Sixers Summer League

[Young Trone]

Wrap-up on Speights and Holliday in Summer League play from HoopsWorld:

Marreese Speights: If you are a 76ers fan you need to be concerned. Speights has become the "black hole of basketball" the ball goes in and it never comes out. For three days he's jacked up horrible shot after horrible shot and made no apologizes about shot selection. His teammates have soured on him, and joke about the volume of shots he's taking. It also seems Speights may be falling out of favor with new head coach Eddie Jordan who openly questioned his decision making and GM Ed Stefanski who said he needed to work on "full court conditioning". There is little doubt Marreese can be an explosive player, but he seems to be on his own page in summer league and that's not a good sign for the 76ers.

Jrue Holiday: If you have read this space this summer, then you know there is no bigger fan of Jrue Holiday than yours truly – after three days of watching Jrue will other pro caliber players – my man can't finish. Jrue can do all of the other things - he handles himself decently on defense – nothing overly special. He has good court awareness, however when he breaks guys down off the dribble and gets to the basket, it's simply not going in. Scouts and executives point to his age and say you have to be patient with him at 18-years of age, however my response is always the same "If you put on the jersey you better be ready to play" and sadly Jrue doesn't seem ready for prime time yet, but how many 18-years are? Still shows signs of brilliance, still looks like a star in the making. Just not finishing the play and thats a concern.

How exciting. Kate Fagan is saying today that Holliday is impressing. Speights though ... I could see the potential for that guy to develop a helluvan ego.

[romano]

Haven't seen any of the games, so all I have to go by are box scores and media reports. Jrue hit two treys in yesterday's game, so that's an encouraging sign. It's nice that the guy has some stellar potential, but for a team that's already in the playoffs, it would've been nice to get someone who was more prepared (cough, Lawson, cough). Speights, I dunno what's up with the guy. Hopefully it's an abberation, because he's got all the tools in the world. Just gotta get his head straight.

[Young Trone]

I was all about Lawson. Can't find the boxscore from the Summer league game yesterday, but Eric Maynor dropped a solid 12-5-6 type of line on us. It's so tough with Jrue, I mean good game, bad game, no one is expecting his real colors for what, 3 years? One game he has 6 TOs, the next he's hitting threes, flashes of "greatness" all mixed in. Who knows ....

... Tell you what though, if Andre isn't coming back, we're gonna learn more about Jrue this year than we thought we would. I'd rather go trial by fire with Jrue than watch Lou run the point.

[romano]

Summer league box scores:
2009 Orlando Summer League Schedule/Results - ESPN

It looks pretty clear that Andre Miller won't be back. The Sixers would be crazy to give him the kind of a contract he's asking for. But where does that leave us? We have Elton Brand and Andre Miller signed to long term contracts, with no point guard to run the team. Could lead to some ugly basketball. I still think there's an outside chance that Lou Williams can be a productive pro "lead guard" and this probably his once chance to show it. I like having a pure point guard though, and it's going to suck not having one on the team. Hey, maybe we could trade for Ricky Rubio!?

[Young Trone]

Yeah, Rubio would've been sweet. I would've been open to moving thad for that pick. I mean, at this point we HAVE to move either Iggy or Thad, so might as well get on with it. My friend and I we're talking the other night about Iggy and Willie Green to Sactown for Kevin Martin and Beno Udrih. They probably wouldn't go for it, I think Martin is pretty popular. But if I was rebuilding I'd rather have a jack-of-all-trades type like Iggy than a solid pure shooting guard. God, if we could start Martin and Thad .....

I'm with you, Miller is not coming back. I have to say, it feels strange to watch a sixers GM not negotiate against himself. You KNOW if BK was still here, Andre would already be locked up for 3 years at 12.5mil per, a 4th year player option, and a trade kicker for good measure. Stefanski is playing this well.

[OGrey]

God, if we could start Martin and Thad .....

....the Sixers would give up 100+ points a game. Was that the end of your sentence?

[Young Trone]

....the Sixers would give up 100+ points a game. Was that the end of your sentence?

No, it wasn't.

[romano]

There is chatter out there that Sixers are looking at Juan Dixon and Carlos Arroyo (among a few others) for insurance policy at the point. I've actually always liked Arroyo's game, remember that Jameer Nelson had a tough time beating the guy out for the starting spot. As far as Juan Dixon goes, I'm a Terp and will always have a soft spot for what the guy accomplished. However, he's not a true PG, and he's much better suited as a scorer of the bench. The guy could always shoot. Would love to see him in a Sixers uniform, just not running the point.

[Young Trone]

I'm fine with either Arroyo or Dixon, but we're in a weird spot. I mean, we're basically talking about a stop-gap signing, and while I like Arroyo and Dixon, they aren't going to get us anywhere. It's hard to get excited about any signing because its clearly a temporary fix. I'm hoping and praying Jrue pulls a Thaddeus and ends up being way more ready than we think he is.

[romano]

Yeah, I'm feeling a bit down too. Eddie really handicapped himself with the Iggy/Brand contracts. With the way the league's salary cap is structured, the Sixers are left with almost zero flexibility for the forseeable future. Brand better play like a beast this year, otherwise it might be time to pull my support from big Ed. Sucks, I hate being so negative.

[rjj]

i'm just tired of projects and drafting on potential. reality is Lawson was the pick. instead we draft on potential, a dude that had more turnovers than assists in the NCAA tourney, and scottie reynolds made him look like a joke. i just don't get why you don't draft the proven guy?
i like thad's game alot, i would rather have him at his age and ability level than iggy at his age & salary.
who knows where we are at for a pg, I really don't like any of the options. they are all stiffs.

[therealdawk]

Look at the bright side to all of this boring mediocrity, as dirt cheap as tiickets were last year they will be even cheaper this year.

Last year I was able to take my kids to see their favorite stars like Dwight and CP3 for less than a night at an AMC theater. Not too shabby.