first exhibition game

On Oct 9, 7:34 pm, "Kurt Straub" <jkurtstr... RemoveThis @comcast.net> wrote:
> I only saw the boxscore in the loss to the Knicks, but Thaddeus Young and
> Rodney Carney looked like book-end duds. They put up almost identical
> rotten numbers. On the other hand, Jason Smith and Lou Williams had nice
> lines. At least Dalembert played.

For what it's worth, I saw a news article that said that Young was
showing a solid ability to create his own shot (even though he wasn't
hitting), which is something the Sixers could use. I'm hoping that at
least he'll show better rebounding and defense to eventually supplant
Green, who similarly has the ability to create his own shot for rather
bad percentages.

Some other thoughts (also not actually having seen the game)

--Iguodala *still* might not be willing to be the center of the
offense. Sure it's preseason and it's too early to tell but I'll go
with the rubric that Iguodala should always be getting at least 50%
more fga than Green (and probably should be getting a *minimum* of 15
fga with the current roster). Here they had equal numbers (10) with
Green playing 3 fewer minutes. Test failed.

--Depending on who else is out on the floor with him, it may not be a
good thing for Williams to be putting up 10 shots in 23 minutes. It's
probably for the best if he's running a second unit with the likes of
Booth, Amundson, and Carney, but given that I found his summer league
play rather selfish it's something to watch.

--I saw a lot of praise for Smith, which seemed good until I saw that
5 of his seven points were on free throws and he was only 1-3 from the
field in 21 minutes--as opposed to Booth, who I saw no mention of in
articles, going 3-8 in 15 minutes. Of course this is not to imply any
thought of Booth becoming a surprise scorer; and since Evans will
likely be an offensive cipher, it is more imperative that Smith be
able to actually hit shots. If not, we will probably see either
Korver or Young take many of their minutes at PF, depending on who can
hold their position better on defense. Not too rosy.

--While the conventional wisdom for some time has been that the
Sixers' defense has been their downfall, I always found more
culpability in terrible rebounding and shooting. I have some optimism
that the rebounding woes may be behind them. A frontline of
Dalembert, Evans, and Iguodala seems pretty formidable on that front;
they finally got a full-sized backup C in Booth; and Hill seems like a
great rebounding prospect who we can all hope can develop some kind of
offensive game. The shooting is much less promising. In this game:
38.5% fg, 11.1% 3fg, and 72.1% ft. That's not good. While it should
be noted that Korver didn't play and could have helped, he's still
ideally a third option and there's little chance of him improving much
on his 14.4 ppg average from last year. Cheeks/King's insistence on
peripheral things like 'energy' and 'hustle' as opposed to skill and
game planning has left them with a bunch of guys--Green, Carney,
Young, Williams--who are left without clear roles and can't execute
consistently. They'll probably all throw up a few 20 or even 30 point
games to optimistic praise (well, maybe not Carney) but all shoot
around 40%, get juggled around the lineup, and traded for a similar
player in a couple years. Meanwhile, Miller will probably get 12-15
ppg but is no threat at all from distance; similarly, Dalembert will
also get 10-15 ppg but all off direct feeds and putbacks; and Evans
will be lucky to average 8ppg. Are there any avenues for
improvement? Not many, but the team could be made better by (1)
Iguodala taking 20-25 shots a game; (2) Young being specifically
developed as a 2nd offensive option at the SF position. If he has it
in him at all, it won't happen this year but if he does, given this
roster, he should be averaging at least 15-20 minutes and 10 points in
the second half of the year; (3) Williams needs to play with control.
It's not showing in his play yet but at least it seems that he has a
pretty good attitude given that he has never really complained about
minutes so far in his career. Give him Green's minutes--not as a
starter but regular 3rd guard with Iguodala moving to SG--and see what
he can do.


--IK