Tag Archive: andre iguodala

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…

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Doug Collins, NBA Playoffs, and Iggy’s Comeback Season

April 17, 2013 Randy Neil

20130417-104206.jpgIt’s been a rough season Sixers fans, but I am thankful to report that with tonight’s game, the season will finally be over. The Sixers play the Pacers in Indiana, just after the recent announcement that Doug Collins will resign as head coach.

This was right after his recent announcement that he was not resigning as head coach. That came right after Sixers’ ownership released a statement backing Collins as the head coach of the future.

Real classy Philadelphia.There’s a lot of speculation that Collins will remain with the Sixers as a consultant (which is probably what he wanted all along), and that definitely takes away some of the trashiness of this debacle, but never the less, this was handled wrong. Like most things with this team.

It’s hard to say where the Sixers go from here. The free agent market looks pretty dismal aside from that All-Star center who will be anxiously shopping for a team next year. Let’s not get burned twice.

NBA Playoff predictions: Heat in 5 over the Denver Nuggets.

I also want to note that with all the fanfare and attention Iguodala is getting in Denver for his contributions to that team, his averages are down and his stat sheet is not any better than it was while in Philadelphia. In Denver, he’s credited as a major player for that team (maybe THE major player for that team) with almost identical or worse stats than in Philadelphia. Still, the media pegs him as a huge contributor and attributes him for the Nuggets playoff success.

You can definitely argue that in Philly, he was expected (and paid) to be a superstar, but money and fame aside, he was a big puzzle piece to a winning franchise and undeservedly carried a lot of the blame for the Sixers’ shortcomings. I think this post season will prove that.

I mean, in Denver, he is still the biggest star they have, the most well rounded player there, the only All Star starting for them, and he’s getting paid the exact same amount as he was in Philadelphia. Why is there no resentment in Denver fans?

Haha, even with my bold acclamation, I’ve changed my Finals prediction to Heat over the Spurs in 6.

Thank God I don’t get judged like Iguodala.

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Iguodala to Denver, Sixers Get Andrew Bynum & Jason Richardson

August 9, 2012 Randy Neil

Dwight Howard gets sent to the Lakers

Woah. This is an absolutely insane NBA trade. Late Thursday night, the Denver Nuggets, the LA Lakers, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Orlando Magic agreed to a four-team trade that involved multiple players. The most notable was Dwight Howard being traded from the Orlando Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers. The second most notable trade was definitely the 76ers acquiring Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson for Andre Iguodala.

The 76ers have been drafting nothing but small forwards, so to imagine that we’ve somehow landed the second best center in the NBA is probably a dream come true. Nikola Vucevic, who acted as a small fan favorite during the middle of last season, was included in the deal and was sent to Orlando Magic. It is most likely (chuckle) that Spencer Hawes will be playing back up to Bynum this upcoming season.

Andre Iguodala, who, although incredibly overpaid, has been a great asset to the Sixers the past 6 years and is now a Denver Nugget. Iguodala was never well accepted in his tenure for the Sixers, but I for one, will be sad to see him go. His contributions to the development of Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young, and Evan Turner will present itself in the upcoming seasons more and more.

The 2010 76ers roster is almost all but gone. The high-paying contracts of Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala no longer loom over the team. Lou Williams opted to look elsewhere. I’m very curious to see what the 2012-13 Philadelphia 76ers look like.

Jason Richardson, to me, doesn’t really bring much to the table in regards to an outside perimeter shooter. We have plenty of those. Having another bench player to spread the court certainly doesn’t hurt, though. Evan Turner should really come into his prime this season as well.

So long Andre Iguodala. I had some great times hearing Matt Cord scream your name throughout the Wells Fargo Arena.

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Basketball and Soccer, a European’s Dream…

June 22, 2011 Randy Neil

It’s so hard (cue Boyz II Men) to say goodbye, to Ig-uo-da-laaaaaaaaaa. Sadly, it appears as though this summer will be the last spent with Andre. With the NBA Draft starting tomorrow, rumors are flying all over the place about that man’s destination. The Clippers, the Warriors, even the Lakers??

I, for one, am going to be sad to see him go. Sure, he was never the clutch, high-flying star we all wanted him to be, but he did give you a healthy amount of assists almost every night and played great defense. Was it a mistake to throw super-star money at him and give him the role of leading the team? Of course. Andre Iguodala would show signs of great athleticism every once in a while, but it’s hard to say why it never lasted.

Do I think Andre Iguodala wanted to be the superstar of this team? At times I did. When I saw him in Reebok commercials flashing jewelry I did. When I saw him make a miracle 3-pointer at the end of a regular season game I did. When I saw him play injured throughout the playoffs I did. I don’t know what made him so timid at the end of games when everyone was staring at him to do something. I honestly will never know.

Iguodala was given a role he never fulfilled, and now, hopefully, some other team can absorb his huge salary and give him the role he’s suited for. Maybe he’ll be happier now that the pressure is off. Lord knows he’ll give some nasty dishes to Blake Griffin. So the question is : What do we get in return?

The 76ers have 2 picks in the draft, and both of them practically mean nothing. Aside from several potential picks declining to work out for our crew, the #16 and #50 picks don’t really offer anything to get excited about anyway. There are talks about Monta Ellis coming to Philly with a trade for Iguodala, but there are also rumors about Ellis being traded to Orlando for Dwight Howard, and that’s just plain not gonna happen.

The 76ers are still in talks of selling the team as well. Jim Thorn, the current owner, has already had several talks with “leveraged-buyout specialist” Joshua Harris and their New York affiliates. It looks like it’s going to happen. Not much will change though. Doug Collins is still an amazing coach. We still have an amazing core of young talent that is dangerously close to their prime. We just might not have our “superstar” with us. (single tear.)

It also appears that as lazy Americans, our time to start caring about soccer is approaching. The CONCACAF Gold Cup is down to 4 teams, and the U.S. is one of them! Tonight, we have our semifinal matchup against Panama (Carlos Ruiz’s homeland) to advance to the Finals.

Panama barely made it to the semifinals. After trailing 0-1 throughout most of the quarterfinals game, Panama was able to score in the 87th minute sending the game into overtime, where they eventually won on penalty kicks. I remember reading about that a few days ago and thinking how deflating that must be as the other team. Proving my point even more, I didn’t even bother to remember the name of the losing country or look them up now even though I have resources at my fingertips. I just can’t fathom running around for 85 minutes straight, dominating a game with victory so readily in front of me, and then in the closing minutes having that all stripped away. Aside from maybe throwing an unwarranted interception on 3rd down when your team is minutes away from going to the Superbowl (see Favre, Brett), there are few things that beat that. Especially when you are representing your country.

The important thing to note here is that the U.S. has only lost once in this entire tournament, and it was at the hands of Panama. This is going to be a daunting task for our team. Panama has been knocked out of the Gold Cup the past 3 years by the United States, so saying they’re pissed at us would be an understatement. It should be a great game tonight.

If we make it past Panama, the winner of Mexico v. Honduras will be waiting for us. It’s most likely going to be Mexico. What am I saying? It IS going to be Mexico. They have won this thing 14 times. We have been in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Finals the past 3 years and lost every one to Mexico.

That’s why I’m strongly recommend our amateur soccer fans to watch tonight’s game, as it offers a much higher probability of victory. That’s all we want anyway right? A United States soccer victory. You’ll get a chance to see Clint Dempsey do the John Cena “You can’t see me!!” hand shake over his face after scoring a goal!

Alright gang, until next week….

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Random Thoughts (parenthesis edition)

June 10, 2011 Adam Thomas

1.) That dashing fellow over there is the real King James.  Or at least, that’s what Google image search told me, I didn’t actually look it up to confirm. I digress…

Nothing is more annoying right now than the quazi pity party that people are throwing for Lebron James. They are saying shit like, “The media is scrutinizing his EVERY MOVE!” Steve Kerr even said, “I feel bad for the guy.”

Yeah.  I feel bad for the guy too. Cause he is pooping the bed night in and night out in the most important games of his life.  Bbbbbbbut he had a triple double.  He has been getting assists and rebounds all series!

Yes, because when we think of Lebron, we think of great passing, rebounding and defense.  That sounds like Andre Iguodala to me. King Iguodala to you!

Fact of the matter is, Lebron shot two free throws last night.  TWO!  Attack the rim dagnabbit!

But lets not forget one important key element here: Lebron brought this on himself.  He calls himself King James (nut-uh, da media does), he had that whole taking my talents to south beach thing, he is by all accounts, a douche bag extraordinaire. We hate him because when it comes to athleticism, he is everything that we’re not. But it seems that when it comes to the will and want to win, we all seem to grasp the situation better than he does.

I seem to want a JV soccer win when I am coaching more than Lebron wants an NBA championship.  Sure this is pure conjecture, but I’ve seen his post game interviews and I have seen him sleepwalk through the three biggest games of his life looking like he doesn’t give a shit.

But back to my original point: Come on, media!  This man deserves every flipping thing that is coming his way.  He asked for all this hoopla about himself and then he hasn’t done shit on the biggest stage of his career.  So F him.  We are this close to ruining this man’s life, and you want to back out and get a conscience now?  Grow a pair. I wanna see this sucker have a complete and total mental break down.  We’ve worked too hard for his demise to feel sorry for him now! When this is all said and done, I want Bron Bron to be locked in some hotel room, tissue boxes for shoes with a stringy beard repeating over and over again: come in with da milk….come in with da milk….come in with da milk….wave of the future…..wave of the future….wave of the future….

(In the case of full disclosure, I am still standing by the Heat.  I think they win it in 7.)

2.) Can we talk about this Rashard Lewis rumor for one second?  Rumor has it that Lebron has been playing bad because Lewis slept with his old lady.  No, not his mom (like what happened last year), but his girlfriend or wife or whatever. I told Randy about this and here is his response: “no way a girls so stupid she bangs out a two bit Wizards player when she already has the most paid man in the nba.”

What Randy forgot is that Lewis is playing with a $118 million dollar contract.  James got like $110 million from the Heat.  Sure the endorsements give James A HUGE monetary advantage, but if “Savannah” (never trust a girl with a name like Savannah) did cheat with Lewis, it’s not like the dude’s broke or anything.  PLUS he kinda looks like T.I. and women freaking love T.I.  (Oddly, in that picture they kinda don’t look alike…but in my mind they do!)

3.) I know I talk about Friday Night Lights a lot on here, and that won’t be stopping anytime soon.  I just watched 4 episodes from season 5 and holy crap are they good.  Can someone please get Kyle Chandler an emmy?  At least he is starring in Super 8…

4.) Speaking of which, every review for that movie has said (I’m paraphrasing here): The first part of Super 8 is awesome, the second part kinda drags and is a let down, I give it…Three and a half stars!  Really? I thought a whole movie had to be good for it to get three and a half stars. I guess that’s what its come to in tinsel town.

5.) One of the most satisfying feelings in the world is sitting out back, soaking in the humidity and drinking and ice cold Yuengling after just cutting the grass.  You get to see all the hard (not very hard?) work you just put in pay off and you get a little drunk.  Good.  Stuff.

Until next time…

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76ers Toughest Test of the Year

April 27, 2011 Randy Neil

Well the Flyers won yesterday, advancing to the 2nd round of the playoffs. The Sixers… well… they have a lot more work cut out for them if they hope to reach the same accomplishment.

Last Sunday, the Sixers were able to something they haven’t done all year… beat the Miami Heat. Tonight, Philly fans are hoping they accomplish another goal not yet achieved… win in Miami.

If they do win tonight, the flood gates will open up. The lashing the Heat received from the media after their Game 4 loss probably irritated them, so if Philadelphia actually does manage to win, look for it to get even worse. On the flip side of that, Miami has had 72 hours to basically stir their emotions into something productive. They are probably going to come out very aggressive tonight and keep the 76ers on their toes the entire game.

The 76ers need nothing short of a miracle again. The younger players that received praise for Philly’s victory last Sunday are going to have to produce better stats. Not to say they weren’t deserving of said praise; I’m saying they need to play even better to handle a team that’s going to play with much more determination.

I’m hoping Turner and Iguodala get almost identical minutes. Evan Turner was the breakout star in Game 4, and in contrast, Iguodala became the villain (more-so than ever.) You’re looking at a veteran with 7 years experience who has never won a playoff series attempting to lead a team without averaging more than 10 points a game. People just aren’t buying it. His defense is great, his assists are amazing, but people are fed up with the somewhat lethargic offense he produces. He’s a vital factor to this team’s chances of staying afloat, but he shouldn’t be the main factor. It’s hard to believe that Iggy is only 27 years old.

I’m looking forward to Spencer Hawes, Elton Brand, and Tony Battie establishing some presence in the paint. In order for the Sixers to have any chance, they need to equal or out-rebound the Heat throughout the game. We need the big boys to step up, and maybe while they’re at it, start some shit talking as well.

Tip-off starts at 7pm ET at American Airlines Arena. This can be our greatest accomplishment of the season or a humbling experience for our youthful team to grow on. It’s going to be a tough game for sure. Here’s hoping the best 76ers show up. Bring the king…. mother fucker.

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