HOOPLOG: Philadelphia 76ers

One Liners

Fri, 05 May 2006 12:14:05 -0800

- Kobe Bryant is absolutely, hands-down the greatest basketball player on the planet.

- Flash Gordon's curveball is making a lot of Phillies fans forget about Billy Wagner.

- If Peter Forsberg is truly "The Best Player in the World" then he alone should have willed his Flyers over a Sabres teams whose most recognizable player is Chris Drury.

- How incredible would it be to see Kobe's Lakers vs. LeBron's Cavs in the NBA Finals?

- It's pretty clear at this point that A.J. Soprano will never be another Michael Corleone.

- The Rangers, Flyers, and Red Wings sent a ton of players to Torino and maybe it's not a coincidence those players are now on the golf course.

- Barry Bonds comes to Philadelphia this weekend and I hope to God that the Philly fans there don't embarrass the rest of us too badly.

- The 2006 NFL will go down as the best draft ever for the Eagles, beating out 2002's when they drafted Lito Shepperd, Brian Westbrook, Sheldon Brown and Michael Lewis.

- If Allen Iverson does get traded this offseason, the deal better not include Ricky Davis as the other centerpiece as was the case in a rumor I read this week.

- If you haven't already heard of Cole Hamels, you will by the All-Star break.

- Finals week during the Spring Semester is probably the longest week of the year.

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The Eastern Conference Clusterfuck

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 16:46:56 -0800

The top four is set, but the battle for the final four spots in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Playoffs is as tight and bunched-up as Magic Johnson’s boxers. Milwaukee, Washington, and Indiana all have identical 39-40 records, with Chicago one game behind them at 35-41. The Sixers are the odd man out at the moment, 2 games out of a spot at 37-42. With perhaps a little bit of shuffling among the order, the four teams that are in right now are probably the same four teams that will end up sliding in.

HowEVA (Â© Stephen A. Smith)… right behind them, we have the Orlando Darkos, probably the best team of the group. They’re mathematically alive, but barely. At the moment, they’re three games out of a spot with three to play, despite their current 7-game winning streak that includes wins against maybe the best five teams in the NBA, the Spurs, Pistons, Mavericks, Suns, and Heat. The Darko trade has been great for them (no, seriously), and they’ve got a bright young line-up with Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, and of course, Darko. This is probably the last time in a while that they’re not going to be in the playoffs.

Key games remaining:

Sixers @ Magic, Tonight.
Bucks @ Wizards, Tuesday.
Magic @ Pacers, Wednesday.
Bulls @ Magic, Monday.

Butler Sits Out Another Game

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 18:52:23 -0800

Caron Butler does not play against the 76ers on Monday night, the third straight game Butler has missed because of a sprained right thumb.

James could play less with fourth spot clinched

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 17:40:34 -0800

With the Cleveland Cavaliers locked into the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, LeBron James could find himself on the bench a little more often. "He's been playing a lot of heavy minutes so I'm going to back off his minutes a little bit," Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said before Monday night's game against the Hornets. James ranks second in the NBA, behind only Philadelphia's Allen Iverson, with 42.9 minutes per game. With a scoring average of 31.

Ilgauskas Unsure of Status After Hurting Ankle

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 09:56:12 -0800

THE PLAIN DEALER in Cleveland reports, "Zydrunas Ilgauskas left Tuesday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers after spraining his left ankle early in the first quarter. Ilgauskas did not return and he did not play Wednesday night against the Knicks. Ilgauskas is not sure if he will return Saturday against the New Jersey Nets."

Bulls beat Sixers, leapfrog Philly into eighth in East

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 19:16:23 -0800

Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

NBA Mock Draft-College players only 1. Noah 2 Morrison 3. Thomas

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 19:16:17 -0800

Here is my mock draft, usually when a player does well in the tournament, their stock goes up in the draft. Teams are gonna pass on Sheldon Williams, due to poor tournament performance. He’ll be the next Elton Brand and will help that Hornets go to the playoffs next year. I put Reddick with the Jazz, looking at the Jazz's draft history they pick over hyped white dudes, who can’t play in the NBA. Hopefully the Sonics get Brandon Roy, he and Ridnouer will form the best back court in the league circa 2110. I only did college players that I have seen play and one Eurotrash dude that Espn ranked high. I guessed the teams that will end up with the highest lottery picks.

1. Bulls from knicks- joekim Noah. Had a good tournment, he could really develop

2. Portland Trailblazers- Adam Morrison. Keep him local.

3. Charlotte Bobcats- Tyrus Thomas

4. Atlanta Hawks-Lemarcus Aldridge

5. Toronto Raptors- Randy foye

6. Orlando Magic- Josh Mcroberts

7. Golden state- Andrea Bargani. The bay area better have ample olive oil and garlic.

8. Boston Celtics- Dee Brown

9. Timerwolves- Rodney Carney

10. Supersonics- Brandon Roy

11. Rockets- Al Hortford

12. Bulls- Ronnie Brewer

13.Utah jazz- J.J reddick. Another white person playing basketball in Utah, I don’t understand.

14 Hornets- Sheldon Williams. Every team will regret passing on him

15. 76ers- Maurice Ager

16 Indiana- Jordan Farmar.

17. Sacramento-leon powe

Rudy Gay was going pretty high but he will end up a second rounder, due to poor performance in the tournement

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Cavs' Ilgauskas out with sprained ankle (AP)

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 19:16:13 -0800

Zydrunas Ilgauskas missed Cleveland's game at New York on Wednesday night with a sprained left ankle, but the Cavaliers hope to have him back Saturday at New Jersey. Ilgauskas was hurt in the first quarter of Cleveland's victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday night, and the Cavaliers decided to sit him out against the NBA-worst Knicks.

Iverson Says He's Not at His Best

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 11:19:24 -0800

Joe Juliano of THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER writes that "Iverson did admit yesterday that he hasn't gotten back his conditioning since returning to the lineup after a sprained right ankle that kept him out of four games earlier this month, and that the ankle still isn't 100 percent."

Sixers' late-game woes continue

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 22:40:03 -0800

Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points, including the go-ahead basket with 18.9 seconds left, and Ruben Patterson added 20 to lead the Denver Nuggets to their third straight win, 97-93 over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night. Marcus Camby had 13 points, 14 rebounds and one of the Nuggets' two blocks on Philadelphia's last true possession that allowed them to hang on for their first three-game winning streak since Jan. 14-25. Denver also improved to six games over .

Nuggets Open Season-Long Road Trip In Philly

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 22:39:56 -0800

Nuggets Open Season-Long Road Trip In Philly -- - The Denver Nuggets embark on a season-long seven-game road trip tonight when they visit the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wachovia Center.

Nothing fits forever

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:49:48 -0800

It would seem that last night’s infernal burst of Gilbertology might truly need no comment from ours truly. As in, we live in heaven, he lives alone, our souls are intertwined and the moment need not be soiled by explanation. The more and more I gazed upon that fascinating still—one as destined for iconic status as Tiger with the fist pump or Yao’s scream of antiquity—the more brutally apparent it becomes to me that Arenas, far from being an oddball, is the living, breathing god of my favorite kind of NBA player: the kind you watch, instead of just view. What Iverson, Kobe, Nash, and a handful of others I go out of my way to see play have in common is this ability to not merely produce on any given night, but to casually redefine themselves through masterstrokes of basketball impressionism.

Let me put briefly put aside the strained fire and brimstone that guides this site long enough to admit, as I did last week, that this is by and large a league of consistency. Unlike baseball and football, where one can be violently up and down from one game to the next but still get recognized overall as a fantastic contributor, to be a credible contributor a guy’s got to come with steady output. Freaks and streaks can be profound, but no player’s a recognizable force (or definite failure) in this league until he can be counted on; to scrape the ridges of Mount Dunkmore, he’d better be guaranteed to account for a serious percentage of his team’s production, both in the box score and as a reliable force when the ball hits his hands. Until then, he will always get saddled with the p-word, no matter how impressive he is in spurts.

When you reach the rarified air of superlative hoops accomplishment, there are at least three kind of consistency. Most obviously, there are the rock-solid bequeathers, under-appreciated and often big men like Duncan, Brand, Bosh, Dirk, Jamison, Kidd, Ray Ray and Redd. These folks give it their all with frightening regularity, churning it out from the opening bell and expected to operate as if to a rhythmic tick. I want to stop short of saying that you can intuit them from looking at a box score, but by and large there is no dramatic arc to their in-game performances. Professional, workmanlike, whatever you want to call them, these are consummate anchors of an offense, the given you pencil in at most moments during the season’s onslaught.

In the next category, you find explosive players with a tendency toward predictable outcomes, who ebb and flow over the course of a game, occasionally make you doubt, and ultimately bring you right back to who you always knew they were. I’m talking about Garnett, Pierce, Wade, Vince, Billups, Bibby, Gasol, Melo, Richardson, Jefferson, Sheed, Marion, and Artest himself—unquestioned experts who sometimes lull, sometimes soar, but never have to redeem themselves and are constantly working within their own limits and images. This isn’t a knock on any of these fine, hurling turtles; merely to point out that if you turn on the television to see them play, you know what you’re getting and will be accordingly excited. Each game reinforces their , with ups and downs that end in a pointed reminder of yeah, that’s him.

Gilbert and his gang, as I will now aptly dub them, rest upon their own set of shaggy shoulders. To return to last week’s trope of half-assed existentialism, All-American and yet bleakly Continental, they are players constantly exceeding themselves, or at least engaging in what feels for all the world like a motherfucking statement game. It can LeBron or Amare exerting and expanding their dominance, Kirilenko or Gerald Wallace twisting up the parameters of a box score, Nash working his conductor-ly magic, or Kobe, Iverson or McGrady scoring not only at will, but as if it’s unnatural for them to miss—or even repeat themselves out on the floor. Arenas is a must-see, not only because he’s likely to put on a show, but for what each and every game can do to your sense of him as a player and personality. If Wade proves with each big game that he’s still Wade, still proud, then Gilbert does it up in a way that’s not only unpredictable; with each of these self-transcending events, he also manages to seem unlikely all anew. As does Kobe, Bron, et al. In the crucible of the game, their legend is broken down and created anew, surprising you not only with this most recent installment but, in its reconstitution of the player’s most basic essence, shock you yet again they exist at all, that anything they do has ever happened in the glare of man’s senses.

This may seem like two-bit metaphysics for those of you not in tune with my lifelong education on this planet (or anyone merely taking issue with my late night sloppiness). But next time you find yourself up past bedtime watching one of these aforementioned idols, think about whether or not you feel you’re seeing them for the first time, whether you’re transfixed partly out of the fear that you’re witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Not just a good game from your favorite NBA player, or one of those “instant classics” this blog will reference two years from now; I mean one of those performances where, in some ways, you feel like you’re discovering the sport again for the very first time.

Sixers-Celtics, halftime

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 18:37:35 -0800

First-half highlights from Boston.

Iverson Snubb Creates Buzz

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 08:30:23 -0800

Joanne C. Gerstner of THE DETROIT NEWS writes, "Sunday's announcement of USA Basketball's working roster of 23 players for the 2008 Olympics has produced a lot of loose talk."

Nailon Goes to Cleveland

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:11:37 -0800

Philadelphia 76ers President Billy King announced today that the team has traded forward Lee Nailon and a 2006 second round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for a conditional second round pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.