Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The New Beast of the East

Andrew Bynum was all smiles at his Sixers press conference
On a fateful August night, the lives of Sixers fans were forever changed. After suffering through 7 years of turmoil, pizzazz-free, horrible-coached, lethargic and just plain boring basketball, Philly faithful finally have a reason to seriously root for the 76ers again!

When the Joshua Harris-led ownership group took over the organization from Comcast, they promised to push this franchise into not just relevance, but the spotlight as well. In this 2012 offseason, they’ve done exactly that.

Short of the Kwame Brown signing, the Sixers’ management group has done everything right this summer following a somewhat lackluster draft. They got rid of a rapidly declining Elton Brand. They let another team overpay for Lou Williams. They told Jodie Meeks to go screw himself. They resigned Lavoy Allen to an amazing deal. They added shooting wings in Nick Young and Dorell Wright. And my personal favorite…

THEY TRADED ANDRE “I’M THE MOST OVERPAID WANNABE SUPERSTAR OF ALL-TIME” IGUODALA FOR ANDREW “I’M AN EFFING BEAST” BYNUM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, if you’ve read me in the past or follow me on twitter, you already know what I detest about Andre Iguodala (and if you haven’t, read my stuff and don’t follow me on twitter you need to change up your lifestyle), so I’m gonna take a deep breath, and never speak the about Andre Iguodala as a Sixer ever again. I’m going to solely focus on how much of a boss gargantuan Andrew Bynum is and why he will instantly transform the 76ers into a Top-4 Eastern Conference.

For starters, Bynum is 7-1, 290 pounds and has outstanding athletic ability, good hands and a superb knowledge of basketball. Basically, Spencer Hawes looks like a 7th Grader who just hit puberty compared to this guy.

Last season, (Bynum’s best of his career and he’s only 24), the former Lakers Center averaged 18.7 ppg, 11.8 rpg, 1.4 apg, 1.9 bpg, while shooting 55.8% FG. Meanwhile, over in Philly, Hawes and Nik Vucivic combined to average 15.1 ppg, 12.1, 3.2 apg, 1.9 bpg on 47% FG per game. What makes these numbers even more outrageous is that Bynum was playing third fiddle to Kobe Bryant AND Pau Gasol whereas Hawes was THE big man for the Sixers last year. Bynum even had seven 30-point ames, two 20-20 games and one 30 rebound game last year as well.

The numbers don’t just show he is by far the most productive Sixers big since the Sixers appeared in the 01 Finals, they show that Bynum will be one of the most dominant Centers the East has seen since that time. I’ve been watching the Sixers up close and personal ever since 1999 and I can’t even imagine how amazing it will be to see how dominantly effective his masterful post game will straight confuse and embarrass his opponents.

Bynum is only 24. Which means, with hopefully a string of good health, the man hasn’t even nearly come close to his greatest potential and he’s already started an All-Star game!

The only downsides to Bynum, which his biggest critics will never drop, are  his knees and attitude. First, after all of the readings I’ve done about the Orthokine/Regenokine procedure Bynum will undergo in the next few weeks, I can’t help but grow more and more excited about the explosiveness and extra strength Bynum should and probably will gain in his knees. This procedure has a very good chance of turning his career from something special to something we’ll tell our grandkids about. Next, I think a lot of Bynum’s attitude problems in LA were products of poor coaching and frustration with the system he was playing in. Remember, a man making a deserved $14.5 million was the team’s THIRD OPTION.

Even though I dislike a lot of Doug Collins’ philosophies and techniques, I think he and Bynum will see eye-to-eye. Now, you may be thinking, “Well Collins likes to teach and Bynum hates to learn… how is that going to work?” I think it will work because Bynum is going to full-heartedly accept being the leader of this team. The demeanor he held himself in during his opening press conference was spectacular. I was so impressed with the maturity and composition he showed about basically taking this team and throwing it atop in broad, broad, broad shoulders.

Finally, who in the East is going to stop this dude? Let’s go through last season’s playoff teams. Will Joel Anthony Stop him? Will near-40-year-old Kevin Garnett stop him? Will a more built for speed and agility than strength Tyson Chandler stop him? Will a slow Roy Hibbert stop him? Will 6-10 Al Horford stop him? Will cry-baby Joakim Noah consistently stop him? Will Dwight—whoops never mind.

If you think any of the above centers in the East will able to consistently slow down Bynum while he takes 20-25 shots over the course of an entire game… I strongly urge you enter yourself into a Real Housewives show because you’re all kinds of crazy.

#33 will be the Eastern Conference starting Center in the All-Star game. He will probably be a 20-10 guy for this club. He will probably severely increase the chances of Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner taking a step further in the developments of their games. He is the kind of player that hasn’t been in the First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo Center since Allen Iverson was traded to the Denver Nuggets.

I pray that he will resign. I think he will. Being from Plainsboro, NJ, Bynum is closer to home than he has ever been ever since he was drafted in 2005. And he’s already expressed interest in making Philly his home. Even better, there have been some reports where the Sixers’ ghost GM has already been in talks with Bynum’s agent, David Lee, about contract extension to the tune of around $80 million over 4 years.

But for now… Andrew Bynum is a stud. He’s a beast. He’s an animal. And He’s (Thank you God) a Sixer.

No comments:

Post a Comment