Could ALL FIVE Atlantic Div. Teams Go to the Playoffs?

[mmistras]

all i have to say to this board is, get ready for bynum to make brook wish he wasn't in the nba anymore.
and to that stupid andre igoudala meme, I don't really see how you can criticize fans for wanting more production out of their star player. and we did not want him to play like lebron, we wanted a more consistent jumpshot and offensive production out of him because thats what we needed to reach the next level, which he unfortunately could not provide which is why we had to trade him.
I am too lazy to make a Nets meme but it would be something along the lines of you thinking you're about to create an all star franchise with your move to new york but after you don't get dwight you're just another barely above average team in the east

[jeff1624]

all i have to say to this board is, get ready for bynum to make brook wish he wasn't in the nba anymore.
and to that stupid andre igoudala meme, I don't really see how you can criticize fans for wanting more production out of their star player. and we did not want him to play like lebron, we wanted a more consistent jumpshot and offensive production out of him because thats what we needed to reach the next level, which he unfortunately could not provide which is why we had to trade him.
I am too lazy to make a Nets meme but it would be something along the lines of you thinking you're about to create an all star franchise with your move to new york but after you don't get dwight you're just another barely above average team in the east

Is that yoour reasoning? Let me ask you this, which gap is bigger; the one between Bynum and Lopez or the one between Deron and Holiday?

[mmistras]

all i have to say to this board is, get ready for bynum to make brook wish he wasn't in the nba anymore.
and to that stupid andre igoudala meme, I don't really see how you can criticize fans for wanting more production out of their star player. and we did not want him to play like lebron, we wanted a more consistent jumpshot and offensive production out of him because thats what we needed to reach the next level, which he unfortunately could not provide which is why we had to trade him.
I am too lazy to make a Nets meme but it would be something along the lines of you thinking you're about to create an all star franchise with your move to new york but after you don't get dwight you're just another barely above average team in the east

Is that yoour reasoning? Let me ask you this, which gap is bigger; the one between Bynum and Lopez or the one between Deron and Holiday?

the one between deron and holiday. But i think you will have a bottom ten defense in the league and we will have a top 5

[Typeical]

@VC4Prez

You ranted about the sixers bench players weaknesses. As if I couldnt do the same but thats pointless because your bench lacks substance. Wont defend or score against the sixers bench. By the way royel ivey isnt the back up PG. its Evan Turner. Thats just another mismatch opposing benches, along with Thad Young and Nick Young. Gerald Wallace cant defend all three of them and as we know joe johnson and marshon brooks doesnt defend anyone.

I already agreed that your backcourt is vastly better than the sixers but I can not lie and say that I am frightened by it like other teams should be. No matter how good Williams or Johnson can score the sixers wont have to double. Jrue(top defensive PG) can defend deron straight up especialy with a shotblocker in the paint and so can royel ivey in case jrue gets in foul trouble. Evan Turner is a strong versatile defender as well. I know Iggy gets all the credit for the sixers being good defensively, but those guys have some say in that aspect.

Your point about Lopez being a good matchup against Bynum is valid. Lopez likes to shoot the jumper and Bynum doesnt like to leave the paint and I dont think either can completely outmatch each other offensively. But other than Bynum being a different player since the last time they matched up ( a couple seasons ago)it's really more about what they do for there team than the individual matchup. I think Bynum takes the cake in what he will bring to this team on both ends. He's a seamless fit offensively and defensively for the way the sixers roster is built.

The little attempt to bash philly fans was lame and uncalled for. I'm just as excited about the improvements to the other teams in the division like yours because I am unbiased as a 'NBA fan'. Overall and honestly, emotions (your post had a hostile undertone) should be taken out of what I thought was a friendly debate. How good either team will be is all speculation untill we see them play together on the court.

12/23/12 Should be fun

[jeff1624]

all i have to say to this board is, get ready for bynum to make brook wish he wasn't in the nba anymore.
and to that stupid andre igoudala meme, I don't really see how you can criticize fans for wanting more production out of their star player. and we did not want him to play like lebron, we wanted a more consistent jumpshot and offensive production out of him because thats what we needed to reach the next level, which he unfortunately could not provide which is why we had to trade him.
I am too lazy to make a Nets meme but it would be something along the lines of you thinking you're about to create an all star franchise with your move to new york but after you don't get dwight you're just another barely above average team in the east

Is that yoour reasoning? Let me ask you this, which gap is bigger; the one between Bynum and Lopez or the one between Deron and Holiday?

the one between deron and holiday. But i think you will have a bottom ten defense in the league and we will have a top 5

Saying things like this is rather pointless unless you delve into and explain why.

Why I think your assumption is incorrect regarding the sixers' defense:

-You lost your best defensive player in Igoudala. I think sixers fans in general are underselling the effect he had. He held opposing SF's to a PER of 8.7 throughout the entire season. That is insane and won't be replicated by Dorrell Wright (Awful defender) or Jason Richardson (old and only getting worse).

-You lost another good defender in Elton Brand.

-I don't know why people consider Bynum a good defender. He rarely makes an effort on that end and routinely gets out-hustled by opposing centers. You really expect him to become an achor while he's taking 20+ shots a game?

As for us:

-We won't be nearly as bad as last year where we were forced to play mehmet okur, who couldn't jump, and 6'9 Shelden Williams at center the entire season. Brook Lopez isn't a defensive guru, but holds his own while playing man to man. His PnR defense won't be as troubling now that we have guys that can stay ahead of their man defensively. Believe it or not, we're a much better rebounding team with Lopez is the lineup.

-Wallace will be our starting SF who's stronger, taller and much more athletic than Stevenson who started for us last year. He'll also help us on the glass since he's one of the better rebounding SF's in the league.

-We won't be starting MarShon Brooks at SG anymore. Johnson isn't a greta defensive player, but he's MUCH better than Brooks.

-We now have Reggie Evans, and not Johan Petro, as our backup bigman. No need to elaborate on that.

-Deron will put more effort on that end now that he doesn't have to waste every ounce of energy trying to score.

-We'll have training camp this time around. I know that's not an excuse because no one had a proper training camp... but last year we had a completely different roster than the year before and the team had no idea how to play.

[SouthJersey]

Way to be objective in your post, always a sign of a strong argument

I don't understand why Net's fans are so optimistic. You've basically locked yourself into the 6th seed for the next 5 years and have a terrible coach and GM.

[vincecarter4pres]

Man are Sixers fans going to be shocked or what at the end of the year when they're a 35 to 44 win team somewhere between the 7th and 10th seed as first round fodder or back in the late lottery?

Again, I love the Bynum move overall for the Sixers, in the long term, but if they aren't going to make a big follow up move, it's going to take Turner transforming into a high impact 18/7/5 guy, Jrue playing much, much, much better even if his stats are similar, all their shooters bombing away and few injuries just to see a ceiling of the 6 seed, a touch above my expectations.

In fact, it's going to take very close to the above just to make the playoffs.

Great long term move and I understand the initial excitement. That's great. But even now, almost a week after the high came on, you'd think they'd really look objectively at that roster and be realistic.

You go on their board, Jesus, you have literally 80% minimum of a significant number of their posters saying they are an absolute top 4 seed lock, an extremely likely almost lock top 3 seed, very likely top 2 and that as is they are competing with the cream of the NBA's crop.

I understand the way of Philadelphia's pro sports fan base, I'm part of it myself, as are a number of our posters here as well, so I'm not totally surprised, but they are really going overboard here.

The way they talk it's like Iggy is still on the team with Bynum and instead of Jason Richardson and Nick Young they added Manu Ginobili and Jason Terry.

There's a very real chance here with only minimal injuries this just doesn't work at all this year and they wind up with like 26 wins.

If it wasn't for Doug Collins, I wouldn't put as much faith in them even making the playoffs as I do.

I don't like Doug, I think he overcoaches and wears on his players. I don't think he's a championship coach and an awful fit for a contender. But what he does do is get 132% out of his players and turns bad to mediocre and masks mediocre as a strongish playoff team.

They should make it this year, but they aren't any type of threat and certainly are not a HCA 1st round team without a huge follow up move and as someone pointed out on the trade board, they aren't likely to make a huge follow up move this season because they are going to want Bynum to feel this is his team so he re-signs.

Maybe they will though if one appears, you have to strike when the iron's hot and I'm sure they'd run it by Drew in a thorough manner before doing it.

[drejeronfire]

I don't think people remember how good Deron Williams is...

[vincecarter4pres]

I don't think people remember how good Deron Williams is...

I think this is dead on correct.

Also, there was a guy on the GB that would say Deron is Baron Davis waiting to happen, that he's moody with crappy work ethic and that he's gotten fat and out of shape and a problem.

Well, the crappy work ethic is just nonsense, Deron is always playing in some league it seems, reportedly works on his game a lot and hits the weight room.

Fat... well for the first time in his career, yeah he looked like he was going into Turkey, but he was coming off surgery where he couldn't play or hit the weights and I wouldn't doubt he got a touch lazy when all he could really do is ride an exercise bike, I'd imagine he couldn't even jog for a couple months and he is a bigger guy for a basketball player and is rumored to love some food.

But the point is, although I thought that was a bad extreme to compare him to Baron and I told him that, cause Baron was a real piece of **** for a number of years and always worked on his movies instead of on basketball and didn't put much extra work in or take practice serious, bad work ethic.

But Deron did have that attitude where when it's blatantly obvious there is no favorable end game, just zero light at the end of the tunnel, he sulks, gets moody, is a dick, doesn't give his all, but when he has a good team around him, when the team is strong, he's on a different level from all but a handful or two of the rest of the players in the world.

So in that sense, yes, he's just like Baron.

Deron to me, he's either a really good leader or a terrible one.

He doesn't deal well with total adversity, but he deals fine with normal adversity.

In Utah he had teams he thought could contend til that last year and they virtually did and in that time frame he was actually known as a pretty good leader. Not a great one, but a really good one. Better then Kobe, but that same type of real dickish leader.

But when you put him on a team that he knows he'd have to play quite literally like the Michael Jordan of point guards just to fall 5 games short of the 8 seed, he doesn't handle that well and becomes a just awful leader.

That's fine now, cause we don't have that kind of horrible team. We have a team he feels will contend and can get better.

When he's on a team like this, you're going to see Deron from the Sixers game, from all the Charlotte games, the Knix game, the Golden State game, etc.

He's going to be a straight up boss.

[NyCeEvO]

Well you shouldnt . Turner can defend him (the only players that give Turner problems is elite athletes and Johnson isnt that) and so can Dorell Wright and Jason Richardson. Jrue and Royal Ivey are tough defenders to throw at Deron Williams and the Sixers have Lavoy Allen and Kwame Brown to play physical with Lopez. We know Lopez cant defend so if they do try to double Bynum he can just throw it out so the Nets wil get bombed on from 3. My question is who's going to defend Nick Young and Thaddeus Young off the bench? It should be fun to watch

Turner is no Iggy. Let's not think that Turner can shut down, let alone handle, JJ when he no longer is the main option on a team.

And you're saying that Dorell Wright and Jason Richardson are going to provide ample defense to help cover JJ?

Have you watched Magic/PHX basketball to see what Richardson does now? He just jacks up 3s. And the same can be said for Dorell Wright.

Also, do we need to replay the highlight video of D-Will crossing up Jodie Meeks for the gamewinning shot? I think Jrue is a good, underrated player but I wouldn't bet on him stopping D-Will either. Jrue was on the other side of the court when that happened and you'd think that Collins would've had Turner/Jrue switch assignments to handle D-Will, but instead Jodie got the call. I wonder if Jrue is the great man-to-man defender you're touting him to be.


You do know that one of Bynum's main criticisms is his failure to pass out of the double team, right? It happened plenty of times in LA. He's just as bad as Lopez at seeing the double team and passing out of it. I don't know where the image of him being able to consistently identify the double team and pass out of it came from, but it certainly is not an accurate depiction of reality.


Nick Young and Thaddeus lol?

Nick Young defends himself. He never passes the ball and is supreme blackhole on offense. Lou Williams was more versatile than Nick Young.

Thaddeus is good but not some sort of all world talent. The guy is a tweener that Gerald Wallace can definitely handle. He's athletic but he's not an X-factor in you guys beating us.

Oh, and if there is anything that will be good to watch, it will be seeing your bigs try to guard Teletovic on the wing.

[SouthJersey]

Also, do we need to replay the highlight video of D-Will crossing up Jodie Meeks for the gamewinning shot? I think Jrue is a good, underrated player but I wouldn't bet on him stopping D-Will either. Jrue was on the other side of the court when that happened and you'd think that Collins would've had Turner/Jrue switch assignments to handle D-Will, but instead Jodie got the call. I wonder if Jrue is the great man-to-man defender you're touting him to be.



Oh, and if there is anything that will be good to watch, it will be seeing your bigs try to guard Teletovic on the wing.

Teletovic? lCome on you don't even know if the guy can play and now the Sixers, one of the best defensive teams in the league, can't guard him?

Meeks is on the Lakers....so I guess Joe johnson will be able to have his way with him in the Finals

[nets14]

Toronto isnt realistic, I think Boston, Brooklyn, New York make it easily and the Sixers will barely make it

[enetric]

all i have to say to this board is, get ready for bynum to make brook wish he wasn't in the nba anymore.
and to that stupid andre igoudala meme, I don't really see how you can criticize fans for wanting more production out of their star player. and we did not want him to play like lebron, we wanted a more consistent jumpshot and offensive production out of him because thats what we needed to reach the next level, which he unfortunately could not provide which is why we had to trade him.
I am too lazy to make a Nets meme but it would be something along the lines of you thinking you're about to create an all star franchise with your move to new york but after you don't get dwight you're just another barely above average team in the east

I can totally see Bynum doing that. Since Bynum is out of the NBA more than he is IN the NBA I can see how sitting on the sidelines in a suit will make Brook jealous.

Damn...look at him over there. Eating Popcorn, reading batman comics...and I have to be here busting my asss on the court. Damn....

[NyCeEvO]

Also, do we need to replay the highlight video of D-Will crossing up Jodie Meeks for the gamewinning shot? I think Jrue is a good, underrated player but I wouldn't bet on him stopping D-Will either. Jrue was on the other side of the court when that happened and you'd think that Collins would've had Turner/Jrue switch assignments to handle D-Will, but instead Jodie got the call. I wonder if Jrue is the great man-to-man defender you're touting him to be.



Oh, and if there is anything that will be good to watch, it will be seeing your bigs try to guard Teletovic on the wing.

Teletovic? lCome on you don't even know if the guy can play and now the Sixers, one of the best defensive teams in the league, can't guard him?

Meeks is on the Lakers....so I guess Joe johnson will be able to have his way with him in the Finals

Maybe you don't know if Teletovic can play, but many of us have watched him and every international scout or fan that watches a lot of international basketball talk about how he's the best or close to being the best player in Europe.

The guy can ball, there's no question of that. Also, I think you failed to see the point I was making about D-Will's game winning shot. I agree Holiday is an underrated defender but let's not act like he can check him all day. If Collins had so much confidence in him, Jrue should've been guarding D-Will, not Jodie.