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I think Holiday will work his way into the rotation by the middle of the year, with Green possibly playing some at both guard positions.

As I said before, I'd press the Sixers if I played them -- even though they want to run. I just think their young, relativelu ball-handlers are going to be tested.

Thanks for all the updates, Tom. Good to have someone so willing to share this info.

tmoore wrote:I think Holiday will work his way into the rotation by the middle of the year, with Green possibly playing some at both guard positions.

As I said before, I'd press the Sixers if I played them -- even though they want to run. I just think their young, relativelu ball-handlers are going to be tested.

Yes, this has been a concern of mine. Lou still gets caught in traps when bringing the ball up and turns it over. We no longer really have a 'steady' hand to bring the ball up and control the tempo... that will be something to keep an eye on.

Observations from another marathon workout:

* Brand didn't look as energetic as the first two days. Eddie Jordan called it "hump day" for everybody.

* Iguodala had two turnovers in succession during fast-break session of scrimmage.

* Jordan used a small group of Williams, Green, Iguodala, Young and Brand during the portion on full-court defensive pressure

* Green forced a backcourt violation (dribbling) on Holiday, who has a nice handle, late in scrimmage.

Off to a late lunch.

tmoore wrote:Observations from another marathon workout:

* Brand didn't look as energetic as the first two days. Eddie Jordan called it "hump day" for everybody.

* Iguodala had two turnovers in succession during fast-break session of scrimmage.

* Jordan used a small group of Williams, Green, Iguodala, Young and Brand during the portion on full-court defensive pressure

* Green forced a backcourt violation (dribbling) on Holiday, who has a nice handle, late in scrimmage.

Off to a late lunch.

Ok thanks. Did you see any positives?

Maybe this should be in a new thread...

but talking about Jrue, WG and minutes, I posted this on reclinergm a week ago:

Projected Minutes and Rotations:
The depth and youth of this team makes projecting minutes difficult- and makes for an interesting season W/L aside.

Starters: Iguodala(38), Thad(36), Brand(35), Lou(33), Sam(22)
Primary Subs: Speights(24), Green(16), Smith(11), Kapono(11), Jrue(10)
4 situational minutes left for Carney/Ivey/Brezec

Later maybe more for Jrue and Speights if they are ready (taken from Sam and Green)

………………………………………………………………….
Starters: Lou/Iguodala/Young/Brand/Sam
1st subs (8 min mark): Speights/Green for Lou/Sam (Iguodala defacto PG!)
2nd Q starters: Jrue/Green/Iguodala/Speights/Smith
2nd Q subs: Kapono for Iguodala (3 min mark)… then starters filter back in over last 4 min of half
2nd Half: Same as 1st half, but probably less Jrue until he earns it. Also expect Speights to finish out the game unless a defensive stopper is needed.

Later in the year Speights could make a push to start in place of Sam. Jrue could take Green’s spot as 1st G off the bench.

As for Carney/Ivey/Brezec one will be DNP and the others will be situational. Carney will be given the chance to push Green for minutes as the year progressed. And of course there are always injuries to open up more minutes for reserves.

Positives:

* Carney is getting dunks on the break

* Dalembert has done a good job in the offense -- had a nice assist today.

* Jason Smith did a good job on Brand today and was more assertive

* Speights has added eight pounds -- up to 258 -- because he expects to play more center and looks bigger.

* Singletary is a good ball-handler and decision-maker.

tk76 wrote:Maybe this should be in a new thread...

but talking about Jrue, WG and minutes, I posted this on reclinergm a week ago:

Projected Minutes and Rotations:
The depth and youth of this team makes projecting minutes difficult- and makes for an interesting season W/L aside.

Starters: Iguodala(38), Thad(36), Brand(35), Lou(33), Sam(22)
Primary Subs: Speights(24), Green(16), Smith(11), Kapono(11), Jrue(10)
4 situational minutes left for Carney/Ivey/Brezec

Later maybe more for Jrue and Speights if they are ready (taken from Sam and Green)

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. Speights will play more than Smith. Would think Brand's minutes might be a little lower in an effort to give a better chance of staying healthy -- maybe 32 or so.

Current Sixers' assist-to-turnover ratios last season:

Carney 0.60-to-1

Williams 1.60-to-1

Ivey 1.87-to-1

Iguodala 1.95-to-1

Green 2.47-to-1

Willie was much more efficient last year. He did not force the issue, choosing to take the easy shot or make the simple pass. I don't know if that was due to coaching or maturity, but hopefully it continues, because before last year he was about the least efficient player in the NBA:

2006/7:...112A...106TO...usage25.7%
2007/8:...151A...109TO...usage23.9%
2008/9:...158A....64TO...usage18.9%

9th Wonder wrote:Thanks for all the updates, Tom. Good to have someone so willing to share this info.

Glad to do it. Dalembert's right shoulder bothered him somewhat in the first session today, but he scrimmaged and made a few nice plays on offense.

Second workout supposed to be from 6-8 tonight, though may be shorter because first one was so long.

Writing about Willie Green for tomorrow.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/sports/sixers.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/g ... yerId=2004

I'll kindly save you the trouble as per my promise to the rest of the realGM community.

Willie Green had a 2-8 performance or similar 50 of the 82 games played last season(Excluding playoffs, which are more or less the same anyway)

That's 50 games in which Willie Green flat out SUCKED. The reason Willie Green's numbers look alot better then they should is Willie Green's "First and Third Quarter bursts" In those limited phases, he actually looked like a 2 guard in the NBA.

But as you can see 50> 32. And given Green's otherwise HORRIBLE numbers, I very sincerely doubt we'll see the kind of "career year" he had last year.

And we all know he can't make plays for his team-mates. So making him some 'combo' guard is out of the question.

To be fair, he has a positive assist to Turnover ratio of 1. But that has more to do IMO with the fact that he plays less minutes. But he's never averaged more then 2 assists.

He really only averages 1.5 on both ends of attempts/makes at the free throw line.

To put it simply: If he's not hot, he's very very bad.

Short night practice -- concentrated on shooting.

Kapono hasn't hit many jumpers so far, but Jordan said the players are tired and don't have their legs.

Jordan raved about Singletary as a change-of-pace point guard and Iguodala went on and on about how impressed he is with Holiday.

Iguodala on Holiday: "Jrue is really good. He’s under the radar where he might not score a bucket, he might miss a few shots, but you don’t see the impact he has on the floor. Tough defender, very strong. I had to elbow him in the face because he was on me. His basketball mentality is really good. He’s strong."

tmoore wrote:Jordan raved about Singletary as a change-of-pace point guard and Iguodala went on and on about how impressed he is with Holiday.

Iguodala on Holiday: "Jrue is really good. He’s under the radar where he might not score a bucket, he might miss a few shots, but you don’t see the impact he has on the floor. Tough defender, very strong. I had to elbow him in the face because he was on me. His basketball mentality is really good. He’s strong."

How did the rook look today? I keep hearing that his shot is better than expected, have you noticed this at all?

I heard that EJ is giving daily report cards (or something like that) where he puts up the names of a few players who stood out in practice. Sportsnite was saying that Dalembert and Carney have been on it both days so far in addition to others who weren't mentioned by name.

And yes, thanks again for the updates. As always Sixers.com is useless. They launch this "Training Camp Center," and haven't reported anything since the morning session of day 1. We're one of the only team sites that fails to provide daily reports from training camp.

how did lou do today?

I have a feeling that carney might get the nod over kapono occasionaly at the sf spot....

tmoore wrote:Short night practice -- concentrated on shooting.

Kapono hasn't hit many jumpers so far, but Jordan said the players are tired and don't have their legs.

How did Iggy and thad shot look.Did they look improved?

Dedicated_76ers_fan wrote:http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?playerId=2004

I'll kindly save you the trouble as per my promise to the rest of the realGM community.

Willie Green had a 2-8 performance or similar 50 of the 82 games played last season(Excluding playoffs, which are more or less the same anyway)

That's 50 games in which Willie Green flat out SUCKED. The reason Willie Green's numbers look alot better then they should is Willie Green's "First and Third Quarter bursts" In those limited phases, he actually looked like a 2 guard in the NBA.

But as you can see 50> 32. And given Green's otherwise HORRIBLE numbers, I very sincerely doubt we'll see the kind of "career year" he had last year.

And we all know he can't make plays for his team-mates. So making him some 'combo' guard is out of the question.

To be fair, he has a positive assist to Turnover ratio of 1. But that has more to do IMO with the fact that he plays less minutes. But he's never averaged more then 2 assists.

He really only averages 1.5 on both ends of attempts/makes at the free throw line.

To put it simply: If he's not hot, he's very very bad.

Now go through and do the same analysis of Lou Williams' stats from last year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/g ... yerId=2799

I'm really liking what Sam is bringing. The Princeton is showing alot of his better qualities that fans might not have got to see.

I like Lou's effort, hearing Tom say he was "torn" about the turnover makes me think that the turnover issue won't be too much by game 20 or so. Lou seems geniunely interested in making this work and all of the Sixers praised him.

Tom: How's Carneys handles? I believe we engaged in friendly debate, and in my opinion if his handles aren't good enough you can't play him at 2 guard. Make no mistake, he's a fine swingman. I have no problems with Carney. He could still develop, the tools are there. It's just the mental stuff he needs and I think Eddie will REALLY help with his development.

But in light of his handles problems throughout his career, to me he's a 3.

And that's why I'm confident in the fact that Dionte and Singletary are here. Even Swift's being here(when he was healthy) a shotblocker. I feel Eddie said 'We have too much of the same quality and there are some holes we lack'