Painful Re-Boot Ahead In Philadelphia

                                                                 (image from twitter.com)

During the 2011-12 NBA season, the Philadelphia 76ers had one of the more exciting and promising teams in the NBA with swingman Andre Iguodala, guard Jrue Holiday, and guard Lou Williams as their nucleus along with power forward Thaddeus Young. They weren't a team with one definitive star, but rather a team made up of young athletic players who loved to run the fast break and score easy buckets in transition due to their defense, which was one of the top five defenses in the entire NBA. They ended up finishing 8th in the Eastern Conference that season, but thanks to Bulls point guard Derrick Rose tearing his ACL, they got out of the first round before being knocked out of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics. At the end of that season, everybody who followed the NBA believed that the 76ers were a team that was going to be competitive for a very long time. They were yet to show that they were serious contenders for a championship, but the pieces were there to work with, and that for 76ers fans was very exciting.

                                                      (image from docsports.com) 

In the summer of 2012 after that season ended, the Philadelphia 76ers tried to capitalize on their young nucleus of talent and turn it into a contender right away by trading away small forward Andre Iguodala to the Denver Nuggets in a four way trade with the Magic, Nuggets, and Lakers that sent Dwight Howard to the Lakers and Andrew Bynum from the Lakers to the 76ers. I'll spare you the nitty gritty details of that trade, but it is suffice to say that the 76ers gave up their best player Andre Iguodala to land Andrew Bynum who at the time was one of the most promising young centers in the NBA. The one problem with Andrew Bynum was that he had a history of being hurt, but at the time, the 76ers were confident he would play for them that upcoming season, and also were confident that they could convince him to stay in Philadelphia long term. 

                                                         (image from nba.si.com) 

Well, it's been a year since that trade went down and Andrew Bynum has not played a single minute for the Philadelphia 76ers. He had plenty of time to grow a wild Afro and go bowling, but he was never healthy enough to see one minute of playing time during the 2012-13 NBA season. To make things worse, he isn't with the team anymore, and he is now the potential headache of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who gave him a softball offer of $6M guaranteed over two seasons with as much as $24M total should he play and stay healthy. In addition to losing Bynum and Iguodala as a result of getting Bynum, the 76ers no longer have Lou Williams, Jrue Holiday, or young promising center Nikola Vucevic (who was traded to Orlando as part of the Bynum deal).  In addition to losing all those players, the team also is no longer coached by Doug Collins, who stopped coaching the team back in April at season's end. As for finding his replacement, the 76ers are more than three months into their head coaching search, and they still haven't found anybody. The current Philadelphia 76ers team is merely a shell of what it was during the 2011-12 NBA season, and it hasn't even been 18 months! The team has suddenly gone from thinking they were on the cusp of winning a championship to being one of the bottom feeder teams in the Eastern Conference. Upon retracing their steps from 18 months ago, it is truly unbelievable that they are in the position that they are now in.  To call it a shock is an understatement. The sky appeared to be the limit for this young team and now the limit seems to be 30 wins. 

In terms of what the next step is for this team, I personally think it is to act as if they've been rebuilding for quite a while, rather than remembering where they just were. It's time for the entire Philadelphia 76ers front office to start bringing out the whisky in an attempt to binge-drink the Andrew Bynum trade out of their memory. A trade that they thought was going to bring the city their first NBA championship since the Michael Jackson Thriller album has instead sunk the team so low, that tanking for the heavily anticipated 2014 NBA Draft seems to actually be the best solution for the team at this point. The only thing that could make this all right in Philadelphia would be if they somehow won the 2014 NBA Draft lottery and selected Kansas freshman sensation Andrew Wiggins. That would truly cap off a crazy roller coaster ride for the franchise with a happy ending. But that is all just wild speculation at this point, and what is really important is for the Philadelphia 76ers organization to start looking towards building around young shooting guard Evan Turner and rookie power forward/center Nerlens Noel, who many thought was going to be the number one overall pick. Whether they like it or not, this team is going to be in the draft lottery next season, and unless the basketball gods smile on them and give them a top three pick in next year's draft, the process of re-booting this team into another exciting young team will be slow and painful. Bring out the fishing rods Philadelphia, your 76ers might be going fishing for quite a while. 

---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord  

No More Excuses For Dwight Howard In Houston

These past couple of seasons, Dwight Howard has been the center of the NBA free agent world thanks to his indecisive and bizarre behavior. One minute he loves where he's at, the next minute he hates it. One minute he loves his coach, the next minute he wants him canned. All this time, Dwight Howard has viewed other people around him as the problem, and all this time we have somewhat given him the benefit of the doubt. He didn't have the right team around him in Orlando; Kobe Bryant was selfish and  Mike D'Antoni was incompetent in Los Angeles, etc. But now that he is a member of the Houston Rockets and is away from the circus of Los Angeles and has surrounded himself with better talent than he had in Orlando, it is time for Dwight Howard to look at himself in the mirror and demand that he makes his situation better and not other people. 

What I'm really saying is he needs to become a better basketball player. These past three seasons, we've seen his scoring average go from 22.9 to 20.6 to 17.1 points per game as well as his rebounding average go from 14.1 to 14.4 to 12.4. That means that his numbers in the 2009-10 season (18.3 points per game/ 13.2 rebounds per game) were actually better than they were this year (17.1 points per game/ 12.4 rebounds per game). In other words, he has regressed since that time, and he hasn't gotten any better. 

                                            image from ksat.com

Now while it may be true that Dwight Howard is still the best center in the NBA ahead of Roy Hibbert and Andrew Bynum, it is not true that being the best center is all that he is supposed to be. He is supposed to be the centerpiece and leader of championship teams like Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal. But so far, it doesn't look like he is capable of being that player thanks to his whining and lack of responsibility for his own actions. He instead looks like he's on the path to becoming one of the most squandered talents in NBA history. 

That being said, he is in a fresh place now in Houston, which is a place he chose to be in. He chose the Rockets and the Rockets welcomed him in to their fold, expecting him to be their leader over the coming decade. He has the pieces around him to win a title with James Harden, Jeremy Lin, and Chandler Parsons around him. Now all that needs to happen is he needs to step up and become the franchise changing center that many have thought him to be. Excuses and whiny behavior won't save him this time. It's time for him to produce and bring home the titles or just admit he isn't what he's all cracked up to be. 

---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord 

Are The Brooklyn Nets Contenders Out East?

                                                 image from dukaspr.com

The Brooklyn Nets pulled off one of the biggest trades of the off-season which netted in them getting Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, and Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics. The Nets starting five now has Deron Williams at point guard, Joe Johnson at shooting guard, Paul Pierce at small forward, Kevin Garnett at power forward, and Brook Lopez at center. Jason Terry will come off the bench.  Gerald Wallace, who started for the team last season at small forward was traded to the Celtics as part of the deal (note: to see complete details of the trade, click here).

The Nets certainly seem to have a team that can do some serious damage in the Eastern Conference. Deron Williams is one of the best point guards in the NBA despite having a down season last year and we all know that Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez are both one of the better players at their positions. But obviously, the Nets realized that they were lacking something last season that Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry can bring to the table. The focus of my article is to identify what the Nets think that something is, and whether or not Pierce, Garnett, and Terry can do enough to get the Nets over the hump. 

Last season, the Nets appeared to be one of the better teams in the NBA, and everybody figured that they would easily beat the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs due to all the injuries on the Bulls. However, things didn't exactly go according to plan, and before they knew it, the Nets found themselves eliminated from the playoffs at the hands of a Chicago Bulls team that was plagued with injury. 

While everybody was praising the Chicago Bulls for playing with so much heart and soul, the Brooklyn Nets at the same time found themselves to be the subject of much deserved ridicule and utter embarrassment. This was a team that was supposed to contend for a title and there they were instead eliminated from the playoffs at the hands of a sickly team hit with a plague similar to the Bubonic plague that swept across Europe in the middle ages. The Nets were rightfully being called soft as a result.

What the addition of Garnett, Pierce, and Terry does for the Nets is potentially fix their softness by adding gritty veteran toughness. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry all have championship rings, and all three are guys who wouldn't back down to a rabid hyena if it was snarling in their face. Kevin Garnett is the toughest of them all and it shows on the court. Brook Lopez may be a good offensive center, but he protects the rim worse than my 16 year old golden retriever protects my house. A burglar with a flame thrower could walk into my house and my dog wouldn't utter a peep. Likewise, Brook Lopez couldn't protect the rim if his life depended on it.  Bulls point guard Nate Robinson had no fear flying at the rim with reckless abandon against the Nets in the playoffs, and he is a little squirt standing at 5'9. Kevin Garnett will take care of the rim protecting problem, and players of all sizes will think twice about going inside with Garnett prowling the paint. 

As for Paul Pierce and Jason Terry, their scoring will certainly be of assistance to the Nets, but it's more their intangible veteran presence that will help this team. They will help give their teammates confidence in crunch time and help them stay mentally strong in tough situations. They will have a strong presence in the locker room and command respect. They won't let their teammates deflect their problems on others, and will instead teach them to own their own mistakes. This is an effect similar to what Doc Rivers will bring to the Clippers as head coach. 

While these three guys may serve as guides similar to Virgil in Dante's Inferno, they won't be able to completely mold their teammates into winners. Deron Williams still has to be the leader of this team if they want to win a championship, and whether or not he can be a great leader is yet to be seen. In addition, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez will have to toughen up as well and learn to buckle down in crunch time. If the Nets rely too much on Garnett, Pierce, and Terry to carry the load, they will fail miserably. But if they open themselves up to improvement under their wise council, then they just might have what it takes to dethrone the Heat. 

---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord