Tag Archive: 76ers

Random Friday Thoughts

February 27, 2015 Adam Thomas

1.) NFL free agency is about to start so let’s keep one thing in mind that I’ve talked about on this blog before: whoever wins free agency is not going to win in the regular season. Do the Patriots ever ‘Win’ free agency? No. Teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win free agency. In fact, they were declared winners by many media outlets last year and what did that get them? The number one pick in this year’s draft. The Bills won free agency in 2012 by signing Mario Williams and haven’t sniffed the playoffs since. Keep this in mind when players start flying off the shelves on March 10.

With that being said, I will definitely be up at midnight on March 10 to see who the Raiders pick up. Just because it’s fools gold doesn’t mean it’s not fun to imagine that it’s the real thing!

2.) If you can give up Michael Carter-Williams and get (potentially) the number 4 pick in the one of the next two drafts or a top ten pick in this year’s draft, I don’t have a problem with it. Put it this way, with MCW the Sixers were terrible. Without MCW, the Sixers are terrible. They aren’t winning any games this year with or without him so why not capitalize on the best value you can get for an over valued player like MCW? I like it.

And if you are doubtful of Hinkie, just take a moment to watch his press conference. The dude seems like an evil genius and I have no doubt that when the time comes, he will strike and bring a superstar to the Sixers because remember, that’s what you need in the NBA. You need one of those guys like Lebron if you want to win a championship. You don’t get there by holding onto players like MCW when a chance at the potential number 4 pick (in 2016 or 2017) comes around.

Some notable picks at #4: Chris Paul, Chris Bosh and Russell Westbrook.

If you can acquire a pick with the potential to turn MCW into a player like that, go for it.

3.) Speaking of NBA teams, for some reason, I just don’t trust the Warriors to make it out of the West. Call it the curse of Iggy, but they just seem like they aren’t there yet. Why do I feel like it will be Memphis or San Antonio this year?

4.) The album of the week is Colleen Green’s “I Want to Grow Up.” Which is the balls. In fact, let’s just do a quick shout out to the lady rockers out there who keep churning out some of the best albums around. This year, Sleater-Kinney dominated January, now Colleen Green is rocking February, what’s next for March? Guess we’ll have to find out.

Until next time…

Comment

76ers Deny Hiring Brett Brown…. So Far

June 28, 2013 Randy Neil

Welp… that was a bender of a night, and unfortunately, the lady we took home to bed turned out to be a grotesque, out-of-shape, Big-Momma’s-House esque female.

What I’m saying is, general manager Sam Hinkie is now denying the report that the 76ers hired Brett Brown as their head coach. In spite of the crazy draft moves, we are still without a head coach, even though if you Google Brett Brown there’s still SEVERAL reports claiming that this is true.

It sure makes it hard on us guys who passionately write about a pretty crappy basketball team on their own free-time…

Comment

Sixers Hire Brett Brown, Trade Jrue Holiday for Noel Nerlens

June 28, 2013 Randy Neil

What is going on with the Sixers?? In one day, the 76ers organization traded their 23-year old All-Star point guard away, named a head coach, and received one of the most sought-after centers in the 2013 NBA Draft.

Brett Brown was the Spur assistant coach and served under Greg Popovich for almost a decade. He also coached the 2012 Australian Olympic basketball team. I know absolutely nothing else about him. I’ll wait a few days to let this sink in and form my opinion, but if he’s anything like Pop, I’m on board.

Jrue Holiday was traded in the first round of this year’s draft for Noel Nerlens and a first-round 2014 pick. They followed that by drafting 6’6″ point-guard Michael Carter-Williams as the 11th pick, to whom I also know very little about.

This is a huge day for the 76ers and for new general manager Sam Hinkie. It shakes up the team quite a bit and it really leaves some pretty big question marks around the team.

The first that comes to mind… can we start building a team around people without huge question marks surrounding their health?

Noel Nerlens is coming off of an ACL injury which tends to be pretty disastrous for an NBA athlete. We traded away our only All-Star, a very young one at that, for a center that may have injury problems for his entire career. If it works out, great, but like that Bynum trade, this move can look really foolish in retrospect.

That also makes me believe that the chances of resigning Bynum have dwindled to nothing. This pleases me. Maybe for good measure we can give him a huge deal, though, and have two centers with knee problems.

Sam Hinkie has made some interesting moves in his short span as GM and they do not follow the conservative route. I guess I’m happy about that. The 2013 April team looks nothing like the team now and he’s probably going to make a lot more moves before the season starts. Something had to be done.

Let’s just see how it pans out. Btw, if you search the site for Doug Collins, you’ll find a post written by Adam from 3 years ago when Doug Collins was hired. Scary.

Comment

The 76ers Hire Sam Hinkie, Now Search For Head Coach

May 12, 2013 Randy Neil

The 76ers have hired this guy, Sam Hinkie, as the new President and General Manager of Sixers’ operations. Hinkie is a welcomed outsider that replaces Tony DiLeo for overseeing a majority of the decisions on behalf of the 76ers going forward. He has spent the last 6 years in the Houston Rockets organization, going from Vice President of Basketball Operations to Executive Vice President in 2010.

This is a great move for restoring some certainty in the Sixers future. Hinkie has been a well-sought after executive and is tagged as being one of the pioneers of “analytics” in basketball. This, is being compared to the movie ‘Moneyball’ for basketball, where cap-space and efficiency percentages are taken into consideration with much more regard than say, individual points-per-game.

An interesting example of that is this year’s 2012-13 Houston Rockets team, which intentionally stacked their roster to make 3-point attempts, so that even if only a 3rd of them were made, the opposing team would have to make at least 50% of their field goal attempts to break even. That was something Hinkie was responsible for engineering, and in the case of the Houston Rockets, it worked.

The point is, Hinkie is much better at restructuring a team from the inside-out. Someone of his notoriety allows for better coaching prospects, as well. The turn-around time for success under a system like that is much quicker and bodes well for cultivating draft picks and salary space.

With all the speculation about whom the 76ers will hire as head coach, they have not actively interviewed anyone yet. Tony DiLeo intends on resigning publicly this week, and I imagine the interview process will carry on from there.

Comment

The Last Andrew Bynum Update for the 2013 Season

March 1, 2013 Randy Neil

Andrew Bynum finally addressed the media after his first full-contact practice that occurred last Friday, the 22nd. Essentially, he will never play for the Philadelphia 76ers, or at least not in the 2012-13 season.

The swelling in Bynum’s knee was still evident, even after a full week. The guarantees that Bynum offered before last Friday’s practice seem like a distant memory, and he was even willing to admit that it’s late in the season and the likelihood of him playing is small.

The sad reality, for both Philadelphia and Andrew Bynum fans alike, is that the former All-Star center may not have a career in basketball because of his physical ailments. The media questioned him on his future past this season and the responses were bleak at best.

Comment

Date with Ikea

February 3, 2012 Adam Thomas

1.) For the record, Blake Griffin’s “Dunk” over Kendrick Perkins was not technically a dunk.  Remember a few years back when Dwight Howard put on the Superman cape and jumped up and chucked the ball into the hoop during the dunk contest?  A lot of people cried “That’s not a dunk!” Well, that is exactly what Griffin did to Perkins.  He jumped really high, got fouled and chucked the ball into the hoop.  Impressive?  OF COURSE!  Dunk?  I think not. Kevin Durant agrees with me!

2.) Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots, recently said, “We’re red, white and blue and our name is Patriots. How can you hate something like that?”  Quite easily, Kraft, cause you make pretentious comments like that. And your QB’s supermodel girlfriend sends out an e-mail asking for friends to pray for “Tommy” as he tries to win the Super Bowl.  Cause that’s what he needs, MORE good fortune in his life. He’s already had the “Tuck Rule”…I think that’s enough good fortune for ten lifetimes.

3.) Stef and I took our first trip to Ikea last Saturday and I have got to say, that place is pretty fun.  It’s like a museum you can touch! It has comfy sofas and couches and beds, and it has…wait for it…CHICKEN FINGERS!  Holy cow, what a place.  You can just be dipping chicken fingers in honey mustard and drinking a Mountain Dew whilst standing in a kitchen with marble counter tops, stainless steel appliances and new age wine racks.  It’s DIVINE!

4.) My friends have recently been asking me to play a lot of poker, and you know what?  I LOVE IT!  I forgot how much fun poker can be, and hadn’t really played in a while.  Luckily, we had one game that wasn’t for money and it taught me that I really needed to hone my skills back to where they were a few years ago during the height of the poker craze–when I lived with Randy and he would leave books by Barry Greenstein lying around and I’d watch Rounders three times a week.

So before heading back to the table to play for some money, I decided to play on-line to test my skills against a bunch of people I didn’t know. I forgot how much fun it can be to bust somebody who is a complete stranger to you, and how deliciously aggravating it can be to lose a hand on the river to somebody you’ve never seen. After playing on-line for a bit, I felt like my skills were sufficiently up to snuff. And lo and behold, I won the next game against my friends.

5.) We’re heading up to the Sixers tonight and I get to do my two favorite things during an NBA game.  1.) Cheer for the Sixers and 2.) BOOOOOOOO Lebron James!  Hooray!

6.) I turned on–and quickly turned off in favor of “Turner and Hooch”–Sportscenter this morning and for some reason, Skip Bayless was interviewing Tim Tebow.  WHY? It made me throw up a little bit in my mouth, but there is no doubt that Bayless was in heaven.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that Bayless’ heaven involves Tebow karate chopping Lebron James in the throat.

7.) While we’re on the subject of “Turner and Hooch” does it really have to end like that?  I’m just saying, it gets REALLY dark pretty quick.  I turned it off this morning before I turned into a puddle.

8.) Good for Sheamus winning the Royal Rumble!  I’ll never forget when NT first saw Sheamus and literally started screaming “EWWWWWWWW” The man is incredibly gross to look at, and his nickname “The Great White” is questionable at best, flat out racist at worst. His goatee also looks like what would happen if you sprinkled a bunch of Cheetos on a dry erase board.

9.) Oh, and if you’re still here, my Super Bowl pick is Giants 27, Patriots 24.

Enjoy the game!

 

4 Comments