highlights courtesy of ESPN and some notes courtesy of yours truly.

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME NOTES

• Marresse Speights had a really impressive run in the 4th quarter with 6 quick points in just 6 minutes of action.   He added a rebound and steal and didn’t miss a shot in his limitd action.  Give the kid some more PT.
• Both Andre’s topped 20 points and turned in well rounded games.  Iggy had 22 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and block.  Miller dropped in 21 points, 4 boards, 7 assists, and a steal.
• Elton Brand played ummmm 9 minutes and scored 0 points??? Where is the Elton Brand that played so well last week against the Rockets?  The Sixers were facing a Celtics team without Kevin Garnett and against the likes of Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis, and Leon Powe, our big free agent acquisition only sees 9 minutes of rather in effective playing time?
• While Iggy had a great stat line, his +/- was by far the worst on the team tonight with -15.  For those of you unfamiliar with this stat, it means that during the 40 minutes Igoudola was on the floor tonight, the Celtics held a 15 point advantage over the Sixers.  This means that in the roughly 8 minutes he wasn’t on the floor, the Sixers held a +14 advantage over the Celtics.
• Reggie Evans meanwhile held a +14 +/- rating and was the only Sixer to reach double digits in rebounds with 10.  He also scored 8 points and notched 2 steals while hitting a very un-Reggie Evans like 6 of 8 from the free throw line.
• The Sixers really let this one get away.  Without Garnett in the lineup, the Celtics had almost no low post pressence tonight and the Sixers couldn’t capitalize.  The Celtics perimeter players combined for 72 of their 100 points.
• Slammin’ Sammy’s 14 points where actually a season high.  I’m sorry, but that’s just sad.
• The Celtics turned the ball over 20 times compared to just 9 turnovers for the Sixers.
• The Sixers are now 0-3 against the Celtics this year and have lost back to back games while leading going into the 4th quarter.

POST GAME QUOTES

• Tony DiLeo on not playing Elton Brand in the 2nd half: “His shoulder stiffened up a little. He said he could play if we really needed him. It was a situation where we just decided to throw Marreese (Speights) in there because his (Elton Brand’s) shoulder wasn’t quite loose enough.”
• Andre Igoudola on where the Sixers stand in comparison to the Celtics: “We should have won the game and we lost. We’re just trying to get wins right now. We have to play good ball no matter who we play. They didn’t have one of their Hall of Famers so there’s no excuse.”
• Doc Rivers on the play of Reggie Evans: “Give them a lot of credit. Reggie Evans turned the game around for them He came in and played with great energy. It looked like he got everybody else on his team going.”
• Ray Allen on his game winner: “We figured out we had a great chance to send the game into overtime. It was a tough situation for their (Sixers) defense because Paul had the ball and he was isolated and they were going to make it tough on him and that’s what I got to my spot. (Peirce) made a great play. I knew that I wanted to get to my spot. At least if someone was running out on me, at least I got to where I got my ball and my legs in the air. Again, Paul made the play at the right time.”

Hi, my name is Andre!

Tonight’s match up features last year’s NBA champion Boston Celtics (40-9) coming to town to face the Sixers (23-23).  The 76ers are coming off a pathetic loss to the New Jersey Nets at home on Saturday night.

Keys of The Game:

• Make things difficult for KG down low -  I would like to see a variety of centers/forwards (Evans, Dalembert, Brand, Ratliff) rotate in to foul and double team Garnett.  When he’s on the whole team benefits, and KG him having a great night is the fastest way to get blown out by the Celts.
• Rebounding - Strong team rebounding will be needed to compete tonight, as the the Sixer’s cant let the better team here get second chances.   It’s an every game key, as defensive rebounding feeds the fast break, which will also be needed to score points on the stingy half-court D of the Celtics.
• Elton Brand - the big $$,$$$,$$$ man will be need to have a big game and prove he’s back on both sides of the ball for the Sixer’s to pull one out against the defending champions.  This is why we brought him in right?

The Sixers have not had much success playing against Boston of late, losing by 24 and 19 already this season, and winning only 1 of their 4 meetings last year.  Can’t say the outlook is positive here, but if the Andres can get the team out and running early, and the crowd plays a strong 6th man, we could keep it close.

This group seems to play to the competition, so I’m thinking this game could get interesting.

Matchup:

• Philadelphia 76ers vs. New Jersey Nets

Score:

• 83 - 85, 76ers Lose

Summary of The Game:

• Man was I right on the sloppy game.  The Nets came out strong behind a career day from rookie Brook Lopez.  The Sixers took control in the 3rd quarter with a 14-0 run, and then followed that up with a stretch of 18 missed shots in the 4th quarter.  18 STRAIGHT 4TH QUATER MISSES.  Sixers are by no means good enough to pull out a win shooting like that in crunch time.  Nets D came up big in the final two minutes, and Lou Will and both the Andre’s had chances to tie the game.

Keys of The Game:

• Devin Harris and Vince Carter came into the game averaging a combined 43 ppg, the highest combined average of any NBA backcourt combo.  The Sixers did a good job of handling the two, limiting them to 24 total points as Carter turned his ankle in the 3rd quarter and did not return.
• The Sixers staff clearly has a better handle on the health of the Sixers frontcourt than I, as Dalember ended up playing 15 minutes and Brands roll actually decreased as he posted only 5 points and 9 boards in 18 minutes.  Not only were the bigmen ineffective offensively, but allowed Brook Lopez to absolutely go off.
• Did I mention 18 straight missed shots to end the game?

SOB of The Game:

• Brook Lopez - A career line of 24 points, 17 boards, and four blocks in 38 minutes.  Although Dalember and Brand were in there, they clearly weren’t 100% and allowed the rookie to dominate.

Full Box Score:

On Comcast now, Sixers (23-22) vs. NJ Nets (20-27).  This is the 2nd of a 7 game home streak for the 76ers, which got off to a good start last night vs. the lowly Washington Wizards.

Keys of The Game:

• Slow the Nets dangerous backcourt tandem of Vince Carter & 1st time All-Star Devin Harris
• Strong defense allows the Sixers to get out and RUN!
• Elton Brand back in starting lineup following Samuel Dalembert’s ankle injury.  How will he react to the increased workload?

I expect a fairly sloppy, back and forth game that the Sixers should be able pull out a win to avenge the 84 - 95 loss from back in the Mo Cheeks era.

Earlier tonight I posted some baseless trade speculation saying the Sixers should inquire about obtaining the Suns’ Amare Stoudemire by trading Elton Brand.  Well, I think I may have pissed him off with that post, because Elton turned in one of his better all around games of the season tonight in the Sixers’ 95-93  win over the Rockets.  Brand came off the bench to chip in 14 points, 7 rebounds, and a season high 6 blocks in 26 minutes.  That’s some pretty solid production off the bench.  It’s not $82 million solid, but its a nice improvement over the 0 point, 3 rebound showing Brand had Monday in the loss to the Hornets.

Overall tonight was a pretty nice win for the Sixers.  They trailed most of the game, but caught fire in the 4th quarter for the two point win over a pretty respectable Houston team that was playing with its Big 3 (Ron Artest, Yao Ming, and Tracey McGrady) for the first time in almost a month.  Andre Igoudola led the Sixers with 20 points.

Thadeus Young saw his minutes decline despite getting another start thanks to Brand’s increased minutes and a bit of foul trouble.  Young played 41 minutes Monday but saw just 27 minutes on the court tonight while committing 5 fouls.

Brand wasn’t the only Sixer to come up big off the bench.  Lou Williams scored 17 points and dished out a 6 assists.

The Sixers are back to .500 now with a 7 game home stand to close out the first half of the season.

Now, who should I piss off before Friday’s game to ensure we beat the Pacers?

That's Amare? Is there a better PF not named Josh Smith for the Sixers system?

Mr. Stefanski, it seems as though you guys are open to trading this summer’s big free agent acquisition Elton Brand according to some internet reports.  If that is indeed the case, I know of a team out in Phoenix that is open to trading their star power forward as well.

Think about it for a second.  How many other power forwards out there are a better fit for what the Sixers want to do than Amare Stoudemire?  He’s big, young, and can run the floor.  He would fit in perfectly with the Andre’s, Sammy D, and the rest of the crew.  With Brand in the East, the Sixers could also play him some at center allowing them to work Thadeus Young and Marreese Speights at the power forward position.

For the Suns, pairing Brand with Shaq would be a good mix as well and would give them a dominant low post pressence.

Of course, considering the age difference between Brand and Stoudemire, the Sixers would have to sweeten the deal a little bit so throw in a pick or two and get it done.  I wouldn’t even be opposed to the Sixers dangling Brand and one of those young power forwards as bait for Amera and maybe a guard that can hit some 3’s.  Steve Kerr is not against making crazy trades which may or may not blow up in his face (see last year’s Shaq for Shawn Marion deal) so get on the phone and see if we can’t make this happen.

By the way Ed, if you do this, you better have a second fan appreciation night this year because there will be a lot of Sixers fans with useless #42 jerseys.