Heard in the Cheap Seats

If I come on this site and bash one of the Philly teams, then I think I should also give credit where credit is due. Recently, I was very critical of the Sixers in a post on this site.

I wanted to take this opportunity to throw out a few positive things I have seen in the team since I ripped them. They just finished a tough 6 game road trip with a terrible 1-5 record. I know, I know, that doesn’t sound very positive, but I am getting to it! Other than the lack luster effort they put forth against the Jazz, the Sixers played hard and had a chance to win every game. The best sign to me was the final game of the road trip when the Spurs won 108-106 on a buzzer beater by Tony Parker after leading by 26 points earlier in the game. Even though the 76ers lost that game, they showed me some guts. Instead of rolling over to the mighty Spurs and hopping back on the plane to head home, they fought back.

I agree with what my brother said a few days ago that moral victories are a bunch of bull, but I do believe that the Spurs game was a sign that the team is starting to find a little bit of rhythm. Since the Spurs loss, the Sixers beat the Rockets at home and went to Milwaukee the very next night and had a comeback victory against the Bucks. There have been a few promising signs that I would like to see continue. The first is the lessened minutes of Sam Dalembert coupled with the increasing minutes of Theo Ratliff and Marreese Speights in his place. Last year, when Mo Cheeks trusted Thaddeus Young, and continued to reward him with big minutes, the rookie continued to improve and give the Sixers energy and quality minutes. Speights is starting to do the same thing this year the more court time he sees.

Another promising sign is the hustle the Sixers are showing on defense. The Sixers are not going to be a top flight defense, but they can certainly be an opportunistic defense. Defense is really about athletic ability, desire, and teamwork. The Sixers obviously have athletic ability, and seem to be showing the desire of late and are creating turnovers because of that. That allows them to thrive in the up tempo fastbreaking pace that they excel at. One of the differences I have seen, and I would like to see more of is the increased minutes of Royal Ivey. The guy is never going to be a starter in this league, but he occasionally hits a three and consistently plays tough on the ball defense which is something the Sixers have been lacking. I thought Tony DiLeo did a great job in the Bucks game of sticking with the players that were getting the job done. Ivey was playing great, and instead of subbing him out for Willie Green, DiLeo kept Ivey in for pretty much the entire fourth quarter.

Last but not least, I have been very critical both on here and in conversations with my buddies of Andre Iguodala, and I will be the first one to say that he has played great recently. He has shot the ball well, he has made big plays late in games, and he is aggressively taking the ball to the basket, which he needs to continue to do. The only downside to all of this, is that it has happened without Elton Brand in the lineup. Iguodala has moved back to the small forward position and played well. For once I will take an optimistic approach and say that at the beginning of the year, the Sixers were trying to fit Elton Brand in, but when he comes back in a couple weeks, they will ask him to fit into the system DiLeo has in place and move forward with an improved lineup. How’s that for optimism? I believe they can make some strides when Brand returns to the lineup, however they are certainly miles away from contending for anything other than a playoff spot. Damn. What happened to all that hope I had built up?