How Far Will the Eagles Fly in 2012?

Ready or not, here they come!

After a disappointing 8-8 2011 season, which featured many calls for Andy Reid’s head, jokes about Juan Castillo’s incompetence, Michael Vick injuries, annoying DeSean Jackson moments, turnovers and failed Red Zone attempts, it’s time to finally look past all of that turmoil and look forward to what should be a better and brighter 2012 NFL season in Philly! Let’s look at some of the factors that will contribute to the team’s success or demise this fall.

Key Losses and Additions 

The Eagles naturally have undergone a ton of player movement this offseason. They of course traded away Asante Samuel for a 7^th round draft pick, and traded away a few other pieces. But, the team’s biggest loss for the 2012 season wasn’t due to player movement. Very unfortunately, the Birds lost Pro-Bowl offensive lineman, Jason Peters to a re-injured Achilles. Peters will be sidelined for likely the entire season. This gigantic loss, both figuratively and physically (I mean Jason Peters is a BIG BOY), called for one of the Eagles’ biggest additions, former Bills’ OLineman Demetress Bell. Bell was ironically Buffalo’s replacement for Peters when they lost him to the Eagles. Additionally, the Eagles have brought in former Pro Bowl Middle Linebacker and imminent heart of the defense, DeMeco Ryans.

Coaching

There’s no surprise that Head Coach Reid is still on the hot seat. After tragically losing his son during the preseason, Reid decided to deal with his grieving by returning straight to football. With that, he’s given himself room for no excuses and he will still be held accountable for his decision to promote Castillo to Defensive Coordinator. The big names, including, Offensive Coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, Special Teams Coordinator Bobby April, Defensive Line Coach Jim Washburn and Offensive Line Coach Howard Mudd, have all returned to the Eagles coaching staff this season. But, all eyes are on the Eagle’s new Secondary Coach, Todd Bowles. Bowles is entering his 13^th season as an NFL assistant. He is expected to severely improve the play of the Birds’ highly paid cornerbacks and inexperienced safeties. But, we’ll get more in a little bit.

Rookie Class

This offseason, the Eagles had a truly incredible draft. Their incoming rookie class is arguably the greatest of the Andy Reid era. This talented group of youngsters should truly impact the team right away this season, and primarily on defense. First, the Birds definitely bolstered their front 7 with the additions of DT Fletcher Cox from Mississipi State, DE Vinny Curry from Marshall and LB Mychal Kendricks from California. During the preseason, all three of these pass rushers were physical and effective. CB Brandon Boykin from Georgia will definitely be a great addition as well. He will battle for playing time in the nickel and dime packages and should be one of Bobby April’s favorite players on Special Teams. And, last but not certainly not least; Nick Foles has entered the minds and hearts of Eagles fans. After the team grew very cautious in protecting Michael Vick’s ribs and Mike Kafka’s injuries gave him a free trip to the unemployment list, Foles stepped right into the backup quarterback slot and shined. While starting the final 2 preseason games for the Eagles, and playing almost all of Game 3 at Cleveland, Foles showed great poise and collectiveness as he passed for 146 yards and 2 touchdowns with only 1 interception in his first professional start. Even though it was only in the preseason, he was still very impressive. 

Offense

Michael Vick. Shady McCoy. DeSean Jackson. Jeremy Maclin. Brent Celek. We know how high potent the Eagles offense should be. Now, it’s only a matter of they can get the job done. Even with Vick only taking a limited number of snaps in the preseason, there have been reports after reports about how busy the star QB has been preparing for this season. He says he only has his thoughts set on the Super Bowl, but it’s time for him to stop talking and being covered by First Take and prove something on the field.

Defense
Many people and experts are saying that the fate of the Eagles’ season relies on the health of Vick. I think that this team will go as far as the defense takes them. Shady is going to run for 1000+ yards and the offense will score at least 17 points a game. If the defense can do their job, this Birds club could be playing deep into winter. It was truly a treat watching Castillo and Washburn send 8 into the box and punish quarterbacks and running backs left and right in the preseason. I really enjoyed seeing them get past multiple offensive lines with tremendous ease. But now, they have to do it in the regular season when the lights are really on. I’m not too sure that Castillo will be able to put together a complete 16 game season of defensive excellence, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Special Teams

The Eagles have brought back Chaz Henry and Alex Henery to star in their kicking game one again. Chaz beat out former Baltimore Ravens Pro Bowl punter Mat McBriar during preseason. And again, coach Bobby April has a lot of talented young players who are looking to contribute in any way possible. The Eagles should also be very effective in the return game this season, bringing back DeSean Jackson and adding Boykin as well as Demarious Johnson.

Prediction
While all eyes are on Michael Vick to see if he can stay healthy, my attention is again focused on the Eagles front 7 or 8’s success this season.  Will the Wide-9 prove dominant? Will Demeco Ryans be the savior of the line backing corps? I think the answer is yes to both of those questions. With the defense being successful and efficient, they will allow Michael Vick to have the most opportunities possible to put up points. With more time and more plays, Vick might just be able to play a little more cautious and smart knowing that his defense will go back out there and stop the other team when he steps off the field. Regardless, it’s pretty much guaranteed Vick will only start 14 games at most this season. And, Nick Foles and given a lot of Philly faithfuls hope for those games that Vick will miss. With everything clicking right for this team and facing a pretty difficult schedule, I think the ceiling for this team is an 11-5 regular season but they will probably win 9 or 10 games. 10 wins will probably win the NFC East division this season. The Redskins are a shoe-in for 6-10, the Cowboys are going to be around .500 and the Giants should be around 9-7 as well. If the Eagles defense can take care of business and save Juan Castillo’s job, look for the Birds to be playing a home playoff game come winter. 

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 7^th 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.

A Series of Phate

Somehow, Andre Iguodala made it his moment

I screamed at the top of my lungs. I jumped up and down with my brother so ferociously I almost turned my ankle. Tears poured down my face. I was in complete shock and awe as the pounds and pounds of white confetti rained down on the Wells Fargo Center faithful at the end of Game 6. Last night was my first 76ers home playoff game since I witnessed Hedo Turkoglu’s game-winning 3-pointer in 2009. It was also the first 76ers playoff game I had been to during a series they would go on to win since 2003. I remember Iverson’s 55 point performance in Game 1 of that series. Everything went right for the 76ers against the Hornets in that series. Now, 9 years later, it seems like everything somehow went right for 76ers in their First Round series vs the Chicago Bulls.

It seemed to be a series of fate for the Sixers. After an awful second half of the regular season, many things happened during the last week of the regular season and in this series  that just made it feel like a supernatural power-the basketball gods if you will- was keeping a close and helpful eye on this Sixers club. There were so many fortunate events and moments that happened to Sixers from the last week of the regular season until last night it’s hard to keep track. But now, I’m going to do exactly that for you. Without further ado, I proudly and excitedly present to you the 2011-2012 Sixers’ Series of Fortunate Events!

Knick’s winning ways

Mike D’antoni’s resignation as head coach of the New York Knicks was a blessing in disguise for the Sixers. Mike Woodson taking over the Knicks and improving that team enough to leapfrog over the Sixers in the conference standings set up a perfect playoff matchup for the Sixers. And with that…

Evan Turner’s bold statement

When I heard Evan Turner publicly said he wanted to play the Bulls over the Heat, I could sense something awesome was brewing. I didn’t know how awesome but I knew there would be some hostility from the Chicago home crowd, I knew this series would be physical and I knew the Sixers would have a great chance to at least take the series to 6 games. But then something even more fortunate happened…

Bulls’ injuries

We all know what happened. When Derrick Rose got hurt, I was watching the end of that Game 1 in a hotel room when technically wasn’t even allowed to be watching TV. I remember looking at the score and the clock, and the play before THE injury, I leaned over to my friend Josh and said “Why the hell is Rose still in this game? He’s already injured enough”. Then… POP. After Rose tore his ACL, there was no doubt in my mind the Sixers would win this series. But then, the basketball gods smiled down on the Sixers again, and granted them a Joakim Noah injury like the Sandman granted the guy in the Kia Optima commercial a free lap around a race car track with an extremely attractive woman. After the second Bulls injury, the Sixers couldn’t possibly have gotten any luckier and more fortunate later in the series right…?

Winning close games

In the regular season, the Sixers were a horrific… HORRIFIC in close games. This was mostly because of their stagnant offense late in games, but we’ll get to that later. In games decided by 5 points or less, the Sixers were an embarrassing 3-10 in the regular season. In this series vs the Bulls, the Sixers won 2 games by 5 points or less and 1 by 7! How was that even possible considering how their offense was still stagnant and their rebounding was still awful?? After they won Game 4 last Friday night, I started catching on that many peculiar things were happening in this series. Something just wasn’t normal. And then, Game 6 happened…

Game 6

Honestly, the Sixers had NO business winning Game 6 whatsoever. They squandered a 3^rd Quarter lead. They got out-rebounded by 23. They were -10 in points in the paint AND they only shot 39.7% from the field over the entire game. And every single thing that was expected really didn’t happen at all. First, after only scoring 26 points in the first half in Game 5, the Sixers unexpectedly shot 50% and scored 48 points in the first half last night.  Fast forward to the 4^th Quarter, the Sixers of course slowed down their offense for the first 10 minutes of the quarter and ran every awful possession through Lou Williams. Almost every trip up the floor resulted in either a turnover or a fade-away jumper from 18 feet. Collins yet again played a terrible lineup throughout most of the 4^th as well. Coming out of the 3-minute TV timeout, Collins put in a crunch-time lineup of Brand-Young-Iguodala-Williams-Holiday against Aschik-Gibson-Deng-Hamilton-Watson. I screamed and hollered at Collins to put in more height. On the court from the 3:34-minute mark until about the 2-minute mark the Sixers got gruesomely out-rebounded. Our tallest player that was on the court, Elton Brand, is a measely 6’8”. The Bulls had 3 players in Aschik, Gibson and Deng that were all taller than our tallest player. Of course, the sellout crowd at the Wells Fargo Center witnessed a sequence where the Bulls collected 4 straight offensive rebounds and ran the shot clock all-the way down before getting another shot off. At that point, down 76-73 with 2:02 left and the entire team mentally exhausted, how the hell could the Sixers win?

                   Then, every unthinkable, improbable and extremely fortunate thing that could’ve happened to the Sixers happened. Coach Collins amazingly and shockingly made the correct lineup moves and brought Spencer Hawes and Turner back in the game for Brand and Williams. The team started rebounding and they finally looked to attack the basket: something they very rarely do. Next, the hero that nobody is talking about, Thad Young made an incredible play. After driving the basket and attempting put-backs that immediately got swatted by Aschik and Gibson all game, Thad made an incredibly strong move to the basket and gracefully rolled the ball off his fingers easily into the net. How the hell was that possible after he got denied on every other attempt at the rim all game?? The following play, CJ Watson received the Bulls inbound pass and pushed the ball into the frontcourt. Holiday attempted to foul, but for some reason, the ref swallowed the whistle. And then, for some other unknown reason, Watson didn’t pull the ball out with 9 seconds left to burn clock after beating Holiday. The usually-slick veteran drove to the basket and dumped the ball off to one of the 5 worst foul shooters out of the 450 employed players in the NBA, Aschik. As the stadium practically swayed from the screaming and stomping of the fans, he missed both at the line leaving the door for the most improbable of all things: Andre Iguodala. He didn’t get the rebound and act clueless. For the only 5 seconds of his career that he has done so, he played like a stone-cold superstar who deserves $13 million a year. He actually attacked the basket instead of a) passing b) shooting a pull up jumper or c)stumbling and turning the ball over. In the regular season, 82games.com states that in the crunch-time (5 minutes left and no team winning by more than 5) of regulation and over-time games, Iguodala shot 35% from the line. But last night, he didn’t just make both… he drilled them. The last 2.2 seconds were a blur. Even though Watson’s shot was sooooo close and could’ve been called a foul, everyone in that building knew it wasn’t going in. The phate was just waaay to much in the Sixers favor. Everything that could’ve went wrong, did in the first 10 minutes of the 4^th. But, then everything that could’ve went right miraculously did in the final 2 minutes. The basketball gods didn’t stop when the scoreboard showed 0:00 for the Sixers last night either. They forced the Celtics to fight and claw for an emotional win following the Sixers victory as well. Now, both teams have to immediately move on to the next round and the Sixers are extremely fortunate that the Celts are in their same position. Even though I don’t quite understand how they won, I am so extremely thankful and ecstatic that they did. THANK YOU BASKETBALL GODS!

Now, I’ve ripped Iguodala every day of his contract. Look, he’s a solid NBA player, but if I was building an NBA team, in hopes of winning a championship, he would be my number 1 choice for a championship team’s 3^rd best player to fill a defensive and energy roll but definitely not my 1^st best. Imagine him putting up the kind of numbers he did this season but only making $7 mil a year for the Lakers. That’s an incredible value! I’m giving him credit for making the biggest free throws of his entire life and for today, Philly is his city. However, come tomorrow, it’s time to face the Celtics and I guarantee you his haters (including me) will be back out again. But for the next 24 hours, let’s soak up this win and enjoy! 

Making a Texas-Sized Splash

After going relatively silent during the first few weeks of free agency, the Eagles made a big offseason transaction splash last night. Many fans were concerned and frustrated that the team didn’t make extreme efforts to sign Detroit Linebacker Steven Tulloch (who resigned with the Lions to the tune of a 5-year-deal) and weren’t hopeful of the Birds signing Atlanta’s Curtis Lofton. However, those fans’ prayers were answered as the team dealt this year’s 4^th-Round Draft Pick to Houston and swapped 3^rd-Round Picks with the Texans to bring Two-Time Pro-Bowler, DeMeco Ryans, to Philly.

Former Texans Captain Linebacker DeMeco Ryans will bring great Leadership to Philly

Ryans doesn’t only have an awesome first name, but he also dominated in the middle of Houston’s defense for his first 5 seasons in the NFL. After earning the AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2006, Ryans followed that 156 tackle season with 3-straight 100+ tackle seasons from 2007-2009. Then, unfortunately for Number 59, Ryans tore his ACL 6 games into the 2010 season and then recovered in time for 2011 only to discover that the team switched their defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4 system. Not surprisingly, Ryans struggled last season, barely coming close to finishing 100 tackles.

Now, after reading those last two sentences, you may be as dubious as John Elway is about Tim Tebow as an NFL Starting Quarterback about Ryans’ potential success in Philly. If you are doubting Ryans, the first thing you need to realize is this: He’s either replacing Jamar Chaney, Brian Roll, Moises Fokou or Akeem Jordan in the starting linebacker corps for the Eagles this season. That’s like Chris Christie replacing the Senior Class President of Lower Merion High School.

Ryans’ talent is above and beyond any talent that any other Eagles Linebacker possess and he truly embodies incredible leadership qualities. In Houston, Ryans’ nickname was “Cap”, which was short for Captain. If that doesn’t speak highly enough for his teammates’ respect for him as a leader, you must see some of Ryans’ former Houston teammates’ tweets about the Alabama product.

Texan’s Sarting Quarterback, Matt Schaub (@MSchaub8), tweeted: “Really tough to see @DRyans59 go. True leader on & off the field. Gr8 player & person who represented Htown to the upmost”. Ryan’s former fellow Linebacker, Brian Cushing (‏ @briancushing56), tweeted: “I wouldn't be half the player or person I am today without @DRyans59 this one hurts. Philly got a unbelievable player and leader today” as well.

In addition, take a look at Ryans’ numbers. Following his 4-straight 100 tackle seasons. Ryan’s totaled 64 tackles in 6 Regular Season games. That’s over 10 tackles a game. He was on pace for his best season ever before his ACL injury. That injury also takes about two years to fully recover from. Knowing that, Ryans was also in an uncomfortable 3-4 system while not playing at 100% last season. This year, he’s had another offseason to recover and will be back playing in a 4-3 system that he has thrived in. Ryans will also bring outstanding leadership to an Eagles defense that hasn’t had a leader on its defense since Brian Dawkins left.

This trade massively improves one of biggest weaknesses of the Eagles’ roster, and I’m very excited for the impact DeMeco will have this season and for many more seasons to come. However, I’d also like to see the Birds look to improve their Outside Linebackers through the draft as well. Welcome to Philly Mr. Ryans. I’m sure you’ll play hard and the Birds faithful will love you to death. 

2011-2012 Sixers Mid-Season Report

The Sixers should seriously explore trading Andre Iguodala for Monta Ellis

Going into this season, all of the NBA “experts” and talking heads said that young teams would be successful in this hectic, busy and exhausting regular season. Fortunately, that’s exactly how the year began for the Sixers. But, after jumping out to an 18-7 record over the teams first 25 games, they’ve hit a wall as of late. Nonetheless, now that we’re into the All-Star Break for the Sixers, I’d like to evaluate the top 5 storylines of the Sixers’ season thus far.



The Anomaly of Andre Iguodala
For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you are very well aware of my hatred of what Iguodala brings for the Sixers on a play-by-play basis. As a basketball fan in general, I really appreciate and enjoy watching players like Thaddeus Young, Nik Vucevic, Spencer Hawes, Steve Nash, Dirk, and even Jeremy Lin who BRING IT on 98% of every play they are in the game. These types of players fight on every possession (both offensive and defensive) and try to make every one of their decisions and actions have a positive affect on their team. Iguodala doesn’t have that in his DNA. He takes many plays off on defense (Like when he allowed himself to be screened away from Deron Willions with 30 seconds left in the 4th Quarter by Kris Humpheries to let Jodie Meeks cover the All-Start point guard instead) and doesn’t understand good shot selection on offense. Unofficially, Iguodala chucks up 4 fade-a-way jump shots a game from either the elbow extended or beyond. These shots also always come early into the shot-clock or after he stopped the balls rotation throughout the offense. He’s getting paid $13 million to put up 16 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists a night. But, this season, he’s only averaging 12 points, 5 boards and 6 assists while also shooting an abysmal 62% from the foul line. Yet, he’s an All-Star? I simply just don’t get it. If the NBA coaches decided that the Sixers deserved to have one player represent them in the All-Star game, it honestly should have been a guy who fills his role more sufficiently like Lou Williams or Thad. Iguodala’s national acclaim is nothing but an anomaly to me. I just hope it’s only a matter of time, and a few upcoming nationally televised games, that the truth about this overpaid player is revealed to all.

The Weird Frontcourt Situation

The Sixers frontcourt this season has been nothing short of weird. First, Spencer Hawes started off the year as the front-runner for the Most Improved Player award. But, that was his nagging back, strained Achilles tendon and some guy named Jeremy Lin. This opened the door for Nik Vucevic (my boyfriend) to develop into a solid rookie, Elton Brand to turn into a shot-blocker and interior-defending beast (before his right thumb injury) and the birth of Lavoy Allen’s professional basketball career! But now, Hawes has been sidelined for the last 9 games, fans are rumbling for a trade, and Collins refuses to take Allen out of the lineup for a more productive Vucevic or Thad Young. What’s weird about these bigs, is that the team is blessed with 4 solid big guys that would most likely make any NBA roster, but they’re not all totally effective together on the floor. For example, Elton Brand and Lavoy Allen don’t mesh defensively or really offensively. They both like to float between the elbows and the block and shoot spot-up jumpers and Lavoy can’t cover opposing big men who wander outside the lane while Brand controls the paint. And, even when Hawes wasn’t injured, the team’s best offensive lineup included Thad and Vucevic up front, but that led to some clear defensive struggles. The weirdest thing of all is that the Sixer’s bigs have done so many great and unexpected things during the first half of the season, but that production has still, unfortunately, not been enough on many nights to get W’s over the past two weeks.

The Evan Turner Dilemma

Evan Turner hasn’t played like a Number 2 Overall Draft Pick during his first season and a half as a professional. Now, I’m gonna tell you why. Evan Turner is a POINT GUARD. He played as a distributor in college at The Ohio State University. He thrives when he has the ball in his hands and is able to create for himself and his teammates. Some of my favorite moments of this season have came when Turner skied for a defensive rebound, immediately took off down the floor and fired a 35-foot-pass, right on the money, to his teammate for an easy fast break layup. What’s holding Turner back you may ask? Jrue Holiday. Jrue’s playing point on offense, but he can barely distribute and prefers to score than drive and kick. He also severely struggles covering opposing Point Guards on defense. Turner can actually defend point guards. He shut down Deron Willions for a solid 2 minutes late in the 4th Quarter of the team’s 97 to 90 OT loss to the Nets. Turner will only be truly successful in this League as a Point Guard or Point Forward. Mark my words.

The Positives and Negatives of Coach Collins

When I found out the Sixers signed Doug Collins to be their next head coach two summers ago, I was a disappointed. I knew the Sixers were rebuilding. I knew they were overpaying two players and I knew not to expect anything big from the Sixers in a while. That’s why I wanted the team to promote Assistant Coach Aaron McKie and have their players grow with a young guy they could relate too. I was wrong about Collins. He really knows how to teach these young players to play tough, inspired and determined team basketball and defense. Under Collins, they have the sole lead of the Atlantic Division. But Collins does have some extreme coaching flaws. He severely lacks the competence of putting his players in position to succeed in the 4th Quarter. He also has struggles to make in-game decisions and matchup changes in a timely manner. For him to truly deserve to be in the Coach of The Year discussion, he needs to “teach” his team the great value of getting layups and attacking the basket late in games. Collins is a good teacher of the game of basketball and a great motivator. But I think he lacks the mental toughness and collectedness to be a coach that can help his team win games they really shouldn’t be winning.

Trade Deadline Drama

Of course, with every NBA All-Star Weekend come the imminent mysteries of the looming Trade Deadline. This year, the deadline is March 15, which leaves NBA teams with approximately 3 weeks to assess their rosters and attempt to improve them before the playoffs. For the Sixers, their roster is really only missing a scorer that can get to the line or score baskets almost every time he touches the ball in the 4th Quarter and a big man that you can dump the ball into in the post and commands a double team or can make a move for a clean easy layup. In the Second Quarter of their game against the Lakers on February 6th, the Lakers fed Andrew Bynum inside on every play and their offense was very effective. Similarly Dwight Howard forced the entire Sixers D to collapse around him in Orlando on Feb , which resulted in a 3-point party for the Magic Guards. On a different note, the Sixers are once again amidst rumors of dealing for high-scoring and clutch Warriors guard, Monta Ellis. Right now, since it is very unlikely that Howard would stay in Philly after being traded here, I’d really like to see the Sixers make a deal essentially based on swapping Iguodala for Ellis, while maybe including Jrue in the deal and sliding Turner into the starting lineup. With their Mareese Speights trade earlier in the season, the front office allowed themselves to have a multi-million dollar trade exception that would allow them to take back more money than they give in a trade. With that move, I’m very excited to say that for the first time in a long time, the Sixers should be doing some work at the deadline this season. But, as always, my fingers are always crossed wit a slight dubious feeling deep in my gut.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Sixers!

I can’t truly describe the ridiculous inner-struggle I have been facing recently regarding when to finally post about the early-season NBA Atlantic Division leading 76ers. I didn’t know if it was fitting to write about the team’s “fight-to-the-death” passion and intensity during their loss to the Knicks in Madison Square Garden. I didn’t know if it was fitting to write about the team’s extremely impressive win over the Atlanta Hawks to Friday’s ago. And I didn’t know if it was fitting to write about the team after a pretty solid two and a quarters in Miami until my new mancrush’s, Nicola Vucevic, third quarter injury. But now, after a back-to-back wins of Detroit and Charlotte, the Sixers are impressively 14-6 through their first 20 games and almost first third of this short season.

Now, you can definitely make the argument that the 76ers haven’t beaten anyone all that impressive besides the Idiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks during their first 20 games. But, with a 11.7 points per game differential ( 1^st in the league) the Sixers have shown that they are significantly better than the lesser teams in the League. The argument of “look who they’ve played” also counters the team’s astounding rankings in the Top 5 of the League in almost every defensive category. However, team defense rarely ever weakens throughout the course of a season and usually only gets better. Both they’re defense and winning margin are very good signs for the future as the team starts to play a very rough (to put it likely schedule).

Over the next two weeks, the Sixers play the Magic, Bulls, Heat, Lakers, Spurs and Clippers at home. Now, I’m the first person to make fun of people who go through a teams schedule over a time-span and predict “sure-fire” wins, but it never hurts to at least try to analyze up-coming games. With that being said, is it really THAT unlikely to think that the Sixers could beat the Magic, Lakers, Spurs and Clippers? All four of those teams have some form of major flaw that a young and pretty well-coached team can exploit. The Spurts and Lakers are SOOOOOOOOO slow. In fact, many people are joking calling this 2011-2012 roster as the “Slow-time” Lakers. Next, the Magic struggle when they can’t hit outside shots. Fortunately, the Sixers rank 1st in the League in Opponent’s 3-Point FG percentage. Finally, the Clippers being lead by a pretty poor coach into a road arena that will most likely be packed to see “lob-city” doesn’t really bode well for a team that’s still trying to find its true identity. Ladies and gentleman, if the 76ers win at least four out of their next six home games, it will be very safe to say that this club will be very well on their way to an Atlantic Division title (Their first since 2001) along with home-court-advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

I’m saying you need to be overly confident in the 76ers chances at making some noise in the playoffs this season, but I’m definitely saying you need to start getting excited about where this team is headed. Their only real weak-spots are interior defense and poor shot selection and coaching down the stretch. If they can overcome some of those difficulties, there’s going to be some exciting basketball being played in the Wells Fargo Center come March and April.

And remember….

Clap your hands…. Everybody! Stomp your feet…. Get up and Cheer! The Sixers… of Philadelphia… TEAM OF THE YEAR!

The Good Birds in 2011

I can’t truly complain, scream and yell right now about this disappointing Eagles season considering I already recognized the death of the 2011 Birds. So with that, I’d like to take a few paragraphs to recognize the few bright spots over the course of this season.

1. Jason Babin and the rest of the Defensive Line

Th The reason for Babin’s success is pretty clear: He loves hitting the quarterback and in his boy, Jim Washburn’s, system, Babin is able to put his head down and just viciously penetrate the pocket. That strategy led to 18 sacks for Babin and fans saying that he only cared about sacks. However, he forced a game-saving fumble against the Giants and his helmet broke Tony Romo’s finger and arguably cemented the Cowboys’ ultimate monumental end of season collapse and loss to the Giants yesterday. I’d say that’s a pretty well-rounded and successful player. Also, Trent Cole, Cullen Jenkins combined for 16.5 sacks. Washburn and his D-Line were the only consistent bright spot on Defensive this season.

2. 2. Shady McCoy

McCoy had probably the greatest season of any Eagles Running Back in franchise history. Some notable stats: 1,309 yds, 4.8 yards per carry, 17 touchdowns, 48 catches, 315 receiving yards and 3 receiving touchdowns. That’s straight-up ridiculous! After such a great breakout season, Shady now looks like a perennial pro-bowler and contender for the league-rushing crown for the next 5-10 seasons.

3. 3. Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek

In the passing game, there wasn’t too much to be proud of with the injuries and constant struggles from Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson. In fact, Maclin and Celek were probably the only two consistent performers in the aerial attack all season. Maclin boasted 859 yards and 5 touchdowns off of 63 catches and most likely would have eclipsed the milestone 1,000-yard season if he didn’t miss 3 games late in the year. Celek reestablished himself as a top tight end in the league by notching 811 yards, 5 touchdowns on 62 catches for himself. If Vick can stay 90-100% healthy for 12 games next season, both receivers should improve on this season and possibly aim to get into the pro-bowl.

4. 4. Jason Peters

Before this season, my constant joke was, “Jason Peters is as attracted to False Starts and Holding penalties as he is to twinkies”. He’s still fat (and I have NO idea in the world how he played Tight End in College), but he had a terrific season this year. Last year, he made the pro-bowl but his selection was scrutinized because he sort of received the honor for shaky reasons. If you watched any of the Eagles SNF games on NBC, you would’ve heard Chris Collinsworth and his tebowner gawking at Peters’ footwork and blocking ability. Collinsworth, along with multiple ESPN, NFL Network and Rotoworld.com writers believe that Peters might be the best Left Tackle in all of the NFL.

5. 5. Eagles fans not murdering Juan Castillo

I listen to 97.5 The Fanatic with Mike Missanelli almost every weekday in the afternoon while driving. After listening to the astounding number of enraged fans who call up and vent about how awful Juan Castillo is as a Defensive Coordinator and how they “don’t know what they’re gonna do if he isn’t fired soon”, I’d like to congratulate all of the Eagles fans who were absolutely infuriated by Castillo but refrained from committing homicide.

6. 6. Steve Spagnuolo being fired by the Rams.

While we’re on the subject of Defensive Coordinators, the St. Louis Rams fired Spagnuolo as their Head Coach only a few hours ago. For those of you who forget of Spags is, he’s the man who helped sustain Jimmy Johnson’s defense for the better part of a decade and was the Defensive Coordinator of the 2008 New York Giants Super Bowl team. If you haven’t faced reality already: Andy Reid will be back as Eagles Head Coach next season. So, let’s just pray and hope the front office fires Castillo and hires Spagnuolo as Defensive Coordinator.