I was out of town this weekend, saw Penn State beat Purdue during a
wonderful Happy Valley weekend. The only downside was, I didn't get to
watch either of the Sixer games this weekend. Just looking at the
boxscores
today, I'm feeling mildly encouraged. It's a good win to beat the Bulls
on
their home court, and there's no shame in losing a close game to the Nets,
whom I am still picking to win the East. Now for a few reflections on
what
I see in the boxes:
1. Jason Smith is now the back-up center. I'm a little surprised by
this,
but the stats seem to indicate that Smith is producing. We can all debate
away, but it seems clear that in the mind of the one guy who counts, Coach
Cheeks, Calvin Booth is now third string. Who would have predicted this
allotment of minutes to Smith based on his pre-season play? Not me. I
thought he played well enough to make the team; Cheeks thinks he is good
enough to play ahead of Booth, Randolph, and Amundson. Stay tuned, the
Coach
may be right.
2. The team has a big hole to fill at two guard. Willie Green is missing
way too many shots, and frankly his defense is not near good enough to
keep
him on the court if he is not going to be a scorer. I'm disappointed in
WG
this year. I thought he was coming on strong at the end of last year, and
being fully healthy I expected a lot better from him. We ain't seeing it!
Sadly, his obvious replacment, Rodney Carney, has not shown anything
better. With Dalembert and Evans starting in the frontcourt, and not
expected to contribute a lot of offense, the Sixer shooting guard has got
to
be a shooter and a scorer. Maybe Lou Williams will turn out to be the
best
of a bad menu here. The team's perimeter defense already stinks (thank
you,
Jason Kidd, as if we needed reminding), and it won't get any better with a
little guy like Williams spending a lot of time trying to guard some of
the
two guards in this league. Frankly, I do not have any good ideas here.
3. It's tempting but a bad idea to move Andre Ig to the back court.
Andre
is grabbing a lot of boards in the small forward slot, and while I would
like him to shoot more, putting him in a position to jack up more 20 foot
jumpers is not what I have in mind there. More inside shots and trips to
the foul line, yes. On the whole the team is rebounding very well with a
Dalembert-Evans-Igoadala front line. The team should look to fast break
more with the rebounding advantage they are showing. All of their
deficient
two guards--- Green, Carney, and Williams--- can excel in the open floor,
as
all three can run like the wind, and are good finishers on the break.
4. Andre Miller is taking a lot of shots. Tip of the hat to old Andre,
because he is hitting a good percentage, but in the long run, I don't
think
we want to see our point guard putting up 17 shots a game. This is not a
criticism of Miller, who is playing well. No doubt he recognizes that if
the two guard is not hitting his shots, and Andre Ig is shooting less than
he should, well, those shots have to come from somewhere. In a better
offense, those shots would come more from the 2 and 3 spots, and less from
the PG. I think Cheeks knows that, and Miller, too. Time for Andre Ig to
assert himself, even more, and time for someone on the roster to step up
and
go 8-16 one night at shooting guard. Ahem, our first round draft pick is
not getting any kind of chance at all, just thought I'd mention that.
Yeah,
he has looked like he is not quite ready for prime time, but could he
really
be much worse than what we are seeing now from Green and Carney? Just a
thought.
------ Kurt Straub
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