Posts Tagged ‘Sixers’

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Sixers Taking No Risks With Holiday

December 20, 2012  ·  2:00AM

HOUSTON – The Sixers definitely could have used Jrue Holiday in their lineup Wednesday. Especially when Evan Turner limped off the floor in the third quarter of a 125-103 loss, their worst of the season.

But even with their quick start to the season currently in free-fall with five defeats in a row, it was an easy decision to keep the budding young star Holiday under wraps, at least for one more night. Holiday, who averages a team-best 18.4 ppg and 8.9 apg, sat out his fourth game in a row with a sprained left foot.

“He’s 22 years old,” coach Doug Collins said. “We have a huge investment in him. We’ve just signed him to a long-term deal and there’s no way in the world right now we’re going to be short-term foolish. It just makes no sense.”

Not when the first third of the Sixers’ season has been played in limbo waiting on Andrew Bynum‘s ailing knees. The 7-foot center is scheduled to have an MRI and get another update today.

Though there is no indication at this point that Holiday’s problem is serious or has long-term implications, if any team should be wary, it is the Sixers. Through their history, Philadelphia has seen the careers of All-Stars Andrew Toney and Collins, himself, shortened by foot injuries.

“I don’t think this is an injury that you would say is chronic unless you tried to do it too soon,” the coach said. “The one thing I’ve always gone on … people questioned whether I was hurt. My father had just died. They couldn’t find anything on an x-ray, it was all in my head. And I had stress fractures in both of my feet.

“So when a player tells me he’s hurt, he’s hurt. I will never ever question that. To me, when a guy’s ready to go, he’ll go. I know Jrue wants to go more than anybody.”

The situation is made worse by Turner’s injury and that rookie Maalik Wayns, getting his first start of the season, hurt his right foot and played just 14 minutes. Backup guard Royal Ivey got a DNP-CD in Houston and has seen his minutes seriously curtailed since early in the season. The Sixers are also in grueling stretch of the schedule where they’re playing 10 of 11 games away from home.

Collins said after Wednesday night’s thumping by the Rockets that Holiday could return on Friday night against Atlanta.

“It is tricky,” Holiday told Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News. “I feel like we could win a lot of games and I could help my team and, obviously, that’s a lot of pressure to put on me to come back. At the same time, I think I just want to be able to play basketball and walk and run and jump and all that stuff you have to do to be able to compete. I’m going to try and get back as quick as possible.”

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Collins Got Harden’s Motor Running

December 20, 2012  ·  12:31AM



HOUSTON — You see him now: rolling down the court like a tractor-trailer with no brakes, shimmying from side to side, yet barreling straight ahead. It’s difficult to imagine James Harden not constantly attacking the basket.

But that only means you were never inside the practice gym during those two years at Arizona State. Doug Collins was.

“I wish he had the energy he played with at Arizona State,” the Sixers’ coach said a few minutes before Harden went out and torched his team for 33 points on just 12 field goal attempts.

“If you ask James Harden to tell you one thing he heard from Doug Collins for two years, he’ll tell you: ‘Play with a motor. Play with a motor.’ He had no motor in college. None.”

Collins was out of coaching back in those days, working as a TNT commentator, when he became a frequent visitor to the Sun Devils’ workouts and the burr under the saddle of a certain guard who had all the flashy trim of a fancy sports car, but might as well have been sitting it up on milk crates.

“[Collins] taught me a lot,” Harden said. “He would mentor me. He would tell me that I had to have a motor. I had to build a motor up to be successful and have a chance to play in the NBA. My sophomore year, the reason I came back [to college] was to learn and build my motor up. He was the reason for that.

“I was nonchalant, just chill. That’s how I still am, but I have a little motor in me now. That’s the difference. He saw me in my building stage, when I was preparing for the NBA. So for him to have great compliments about me, it means a lot to me.”

Collins says the next critical step in Harden’s development was going to Oklahoma City and falling in with just the right trio of gym rats in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green, who never tired of getting to practice early and staying late, who wouldn’t accept anyone into their circle that wouldn’t play with the same fervor. Harden worked tirelessly to improve his conditioning and he built up his strength to the point where he might be as unstoppable an offensive force as any player in the league.

“I don’t [usually] compare players by any stretch of the imagination,” Collins said. “But when he’s coming down the floor with the ball, he is very similar to LeBron James. When you combine size, strength, speed — and he loves contact. He seeks contact on every play.”

Every time the undermanned Sixers made a run at the Rockets on Wednesday night, Harden was there to block it like a boulder in the road — with a 3 or by getting to the line to hit 17 of his 18 free throws. And he’s made the adjustment from coming off the bench in OKC to starting in Houston; from being a role player to being the point of the spear in the offense so seamlessly that it’s easy to forget that he arrived in Houston just three days before the season opener.

“I didn’t set any expectations coming in,” Harden said. “It was a new role for me: starting, playing a lot more minutes with the ball in my hands. So my expectation was just get the guys together and try to win games as soon as possible. We’re on the right track.”

There is still a lot to figure out with the Rockets, still plenty of holes to fill on a roster with glaring inconsistency. It’s maybe hard to see them hanging around their current spot at the bottom of the playoff race unless a lot comes together quickly. But, then, it did for Harden.

“He can shoot the 3,” Collins said. “He’s got a great feel for the game. He has shot 11 less free throws than my three leading scorers. He puts the pressure on you all the time … I love what he’s about — his development, his improvement.

“It’s funny, when he sees me, he’ll say, ‘I’ve got a motor now, coach.’ ”

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Is Bynum’s Season On The Brink?

November 21, 2012  ·  1:37PM

HANG TIME, Texas — Never mind all the wisecracks about Andrew Bynum’s head being in the gutter when he decided that bowling was a good idea for a patient with knee problems.

What was already a difficult situation for the 76ers with no end in sight continues to get messier and filled with more mystery.

Jason Wolf of the Delaware News Journal spoke with an internationally respected orthopedic surgeon who is not a member of Bynum’s medical team and has not examined his MRIs, but said the information that has been released publicly points to a diagnosis of osteochondritis dessicans lesions.

The surgeon said that if this is the case, there’s a small chance that Bynum’s knees could heal sufficiently on their own in time for him to return for the playoffs this season, but called that scenario “wishing on a star.”

“While they can heal non-operatively, they can take a long time [four to six months] to heal, and in adult athletes, frequently they will require surgical intervention at some point if there isn’t adequate healing within the first several months of treatment,” the surgeon said.

He added that if the 25-year-old returns to the court too early and the lesions become large enough, the condition could become career threatening. The surgeon spoke on condition of anonymity because Bynum is not his patient, but this probable diagnosis, given the player’s symptoms and treatment thus far, is backed up by reams of medical literature.

“I’m a little bit worried, bluntly, that it’s more advanced and the guy probably does need surgery. But if he needs surgery, then the year is completely written off,” the surgeon said. “But if he doesn’t have surgery and they think they can demonstrate healing in about four months, then he could potentially still come back for the playoffs.

“That’s what it sounds like they’re thinking about.”

The minds of Sixers management must be swimming in so many different directions each day as they wait for the latest medical updates and wonder if the player they are paying $16.5 million for this season will ever play.

On the bright side, Sixers coach Doug Collins does another of his mix-and-match, hustle-and-scratch jobs with a hungry, undersized lineup that has produced three straight wins and a 7-4 record.

But that’s exactly the kind of scenario the Sixers were trying to avoid after claiming the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference standings and then knocking off the depleted Bulls in the first round of the playoffs. They made the deal that sent their leading scorer, Andre Iguodala, to Denver for the 7-foot-2, 285-pound Bynum because they knew hustle could only get them so far. It was the big man in the middle — a former All-Star with the Lakers — who could elevate Philly to the level of contender.

Bynum, who has a history of knee troubles, was a gamble for Philly from the outset. The Sixers were hoping he’d be healthy and that a starring role with them could convince him to sign a max-level contract next summer as a free agent. But almost from the day that he was officially introduced to Philly in the shadow of the Liberty Bell, that plan began growing cracks.

Bynum has already undergone Orthokine blood-spinning treatment in Germany during the offseason and the timetable for his debut with the Sixers keeps getting pushed back.

It should be noted that Sixers medical staff has in no way said that Bynum is lost for the season. General manager Tony DiLeo repeats that the club has hopes to have an update on Bynum’s status by mid-December.

Yet, acccording to the surgeon contacted by the Delaware News Journal:

If there isn’t adequate healing in his right knee by mid-December or possibly January, it is likely that he will need surgery. Should the right knee exhibit adequate healing by that point, Bynum would still have to worry about the left knee, which he confirmed Sunday began swelling after bowling last week.

“It would be another two months before he could eventually be at a point where he could return [from the injury to his right knee], so now they found something in his left knee, so add four months to that,” the surgeon said. “You’re looking at around the end of March or April as potentially the earliest that he could come back, assuming that the MRIs show healing.”

That’s when a difficult decision ratchets up to the level of one that could hamstring or cripple the franchise for years.

If Bynum needs surgery and misses the entire season, the Sixers would seem in no position to still offer the maximum contract to keep him as their centerpiece of the future. Yet they can hardly let him simply walk out the door and have nothing in return for Iguodala.

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History Says Lakers Play Long Odds

November 12, 2012  ·  5:49PM





History says the Lakers probably had to do something to save a season that was slipping away.

History also says that in making the switch from Mike Brown to Mike D’Antoni they might just as well be expecting to hit one of those half-court shots to win a car than to be hosting a victory parade next June.

Yeah, the odds are long.

In the previous 66 years, only three in-season coaching changes have produced an immediate championship. Then again, twice it happened for the Lakers, in 1980 and 1982.

However, if the focus is a little farther down the line — and D’Antoni is the right choice — the payoff could be down the line. There have been seven different replacement coaches and eight teams that eventually claimed NBA titles.

1956-57 — Alex Hannum, St. Louis Hawks — The Hall of Famer is more popularly known for leading Wilt Chamberlain and the Sixers in 1967, ending the string of Bill Russell and the Celtics at eight titles in a row. But Hannum replaced Red Holzman and interim coach Slater Martin as player/coach midway through the season. The Hawks lost to the Celtics in The Finals that year. But when he retired and went to the bench full-time, they beat Boston to win it all the following year. He was the only coach to beat Boston in the playoffs during Russell’s 13-year career.

1977-78 — Lenny Wilkens, Seattle SuperSonics — The Hall of Famer took over the reins for Bob Hopkins after the Sonics got off to a woeful 5-17 start that season. He put the spark back in the game with an 11-1 start to his regime and took the Sonics to The Finals, where they lost to the Bullets in seven games. The team featuring Dennis Johnson, Jack Sikma and Fred Brown came back to claim Seattle’s only championship by beating the Bullets for the 1979 crown.

1977-78 — Billy Cunningham, Philadelphia 76ers — Gene Shue’s talent-laden Sixers were upset by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1977 and then staggered out of the gate the following season with a 2-4 record. A Philly favorite as a Hall of Fame player, Cunningham got the first coaching experience of his career when he took over the controls. The Sixers with Julius Erving lost to the Bullets in the Eastern Conference finals in his first year, were beaten by the Lakers in the NBA Finals in 1980 and 1982, but finally broke through and it all when Moses Malone led a 4-0 sweep of L.A. in 1983.

1979-80 — Paul Westhead, L.A. Lakers – First-year NBA assistant coach Paul Westhead moved into the main seat 14 games into the season after head coach Jack McKinney suffered a serious head injury in a fall from a bicycle. The Shakespearean scholar got to cap of an amazing debut season when a fellow rookie named Magic Johnson jumped center, then piled up 42 points, 15 rebound and seven assists in the Game 6 Finals clincher at Philadelphia.

1981-82 & 2005-06 — Pat Riley, L.A. Lakers, Miami Heat – When Magic became disenchanted with Westhead and nudged him toward the door 11 games into the season, the Lakers plucked the former player turned broadcaster from behind the radio microphone to begin a Hall of Fame career on the bench. The untested Riley guided the Lakers to another NBA Finals win over Philadelphia, then won three more titles in L.A. in 1985, 1987 and 1988. After his cross country move took him to New York and then Miami, Riley the G.M. replaced Stan Van Gundy following an 11-10 start in 2005-06. Seven months later, Riley and Dwyane Wade for the Heat out of an 0-2 hole to beat the Mavericks in The Finals.

1991-92 — Rudy Tomjanovich, Houston Rockets — A year after he was named Coach of the Year, Don Chaney’s Rockets were stuck in a 26-26 rut and he was fired on Feb. 18. A reluctant Tomjanovich, then a team scout and assistant coach, had to be talked into taking the job. A season later he became the first coach in NBA history to take his team from the lottery to a division title in his first full season on the job. The local legend Rudy T then put enough spot-up shooters around Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon to produce back-to-back championships for Houston in 1994 and 1995.

1996-97 — Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs – It was 18 games into the season when G.M. Popovich pulled the rug and fired coach Bob Hill. It was a move that was considered presumptuous and unpopular in some corners of town. But all was forgiven when he took a team with David Robinson and second-year forward Tim Duncan to the championship in 1999. Since that time, he has added Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker to the lineup, three more titles and the beloved and cantankerous “Pop” is almost as much a part San Antonio lore as the Alamo.

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We’ve Got Our Eyes On You

October 30, 2012  ·  12:58PM

 

On opening night everybody is undefeated and optimistic. But that doesn’t mean some players — young and old — aren’t more under the gun to step forward and establish their place in the league. So we present a couple of fistfuls of guys who need to hit the ground running:

Nicolas Batum, Trail Blazers – It’s been four seasons now of occasional flashes and teases. Now that Brandon Roy and Greg Oden are simply yellowed pages in the history books, it is time for Batum to be the twin support along with LaMarcus Aldridge that is a bridge to the future. Rookie of the Year candidate Damian Lillard might draw a lot of attention in the backcourt along with fellow newbie Meyers Leonard in the middle, but after getting his big paycheck, Batum must deliver the goods every night.

Michael Beasley, Suns — As Bob Dylan might have sung, how many roads does a man walk down before he’s considered a bust? This is already the third stop on the reclamation tour of the former No. 2 overall pick, and if he can’t succeed in coach Alvin Gentry’s offense-friendly atmosphere in Phoenix, what’s left? Beasley can score. He can rebound. What he has to prove is an ability to keep his head in the game and with the program.

Andrew Bogut, Warriors — There’s virtually nobody in the league that questions his ability as a passer, scorer and defender in the middle. The only question is his durability. It’s been four years since Bogut played more than 69 games in a season and twice he’s managed only 36 and 12. Coming back from a fractured ankle, he missed the entire preseason schedule and only practiced for the first time on Monday. The Warriors need him on the floor to even think of making a run at the playoffs. (more…)

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Hang Time Podcast (Episode 88) With Kurt Helin and Wayne Coyne

August 20, 2012  ·  8:04PM

by Micah Hart

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – My man Sekou is out and about breaking down game film for the Smyrna Spartans, but he took time to call in so we could record a post-Olympic, post-Superman-to-the-Lakers podcast.

Kurt Helin from NBCsports’s Pro Basketball Talk blog joined to discuss Team USA’s performance in London and the fallout from the four-team deal that put Dwight Howard in Los Angeles and Andrew Bynum in Philadelphia. Everyone agreed that regardless of how the deal plays out for all teams involved, the Clippers are the team that definitely got the shaft.

After that, Oklahoma City resident and Thunder supporter Wayne Coyne, lead singer of the rock band The Flaming Lips, joined the show to discuss the rise of the Thunder in Oklahoma and made everyone think twice about what it means to be a sports fan. Definitely one of the more enlightened discussions we’ve ever had on the podcast.

We took a little Olympic-sized break, but Episode 88 is definitely one you won’t want to miss.

LISTEN HERE:


As always, we welcome your feedback. You can follow the entire crew, including the Hang Time Podcast, co-hosts Lang Whitaker of SLAM Magazine and Sekou Smith of NBA.com, as well as our superproducer Micah Hart of NBA.com’s All Ball Blog and the best engineer in the business, Jarell “I Heart Peyton Manning” Wall.

– To download the podcast, click here. To subscribe via iTunes, click here, or get the xml feed if you want to subscribe some other, less iTunes-y way.

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Hawks Hit Home Run With Ferry

June 25, 2012  ·  10:35AM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – So Danny Ferry is the man charged with trying to refocus and revitalize the Atlanta Hawks?

He’s the perfect man for the job.

Why that would be needed for a team that’s made five straight playoff appearances is not the point. With five core players (Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Jeff Teague and Zaza Pachulia) on the roster for the 2012-13 season chewing up the bulk of the salary cap space, the Hawks are in need of a mini-makeover.

Ferry, the vice president of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs (and the former general manager in Cleveland) –  until he was announced as the Hawks new GM this morning – has proved capable of mastering the mini-makeover. He did it several times in Cleveland when he had to put together the right supporting cast for LeBron James.

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Big Shot Rondo Rescues The Celtics

May 26, 2012  ·  11:55PM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – With a slim three-point lead and their closer heading to the bench with four minutes and change left to play, few people inside TD Garden would have chosen Rajon Rondo as the man to save the Celtics’ Game 7 bacon against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Rondo was mysteriously missing in action for most of the first 44 minutes of the biggest game, to date, of the Celtics’ season. But he turned it on when it mattered most, scoring 11 of the 12 points, including nine straight, in the three minutes after Paul Pierce fouled out with 4:16 to play.

The Celtics’ famed Big 3 is officially a Plus-1 now, since they’re moving on to the Eastern Conference finals to face the Miami Heat Monday night because of the late-game heroics of the one member of the band least known for his offensive prowess.

Rondo knocked down a driving layup and two deep jumpers (one was initially called a 3-pointer but later changed to a 2-pointer after being reviewed and the second was a 3-pointer well behind the line) to extend the Celtics’ lead back to double digits while Pierce was still getting settled in his seat on the bench to watch the final minutes of the Celtics’ 85-75 win.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers had no fear with Rondo stepping up for both shots, the first to beat the shot clock and the second a dagger Rondo stepped into like he was as sharpshooter instead of an All-Star point guard known best for setting the table for his teammates and being one of the best defensive and rebounding points guards in league history.

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One Play Can’t Cost You A Game …

May 15, 2012  ·  10:01AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – How many times have you heard someone say it, “that one play didn’t cost us the game?”

Don’t care to count?

No?

We understand.

Technically speaking, one play might not cost you the game. But one crucial play at the right time in a tight game can certainly have a more significant impact on the outcome of said game. And that was indeed the case in Boston last night for Celtics’ forward Kevin Garnett. He was called for an offensive foul on a moving screen on Andre Iguodala as he tried to make space for Paul Pierce with 10 seconds to play in a game the Philadelphia 76ers led 78-75.

The call, made by Michael Smith after Garnett had already been warned by Danny Crawford to watch the moving screens, helped seal the deal for the Sixers.

“I just thought in that situation you let the players decide the game,” Garnett said after his illegal pick took the air out of the building and a spirited, fourth quarter rally from the home team. “But if he felt like that was an illegal pick, then that’s what it is.”

It was glaring (check the video above). But not necessarily a call anyone expected in that situation. To his credit, Garnett tried his best not to make a huge fuss about it afterwards, choosing instead the common refrain that it was one of many mistakes made that led to the final outcome.

“Danny had already given me a warning about how I was setting the picks,” Garnett said. “I’m going to continue to set picks. I’m going to continue to get guys open. That wasn’t, to me, the game. We did things going up to that point in determining the game.”

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Sixers Have (Just) Enough To Win

May 10, 2012  ·  10:09PM

PHILADELPHIA – More than enough to win. Until Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center, when the Chicago Bulls came up short, both in Game 6 against the Philadelphia 76ers, 79-78, and in a season that was supposed to end so differently. And so much later.

That Tom Thibodeau mantra — “We have more than enough to win” — played as background music to this 2011-12 NBA season, a slog beset by assorted injuries for his team for the first 66 games, then completely derailed by even more severe ones.

It didn’t matter to Thibs who it was — Derrick Rose, Richard Hamilton, Luol Deng, eventually Rose and Joakim Noah in the postseason. Every time anyone asked about the manpower problem, Thibodeau skipped the excuses and focused only on those available. And the message got delivered both to those wondering and to those inside his locker room. Expectations would not be tamped down just because Fred Tedeschi‘s training room was double- and triple-parked.

Problem was, Chicago didn’t have enough to win Thursday.

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