The Good:
- The Sixers on the road. While most enjoy being home during the holiday season, the Sixers have actually done their best work on the road in December. This month, they have won three out of five road games thus far.
- Sam Hinkie’s commitment towards tanking. He’s all-in, no question about it. Hinkie’s trade of Alexy Shved, which nets a second-rounder and a foreigner by the name of Sergei Lishouk, was a straight move of tanking. Shved, who actually was a decent player for the lowly Sixers scoring 10 points per game, was moved seemingly because he doing well is not beneficial to Philadelphia. In other words, if he were to perform at his highest possible level, the Sixers would be worse off in the grand scheme of things. So, Mr. Hinkie thought to scoop up a draft pick and a prospect to protect from that happening. The Sixers have a clear plan and are committed to it.
The Bad:
- The Sixers are home. This past week, they got spanked pretty much from start to finish against both the Boston Celtics and lowly Charlotte Hornets.
The Ugly:
- Not that it happened last week, but it’s still ugly to look at the Andrew Bynum deal and see what the Sixers gave up. Playing Nik Vucevic yesterday was a reminder that Nerlens Noel (and Joel Embiid) are far off from being what they could have already had, a dominant big man. Vucevic is 3rd in the NBA in rebounding.
- The Sixers’ shooting. Now two months into the season, we have a reliable sample size of the Sixers’ shooting woes. They currently are dead last in the entire NBA, shooting at a 41% clip.
