Fix the Sixers

[Court_visioN]

Some issues this team has, like closing out on shooters, defending the pick and roll, and getting Elton Brand the ball somewhere within his scoring range and not 25 feet from the hoop, are X's and O's problems that simply need to be addressed in practice through repetitions and practice. But there are some problems that can be masked with some in-game strategies or rotational changes.

1. Move Thad Young to the bench.
It sounds crazy since Young is arguably the best player on our team offensively (the game against Boston notwithstanding) but he's just not ready defensively. By moving him to the bench it may light a fire under his butt and get him to work harder on the defensive end. It will also move Jason Kapono to the starting lineup. Kapono is horrid defensively, and won't play extended minutes but at least it gives the starting unit some semblance of an outside shooting game, and allow Brand some breathing room to operate. With Kapono in it is very likely Elton will see some more looks in the block.

2. Make Jrue Holiday the backup point guard.
This makes the second unit Holiday, Carney, Young, Speights, and Smith. Which looks much stronger defensively on the perimeter than Green, Carney, and Kapono. Let Holiday create out there but having Young on the floor with him allows Holiday to have a safety valve. Thad is great at finding the right places to be during broken plays, and with his improvization Jrue Holiday should have some room to make some mistakes on the offensive end.

3. Employ full court pressure more often with the second unit.
This team has enough athleticism from top to bottom to use these types of defenses. It won't work well against teams with an experienced point guard (LAL, PHX, DAL, NOH, UTA, etc) but playing against teams with weaker point guards employ some full court pressure or a half court trap defense to see if you can force some turnovers in the backcourt or early in the set, while slowing down the offense and if you can get the opposing team to start running their sets with 10 seconds or so left on the shot clock, you're in good shape. Less time means less pick and rolls to run through.

4. Play Iguodala at the point at some point.
I liked the Iguodala-Carney backcourt the team played against Boston. This tandem can be used against teams with a point guard who can get into the paint quickly and an off-guard who runs you ragged off screens (Ex: the Pistons, Spurs, Suns) This season the point guard has been letting opposing point guard force the team into rotating and therefore end up leaving shooters open. If Iguodala can stop dribble penetration from the point man, the rest of the defense becomes that much easier. There is the additional bonus to this in that with this big backcourt the other team is likely to put their point guard on Carney defensively in order to match up with Iguodala. This gives Carney the chance to simply shoot over the top of shorter point guards = more room to work with offensively.

5. Using Willie Green and Royal Ivey properly.
Regardless of what Jordan has said, I don't see Willie Green benefiting this team at all, even as a backup point. All I see him doing out there is jacking up 20 foot jumpers (worst shot in basketball). He's hit or miss. Some days he can and will get hot and ring up 10 quick points in a hurry. Use this to your advantage - if the team is desperate to get something going offensively, put Willie in the lineup. As for Royal Ivey, with Jrue Holiday in the mix there is really absolutely no reason for Ivey ever to peel off the warmups.

[sweetlou23]

thad has not been our best offensive player this season, not even close. he has basically been mediocre at best. 42 percent from the field, 10 percent from beyond, 14.3 pts 2.25 turnovers 3.3 boards in 38 minutes. he has been competeing with sammy for the weakest link in our starters.

we don't rotate because the point gets beat, we rotate because thats our defensive scheme. we are getting punished on the perimeter, usually at the four and three spots. people need to stay home on shooters. why rotate off of g in ny or sheed in bos? it simply does not make sense.

[Court_visioN]

I don't care what defensive scheme a team is running, it doesn't entail the point guard getting consistently beat off the dribble. The Sixers did not plan for Jason Williams to shred the defense, for Brandon Jennings to run the Sixers in circles, or for Chris Duhon to waltz down the lane and force OT. The point guard HAS to stay in front of his guy or opposing points will put a tremendous amount of pressure on the defense. Not to say guys like Thad Young aren't also getting beat because he has been horrific defensively, but it has to start with Lou Williams and the point guards.

[Typeical]

I agree with a few .....

1. I would wait a a little longer before putting thad on the bench, I think he's just going through a rough stretch. But I get what your saying, he has been missing a lot of open shots on the perimeter which gives the defense the ability to sit in the paint where brand, dre and williams all do damage. If he , dre and williams dont start hitting those open shots, then putting kapono in for him should be a option.

2.I agree, I really wish the sixers would do this. willie green is not a point guard at all, atleast louwilliams can play PG but green isnt going to get it done. Jrue is probally still a little to wet behind the ears for consistent mins but I think as the season go along he should show coach jordan that there isnt a guard better for that backup pg spot. I really like that 2nd unit too Jrue/Carney or green/Thad/Jason/Marresse. Too bad it wont happen


As far as the defensive schemes and horrible three point defense, I think eddie is at fault

[PhilasFinest]

hows it eddies fault that the team cant defend the 3 or perimeter?

this teams been a terrible perimeter D team for the past 4 years...not just the start of this season.

Enough blame on the coaches already...its this teams fault and the gm. NO coach could make a contender out of this team as is.

[Typeical]

hows it eddies fault that the team cant defend the 3 or perimeter?

this teams been a terrible perimeter D team for the past 4 years...not just the start of this season.

Enough blame on the coaches already...its this teams fault and the gm. NO coach could make a contender out of this team as is.

I agree that the players are at fault as well but Like I said its the coach fault too, his defensive philosophy is rediculous. why is he focused so much on the defending paint when we have brand and sammy down there, two good defenders/ shotblockers. the big man coming out of the paint to double the ball handler isnt working either, it just leaves a player open and someone fails to recover.

Everytime Jordan is asked about the three point shooting he brushes it off as if it's nothing you can do to prevent that. He doesnt seem to care about defense nearly as much as offense, when everyone knows you have to have good defense to be competitive. The three point shooting has been a problem and he's the head coach it's hs job to fix it.

[g selle]

If there was any way, any way at all, to steal Brook Lopez from the Nets our froncourt would be set for the next decade with Lopez and Speights.

Our starting big men have faults: one's dumb, the other short and athletically-challenged.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Court_Vision: Brandon Jennings did NOT run us in circles. While he had his 17-9-9 night. He would've gotten 30 if not for the defense of Lou Williams. Who was all over him and all over the court.

And if one simple play by Chris Duhon infuriates you, the entire 4th quarter is much more infuriating.

Before then Chris Duhon only hit 1 shot and was insignificant.


If you watched the games. Lou Williams has been GREAT on the defensive end.

I sware, kid comes in and plays great on both ends. We all knew there'd be some struggles, so let's be glad it ain't coming from the PG Spot.

[ChuckS]

I, too, have been pleasantly surprised by Lou's play early this year.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I still have questioned his defense and wondered about the lack of touches for our bigs.

Now that I know Jennings "would've gotten 30 if not for the defense of Lou Williams. Who was all over him and all over the court", I feel much better.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

..........Ugh. I wish we had a road trip or something, play games quickly. So we can finally have a more consistent viewing of what I already know.

Lou Williams is a solid NBA defender.

[Court_visioN]

Dedicated - we'll agree to disagree. Lou has been abysmal at stopping penetration. Watched the game last night, Rafer Alston did whatever he wanted with the ball, he could take it to the paint virtually whenever he wanted.

Thad isn't doing much better defensively. At least Lou has been lights out on offense.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

He did whatever he wanted with the ball? Excuse me. He had 5 turnovers and he wasn't an impact untill late in the 3rd quarter when he got some lay-ups to go in.

Equally, everyone screaming "Thad, Thad". Trenton got most of his damage in the 2nd quarter, where Thad didn't play at all.

Thad only allowed 6 points to Hassell. I'm more disgusted at his offensive game. Hassell's getting to the rim those few possessions was just icing on the cake.

[Court_visioN]

Thad and Lou have both been active defensively but don't mistake that for being good defenders. Both are definitely showing the effort and the hustle, they just get caught out of position way too often. Turnovers aren't an indication of how easily a guard attacks the paint. A lot of turnovers actually occur after you get into the paint, get caught in the air, and make a bad pass. Just by watching the games I see the Sixers are getting killed by dribble penetration with the help rotating in - granted a lot of this has to do with the Sixers crappy screen roll defense, but you could tell that Stuckey and Will Bynum were taking it to Lou last night.

On another note, yesterday against the Pistons was the first game where I thought Lou Will looked uncomfortable and out of sync offensively. Hopefully that was just an aberration and not a sign of him hitting a wall or something like that.

[bballin76]

wait until Sammy and Elton's contracts run out.

go from there.

[Court_visioN]

watching Jrue Holiday pressure ballhandlers on the court - THAT's how you D it up from the point guard position.