A simple plea - start Speights

[bebopdeluxe]

Brian over at Depressed Fan had an interesting analysis of Speights from Wednesday night. While everybody was ga-ga over Mo dropping 26, others chose to focus on his +/- of -12...but Brian broke down his minutes by who he was out on the floor with...and the results basically mirrored the numbers that 82games.com had for him last season.

Speights with all or mostly starters - plus 1
Speights with all or mostly reserves - minus 11

When you combine this with the legitimate concern about what Brand really has left (other than 4 years and $70 mil of contract), it seems that the only logical thing to do is to start Speights at the 4 and Brand at the 5...

- Brand probably cannot guard PF's at the perimeter
- Brand can probably be pretty comfortable at the high-post in the PO
- Speights will benefit from having other long, athletic defensive players around him
- Speights will probably both get better shots and be more sleective about shot selection when he is out there with the starters

To make this move will admit two things - that Brand will probably never be the player he once was again, and that Dalembert is basically a non-factor on the team until you can move him.

I find the alternative to be much, MUCH worse.

[wow444]

I agree 100%. Make it happen Eddie. For the PO to work all five players have to be an offensive threat.

[Kevin12]

If he started for us, sure he would put up far better production than either Brand or Dalembert, but it wouldn't necessarily make us a better team right now. We should continue to use him in a 23+ minutes a night role and let him tear up other team's reserve frontcourts until he fine-tunes his overall defensive game a little more.

Besides, Speights is a spark plug on that second unit. Brand would be virtually useless playing without starting calibur players around him. And Dalembert brings nothing to the reserve unit.

So yeah, appreciate the thread and numbers you posted, but it just wouldn't work logically. At least not yet.

[ITK9]

I don't agree for now.Yes,we need to play him at least 27-28 mpg but we have to raise Brand or Sammy's trade value somehow.We are not doing that by benching any of them.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Is it me, or did Sam under the circumstances played good basketball and is getting hit under the bush?

Yes, Speights did great. But I question whether or not he can truly be a center, that's number one.

Number two: Sam played well. When your against Howard, you've got to look at certain things. IMO, he only had 3 fouls, not 5.

[bebopdeluxe]

ITK9:

There is no way to raise Sammy or EB's trade value - right now they are zero and zero, respectively.

Since we are on the hook for twice the lenght and MORE than twice the $$$ for EB versus Sammy (and also since EB is a player with more potential upside in the PO than Sammy, IMO), Sammy goes to the bench. If he wants to pout , fine...I really do not give a crap. Worrying about how Sammy will react to Speights starting is the LAST thing that this team should worry about.

Speights is the better player. He should play.

Unless something dramatic happens in terms of Brand's athleticism returning, his days of being able to defend at the 4 are limited. He couldn't/wouldn't go out to the perimeter to guard Anderson...you think he's gonna check Lewis when he comes back? Huh?

I don't want to make this all negative - a Brand/Speights combo at the 4/5 can be very interchangable - particularly on the defensive end. I just see ZERO future in a Brand/Sammy combo at the 4/5...so why waste time trying to make it work? Bite the bullet and put Speights in Dalembert's place.

[sixerswillrule]

Shouldn't really make much a difference since Dalembert won't be playing many minutes anyway.

[ankle420breaker]

As long as he plays starters minutes, I'm not really all that worried about whether or not Speights is in the starting lineup.

[bebopdeluxe]

The +/- numbers seem to suggest, however, that Speights is less of a defensive liability when he is in with the starters than when he is in with the back-ups...who cares if he scores the ball with the bench guys but is a -11 in terms of impact on the overall scoreboard?

[jiggy08]

how bout this plea: somebody plz smack Lou upside the head for his atrocious D.

[9th Wonder]

I've got a plea, too: let's wait until after the first game to all go crazy.

[Foshan]

I really don't think we can afford to move Speights to the starting line up until we have moved Dally or Brand. Benching one of them will killl what little trade value they have or make it go more negative, whatever. Sam had a good game tonight, string a few more of them together, and someone with a hole in the middle might look at him, same deal (tho less likely) with Brand.

For the time being I'm fine with the role speights has, and think this is a good time for him to be improving his D when he has less help.

[BobbyJones]

I really don't think we can afford to move Speights to the starting line up

Especially if he is going to commit 5 fouls in 13 minutes, as was the case last night.

[gdubb34]

it's pretty simple to see whose a better player thus far, although short period of time... both are averaging 23 minutes per but speights is killing him in almost every category....
Sammy D - 6 rpg, 2.3 to pg, 4 pf pg, 8 ppg
Speights- 7.3 rpg, 1.6 to pg, 3 pf pg, 16.7 ppg

if its not broken don't fix it... let him keep doing what he's doing in his role, whose to say he would get as many touches with the starters

[Kevin12]

let him keep doing what he's doing in his role, whose to say he would get as many touches with the starters

Exactly.