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this is bad news for our only backup center. He was showing vast improvement in Summer League. Wonder how long he will be out of action?

aw man, the ACL. that sounds season-ending to me.

SF reported it last night. Supposedly we're going after Magloire or Ratliff to be our backup center.

goddamit mother ******- seasons over for him for sure - well at least this opens up signifantly more playing time for weights which is what i really wanted anyway but not under these conditions

id rather have ratliff than magloire - mags rather eat a whopper than play decent ball - even though ratliff hasnt played much for the last 14 years he would be better than magloire or phone booth

First of all, i didn't realize how young Magloire is. Drafted in 2000, he's only 30, compared to Ratliff who is 35. That said, I'd still rather have Ratliff as a Sammy-lite kind of backup center. He's still getting around 1.5 blocks a game and with increased minutes (12-18 per game), i can see him averaging 5 and 5 as well. Magloire just seems fried. His numbers are just anemic.

kanga wrote:First of all, i didn't realize how young Magloire is. Drafted in 2000, he's only 30, compared to Ratliff who is 35. That said, I'd still rather have Ratliff as a Sammy-lite kind of backup center. He's still getting around 1.5 blocks a game and with increased minutes (12-18 per game), i can see him averaging 5 and 5 as well. Magloire just seems fried. His numbers are just anemic.

Magloire is just collecting a paycheck these days. Ratliff's only issue is his minutes have to stay limited, so if Sammy goes down for even a couple of games Speights or another pick-up will need to start. Harrison from Indiana is a bit of a flake, but might be worth a call. Will Cal Booth be cut in Minny?

The Sixers best back-up at center right now is actually Brand. Brand has the 9'2" reach (4" longer than Smith's) and has played center for the Clips. It would mean playing stretches of Sam/Speights or Sam/Evans and then Brand replacing Sam at Center (Brand/Speights or Brand/Evans.) I doubt we will see much Speights/Evans.

basically this means you have to cut down the minutes both Samm/ and Brand are on the floor together so that you can always have one of them on the floor. Its similar to the Young/Iguodala situation in that both will start, but Iguodala will also serve as the primary back-up to Young at SF.

So we have a strange depth chart where there will be lots of minutes at SG and PF becasue the starters at those positions wil be the chief reserves at SF and C:

Miller/Lou/Ivey
Iguodala/Lou/Green/Rush/Ivey
Young/Iguodala/Rush
Brand/Evans/Speights
Sam/Brand/Speights

If everyone is healthy for all 82 games, that plan works. Hell, even if Sam got injured... you could get away with starting Miller, Williams, Iguodala, Young, and Brand but it's not something really want for an extended period of time.

Right now, there are veteran big men that can be had for cheap so it makes way more sense to get one and know that you don't have to get gimmicky in order to compete.

Yeah, we should be fine with the four big men we have right now. There really isn't enough room for 5 guys in the rotation, but we should still definitely go out and sign that vet, whomever he may be, for insurance purposes. It was just that with Smith here, Speights would not have been needed so early on. But I'm sure he will be able to play the same role that Smith had with us last season. And Smith was basically our only big off the bench last year, with Booth hardly playing and Thad having to play PF. Now we have Evans as a backup in addition to the player we pick up, so we should be fine...

I agree we should try to get a good insurance vet center.

I don't think there is anything gimicky about Brand playing center (or Iguodala shifting to SF.) It does impact how many minutes the starting five will all be together on the floor.

The team's 3 centers (Sam, Brand, Speights) is pretty decent for the NBA, it just complicates rotations a bit in that the back-up center will also be the starting PF (same thing with Iguodala and Young sharring minutes at SF.)

It's a shame that its the ACL. The time lost with slow down his development a bit, but hopefully he'll come back full strength.

The last I saw of Magloire, he was pretty worthless - what happened to that guy? Like someone said, he's still 30 and was a freaking all-star 4 years ago. Theo looks to be pretty worthless as well but at least he can still swat shots and hold his own (somewhat) defensively, he didn't look too bad D'ing up Dwight in the Semis.

ACL usually means pretty much the entire season. He could come back a bit early like early March though.

Smith is a big loss for the Sixers. He's actually a pretty decent big man. Hopefully this isn't career threatening. Sixers will probably sign a C with whatever money is left over after signing Iggy.

No Magloire please. Sign Justin Williams or someone like. Theo would be terrific as well.

They might be forced to sign two guys. Pat Garritty as a PF shooter. Theo, Harrison or Barron as a back up center.

Well, that is obviously a big bummer. Being injured at the early stage of a career is a detrimental factor. I am really hoping he does not end up like Shav or Hill. At least though, Smith does not rely on athleticism or lateral quickness that much as his two predecessors.

Oh well no big loss doubt he would have done much this season. Time to cut ties with him Ed get it done.

Since Elson just has an oral agreement with Milwaukee we might be able to snag him before he signs?

I think the Bucks gave Elson more than the minimum so I doubt that will happen. And Smith does rely in a big way on his athleticism and lateral quickness - that's the reason Sixers drafted him. I think he'll be fine. If it's just a straight ACL tear without more significant damage, he should be able to recover well at his age without losing much if anything, so long as he rehabs properly. Shav had a pretty devestating dislocation with bone fragmentation and he wasn't all that good to begin with. I'm not sure Hill would have ever played with or without the injury. Those guys weren't done in by injuries so much as by the fact that they were always borderline NBA talents. Smith is a legitimate NBA player.

Cassidy, what the hell are you talking about? That makes no sense. We take a guy in the first round last season. He shows a lot of promise. He has a nice summer league. He gets injured so we now have to get rid of him? He has a guaranteed contract. How exactly will we get rid of him and why?