The 76ers announced yesterday that Elton Brand will be sidelined for the next month. After leaving Wednesday's game with a dislocated shoulder, an MRI revealed that Brand suffered a fractured humeral head (the part of his arm bone that connects to his shoulder) as well as a torn labrum. As bad as it sounds, his injury doesn't appear to need surgery, which means he can begin rehabilitation immediately.
It'll be interesting to see how the Sixers respond to Brand's injury. He's been the team's leading scorer this year, but his presence in the lineup is also a big reason why the team hasn't been able to play at a faster pace, which in turn was one of the biggest reasons why Mo Cheeks was let go.
But with Brand on the sideline, this roster will look an awful lot like last year's squad, which got up and down the court in a hurry. Andre Iguodala will resume his role as the team's primary offensive threat, which can only help him snap out of his early-season funk. This team still needs another perimeter shooter, but if they're able to get easy buckets in transition and spend less time setting up half-court sets, that need is somewhat diminished for the moment.
Eventually this team will need to figure out a way to win with Brand, whether it's adjusting their style of play or adding another shooter to the lineup, but they have several weeks before they need to cross that bridge.
The 76ers fired Mo Cheeks over the weekend, but he was as gracious and classy as ever while saying goodbye in today's press conference, even going as far as saying he'd be open to returning to the team in another role. And really, should we have expected any less?
He may have coached for only three years and change, but he spent 11 years with the team as a player. That's his legacy in Philadelphia, not the fact that his team got off to a poor start in the first 23 games. From Kate Fagan of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
"Anytime you get let go it hurts, not being able to finish ... finish what we started. I really thought we had an opportunity to win."
"It does come down to having certain players who can do certain things. But it also comes down to the coach getting the certain players to do certain things."
Big things were expected from Andre Iguodala after he signed a six-year, $80 million contract this summer. Unfortunately, he's been slow out of the gate, averaging just 13 points on 39% shooting in October/November while fading into the background as Elton Brand carved out his niche, Thaddeus Young asserted himself and Andre Miller picked up the slack.
But finally, with a quarter of the season in the books, the old Iguodala is starting to shine through. The 76ers lost the game on Saturday, but for the first time in the team's 22 games this year, Iguodala led the team in scoring.
Sure, it's a minor victory in the face of a loss (and it wasn't wholly unexpected given Brand's absence), but there's no denying that Iggy has seemed to turn the corner: in four games this month, he's averaging 19.5 points and 8.3 boards on 49.2% shooting.
What was behind Iggy's slow start? Speaking to the press before Friday's game, Mo Cheeks dismissed the notion that Iguodala struggled to adjust from the three to the two, pointing out that in Philly's system the two positions are quite similar.
Have you looked at the 76ers stats recently? Thaddeus Young is leading the team after 10 games with 16.3 points a night. To say that's a surprise is an understatement, especially after the Sixers invested nearly $160 million in Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala this summer.
To be fair, Brand isn't far behind with 15.5 points, and he's averaging a double-double with 10.3 boards, to boot. But Iguodala? He's been the team's fourth-leading scorer, chipping in a mere 12.4 points. Sure, some of the blame lies with a career-low (and likely flukish) 37.8% shooting percentage, but he's also fourth on the team in field-goals attempted, proof of how far he's slipped in the team's plans. I'm not worried, though; he's the team's leader and a savvy veteran -- he'll figure things out eventually.
But let's get back to Young, who's essentially doubled his rookie scoring average (8.3 points). Is this just a hot start that will eventually fade? Maybe to a degree, but I'm convinced the progress is for real. He spent much of last year playing out of position at the four, but since moving back to small forward his versatility, especially on the perimeter, is starting to shine.
When Ed Stefanski moved into Philly's front office last December, a lot of people figured it was just a matter of time before Mo Cheeks was handed his walking papers. After all, Cheeks was in the midst of the final year of his contract, and in this day and age of the salary cap and guaranteed contracts, the easiest way for a new GM to put his stamp on an organization is hand-picking a new coaching staff.
But instead of giving Cheeks the axe, Stefanski gave him a one-year extension in February. And after watching Cheeks orchestrate a surprising second-half run, in which the Sixers went from being 12 games under .500 to not only securing the seventh seed but also pushing the favored Pistons to six games, Stefanski rewarded Cheeks with another extension today. (How many years? Stay tuned -- exact details should come out after this afternoon's press conference.)
After Philly made a big splash earlier this summer by giving truckloads of money to Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala, I'm guessing today's news will barely register on the radar of most NBA fans. But in my opinion, locking Cheeks up should prove to be just as (if not more) instrumental to Philly's re-emergence as one of the top teams in the East.
For a team that looked destined for the lottery early in the year, the Sixers deserve a lot of credit for not only making the playoffs but also making the Pistons sweat. There are a lot of talented young pieces on this 76ers team, and a coach who knows how to help them improve. This team will be back next year, and if they invest their free agent dollars wisely, they may even contend for home court advantage. (No, seriously.) Let's recap their playoff run:
How They Got to the Dance: Believe it or not, the 76ers were actually one of the hottest teams in the league for a stretch in the second half, winning 19 of 24 from early February to late March. Losing five of six right at the end of the regular season kept them from posting a winning record (they finished 40-42), but that second-half surge was the result of a very young team taking the next step.
How They Got Bounced: Simply put, the Pistons woke up. The Sixers should be commended for jumping out to a 2-1 series lead, but the Pistons were just too deep, too talented and too experienced to simply roll over. That said, it would've helped Andre Iguodala failed to live up to top banana status, a role for which he may or may not be suited; the team's leading scorer in the regular season, Iguodala was held to just 13 points a night on 30% shooting. Even if the team's two wins he was largely irrelevant, a performance that likely cost him a few million off his next contract.
Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs. The Pistons opened the playoffs with a whimper, dropping two of their first three games to the 76ers and needing to come back from a double-digit halftime deficit in Game 4 to tie the series. I had a hunch they'd pull it out in Game 5 in front of a raucous crowd at the Palace, but I wasn't sure if it'd be another come-from-behind high-wire act or a blowout.
It didn't take long to figure it out.
The 76ers never had a chance after the Pistons kicked off the first quarter shooting 78.9% (15-19) from the field and jumping out to a 35-21 lead. Chauncey Billups, who averaged 13 points on 28.6% shooting in the first four games, scored 14 of his 21 points in the first quarter alone. Rip Hamilton, who missed 12 of his first 13 shots in Game 4, nailed 4-5 from the field for eight of his 20. Both the Pistons and Sixers have squandered leads in this series, but the Pistons held onto this one the rest of the night, leading by as many as 26 at one point before winning 98-81.
After the game, Mo Cheeks described how difficult it was to stop a team in which everybody on the floor was a threat to score. "There was a play that happened in front of our bench where Thaddeus Young was getting ready to rotate," said Cheeks. "He had Rip in the corner, he had Rasheed popping up top, and he was trying to figure out which one to go to. That put it in perspective right there. Do I got to Rasheed, do I go to Rip? He chose to go to Rip; Rasheed hits a three. And that put it in perspective because they have different guys that can make a shot at any time. And they were passing the ball so well, they were on the same page tonight. They were very good tonight."
Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs. Continuing with the "youth is served" meme that keeps popping up this postseason, let's take a look at the 76ers. The last time this team was in the playoffs, they were riding the backs of aging superstars Allen Iverson and Chris Webber. This time around, they have but one player (32-year-old Andre Miller) in the rotation older than 27.
While listening to Mo Cheeks talk to the press before last night's Game 5 match with the Pistons, I couldn't help but notice how much he seems to enjoy the responsibility of teaching as well as coaching.
"I enjoy coaching. I can't play anymore, so this is the closest thing I can do to play. I enjoy all of the things that come with it -- I don't enjoy you guys too much [laughter] -- but I enjoy all the things that go with coaching, and that is what I tell my players. ... I particularly enjoy when I see Lou Williams and [reminding] him about being up the floor and [how he'll have] a chance to get a steal up the court -- and I'll look up and he's up the floor and he's getting a steal. Those are some of the rewards of coaching.
"I'm pretty fortunate in that I have players that listen, they try to go out and do all these things right. And I'm very fortunate in that area that I have these guys that go out there and try and do things right and listen, and they don't always do them right [laughs] but they're out there trying to do them. And that's a very fortunate thing for me as a coach, and I think that's rewarding for our coaches is that you have these guys, you're trying to teach them, you're trying to show them different things about the game and then they go out and try to do it."
Most NBA coaches act like they can't hear fans heckling them, which is a little silly considering a lot of those fans are no further than 10-15 feet away, tops. Mo Cheeks isn't like most NBA coaches, though, and has no problem engaging with fans the entire game.
In Game 1 against the Pistons, he noticed that his 76ers went on a run every time the fan sitting next to the bench happened to take off his glasses. So what did he do? He walked over and took the glasses off the fan's face several times throughout the game. In Game 2, Cheeks decided to have some fun with some loud fans sitting behind him. From Chris Sheridan of ESPN:
Cheeks kept up a running dialogue with the hecklers through much of the game, asking one woman what exactly she meant when she yelled "40-42."
"What's that, our record?" Cheeks asked before holding out his index finger, then cupping his hand into a circle, signaling that the only record that counted was 1-0.
I'm sure it was funny at the time, and it's nice to see a coach not take himself so seriously that he can't have a little fun. And while I'm sure the fans got a laugh out of it, I'm guessing they got an even bigger kick out of the home team tying the series 1-1 after dominating the 76ers to the tune of 105-88.
In the fifth installment of handing out our end of the year awards, today's vote for Coach of the Year was by far the most wide open. A whopping seven legitimate candidates were featured on four of our experts' ballots, and here are the results:
The consensus here was ... that there really was no consensus. Byron Scott received two first place votes and one for second, but was left off the fourth ballot. Adelman and Cheeks each received a first place vote, but each were also left off of two of the ballots. Rounding out the voting were Doc Rivers, Jerry Sloan, and Nate McMillan, all of whom received one vote apiece.
My first place vote went to Adelman, because even though that streak thing (to me) isn't really all that impressive, the fact that he could keep this Rockets' team in the hunt for a top playoff seed out West after Yao Ming went down absolutely is.
To be honest, I'm a bit surprised that anyone would leave Byron Scott off of their ballot, given the job he's done in similarly keeping the Hornets near the top of the standings. But hey, I guess if people will vote for Doc Rivers, even though he's basically coaching a slimmed down version of the Eastern Conference All-Stars, I guess anything's possible.
The 76ers announced yesterday that Elton Brand will be sidelined for the next month. After leaving Wednesday's game with a dislocated shoulder, an MRI revealed that Brand suffered a fractured humeral head (the part of his arm bone that connects to his shoulder) as well as a torn labrum. As bad as it sounds, his injury doesn't appear to need surgery, which means he can begin rehabilitation immediately. 
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