While Sixers’ have still a (slim) chance to re-gain that 6th place in the Eastern Conference standings, at Bulls’ expense, every fan with half a brain already knows we will end up finishing at #7, where we stand now.

After last night’s win over the Pistons, its fifth straight, here is Chicago’s status:

• 41-40 (6th seed)
• ONE game remaining, Wed 15th at home vs Raptors.

While Sixers are:

• 40-40 (7th seed)
• TWO games remaining, tonight vs Celtics and tomorrow at Cleveland, in the second night of a back-to-back, and with a team that is 137-1 at home, or something.

So yes, technically by winning both games we could get past the Bulls, if they lose to the Raptors. But it sounds like saying that there is a chance that Jerome James WILL NOT exercise his player option for the 6 millions he is owed in 2009/2010. 

Reality is, reguardless of the outcome of these three games, we will face the Celtics, that are already sure of their 2nd seed, in the first round of the 2009 playoffs.

So tonight’s regular season game, Sixers’ last at home, will look like an anticipation of the upcoming series vs the “World Champs” (btw I always hated this expression, really arrogant and very “american”, in the worst sense this time. Paired with the Celtics, it sounds even more disturbing, LOL).

It will be a sort of Game 0, say.

Boston will apparently be without Garnett, while Sixers will welcome back Thaddeus Young. That is good news, I just hope Thad didn’t rush his return.

I don’t have great expectations for tonight’s game. I just hope that we win, first because closing the season on a 0-7 losing streak would be annoying (you would perhaps guess that I’m not that optimistic about that final game at Cleveland…), second because it would mean not improving a lick over last year’s 40-42 (not exciting) record, third because getting swept by Boston always sucks, and now we are down 0-2 in the series.

And the memory of that last second loss in the last game vs Boston still hurts, so we should even have an extra-motivation.

I must say I don’t dislike playing with the Celtics in the postseason.

Of course Sixers would be the underdog, of course anything more than losing 4-2 would be considered a fantastic achievement, of course the last time we met Boston in playoffs, in 2002, it ended in embarassment.

But at least we would have a real playoffs atmosphere, and a chance for a memorable upset. After all, last year’s Hawks took the eventual “World champs” to Game 7, right?

So let’s go Sixers, let’s take Game 0. And then Game 1, Game 2….

I am still f’n busy, out on a two week business trip, and it will be like that for few more days.

But some facts made me find the time to write this. In order of importance:

1) this F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C Manute Bol/guidos story, that follows the video posted below.

So I received this email:

Go Sixers!  It is so awesome to know there are Sixers fans all over the world.  It’s hard enough to find “real” Sixers fans here in Philly.

Just wanted to share a cool guido / Manute Bol story with you real quick…

I must have been about 11 years old.  I had just started playing CYO basketball for a church in my neighborhood.  My coach was a real South Philly Guido for sure (just to give you an idea of how much of a
South Philly Guido he was, he was a bookie and he’d be on his cell phone checking the lines and taking bets on NFL games during our games).

He was particularly proud of myself and a few other players after a big win one game and decided he was gonna take us all to a Sixers game.  We were super pumped!  Since he was a South Philly guido, he “had a connect” at the Spectrum.  He got us snuck in a service entrance and we got some seats up in the nosebleeds and we wanted MANUTE!

All damn game we were chanting “WE WANT MANUTE!  WE WANT MANUTE!”  To no avail…  Jimmy Lynam would not put Manute in the damn game!  WTF?

We were deep in the fourth quarter of a close game when we finally couldn’t take it anymore.  We went all around our section recruiting other fans to join the chant.  “WE WANT MANUTE !  WE WANT MANUTE !”  It
started with us, then our whole section, then the whole upper deck, then…  The entire Spectrum!  “WE WANT MANUTE !  WE WANT MANUTE !  WE WANT MANUTE !”

It got so loud that Jimmy Lynam had to take a time out to put him in the game!  Manute stepped on the court they passed him the ball, he cranked his long arms over his back and threw up one of his signature catapult slingshot 3 pointers and SWISH !!!  The god damn crowd went crazy!

It was just the spark the Sixers needed to take the game away.  After that, the Sixers ran away with the game, never looking back and we won.  That is not only my favorite Manute Bol memory, but one of my favorite sports moments in my life.  Had to share it with you.

Thanks! GO SIXERS!

We have to thank S4G reader Jesse for this, he gave me the permission to post it on this site. 

More.

2) Sixers won their first preseason game, 98-92 vs Boston. Nice. I’m not the kind of fan that gets pumped for a preseason win so I will not comment much on that (also because I didn’t watch the game, LOL).

But anyway some positives have to be underlined: our young studs all looked good, from LW (27 points in 25 min !!) to Thaddeus Young (in the pic), who played a team high 36 min and scored 21, to Marreese Speights, who had some nice flashes; Brand apparently looked rusty but not overall bad; it was a comeback win, which is always sweet and tells something about confidence; it came vs Boston, even sweeter.

3) Yahoo! blog “Ball don’t lie” has a cool, funny article about the Sixers that includes a 50-32 prediction. Too optimistic? I don’t think so. Mine would be pretty close (a deeper analysis will come before the regular season opener). What is important is that there is a general consensus about Sixers being more-than-relevant in the NBA, something that long time, die hard fans like me have been waiting for too much.

More to come on this site soon: a new contributor, new exchange of posts with fine NBA bloggers covering other teams, an interview to the best guido italian NBA journalist about our beloved team.

Just be patient, it will pay off.

(INTRO: “Philadelphia is one of the most popular picks to finish with the NBA’s worst record“, music & words by Chris Sheridan !!!)

The season approaches, the fantasy season approaches, Sixers4guidos’ 1st anniversary approaches – following The Sportshernia. What does that mean? That it’s time to place our forecasts for the next year.

So, a Sixers blog is supposed to start from its team, right? Well, Sixers will end the 2007-2008 season with a 31-51 record in my humble opinion. Worse than the already bad 35-47* of last year? Yes. Does this mean that the Sixers got worse from last year? Not necessarily. 

The fact is that most of our division and conference rivals got significantly better, while we didn’t add any key player to make us competitive at a high level IN THE SHORT TERM. That’s basically the reason why I would be fine with a 31-51 record, but if, and only if:

* we will go on building for the long term, like we are APPARENTLY doing now. This means:

* play the young guys as much as we can, especially our rookies 

* don’t trade any of the guys that are part of the “new” core (Iguodala, Miller, Korver etc)

* don’t trade for any average veteran that will f’k up our cap room and, possibly, our locker room

* don’t get any further long term contract and let Webber’s, Mc Kie’s and Ollie’s contracts expire next summer

* trade Willie Green (LOL)

If all of the above will happen, I will really enjoy the upcoming season reguardless of our record, thinking that a new era for the Sixers will hopefully start in the summer of 2008 with some real cap space (finally !), another high pick and a solid nucleus of good, young, talented players. And a new coach perhaps…

I will sit down and relax, and focus on other things, like rooting against the Celtics or hoping Kobe Bryant will explode with more rants against Lakers’ inept management.

Seriously, I am expecting a big year from Andre Iguodala (good enough to take him to the All star team), a breakout season from Louis Williams and huge improvements from Rodney Carney and Sam Dalembert.

I am sure that Andre Miller will be Andre Miller, and Willie Green will, unfortunately, remain Willie Green… same for Kevin freaking Ollie and the other bums, Booth, Randolph & co. I like Reggie Evans and think he will add a lot to Sixers (poor) table.

As for our rookies, I am confident Jason Smith will surprise many of us with a very good year, and I hope (hope !) Herbert Hill will show he’s a NBA player. As far as I saw, he seemed to be one.

What about Thaddeus Young? Honestly I don’t know. He played little in Summer league and pre season. You tell me the reason, I don’t have any explainantion for that. You let your first round pick sit to much instead of giving him some playing time? I don’t like this, even if many would say “Rookies have to earn their minutes”, which is a theory I don’t agree with (especially when you clearly have few real chances to reach playoffs or any further goal), but that could be correct.

I am going to put also my predictions about the NBA season, giving more details about that in another post:

EAST: 1) Chicago, 2) New Jersey, 3) Miami 4) Boston 5) Cleveland 6) Toronto 7) Detroit 8) New York

(yes, I think Washington AND Orlando WILL NOT make the playoffs. I thought Miami was bad but adding Ricky Davis and Mark Blount is enough to put them at the top of the division again)

WEST: 1) Dallas 2) Phoenix 3) Utah 4) San Antonio 5) Denver 6) LA Lakers 7) Golden State 8) New Orleans (Houston)

Comments & insults welcome, as usual

(*= when I predicted 43 wins… so much for my basketball knowledge…)

Yeah, it’s off season and few things happen, unless you think that Celtics signing Scott Pollard is breaking news.

So before leaving for vacation (in the picture, Ricky engaged in the main activity he will do for the next three weeks) I thought it could be interesting to take a look at our roster NOW and try to imagine how the 2007-2008 Sixers might look like.

My take is that we have two STARTING spots to cover, small forward and power forward, assuming that Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala and Sam Dalembert are almost a lock to start at PG, SG* and C.

[*= Yes, I consider Iguodala more a SG than a SF ("a shooting guard that can't shoot", according to a poster of the Sixers board, which is pretty funny but not accurate), if you don't it's ok, but find me a nicer headline for this post, then.]

So here is my breakdown, split into “hopes” and “realistic thoughts”.

The overall introduction is that Sixers clearly have a log jam at the 2-3 positions, with seven players (Iguodala, Willie Green, Kyle Korver, Rodney Carney, Thaddeus Young and even rookie Derrick Byars – and I am not considering Bobby Jones) to split minutes at SG and SF.

SMALL FORWARD

Whether you consider Iggy a SG or a SF, it doesn’t change the fact that he will play his usual 36-38 minutes per game (last year it was more than 40… what about cutting them a little bit, Mo ??) : that leaves six players to fight for the remaining 55-60 minutes (!).

Of these six players one, Kyle Korver, is perhaps the finest three point shooter in the NBA, for sure the best free throw shooter, one of the best 6th men, constantly improving, a fans -  not to mention Sixers4guidos – favourite. Last year he played 31 minutes per game and I honestly cannot see a good reason to reduce his minutes next year.

So it’s 38 Iguodala + 30 Korver = 68 minutes for those two = 28 minutes to divide between Green, Carney, Thaddeus Young (+ Byars) !!!

See a locker room storm coming ?? Some personnel management issues ??? Personally this scares me, also considering who is our coach (in case you don’t know, I am NOT a Cheeks fan). And this because – and I am going on with my analysis:

a) Rodney Carney is a guy we spent a 1st pick on only twelve months ago, and a player worth taking a deeper look at. To me he’s the typical case of guy who would probably blossom if traded to another team (= Raja Bell, Bruce Bowen, Matt Barnes etc part II)… a very good Summer League showed what I was simply feeling: this kid can play. I hope we keep him and give him the chance(s) that last year didn’t have.

b) Thaddeus Young is our rookie. A 12th pick in one of the deepest drafts ever, the 19 y/o wonder, the next Tayshaun Prince, the next Lamar Odom, the cornerstone for the Sixers future bla bla bla (add more Sixers propaganda here…)… would it be smart to leave his young ass on the bench in a season when Sixers will have basically NOTHING to play for and no other goal than “developing young players” ??? No, right?

c) Willie Green, as much as I dislike him, proved he’s a decent scorer off the bench, and a player that many teams looking for instant offense could use properly (just throwing out some random names: Cleveland, Miami, New Jersey etc). 11 PPG in 25 minutes is not bad, mostly considering his resume (a second round pick) and the bad injuries he had to pass through. This means he earned his minutes and will expect to play more. (Yes, I am showing some respect for the Detroit Mercy product. Finally ?).

d) Derrick Byars is… well, I honestly have no idea. I just hope he takes Green’s spot.

You see, a lot of open questions here. To sum it up:

SIXERS4GUIDOS HOPE:

Carney starts at SF, with Thad Young growing fastly as months pass and stealing him the starting spot, after Green gets traded.

Byars becomes the next Willie Green - minus the hate by Sixers bloggers.

REALISTIC PREDICTION: 

This is pretty tough.

Cheeks might actually continue mismanaging Carney, going with Young immediately. Green has probably (and sadly) a shot of starting at SG, with Iguodala playing some SF-point forward.

If Mo doesn’t give up on the “small ball” bullshit, Young plays even some PF (shaking my head).

POWER FORWARD

This is way easier: Sixers have currently four players to fight for this spot: Steven Hunter, Jason Smith, Shavlik Randolph, Herbert Hill (I am PURPOSELY forgetting bum Louis Amundson).

Ok, if we wanto to be accurate, and I do want it, Steven Hunter is actually a center, having no PF skills at all. Last last year he had to start because we simply run out of big men, but in ‘normal’ days he’s always been and always will be a BACK UP center. Pairing him with Dalembert would assure the Sixers another dubious record: the worst rebounding seven footers combo in the history of the NBA.

Jason Smith seems to be a very nice player, perhaps even a steal. He’s the only real power forward in that mix, and he looks like the best fit for the position. The question is: is the Colorado State rookie ready to start at the upper level ? None of us knows it.

The main problem with Shavlik Randolph is that he will come off a surgery. Another problem is that he wasn’t that good even before, when 100% healthy. Is he a PF? or a C? I honestly don’t care much. Love the guy, love his hustle, love the attitude, wish him all the best etc. etc. but you won’t go too far in the NBA if one of your big men is Shavlik Randolph. Don’t kidd ourselves fellas. 

Similar things could be said about Herbert Hill. I watched four Summer League games and he looked ok. Good hands, soft touch, size, rebounding, high %. The problem is: will he make the team? We are talking about a 55th pick. No disrespect, just being realistic. If he becomes the next Ben Wallace, I will be happy for having missed another prediction.

SIXERS4GUIDOS HOPE:

Jason Smith starts and slowly shows he’s an NBA player, making many draft “experts” and skeptic/negative Sixers fans eat their words/shut up.

Hunter goes back to what his role should be (Dalembert’s back up), Shavlik Randolph crosses the Atlantic Ocean and becomes MVP of the Italian League, where he wins the title and starts a long, healthy, wealthy career.

REALISTIC PREDICTION:

Cheeks goes the old way and starts Hunter. After being outrebounded in 48 out of the first 50 games, and by an average of 15 boards per game, he realizes that the team has rebounding issues and tries with Smith.

To make a long (too long, sorry) story short this would be my Sixers 2007-2008 starting line up:

PG Andre Miller – SG Andre Iguodala – SF Rodney Carney – PF Jason Smith – C Sam Dalembert

Before you start dissing me and these five guys, I will tell you that I am aware that this is a 31-33 W line up. But I don’t care FOR THIS SEASON, as long as Celtics and Lakers don’t win the ring.

We’ll see who will be better in 2-3 years. Tell me your thoughts, I will be back around the 28th August. 

(Here we go with the second part of the predictions, from other 76ers blogs, bloggers and mainly from posters of the Sixers board of philly.com that answered to my little survey.

Of course while I am writing these lines trade rumors are getting crazy – a Milwaukee deal that would give us #8, various combination with Atlanta getting us #3 etc… – , but here we are assuming that we still have our three first round picks at #12, #21 and #30 + #38 in trhe second. Just 24 hrs to go …Enjoy !!)

Continuiamo il nostro viaggio all’interno del mondo dei blog dedicati ai Sixers vedendo quali sono i pronostici dei miei “colleghi” a sole 24 ore dal draft.

Le voci su possibili scambi di scelte sono moltissime in queste ore, mentre quasi tutte le previsioni che leggete sono state formulate tenendo conto dello scenario attuale, vale a dire i Sixers con tre prime scelte (12, 21 e 30) e una seconda (38).

Chris di “Huge Tiny Mistake“, un blog dedicato al baseball ma che si occupa anche dei Sixers (http://hugetinymistake.wordpress.com) mi dice:

# 12 Al Thornton, 6-7 SF Florida State (nella foto)

# 18 (scambio con Golden State per Willie Green + 2 seconde scelte) Josh Mc Roberts, 6-11 PF Duke

Secondo turno Curtis Sumpter (un ragazzo di Philadelphia).

Ecco le previsioni di Marando (Rando) Freeman, curatore del “Sixers Journal” (http://the76ers.blogspot.com):

1st pick Julian Wright

2nd pick Jason Smith

3rd pick Glen “Big baby” Davis

Secondo Rando i Sixers cederanno una delle loro quattro scelte.

(Let’s move to predictions by guys posting on the Philly.com Sixers board). Ora passiamo ai pronostici dei forumisti di philly.com:

Analyzthat76, uno dei migliori conoscitori del college basket, spara:

12. Brendan Wright (“I’m not in love with his game but he’s a high value pick”)

21. Thiago Splitter (“One pick had to go and this is the throw away pick. Splitter probably will play another year overseas”)

30. Morris Almond (“No way does BK bring him for a workout and not target him with one of the three picks. He’s a great shooter”)

Completamente diverso il parere di MattNice78:

#12:  Spencer Hawes/Nick Young o Al Thornton 

#21: Marco Belinelli o Rudy Fernandez/Josh McRoberts o Jason Smith 

#30: Kyrylo Fesenko 

#38: Kyle Visser 

E il commento è “I’m cool with a lot of players but these guys I like the best”. Chiaro no?

Gli fa seguito philly262, altro grande intenditore secondo me:

“We’re trading with the Bobcats. We’re drafting Brandon Wright, Morris Almond and Glen Davis”

Il mio amico sixerguy col quale ho appena parlato via messenger di possibili trade con i Bucks giusto pochi minuti fa, è sintetico:

“I see us drafting Noah, Almond, and Glen Davis”

Chiusura con ROLEN76, che sul forum dei Sixers si è reso famoso per i suoi post di una riga e il suo odio per Willie Green (ahahahaha !!) :

NickY
EuroGUARD
Smith
Almond
Fazekas…

Ma il meglio arriva in chiusura, dai ragazzi di The Sportshernia, il blog più divertente che io conosca (www.thesportshernia.com), dove “si annida” anche un tifoso dei Sixers:

“If we had control of the Sixers war room we would obviously pick the sons of Kurt Nimphius, Bob Thorton, Dave Hoppen and Mike Gminski. That’s the only way back to glory!”

Il loro assurdo, esilarante draft è già online, se conoscete un po’ lo sport e la cultura americani e masticate un po’ di slang vi farete delle grasse risate cliccando qui.

Ci risentiamo tra 24 ore per un bilancio (serio stavolta)

 (End- Fine)

(For non-guido readers: this is a small survey that I’ve made among fellow Sixers bloggers and some KNOWLEDGEABLE members of the Sixers board on www.philly.com that I am more familiar with.

Even if you don’t understand italian, it doesn’t matter, just check the predictions about the upcoming draft, it’s easy… then we’ll see who was right. It’s just for fun, of course)

E’ il primo post che scrivo in italiano, lo faccio all’antivigilia di un momento molto importante per la squadra, il draft di giovedì prossimo.

Per gioco ho chiesto ai più autorevoli Sixers blog(ger)s e ad alcuni selezionati membri del forum dedicato ai Sixers su www.philly.com, dove scrivo anche io, di indicare le loro previsioni sul prossimo draft. Fra 48 ore vedremo chi ci ha azzeccato !!!

Partiamo con Jon Burkett di “PASSION & PRIDE“, uno dei migliori blog sui Sixers (http://mvn.com/nba-76ers):

Interessante la sua teoria: secondo Jon i Sixers cederanno le scelte #12 e #30 + Willie Green ai Milwaukee Bucks per ottenere in cambio Dan Gadzuric e la scelta #6. Poi sceglieranno così:

#6 Jeff Green (nella foto)

#21 Josh Mc Roberts

#38 Aaron Brooks (a meno che Taureen Green sia ancora disponibile)

“Passion and pride” blogger Jon Burkett kindly answers to my survey request and says: “for the record, I say that the Sixers will trade the 12th and 30th picks with Willie Green to the Bucks for the 6th pick and Dan Gadzuric, then draft Jeff Green at 6. They’ll take Josh McRoberts at 21. Then with 38, select Aaron Brooks (unless Taureen Green is still on the board)”

Brian Ward di DEPRESSED FAN (www.depressedfan.com), altro blog molto bello e completo (e vagamente pessimista…), che spazia dal basket al football al baseball:

#12 Jeff Green/Al Thornton

#21 Rudy Fernandez/Marco Belinelli

#30 Glen “Big baby” Davis

#38 Marc Gasol

Il “miglior scenario” per The 700 level, altro bellissimo blog dedicato a tutte le squadre di Philadelphia (www.the700level.com) è questo:

#12 Jeff Green

#21 Thaddeus Young

#30 Nick Fazekas o Petteri Kopponen

(segue – to be continued)

First, let us cheer our friend, and contributor to S4G, Sixerguy: seems he’s coming to Italy for a while because of his job. Well, we hope you’ll like Guidoland, dude. For sure pizza here will taste better than in Arizona.

But while we are at it,  let’s go on with NBA guidos breakdowns, and talk about Marco Belinelli (check out the spell, guys: it’s B-E-L-I-N-E-L-L-I), 21 years old, 6-5 guard from Climamio Bologna, who will perhaps join the League this summer.

He is reportedly a possible late first round pick, let’s say from 20 to 30. This means Sixers, that have Denver and Dallas picks,  could get him. So what kind of player Belinelli is. What (dumb) comparison can we make for him? The next Vinnie Del Negro, the next Todd Lichti, the next Adam Keefe? A poor man’s Scott Brooks? An uglier Craig Ehlo? A white Greg Grant? An italian version of Brian Oliver? Guidos’ answer to Doug Overton?

Marco Belinelli, unfortunately, is “just” Marco Belinelli. We don’t know if he’s going to be ranked among the Rex Chapmans, the Brent Barrys, the Dan Majerles etc or among the Zoran Planinics and Chris Corchianis (since we are in a guido mood…) of the league. So here’s a close (?) outlook.

ASSETS: great, creative scorer. A leaper, athletic and expolsive, capable to hit the three pointer, even from NBA range, or dunk in traffic. Charisma and strong personality, not afraid to take responsabilities, often hits clutch shots. Shot release is very quick, that gives him ad advantage over the defender. Used to play in big games, due to his Italian League, Euroleague and national team experience, always in good/very good teams. A  nice guy and teamate.

WEAKNESSES: defense is streaky. He has the athleticism and skills to guard basically any player of his size but sometimes seems he’s not that interested in what happens in his half court. Shot selecion may be a concern. Marco tends to fall in love too much with the crazy, forced shots (fade aways etc). The problem is that sometimes he hits them, so he is pushed to do it again. Passing is ok but can improve.

Right now he’s passing through a difficult streak with his team, struggling a little bit. But he’s definitely a NBA player. So when Belinelli will join the League, you could say that you hear it here first.

What to get in the inevitable Iverson trade is up to Billy King. That’s scaring, I know.

But I am a blogger, not a general manager (that’s why both this blog and Sixers suck, by the way) so this is my wish list:

A first round pick is MANDATORY. If King doesn’t get this, fire him immediately, and send him to Italy as next webmaster of Sixers4Guidos.

Actually some rumors are currently talking about the possiblity to land even two picks (from Denver), That’s too good to be true, won’t happen.

We need a rebounding, athletic PF/C who can board and finish. Jeff Foster (in the picture, from the 50’s) would be the best solution. I am a self proclaimed Foster groupie. He won’t come, though. But you got the point. A younger PJ Brown (or even PJ Brown himself…), a Jamaal Magloire, an Antonio Mc Dyess. Stromile Swift anyone? Well no, he’s the Dalembert of the power forwards, we would get a ban from the NBA for shortage of intelligence.

Then we would need a combo PG/SG capable to bring the ball upcourt and shoot it. A Delonte West/Juan Dixon/Earl Watson/Chris Duhon type of player. Telfair, Foye? Uhmm…

What we absolutely DON’T need are: 1) players with long contracts, 2) players with bad contracts 3) swingmen.

So expect a package of Kenyon Martin, Antoine Walker and Mike Dunleavy jr in a Sixers uniform soon.

It’s 3-0, then. Which means two things: 1) it’s only 3 games in the season; 2) we won them all. Therefore, we at sixers4guidos are nothing but happy. Happy but nonetheless cautious. We said 43 wins, and we are not going to change our bet just yet. To us, 3-0 so far means only 40 more wins to get to the point where we (still) think this team should reasonably get.

But we want to be optimistic. So let us state that what we liked most of these three games comes down to one thing (two, actually): the Sixers showed us poor dagos from sunny Italy that they are angry and hungry. Angry for all the negative things they have been hearing about them. Hungry ‘cause the bellies of most of the players are oh too empty.

As long as they will keep these two passions and will be able to turn ‘em into positive attitudes, well, there will be serious chance that we will be proved too pessimistic and loose our bet. In that case, dear friends from both sides of the Atlantic, none will be more happy than us.

That’s our prediction for the 2006/2007 season that starts tonight at the Wachovia center vs the Atlanta Hawks. A 43-39 record. That would be a 5 W improvement from last year, which ended with a sad, disappointing, almost embarassing 38-44.

It would be also the same record of 2004/2005, with Jim O’ Brien as coach. That team made the playoffs, only to see its butts kicked by Pistons in a 4-1 series that actually didn’t even start. Yes, we know that for most of you/us Sixers fans 43-39 means “mediocrity”. And you are probably right about that.

That record probably means also a quick first round exit playing vs a # 1-2 seed in the Eastern Conference. Exactly how it went two seasons ago with Detroit. This year it would be Miami or Cleveland, maybe New Jersey. All teams that are clearly better than us, and that would surely beat us in a 7 games series.

But we want to be optimistic, think positive. The good thing about living in Italy for a Sixer fan is that we are an ocean away from that “Negedelphia” atmoshpere. So, for us, 43 wins would be a good result not mediocrity. Still a step further, in a good direction.

We’ve read a lot of comments before the start of this season, and many (fans, writers) think it would be better to “tank it”, miss the playoffs (again) and make the lottery (again), hoping to get a high pick in the 2007 draft, possibly get Greg Oden, and start a new era. We simply consider this scenario a losing one. Losing, and for losers. It’s sad when a franchise, a team decides to lose on purpose, in order to have more balls in the lottery.

It worked for Cleveland in 2003, when they had the worst record in the league, got the first pick overall and drafted Lebron James: to be sure of that, they managed to win 17 (seventeen !!) games during the 2002/2003 season, losing many purposely. Pretty sad, uh?

But they are the Cavs. We are the Sixers. A franchise with a glorious history, a winning tradition. Maybe we can’t afford mediocrity. We can’t afford incorrectness either.

That’s why we say: 43 wins, back to the playoffs. Probably it’s more a hope than a prediction. But a true fan doesn’t want to lose, hates watching playoffs on tv, like we did this summer. Enough of that.

For the next six months let’s try to forget who is our GM and who is our coach, at least for a while. Support our guys, keep in mind they are the Sixers, show them some love.

It’s gonna be a long, tough season. That’s nothing new for us, diehard fans, who passed through the Charles Shackleford-Freddy Carter-Shawn Bradley-Sharone Wright years