Philadelphia 76ers 2010-2011 preview
On paper the 76ers have a pretty good team. Certainly on paper they don’t have a 29 win team. But as we all know paper means nothing, it’s how you perform on the hard court and how the 76ers performed last season was pretty shameful.
If Philadelphia didn’t have Elton Brand’s shocking $90million contract on the books they might have been in a position to actually do something productive this off-season. As it stands, however, they do have that contract and they were left to watch the other teams around them get better.
For a team that was regarded as a good defensive team the Sixers struggled in that department last season. That could be down to new head coach Eddie Jordan who preaches offence is the best form of defence or maybe the team never really gelled.
Andre Iguodala was selected for the World Championships this summer for his defence and not for his scoring ability. Thaddeus Young can help out on the defensive side too, averaging 1.2 steals a game last season along with 3.3 defensive rebounds. But if the Sixers don’t play like a team then finishing last in three-point defence is what’s going to happen, just as it did last year.
Off-season moves
Due to Brand’s contract – surely one of the top five worst in the NBA – the 76ers were pretty limited in their off-season activities. The biggest addition they made was selecting Evan Turner with their second overall pick.
Though he might not project to be an NBA superstar like John Wall, he could turn out to be in the next tier of players. Coming out of college he is one of the most NBA ready players and will start at shooting guard helping a team that ranked below average in offence last season.
They added Andres Nocioni and Spencer Hawes in exchange for Samuel Dalembert in a move to get under the luxury tax threshold. Considering they got Hawes in the trade it wasn’t a bad move. At 22 there is a lot of room for improvement for the centre and after a bad 29 win season going young isn’t exactly the worst thing to do.
They also traded Willie Green and Jason Smith to New Orleans for Darius Songaila and Craig Brackins in a bid to improve their shooting.
Prediction
If things go well for Philadelphia then they’ll be playing for the last play-off spot in the east, but with coach Jordan focusing on offence the Sixers could be shooting themselves in the foot. However, with the East not being the deepest division they should sneak that 8th seed.
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