Recliner GM

Sixers vs. Cavs: Any Shot?

Dannie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:43:10 +0000

Accuscore is giving the Sixers a 11% chance to win. Is it really that high?

The Sixers are 5-7.
They haven’t played one good game in 12 tries.
The coach thinks he has a team full of punks.
The players think the coach is equally if not more to blame.
Infighting.
Conveniently quiet GM.
On the road in the second game of a back-t0-back.

The odds are pretty much stacked to the brim against the Sixers winning in Cleveland tonight. But I can’t wait.

I can’t wait to see how the team and the coach responds to a bad loss to Memphis at home. I can’t wait to see how each individual player responds to being called out as soft for the second time in a week.

Someone has to man up right?

When frustration, controversay, turmoil, like this happens you look to the leader. But who is the person? It’s not the coach. It’s not the highest paid players. It’s not an unheralded role player.

So one has to wonder what will be the catalyst for positive change for the Sixers.

I am all out of answers.

I don’t know why the coaches line-ups are the way they are. I don’t know why no 5 man group can consistently execute an offense. I have no clue why a team full of physically capable players can not defend anyone – ever. I don’t know why guys can’t pulled down a rebound. I don’t know why this team doesn’t take pride in playing the game they supposedly love.

I fully expect the Sixers to get smoked. There is no reason to waste any optimism on this team right now. They need to earn their keep. They need to earn our loyalty, patience and confidence in them.

They’ve completely lost mine and I am not sure these players and coaches can ever get it back.

The Sixers Suck! The Sixers are Soft! The Sixers are Losers! Everyone is to Blame!

Dannie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:46:41 +0000

Straight from the head coach to the players and fans ears:

“There were two different teams out there tonight. One team (the Grizzlies) rallied around each other and the other team (the Sixers) fragmented. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. We had five different guys go five separate ways. It’s about team vs. non-team. It’s a game we could’ve won if we’d have had some camaraderie and positive energy.

It’s an old saying that if you don’t bite as puppies, you’re not going to bite as dogs. If you didn’t rebound as a young man or teenager, you ain’t going to rebound when it’s time to be a man. We just don’t happen to have those types of guys right now.” ~ Eddie Jordan

This is the second time he called the team out for being soft. The first came after the Jazz loss…

“Maybe if the bully pushes us around long enough, maybe we’ll wake up and say it’s time for us to push back. That time has not come yet. If you really have a passion for the game and a passion for winning and competing, you won’t get pushed around. You learn your lesson. I guess it’s still early in the season. I don’t know.

I’m from a different neighborhood. I just don’t get pushed around. If I did, I’m responding back. Hopefully our guys will respond to that sooner rather than later.” ~ Eddie Jordan

I agree with him, how could you not. Maybe he shouldn’t say this publicly but he damn sure isn’t wrong and something needed to be said by someone. This is getting ridiculous.

I have been saying it for the last two years. We just happened to have soft “player coaches” who never called the team out when they consistently playing poorly.

This team needs a reality check. You see excessive celebrating after marginal plays in games they played horribly. You have to question guys individually. What are they thinking? Do the know how bad they have played and how bad they look? Do they know that they have been pushed around and bullied in more then a few games?

Maybe this is Jordan’s way of letting them know this is not acceptable play and that you can’t win playing like this. Maybe his coaching, practice time and motivational speeches aren’t reaching these clowns. At least he seems and sounds genuinely pissed off about how the team is playing and losing.

Thad is a cupcake. Been saying it for the last two years. Lou is light in the ass. Sure he scored a lot of points and played well offensively. He still takes no pride in defending his man straight up and his steals were either gimmies or Allen Iverson type gambles that were successful – this time.

Andre Iguodala is fake tough. All that muscle and athleticism for what? To get completely torched by Rudy Gay every possession? Where is his leadership?

When Jordan calls out the team for being fragmented, a “non-team” and lacking camaraderie and energy it starts with Iguodala. He is suppose to be the guy. He got the money. He clearly talks like he is/wants to be the guy. He tries to act like he is the guy (exhibit A - B – C). Yet when something goes wrong he is the first player with negative body language. He gives you the “Iguodala Salty Face”

Be honest, how often have you seen that look from this dude? Sickening.

Brand unlike the rest of these clowns IS tough and does play hard, unfortunately he lacks the physical tools to maximize it.

There is a reason I don’t like anyone on this team and haven’t since A.I. left – they aren’t winners. And on top of that they show boat like they’ve done something in this league.

This team and these players make me sick. Thank god college basketball has started.

Oh and best believe Eddie Jordan is not off the hook.

He is a flat out moron. He clearly has no clue what he is doing or how to effectively coach basketball.

You play a small line-up when your team is getting out-rebounded by 20? There were stretches where Thad had to check Marc Gasol. That’s just not going to work.

You can’t even begin to explain what the hell he is doing or thinking game-to-game.

We know this…

No Eddie Jordan team will play any defense. The Sixers were already bad, but they are beyond horrible this season.

I said in the comments that I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tony Dileo back on the sidelines in 10 game. I don’t see how this team wins a game at this point.

End of the day both the players and coach have a lot of bitchassness in them…

And you just can’t win until you get rid of it.

I am done. I am just so pissed.

Sixers vs. Memphis: Repeat Performance From Brand?

Dannie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:09:43 +0000

This match-up lost a ton of luster when A.I. bounced. Now it’s just two below average teams battling and trying to figure out a winning mix.

The storyline most of us will be watching is how does Elton Brand back-up his best performance as a Sixer.

I know he doesn’t want or think that game will be a one hit wonder.

“That’s nothing,” Brand said. “I’ve still got better games to come. I’m still missing shots I can make, getting my hands on loose balls I could’ve had and there were some rebounds I could’ve got to.” ~ Elton Brand

We certainly need him to play better for a host of reasons as well.

Trade value
Help us win some more games if that indeed is what the team wants to do (as opposed to tanking)
Earn is pay

As for the game it will come down to our defense and rebounding as usual. Memphis has 4 legit scorers in Gay (20ppg) Randolph (18ppg), Mayo (18ppg), Gasol (15ppg) and all those guys are shooting it pretty well. So the Sixers will be tested at every position. The catalyst is Conley at the point who is in charge of making sure those four guys get plenty of good scoring opportunities. Can Lou keep him out of the lane?

When Memphis is really good offensively it’s when Conley is both creating for teammates and getting in the lane for short jumpers and floaters. I expected to see Ivey, Green and hopefully Jrue playing in this game to deal with their guards.

On the rebounding front Memphis is very good. They are the #1 offensive rebounding team and 11th in defensive rebounding. With Speights out Sam will have to play and play well. I do not trust Jason Smith to control the boards or defend the paint.

I’ll be around chatting for the game but my attention will probably be more focused on UNC vs. Cuse in the 2K Sports Classic championship game at Madison Square Garden.

I will end up watching the replay of the Sixers in it’s entirety and post something on the game tomorrow morning.

Phillies’ All-Time Tourney: 1976 vs. 1980

Pete — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:12:24 +0000

All-Time Tourney Rules and Explanation

Here’s the first series of the first round of ReclinerGM’s Phillies’ All-Time Tourney. It’s a match-up of the #1 seed 1976 team and #8 seed 1980 team. The teams are obviously very similar, as the line-ups below show.

Let’s get to the game results, shall we?

Game 1: 1980 Phillies 4, 1976 Phillies 3 – (1980 leads series 1-0)

‘76 Bob Boone hits a 3-run HR in the 4th to put ‘76 ahead 3-1, but ‘80 Greg Luzinski counters with a 2-run shot in the 6th to tie it up at 3. Other than that, both ‘76 and ‘80 Carlton went relatively unblemished through 8 innings. However, in the 9th, ‘80 Larry Bowa hits a sac-fly to take a 4-3 lead, and Tug McGraw closed it out for the ‘80 squad. Both Manny Trillo and Greg Luzinski had 2 hits off Carlton for the ‘80 team.

Game 2: 1980 Phillies 5, 1976 Phillies 3 (10 inn.) – (1980 leads series 2-0)

The 1980 squad takes a commanding lead in this series after taking both games on the road. Both Dick Ruthven (’80) and Jim Kaat (’76) put up quality starts for their squads with Ruthven giving up 3 runs in 6.1 innings and Kaat surrendering 2 runs in 6 innings. The two big hits were ‘76 Mike Schmidt hitting a game-tying solo HR in the 7th, and Pete Rose hitting the game-winning 2-run single in the 10th off ‘76 Tug McGraw. ‘80 McGraw pitched the bottom of the 9th, getting his 2nd save of the series.

Game 3: 1976 Phillies 4, 1980 Phillies 3 – (1980 leads series 2-1)

‘76 wins a must-win, holding down the 1980 squad 4-3. Dick Allen killed a chance to blow the game open early for the ‘76 squad with a bases loaded double play in the 1st. In the 2nd, ‘76 Larry Bowa did his part, flying out with 2 outs and the bases packed again. Bob Walk did eventually implode, walking in a run, and throwing the ball away for another in the 4th. A Mike Schmidt RBI in the 7th gave ‘76 the lead for good as Ron Reed pitched the final 3 innings, not allowing a single baserunner for the long save.

Game 4: 1980 Phillies 9, 1976 Phillies 3 – (1980 leads series 3-1)

Finally an offensive explosion as the ‘80 squad made quick and easy work of ‘76 Larry Christensen. Gary Maddox led the way with 4 hits, while Bake McBride had 3 RBI, and Larry Bowa added 2. The 1980 team scored 8 runs on 11 hits in the first four innings and the game was over after that.

Game 5: 1976 Phillies 8, 1980 Phillies 1 – (1980 leads series 3-2)

‘76 Carlton spins a gem in this game, beating himself to keep the ‘76 squad alive. ‘76 Carlton pitched a complete game, giving up 1 run on 7 hits. On the offensive end, Dick Allen, Greg Luzinski and Jay Johnstone all had RBI doubles in the 1st inning, which was all Carlton needed.

Game 6: 1980 Phillies 9, 1976 Phillies 7 - (1980 wins series 4-2)

Mike Schmidt leads the way for the 1980 squad in the clincher, with a HR and 4 RBI. His home run came in a 7-7 tie in the 9th to take the lead for good. Greg Luzinski also contributed 3 RBI, including a 2-run double in the top of 7th to blow the game open before the ‘76 team came back with 4 in the bottom of the 8th to tie it up. Tug McGraw pitched a perfect 9th for his 3rd save of the series.

Summary

The #1 seed goes down as the 1980 team wins fairly easily 4-2. Greg Luzinski takes home the MVP honors, hitting .360 with 10 RBI for the series. Tug McGraw comes in 2nd with 3 dominant saves. Even though the 1980 squad won 10 less games in the regular season, they were clearly the better team in this series.

The updated bracket is as follows…

NEXT UP! Robin Roberts and the 1950 Phillies travel to the Baker Bowl to take on Pete Alexander and the 1915 Phillies.

Nova Forgets How To Shoot, Escapes George Mason

Pete — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:39:04 +0000

Unless you don’t have a job, and have ESPNU, you probably didn’t watch the Nova game today. Dannie and I “watched” on separate GameCasts at work, and saw a very strange game unfold.

It ended with Villanova winning 69-68, but here’s how they got there….

Corey Fisher goes 1-14 from the field. And scores 17 points. This is both horrible and good at the same time.
Scottie Reynolds commits 10 turnovers, 4 less than the entire Mason squad.
The game winning 3-pt shot was hit by Isaiah Armwood, a freshman forward taking his first shot of the game.
Corey Stokes, the team’s leading scorer to date, scores 1 point, on 0-4 shooting.
Mouph Yarou plays 0 minutes after being sent home due to a viral infection.
Team shoots 59% from the FT line, usually one of Villanova’s strong points.
Pena, King, Stokes and Sutton all foul out.

I have no idea how they won that game. And I don’t think Jay Wright does either.

I don’t mind these types of games early in the season. Shows the kids they aren’t as good as they think they are.

Nova plays again tomorrow against #21 Dayton – and will have to bring a lot better game to get the to Final on Sunday.

Elton Brand Beats Bobcats – What’s Next?

Dannie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:13:53 +0000

Would you look at that. Elton Brand can still throw down! And did so I believe 3 or 4 times last night.

Brand’s line was promising even against a terrible Bobcats team.

19 points on 8-17 from the floor and 3-4 from the line.
11 boards, 7 offensive and many of them converted for easy buckets.
6 blocks
4 steals (they actually gave Iguodala one of his so the boxscore only reads 3)
2 assists
Only 1 turnover
In 42 big minutes

There is really no reason to talk about anyone else on this team. After all that from Brand we still barely won against the Bobcats.

Thank God Charlotte doesn’t have one shooter on their entire roster. We gave them plenty of wide open looks last night and they couldn’t even hit the rim most times. It was one of the worst displays of shooting I have ever seen on the profession level. The worst was probably watching the Sixers shoot in games past.

Thank God Brand blocked 6 very make-able shots including one where he ran down Stephen Jackson on a fast break and pinned it against the board. Remember this was a 2 point game.

Brand made so many winning plays last night, including the last one it was ridiculous. His effort all night was great to watch.

The question remains though: Was this just an anomaly or something we can expect from him going forward? More importantly can he do it against a more formidable front court and winning clubs?

I don’t know. But at least we got to see what could be for one night.

The only other guy that came to play was Rodney Carney.

Iguodala and Thad had 8 of the ugliest turnovers one could imagine. Just dumb passes and for Thad a complete lack of ball control and handle.

Lou’s defense as tremendously horrible again.

This team is a hot mess anyway you look at it. They have not had win that looked good yet. They have not played one average game of basketball yet.

11 games in they aren’t getting even a little bit better collectively. What’s next for this team?

The next 10 games are pretty tough.

Memphis
@ Cleveland
@ Washington
@ Boston
Atlanta
@ San Antonio
@ Dallas
@ Oklahoma City
Denver
@ Charlotte

Given how this team has been playing and knowing Speights won’t be back for any of those games how many wins can you see? I won’t even asked you how many wins you are confident they would get because no one in their right mind should have any confidence in the Sixers.

For me I see a low of zero wins and a high of 2.

Who Is The Best Phillies’ Team Ever? An Offseason Tournament

Pete — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:03:19 +0000

Who is the best Phillies team of all time?

There is no way to say for certain, but WhatIfSports gives us fans a unique opportunity to simulate the possibilities, and that is exactly what I will be doing this off-season.

WhatIfSports uses very sophisticated techniques to simulate each pitch and each play of a match-up of your choosing. I suggest you check out the link above and mess around with it yourself. It’s free, and this is not an ad for the website, though it may sound like one.

So what Phillies’ team would make the cut for this tournament? I’m going with 8 teams, like a normal playoff year and I’m not including teams before 1910, because the game was just too different then. Obviously the 2 Championship teams are in (1980, 2008), as are the 2 highest Win % teams (1976, 1977). 1993 and 2009 are both in as the only squads besides ‘76 and ‘77 with 93+ wins, and were both World Series squads. The final 2 teams are World Series participants from different eras, 1915 and 1950.

I’m going to seed them by Win %, with the tie-breaker being run-differential. The seeding is as follows:

So the bracket looks like this (this took me longer than it should have)…

WhatIfSports does not simulate 7-Game Series (which these will be), so I will be doing them game-by-game and doing a post for each series with very brief recaps of each game. Each team will use a 4-man rotation, and I will pick an MVP of each series based on the stats (they give you a full box-score and play-by-play for each game).

Any questions?

Any predictions?

First up will be 1976 Phillies vs. 1980 Phillies with the recap up later this week.

Sixers Back to Work Against Bobcats

Dannie — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:34:51 +0000

Honestly I got nothing fancy for this game. We just need a win. And especially need a win against weak (I can’t say weakER right now given how the Sixers are playing) teams.

First game for the Sixers in a few days and I am just looking forward to watching some more basketball.

I am looking forward to seeing the new starting line-up if Eddie Jordan follows through on what he’s been running in practice (Carney starting, Thad at the three, maybe Jason Smith in for Brand). I interested to see if being benched lights a fire under Brand’s ass and maybe more importantly if his body is even capable of acting on his added motivation and drive.

I am even more curious to find out how any line-up change impacts overall player minutes and what types of line-ups will be used throughout the game.

And lastly will we see any defensive improvement having had plenty of time to prepare specifically for Charlotte but also in general. Have the weaknesses and holes in this teams defense been discussed and addressed by the coaches and players in practice.

On top of that we can talk about the Ed Stefanski interview on 950 ESPN today.

Key questions asked (paraphrased):

Why not bring AI back to breathe some life into this team and put people in the seats?
Is Eddie Jordan throwing you under the buss by not playing Brand and taking him out of the starting line-up if that occurs?
Do you still think Brand has that all-pro type of stuff left in him to bring to the Sixers?
A couple years ago it was said that you went in and told Maurice Cheeks to play a different way. Do you have those same kind of conversations with Eddie Jordan about Elton Brand? Basically saying can you play him some more?
Are you of the mindset that you have to improve this team to win now or more of the mindset that this team needs to be nurtured and grow in it’s current form?
Are you looking for a big trade now?
Is the Sixers situation as bleak as the fans think it is?
You were 100% convinced that any offer you made to Josh Smith Atlanta would have matched it and that’s why Brand was the guy for the Sixers?

Follow-up questions NOT asked that should have been:

Yes or no: Do you think you would win more games this year with AI back?
What exactly are you trying to do with this team as you say? What is the direction this team is going?
If you say you want young players to get minutes why isn’t Jrue seeing more court time? Are you going to tell Jordan to play him more the same way you did with Thad and Speights?
You say it’s a process getting Elton back, but how does benching him, not giving him many minutes and sitting him in 4th quarters helping the process? If he needs “games” should you be playing him more minutes to get him back quicker?
When you signed Brand did you think the process would take this long?
When you hired Eddie Jordan you and he both said Brand would work and fit well in his offensive system – what happened? Why isn’t it working now considering Brand had a full training camp and preseason?
Why is Jordan giving up on Brand after only 10 games?
What is the identity of the team NOW?
If all that experience from the last two playoffs was valuable for the young players why aren’t we seeing it now during the season? You gotta win now to even get back to the playoffs right?

What questions would you guy have asked during that interview?

This is the game thread and I’ll be here chatting all game.

Phillies Rumors: Is DeRosa The Guy?

Pete — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:17:06 +0000

FoxSports is reporting that the Phillies are the “favorite” to land 3B Mark DeRosa, and that they are looking to spend around “$4-$6 million” a year on Pedro Feliz’s replacement.

I’m torn on DeRosa, here are some positives and negatives of signing him, and you can tell me how I should feel..

He is upgrade offensively over Feliz. Without getting too in-depth, his OPS over the last 3 seasons is a very solid .800, while Feliz’ is .702.
DeRosa crushes lefites, with a .909 OPS against them the last 2 years. This would have been helpful in the World Series, where we clearly needed another RH bat. Feliz OPS against lefties the last 2 seasons is .753.
DeRosa is a below average defensive 3B. This is a big problem for me, as I really value defense. Among the 27 players that played at least 700 innings at 3B last year, FanGraphs Ulimate Zone Rating system had DeRosa ranked 20th. Pedro Feliz was ranked 12th. Beltre was 2nd, Figgins was 5th.
He strikes out a lot, 121 last year. There are many different opinions on whether K’s are really worse than a ground-out or something else, but I don’t care for them.
DeRosa is an average baserunner, but that would be a significant upgrade over Feliz, who was our worst baserunner last year according to Baseball Prospectus, and the 841st ranked runner out of 846 players in baseball.
Less of an injury risk than Beltre, less money than Beltre, Tejada or Figgins. Definitely a better option than Polanco.

The big question obviously is does his offensive upgrade overshadow his defensive downgrade. I think it does. If he maintains an .800 OPS, that would give us six players in our line-up in that area. Only 36 NL players had an OPS of .800 or higher last season, or 2.2 per team. But with the downgraded defense, how big of an improvement is it really?

What do you think?

Sixers Rumors: Finally Dumping Sammy, Gain Cap Space?

Dannie — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:26:15 +0000

Hat tip to regular reader Ed. R. for pointing this out to me while I was in a 2-hour meeting.

Three team trade between the Sixers, Celtics and Kings:

Sources told ESPN.com that the Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings, in considering the feasibility of a Samuel Dalembert-for-Kenny Thomas swap, have discussed expanding that concept with Boston by trying to draw in the Celtics on a potential three-way deal that would land Andres Nocioni with the Celts.

Sources further stressed over the past 48 hours that this should be classified as an ongoing conversation as the teams involved decide how much they like what’s on the table.

But the full deal as it stands, if it eventually gets that far, would send Nocioni to Boston, Kenny Thomas, Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine to Philadelphia and Dalembert and J.R. Giddens to Sacramento. ~ Mark Stein

Tom Moore as already refuted this rumor.

So as always it’s a matter of who you believe and those “anonymous sources.”

What do you think of that?

Kenny Thomas coming back to Philly is just hilarious. But his contract is expiring as well as Allen’s and Scalabrine’s.

My point all along with Sam was if you can get rid of him and recoup 100% of the cap space early I would do that deal. If we are taking back an equally as bad contract we might as well just keep him and let him expire when his deal is up and recoup the money then.

I have been reserved to the fact that it’s an impossibility that we could actually get a valuable player in exchange for Sam. So it’s all about ridding ourselves of his salary.

This rumored deal would accomplish that perfectly.

Understand this though, we don’t get a ton of cap space at all and even less if the cap goes down next season since we are already over the cap as it is. This deal would however really loosen the noose around the Sixers finances.

To give you an idea what I mean, the cap this year is $57.7M. If this deal were to go through the Sixers would be around $53M going into next season with 9 players under contract and expectation of a first round draft choice coming in.

I also saw this:

Charlotte had offer to trade Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovich to Philly for Sam Dalembert, but chose Stephen Jackson deal, source tells Y! ~ Adrian Wojnarowski

Meaning Ed Stefanski is working his ass off to get Sammy out of here. Obviously once Stephen Jackson came into play that was the smarter choice for Charlotte.

Let me ask these quesitons:

Does trading Sam mean this season is already a wash? No matter what trade you make with Sam chances are we are getting much worse defensively and on the boards.
Does trading Sam help us immediately in the above scenario?
Would Stefanski still do this deal now knowing Speights is out 6-8 weeks and no telling how he will respond when he comes back?
If this deal does get done, is it only the beginning? Is a complete roster blow-up on tap? Is Brand next to go? Lou? Iguodala? Setting the wheels in motion to really go after someone big this summer.

Have at it!