S4G rates for the season (I): GM and coach

Ok, enough with the BS, time to judge our season seriously.

The first italian Sixers blog will give rates from 1 to 10, in a scale that pretty much goes like this: marks from 1-3 mean “terrible”, 4 “very bad”, 5 “bad”, 6 “decent”, 7 “good”, 8 “excellent”, 9 … well, I won’t use marks over 8 I think…

It all starts with the head, so:

BILLY KING 

PLUS: got a good package out of the Iverson trade. Two first round picks, a real PG like Andre Miller and a more than serviceable big man like Joe Smith (that we all honestly thought of only as an expiring contract, forgetting that he still can play). Drafted pretty good again, even if the jury is still out for Rodney Carney: for sure he’s not an Araujo kind of pick, at least.

Buying Chris Webber out was a good move as well. Not BK’s fault if he got rejuvenated in Detroit (see the next rating for further details). Sixers salary cap situation is still complicated but improved. From “horrible” to “tough”, say. 

Brought back the red uniforms, something we will thank him for again and again. 

MINUS: over the last three years (meaning: after he fired Jim O’ Brien) Billy King created the big mess he eventually had to clean.

Didn’t impose Cheeks to lose more games in the second part of the season and didn’t ask  him to play the young guys more.

Hired Larry Brown again. To do what, I honestly have no clue. Neither does Larry, I guess. Hopefully Brown will go back coaching a team soon. And it won’t be the Sixers.

OVERALL RATE: 5 (bad). Still the #1 man to blame for the situation we are in now. Numbers kills him. Seemed to have learned from his previous mistakes, let’s see what he can do this summer. I have a feeling he will do pretty good at the draft but I’m scared to death that he can fuck all up again with some “creative” trade or FA signing.

MO CHEEKS

PLUS: had clearly a big role in Iguodala’s development, understanding he was the Sixer to give the team to after the Iverson trade. Made the guys play hard (for him?) until the end, as recognized basically by everyone around the league. Sign of unexpected charisma inside the locker room? 

Had a wonderful end of the season, showing that his players have been athletically well trained.

Helped Dalembert and Louis Williams improving. With the first of those two, I would have already given up, I admit, while Sam had a nice season.

Always a classy guy who deserves respect for what he did for the franchise ** cough ** only as a player ** cough **…

MINUS: won too many useless games, deadly comprimising any chance to draft higher, even when it was clear that we wouldn’t have made the playoffs and – which really drove me nuts – even after being assured he would have come back for the next year as Sixers coach. Stubbornly insisted with a 7 men rotation in that stretch for no reason.

Completely mismanaged Rodney Carney, glueing him on the bench for damn too much and making him pass from a starter status to several DNP-CD games God-knows-why.

Never found a way to properly use Webber, with or without Iverson, for sure contributing to his impressively awful season as a Sixer (of course Webber behaved like a real asshole, but here we are talking about Cheeks). 

Lost a lot of games down the stretch with very stupid decisions. Example: leaving Sam, our best shotblocker, on the bench in the last play, only to lose on a layup at the buzzer. He did it not once, twice: vs Portland and Golden State.

At the end of the day, coached a team with a healthy roster and Iverson + Webber to a 5-19 record – let’s not forget it – which is pretty amazing also considering how they both performed as soon as they left the “City of brotherly love”.

RATE: 4 (very bad). It’s also unforgivable that he played Kevin Ollie in the first part of the season and Willie Green in the final part so much. I’m dead serious.

Coming up soon on Sixers4guidos: rates for Sixers backcourt players.