cosmofizzo wrote:I am depressed about this team. I've been a fan longer than the owner, and management, players and coaches come and go. Their interest in the team is second to mine. I'm a lifer. I want to win a championship, but what I NEED is hope that we're getting closer.
The recent comments of the front office and the coaching staff, not to mention the quality of play we're getting from what is admittedly a talented roster on paper, is disconcerting. Hornacek says that the coaching staff works with the front office to make decisions about playing time. McDonough says he's encouraged that we're not out of the playoff race despite our abysmal - no, shameful, record. He says he's willing to put assets on the table in order to get that next big piece to move us into the playoffs.
Playing the veterans and putting draft picks and other promising pieces on the table in order to get players who will only get us into the bottom half of the playoff bracket - I just don't get it. We play terrible basketball. Adding a player - even a superstar - to this roster will not turn us into contenders. It will only push us into the 8th, 7th, maybe 6th seed. It is SO OBVIOUS that we need to trust our young players to elevate this team. We need to encourage team play, and it is our young players who have exhibited a willingness to play the right way.
I don't enjoy watching this team play basketball. I don't get excited until one of Len or Warren takes the floor. When I see lineups including Price, Tucker and Chandler, I just don't want to watch. What's the point? If we're not going to win, why play these guys? What about their play indicates that they're going to get us to the next level?
Win or lose, I need hope. Give me the young players. Let them lose two games - and then win a game with TJ Warren scoring 30 and Len getting 15 and 12 and Booker or Archie adding 15! Let me see that. Don't subject me to one-on-one mid-range pull-up boring selfish HOPELESS basketball. And don't tell me that you're about to trade our draft picks and our young players - our hope for a brighter future! - for players who are only going to help us eek into the playoffs... maybe. Because I haven't seen it. Any indication that this roster, playing this way, has any chance of contending. I haven't seen it.
We have valuable assets. Lets not waste another season pushing, pushing, only to end up with the same disappointment and fatigue with which we ended last year. Move the guys that don't fit, and trust the young guys. Give them a chance. Let them screw up. Give me hope. I beg you.
Cosmo--I get where you are coming from but answer me this: What is the current W-L Record of the Sixers? Yes, ours isn't far ahead, but it IS ahead, and in the West, no less.
My point? Playing all the young guns, that are honestly less talented than the Sixers young core (just being honest; we're good, but not Noel, Embiid, Okafor, Stauskus, Wroton, etc., good), would likely land us with about 20-25 wins this season. Yep, we'd get a top 5 pick, but really, would you prefer we take that route? The Sixers have ONE player (Carl Landry) that is senior to the 2012 draft. EVERY other player they have on their roster came from the 2012 Draft or more recent.
I would love to see us start Bledsoe, Knight, Warren, Leuer, Len--all young guys from the 2010 draft or sooner. We could even start Knight, Booker, Goodwin, Warren, and Len, but what would that get us playing incredibly 'small-ball'.
EDIT: And I say Goodwin at the 3 instead of Booker based upon his freakishly long wingspan of 6'10" which is a whopping .75" or 1.25" shorter than Kieff, or .25" or .75" shorter than Warren, which also provides evidence to how Warren can fill in at the 4 in some cases, and even though he's a bit light in the pants at 230(now listed at 230; was 220 at time of draft), which isn't ideal, but not horrible either, especially considering Leuer is listed as 228. And Leuer/Teletovic can fill in the other 28 minutes, giving Warren 20 minutes at the 4 and 10-12 minutes at the 3. Yes, I'd like to see more of Warren, Booker, Goodwin, and Len with our other young guys (Knight, Bledsoe, and Leuer), but not at the expense of their development; we don't want them to get discouraged if they don't perform well; and we don't want to play them at the expense of getting wins, either. Just because they play better than say Tucker or Chandler or Price, doesn't mean that other intangibles we don't see, or that the extra time wears them down, or who knows what other reason, doesn't play a factor that may not be otherwise readily noticeable, right? OK, end of EDIT.
Give it until after we trade Kieff. Our team will benefit from not having a player who's "phoned it in" or what ever that phrase is. Just having him off the team, IMO, will make a huge difference.
Anyway, I get where you are coming from, but just give it a little more time...
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