And Billy King’s plan is….?????

Let me make this clear immediately: I AM NOT – I repeat, I AM NOT – a college basketball expert. I don’t follow NCAA. Ok?

I don’t know shlt about college players except when I (occasionally) watch some game. It happened like 3-4 times this year, so that you know it.

That’s why I won’t break down Sixers’ draft picks, first because in my blogroll you have dozens of sites that do it remarkably, second because I wouldn’t be credible. And as a Sixers blogger I want to be credible.

Let’s stick to FACTS and things that are SURE. 

Fact #1 is this: “The draft concluded with the Sixers eventually acquiring Georgia Tech forward Thaddeus Young (in the picture), Colorado State 7-footer Jason Smith, Vanderbilt forward Derrick Byars and Providence forward/center Herbert Hill“.

All I read about these guys is: Young could be a terrific player but CAN NOT play PF, Jason Smith is a good big man with serious upside (…) but an average rebounder, Byars is a SG/SF, Hill doesn’t count, I guess…

Fact #2 is: Sixers desperately needed (well, actually need) a REBOUNDING PF. They didn’t get any player to solve this problem, that to me was THE priority.

Fact #3 is: we didnt’ manage to trade up, even if we had a lot of assets to do so, such as 4 picks a really good playmaker like Andre Miller + some role players that could be used, Carney, Hunter, Green etc. Billy King’s explaination for failing to trade up is this. Some significant excerpts:

Sixers blog(ger)s prediction – Pronostici dai blog (Part II)

(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

Sixers blog(ger)s predictions – Pronostici dai blog (I)

(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 http://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:

Why the NBA is unfair

Losers and winners.

At the end of the day that’s what is all about in the NBA.

So what can a 76ers blogger write after the San Antonio Spurs won their fourth NBA title, beating the Cavs (the team I was rooting for) 4-0?

Well, a Sixers-related thought came to my mind after game 4 of the 2007 finals. Actually more Iverson-related than Sixers-related, but you got the point…

It came when Michael Finley (in the picture) checked in for the last seconds of game 4. He even scored a free throw to secure the win, before Ginobili made another couple. So Finley has a ring and he played a part in this last Spurs achievement. How big was this “part”?

Numbers (and some basketball knowledge, since I watched the games) say that it was really small. Just for the record, here are Finley’s numbers for the four games of the Finals: 3.7 pts, 6/23 FG (!!!), 2/3 FT, 2 reb, 1 ass in 20 minutes. Difficult to say he did well, uh?

NBA coach or porn star?

Is it me or the new Magic coach Stan Van Gundy looks almost identical to porn legend Ron Jeremy ???

You can judge by yourselves, look at the pics !!

Webber gets some deserved (eternal?) rest

(Dedicated to my friends paul_mokeski and ROLEN76 from the philly.com Sixers forum)

He played way better than I thought, I admit, but still went fishing at the end.

Chris Webber’s and Pistons season came to end last night when they lost to Cavs in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The series is over, Pistons season too, Webber’s season too, his career – perhaps – too.

11.6 pt, 6 reb with 51% fg in six games is a very good stat in my opinion, also considering he played center, like he did all year. Not enough for a possessed Lebron and his fierce Cavs, though. 

But Webber surprised me. He did contribute to the very good season Pistons had, and also in the playoffs he recovered from a very bad series vs Chicago to play more than decently vs Cavs. Webber was opposed mainly to 7’3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas, in a matchup among the League’s most immobile players that is already a classic in my book (see the picture, one of the most dynamic ones I found). He even scored a clutch basket in game5 (ouh, “and one” !), getting an unbelievable continuation from the refs. Useless, at the end.