1,2,3,4,5... SIXERS!!!!

Welcome everybody to the countdown, after an excruciating week that featured 2 awful losses sandwiched around a heart breaker of a loss on Saturday night (my birthday no less!), I'm back to feeling pretty down on the team. Despite this, I support the team's direction and there seems to be some young talent here. So I think I'm going to kick things off by going negative, and I will then refute my own critiques, then we'll get into rest of the countdown.

1. Glass half -empty view

We should call this the glass 90% empty view, since the team can't win more than 10% of its games. I'm just going to blast the squad man by man, taking a worst case scenario approach.

MCW– The worst Rookie of the Year since Mike Miller in 2001. (Holy shit was that a terrible draft class) A point guard that turns the ball over more than any other starting player in the league. A down right terrible shooter, MCW is under 40% for the year on FGs. MCW is 3rd worst among starting PGs in FG%, 3-point FG%, and FT%. He is considered a stat stuffer averaging 15, 7 and 7, yet he has a PER of 12.54 (15 is league average), which means our best player by a mile isn't even an average NBA player. Not to mention lately he seem to spend a lot of time bitching at the refs after committing a turnover. Not likely to ever make an all-star team, and may never even crack top-12 status at his position (right now I can think of 17 PGs that are better, with several more guys like Brandon Jennings, Kemba Walker, and Isiah Thomas that you could make an argument for).
Hollis Thompson- The last man standing from the group of street free agents signed by the 76ers last season, an illustrious crew that included Brandon Davies, Casper Ware, Dwayne Dedmon, Daniel Orton, James Anderson, and Jarvis Vornado. The guy is bad player, plain and simple. His claim to fame is his shooting and he is only mediocre (34.7%) at that. Hollis has an NBA body at 6'8", but that is it. A guy who sort-of looks the part. No way he ever contributes on a team that makes it to the second round of the playoffs.
Nerlens Noel- Afraid we got ourselves a man without a position, too skinny to bang and grind down by the hoop as a Center, but not skilled enough to knock down the jumpers required to play PF. Also, he always seems to get banged up, going to the trainers room for a while during games several times this year. To look at him makes you worry he is going to snap. Noel is so thin and tall, we have lovingly nicknamed him Black Skellington, due to his resemblance to this guy:

Joel Embiid- You all already know the negative here, he hasn't played yet. What if he never does? We all wish and hope he is the next Hakeem, but it is more likely he is the next Greg Oden.
KJ McDaniels- Two words: Landry Fields. A 2nd rounder who has a big first season, but never plays as good again. Ending up as a drain to his team financially when he gets drastically overpaid.
Tony Wroten- A short, less point guard-y version of MCW. Same complaints about shooting and turnovers, just no defense to speak of and a lack of the vision required to run an offense.
Robert Covington- As much as we all love Bob getting Buckets, there is a reason why Covington was in the D League 6 weeks ago. He is playing well for now, but as his rep grows, so too will the attention he is paid by defenses. 29 other GMs weren't exactly fighting the Sixers for his services, which tells me that he is probably not a difference maker, more likely a bench player on a decent team.
Luc Richard Mbah A Moute- I sometimes feel like he and Alexy Shved are having a contest to see who can miss the rim more often on jump shots. LRMAM is and absolute nothing on offense and will not be here for very long.

2. Glass Half Full

MCW- He is the reigning, defending, undisputed, NBA rookie of the year. He turns the ball over a ton because he is, without much hyperbole, THE ONLY PLAYER ON THE TEAM THAT CAN DRIBBLE A BASKETBALL. He scores, he has good court vision, he rebounds better than any other PG in the league, and he is a good kid and a hard worker. He couldn't work on his broken jumper this off season due to shoulder surgery, so maybe we should wait until next season before we decide to harp too much on his shooting numbers. I like MCW and root for him, he does appear to be getting frustrated more on the court, but to be fair the Sixers get ZERO respect from the officials in nearly every game they play. If MCW can become an average shooter, and learn to protect the ball better (something that gets easier as the talent around you improves) I really believe he can reach an all-star level in the NBA.
Hollis Thompson- Hollis isn't a starter for a good NBA team, but I don't think the Sixers would try and convince you that he is. He is a guy gaining experience as a young player that will eventually be called on to play wing defense (he is very long) and knock down the occassional 3-pointer. This is all just very intensive practice for a guy who will eventually only be playing 10-15 minutes a game, a role he is perfectly suited to play.
Nerlens Noel- It took Demarcus Cousins 3 years to become a good offensive player, and 5 years to become a quality defender. Nerlens may end up mastering defense first, but the point is clearly that there is a learning curve for young big men and Nerlens' progress will take a while. It took Serge Ibaka 4 seasons to get to a point where he averaged double digits in points. We need to be patient. Nerlens, more than any other Sixer currently playing, is going to have a large gap between his best and worst games, which is simply part of the growing pains of an NBA big man. For now, don't expect too much, and be sure to enjoy it when he does stuff like this:

Your browser does not support iframes.

Joel Embiid- Well, here's a thought on the best case from the man himself. Seriously, the youngster will need a few years to grow and learn, but he absolutely has an All-Star/MVP type of potential.
KJ McDaniels- Two words Jimmy Butler. Butler was draft 30th overall, mainly for his defense and athleticism, and now is a rising young star who continues to grow into a $10-14 million player. This is the path we are hoping KJ follows. I was first going to use Lance Stevenson, who was a second round pick in 2010, but Lance is crazy, and I think/hope KJ is not.
Tony Wroten- The best case scenario for Wroten is that he develops his 3-point shot into a legit weapon, and opponents have to play him tighter by the arc and driving lanes open for Wroten to exploit. If Wroten could get that outside shot to the 37-40% range, he could become a 6th man of the year candidate along the lines of JR Smith or Jamal Crawford. I will admit that this scenario feels unlikely, but Wroten is a guy who outs in work, so I won't rule it out.
Robert Covington- I kind of think Covington's performance this December may be the best case scenario. Covington has averaged 17.3 points per game and is shooting 45% on 3-pointers. I mean what else could you ask for? To think a street free agent could end up averaging around 20 ppg seems crazy. Great find by Sam Hinkie.

3. Evan Turner, practically Jesus

Last week I made a joke saying I wanted the Sixers to sign Jesus. Turns out they basically already had him for four years. As you can read here, Evan Turner took the Sixer fan's booing him very magnanimously, saying Jesus was hated too.

As hilarious as this quote is, it really does go to show you the fundamental flaw in Evan Turner's world, that he thinks he truly is great. I feel like if you are ready to put yourself into a peer group with Jesus to explain away why people enjoy giving you shit, you probably have a little too high of an opinion of yourself. Evan, people don't boo you because they don't understand your profound impact on basketball and life in general, they boo you because you are a fat, lazy, over-dribbling, under-performing, never improving, blame shifting, unclutch, bitchy, and just thoroughly annoying disappointment of a basketball player. Go fuck yourself, we could have had Boogie Cousins!

4. A brief moment to vent about the Phillies

The Sixers are rebuilding through the draft and prospects mainly for two reasons, first because top of the league talent is very scarce in the NBA although essential to victory, so building through the draft affords you the best chance of landing a true superstar, either through the draft itself or by trading for such a player, using your young talent to close the deal a-la the James Harden trade. The second reason is because the NBA (at least for now) has a very tight salary cap and acquiring talent through free agency is expensive, leaving you little wiggle room to make the finishing touches needed for a title team.

In baseball, superstars are less essential and there is no cap. So I refuse to go along with any plan to "rebuild" the Phillies when that plan means parting ways with some of the greatest players in franchise history. The Phillies are bad, and somehow they are going to get better by trading their best players. For baseball prospects. For essentially lotto tickets. The Phllies sucked last year because of Asche, Brown, Howard, Burnett, Kendrick, and their lack of a fifth starter. So replace those players with better ones, the easiest way to do that in MLB is to go sign some free agents. The Phillies are cheaping out, and they are painting Rollins, Utley, and Hamels as somehow the problem. The Phillies could simply spend there way to contention, but instead they have scapegoated their premiere players, and it drives me crazy. Jeter, Rivera, and Posada all retired Yankees becasue it is the right thing for all involved, Yankees are very proud of the fact that Derek Jeter never had to wear a Braves uniform during his last few years. The Phillies should be as classy, and the fans should be as loyal.

5. Some Sixers Links

Only 2, but they are both really good.

Zach Lowe wrote a feature for Grantland about the Sixers and their growth so far this season and what lies ahead. A great piece showing both the struggle and the hope. Read it. It is way better than this nonsense. In fact me even sort of comparing my piece to what Zach Lowe does is my very own "people hated Jesus" moment.
Here is a reddit rip-off of a Chad Ford piece written back in June (I think, maybe May) ranking the top 25 NBA draft prospects since the year 2000. Obviously the important take away is that Joel Embiid comes in at #9. It's easy to forget how good Embiid could be and this piece serves as a nice reminder. Just look at the names that come after Embiid; Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, John Wall, and Dwight Howard to name a few. Just a fun piece that refreshes my fanhood by reminding me we have something special coming to our team in the very near future.

6. Sixers!!!!!

I will admit, as time was winding down Saturday night, I hijacked the stereo at my birthday party and played my favorite song, hoping it would turn the game back towards my 76ers. I failed. See you next week.