After watching Speights over the summer and in preseason

[geiger]

Speights might develop into a true 5 with a proper weight and strength training and diet, and with his body maturing naturally with age. He's a little on the smaller side for a 5, measuring out at about 6-10 with shoes, but he has long arms and a good standing reach as well as a solid frame that is capable of putting on good weight without slowing him down or taking away from his explosiveness. But he's still fairly raw and young and young big men take a little longer to develop. He's a type of guy who if he works hard, should show incredible progression in his third season - possibly going from a limited use reserve as a rookie, to a mainstay rotation player in his second season, and a very good starter by his third season (maybe even a borderline all-star). Work ethic and dedication will be the key for him. He is a guy who on talent alone can be a 13 and 8 player in the league, even wihtout putting in the work, but if he wants it, he could become a mainstay on all-star teams for a long time. A lot of it will depend on him and some of it will depend on luck, like staying healthy.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Geiger: Not me, Mo or anybody is seeing this incredibly raw kid you speak of. I see a kid with good post moves, a killer jumpshot and good instincts defensively. He's a year removed, not 2 from being a starter.

[STChaser]

The real problem I see now is that we have Speights and Brand and both play the same position. Speights really should be playing at the 4 for the reasons I mentioned in my earlier post. Personally, I would have held off signing Brand but it is what it is at this point. I'm not saying that Speights is better than Brand - though so far, I've yet to see the old Elton Brand that I remember from years back. But our bigger need was size at the 5 and we failed to address that issue. This problem, is going to haunt us down the road - especially with Smith out for the season. Speights has solid fundamentals but he's going to be overpowered against the bigger 5's out there.

The Sixers really need to find a big with more weight than Sam. Sam is fine against certain 5's in this league, but against the heavier, taller 5's like Bynum and Howard, he's clearly outclassed and more importantly, out-muscled. I'm not sure who's out there but if I were Stefanski, I'd really consider letting Miller go once his contract expires and using the available cash to sign a serviceable big. In a year's time, I would hope that Lou could finally serve as our starting PG but that's yet to be seen. The question remains, what bigs will be available and for what price? He'll I'd even consider bringing in Shaq if he were willing to come in as a situational player off the bench to go up against Howard and Bynum. In all seriousness, this problem needs to be addressed.

STChaser

The problem with Sam isn't his size. I question his heart.. He has the athletic ability to be a top notch defender and rebounder, but IMO lacks the heart for it.. It's not like Mutumbo was a huge load down low when he was dominating defense and rebounds. I know Deke was taller, but he was not a big load by any means. he simply wanted it more.

Not entirely sold on your argument. Recall what happened to Mutumbo against Shaq in the Finals? Sam does seem to lack heart on some nights but more importantly, he lacks lower body strength. It's hard to compensate for this. He gets dislodged too easily against bigger 5's. I don't see any way around it other than to get a 5 who can physically compete against the Howards and Bynums of this league.

STChaser

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Which is where Elton Brand compliments Dalembert on the block perfectly. Elton Brand is a much more athletic version of Ben Wallace. And we see it with his consistency in BPG(2.0). It's going to be a joy to see Dalembert and Brand in the paint together. Along with our perimeter defense. Iggy and Thad, Big, lanky Guard/Forward combo that has solid handles and can run the break. Man, this team is a more athletic 04' Pistons. More athletic, more offensively capable.

[ankle420breaker]

Elton Brand is a much more athletic version of Ben Wallace.

First of all, Elton Brand is in no way shape or form a version of Ben Wallace. 2nd, how is he 'much more athletic?' Brand has never been much of an athletic player.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Defensively speaking. Brand is athletic. He has nice legs and incredible moves in the post. Sure, he missed the shots. But I really like that he made the moves. Defensively speaking again, name how many players in the NBA averaged 7 straight seasons of 2.0 BPG? Brand is in the same boat Garnett was in last year. If Brand wins an NBA title, he will go in the hall of fame. 20/10/2 BPG on a consistent basis. There's no lies about that.