I, Sixers will miss Andre Miller

(last post before my offseason break. I will be back at the end of August, hopefully with the new site up)

So after weeks of rumors, talks and non talks, Andre Miller signed with Portland.

I think this departure will make the Sixers worse. Possibly much worse. It’s a huge loss. Probably underrated by most analysts and fans.

If you followed this site you know I am a great fan of Andre Miller. I think he’s a really good player and was instrumental in getting us to the last two playoffs (short, I know) runs and making our kids better.

Portland did a nice move by signing him and expect Miller to have solid seasons there, it will be a great addition for the young Blazers core. I I will try to follow Portland closer next year and I wish Andre the best.

What will happen on Sixers side? I think we have to consider this move (?) from two standpoints.

But I have to be honest, overall I think Ed Stefanski and management blew this one.

Wait, Dalembert practicing in offseason ???

(via Sixerguy)

Sixers just released this ‘shocking’ practice video:

I have few comments to make.

1) nice to see Dalembert practicing in offseason, he has a reputation for being lazy and not working on his game during the summer.

Good sign, he’s showing some serious committment (or fear to lose his starting spot? LOL).

2) his accent (french?) is sweet, I never listened to him speaking in interviews before. He really seems a good dude… too bad he drives us nuts with all his dumb plays…

3) Jason Smith looks BIG. He worked hard in the weight room, evidently. Props to him.

He is still explosive, though (did you check the dunks? similar to the ones he got us used to in his rookie year – like in the pic) and seems on his way to full recover.

I am a Jason Smith fan and I hope he will be back at 100% and contribute next year. Enough of him in press conferences and presentations, we need his arse on a bball court, and with a (classic) Sixers jersey on.

4) I like Jrue Holiday’s shooting form. He has nice mechanics. He has to extend his range clearly but he has a solid ‘shooting fundamentals’ base to build on.

He’s working with Mc Kie, let’s hope he doesn’t imitate Blue with the ultra-slow shot release (LOL).

In a period with few real Sixers news, this was a nice break.

Some little insights you might enjoy

Again, not many news on Sixers’ side, uh?

Yes, no blockbuster trades at the horizon, no all star signings, apparently.

Still I managed to get some info that I wanted to share with readers. 

No breaking news or anything shocking, I warn you.

But still it’s important to make some things 100% sure.

So here is what Sixers4guidos just learned:

NEGOTIATIONS WITH ANDRE MILLER

Few days ago Stefanski said that Sixers were in “sign-and-trade” mode.  No updates since, so that should give us an idea about the situation with Andre Miller and the likelihood of his return.

= no Andre Miller in 2009/2010 (not good news, to me).
 
COMPLETING THE ROSTER

The fact that Sixers are looking for three more players to round out the roster, and reach 14, is confirmed: Stefanski said “a guard, a swingman and two big men”. 

No direction about specific skills they are looking for in those players (off/def minded, young/vets, specialists etc), but Stefanski has a list of players at those positions he is keeping his eye on in regards to the team’s needs.

(I hope Calvin Booth didn’t make the list, same for Kevin Ollie)

MAKING THE SUMMER LEAGUE AND SPLITTING THE TEAM WITH THE NETS

Boki Nachbar remembers Sammy D…

In a pretty quiet period with (no) real Sixers-related news, Hoopshype made this nice interview with former Net Bostjan Nachbar.

Why I post it here?

First because I have to prove I am alive, second because it’s an interesting read, especially in terms of understanding the economic situation of int’l bball and reminding the differences between european and NBA hoops, third because there is a fun Sixers reference at the end, as you will check.

Since the quality of the video from Hoopshype is not very good, I found another video of the same play, that you might ‘enjoy’:

So much for the “intimidating presence”.

Sam got shawnbradleylized there… 🙂

UPDATE: since we are in a You Tube mood, enjoy also this great Dr. J – George Gervin video, via Twitter4guidos – FreeDarko:

(NOTE: I will be working at my new site in the next days, I hope I will be able to launch Sixers4guidos 2.0 soon, let’s say within the end of the month. Stay tuned, it’s gonna be a great, brand new blog)

Forget about Bibby, he’s staying in Atlanta

This is the link to the news reported by Atlanta JC, and this is the excerpt:

Free agent point guard Mike Bibby has agreed to a three-year deal worth an estimated $18 million to return to the Hawks, according to two people familiar with the situation.

What does this mean for the Sixers? GOOD NEWS. For Miller fans, I mean.

1) one less option for Sixers. Bibby, rumored to get interest by Stefanski, won’t come to Philly.

2) one less option for Miller. He won’t go to Atlanta.

3) setting a reasonable range for Miller’s new contract. Bibby is two years YOUNGER than Miller and will make 6 mill per year, for the next three. Same contract of Artest, btw, both for length and amount of $. Funny, uh?

(Six millions per year is also what Kapono will make until 2011, but I’m digressing…)

This deal means that the original request of 3 years at 10 mill per year made by Miller’s camp is out of the market. They will have to calm their arses down downsize it.

The 2 year-16 mill proposal I (nearly) randomly made here few posts ago looks even too generous now… maybe something in the 12-14 mill territory could be more realistic. And eventually get the job done.

Again, I am all for keeping Miller. For two years. At a fair price.

Time works in Sixers’ favor. Portland is perhaps the only (good) option left for Miller, but the TrailBlazers will probably make offers to other FAs, such as Lee, that won’t come for cheap.

Interesting situation here.

The Miller situation from a Miller fan perspective

Short recap.

Andre Miller, through his agent, says he wants to stay in Philly.

“Andre has a strong interest, a strong desire to come back”.

Ed Stefanski likes Andre Miller and thinks Sixers are a better team WITH him.

Ricky has always been a great fan of Andre Miller too and would like to have him back next year. And the year after.

In the meantime, the first day of free agency in the NBA was extremely interesting, with Pistons throwing crazy money at Ben Gordon & Villanueva (!), Clippers getting Q Rich for Zach Randolph (!!) – another proof that the “There must be a reason why they are GMs in the NBA and you are just a blogger” is wrong – and Portland reportedly close to make a huge offer to Turkoglu.

Rumors pile up, and since we are talking PGs, the three year offer ready for 36 y/o Kidd is the most shocking one to me, especially coming from a team in rebuilding mode like New York.

Back to Sixers’ PG situation, if the request of 30 millions for 3 years reported by Tom Moore is true, I would say ‘goodbye Andre’.

I assume the Dalembert+Green-for-McGrady trade will not go down, so Sixers have to mantain their flexibility for the summer of 2011, when with Dalembert, Green and newly acquired Kapono coming off the books they will have around 23 millions in expiring contracts.

So the third year, in any Miller deal, should be a TEAM option. Which of course the Millers (Andre & Andy, his agent) will be reluctant to accept.

TMac for Sam and Willie ?? Let’s pray !!

The first day of free agency in Sixerland is shocked by this rumor (link posted first by poster GuessWHOsBack on the Sixers boards of Philly.com).

Yes, Tracy Mc Grady (I don’t care if he doesn’t play, that’s 23 mill expiring next summer) for Dalembert & Green.

Read it again. Yes, it WOULD be Sam & Willie out, Mc Grady in.

My fav excerpt of that article is:

“There aren’t too many other possible landing spots for Dalembert because of his contract and trade kicker.

“Every team has bad contracts,” the source said. “But that [trade kicker] just adds insult to injury.”

LOL (thank you also for this, Billy King…).

While my reaction to the Dalembert-and-Green for TMac trade is this:

Too good to be true? Sometimes miracles happen.

I know you are thinking Houston can get a lot more than that garbage package for TMac but… pray with me.

Iguodala enjoying the offseason in Italy !

Just released on Andre Iguodala’s Twitter page:

“I’m so far gone right now…at a beautiful place on earth…”

He didn’t say where he is but guido sources I can 110% guarantee you that’s ITALY !!

The billboard on the left is from ENI, Italy’s #1 oil company… eheheh…. the city should be Rome, if I am not mistaken (EDIT: it is, actually. That’s ‘scalinata di piazza di Spagna’, or ‘spanish steps’, for you american guys ! And between the two buildings in the background there’s Via Condotti, Rome’s Fifth Avenue… Andre went shopping for sure)

Andre, enjoy your stay in guidoland, have some pasta fun and holla if you need tips !

And don’t forget to shoot 300 free throws per day (LOL) !!!

Sixers4guidos, where insightful offseason posts happen.

Shocking insight: Dwane Casey… sucks !!!!

This, in a nutshell, is the surprising (?) result of a quick Q & A session I did with Dave/College Wolf of TWolves blog, the site covering Minnesota of the Bloguin network. 

For your pleasure (?), here is the complete transcript, I think it should work as a warning for Ed Stefanski and all of us Sixers fans.

(S4G): Casey’s record as T’Wolves head coach in 2006/2007 was 33-49 and was 20-20 the year after, when Mc Hale fired him and put Randy Wittman in his place (Wittman went 12-30 the rest of the way…). What do you remember of that stint, other than they were surely troubled seasons in Minnesota, and that coaching Szczerbiak, Olowokandi, Ricky Davis, Marco Jaric etc surely wasn’t an easy task?

(CW): Yes, we had bad teams, but don’t forget though that we also had KG near his absolute prime. Those seasons he was one of the (arguably) Top 5 players in the league. With that said, the Casey Coaching Era (CCE) was quite a while ago, so I apologize for not being to elaborate with tons and tons of details for you and your readers. 

However, a few things stick out in my mind, and I can assure you that they were not good things. First off, Casey was nearly an epic fail at coaching X’s and O’s. At times, some of us Wolves fans wondered if he had any idea if he knew what he was doing at all. He was especially terrible coming out of timeouts. 

It might not have been as bad as I am making it sound, but our playcalling/execution coming out of timeouts was absurd and horrendous.  It seemed like we would never score, and most times it resulted in a turnover or terrible shot. 

Again, it probably wasn’t *that bad*, but the fact that it is something I’ve never forgotten about the CCE has got to mean something. Casey’s substitutions were illogical and nonsensical. We fans were pulling our hairs out because his lineups and distribution of minutes made absolutely no sense. 

Also, it didn’t seem like Casey had “control” of his team at all. Granted, we had a few bad apples back then, but he was far too passive and timid to be the leader of our team at that time. Now, it could have been simply that these things were factors of Casey being a rookie head coach.  I don’t know. 

Perhaps he has gotten better the past two years as a bench coach for the Dallas Mavericks.  For his sake I hope that he has learned a thing or two.

(S4G): Why did Minnesota decide to give him the team that year? Was it another “Randy Ayers case” (=lack of better options) or what?

(CW): I am not entirely sure.  Glen Taylor and McHale were doing their best to “win now”, and I think they viewed Dwane Casey as a hot-shot up and coming assistant coach, in the same mold as someone like Nate McMillan. 

It’s not that they had a lack of better options, because they went out and actively recruited Casey. It was just a complete swing and a miss, because it was obvious that Casey was in way too far over his head. At the time, I had thought he was one of the worst coaches I’d ever seen. Little did I know what to expect from the Randy (Dim)Wittman era…

(S4G): Which were Casey’s strengths as a coach, and what was he missing?

(CW): I honestly cannot remember any “strengths” besides the fact that he was a nice guy. Also, I think he did a decent job getting our players to play defense during his 20-20 second season, although the stats might say otherwise (I didn’t check). 

He was missing everything. Namely: experience, presentation, advanced game knowledge/strategy, good assistants, and good players.

(S4G): Can being fired by Kevin Mc Hale be considered a plus in a coach’s resume?

(CW): No comment 🙂
 

(S4G): Would you recommend the Sixers to give the helm to Casey? Why? Any other team where he would be a good fit?

(CW): No, I would not recommend him being the new head coach of your team. He just doesn’t strike me as a guy that will ever be a truly successful NBA *head coach.*  I think his ideal position is that of an assistant coach for a veteran contending team. Those players would be much more likely to listen to him and his ideals, rather than a rebuilding team full of youngsters. 

I realize that the Sixers are a veteran, contending (hopefully) team, but I wouldn’t want you guys to waste your championship window because a coach like Casey was hired.  I think you guys could do much better. 

I don’t think he would be a good fit as a head coach anywhere in the NBA.  As an assistant coach, yes. You could probably do worse with the plethora of no-name assistants that have been floating around the league for years.

Thank you for enlightening us, Dave…

Conclusion: please say “NO” to Dwane Casey !!

Next !

Sixers piling up interviews: Casey and Rambis last

While I am working at the new site, Ed Stefanski is working at finding a coach for the next season.

After interviewing Eddie Jordan, setting up another chat with Tom Thibodeau (currently pending), Sixers just confirmed via Twitter that they have completed interviews with Casey and Rambis also.

My comment on all those candidates is: uhm…

Avery Johnson is still my fav man for the job.

Thibodeau built himself a (deserved, I guess) reputation of being a great defensive mind: too bad no one has a clue on whether he would be a good HEAD coach, meaning there is also an offensive phase to consider.

There are tons of examples of good assistent coaches that failed miserably when given the helm: the name Iavaroni is the first one that comes to my mind.

Casey and Rambis to me are smokescreens. At least I hope so. Their resumes are far from impressive, I’m sorry, we need something better. They both would be Randy Ayers part II.

I would like to remind all of Sixers fans that last summer Elton Brand was signed after EVERYONE thought that Sixers would have picked Josh Smith for the PF spot.

So stay tuned, don’t complain (yet) and expect our GM to make a move with no hurry.