| 04 December 2009
I told you Sixers are dangerously close to become a circus.
Different states of mind, different situations, different reactions for Allen and Elton, of course. But the final outcome is the feeling of a complete mess in the franchise.
While Allen Iverson's introduction press conference was just as emotional as you could guess (don't miss the video, really) Elton Brand wasted no time in expressing his disappointment for being relegated to the bench, despite having fully recovered from his last (small) injury, that kept him out three games.
Not coincidentially, there are several rumors about Brand being on the trading block, some say that Sixers are even "desperate", as Yahoo's NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski:
Philadelphia: Sixers GM Ed Stefanski is desperate to unload forward Elton Brand and the $66 million owed over the remaining four years of his crippling contract, sources say, but that will be incredibly difficult. Even with several teams, including Golden State and Charlotte, desperate for low-post scorers and rebounders, no one believes Brand, who makes $14.8 million this season, has enough left to merit taking on that contract.
The last update about Brand is this very interesting chat with Kate Fagan at practice before the Bobcast game. I can't honestly blame Brand when he says:
You okay with coming off the bench:
"No, of course not. You know what I mean, it’s like ... we’re not winning either way, so I’d rather be out there and give us the best chance."
and also (after the jump)Do you accept not starting?
"No, I don’t accept it. What it is – being a competitor – but also I don’t think I have done anything to merit a bench spot."
Difficult to argue with Brand there. Especially if you think who he was replaced by in the starting line up (= Green), and the result of that move (= three consecutive losses). Not saying it's Green fault, but you got the point.
We have a coach (a poor HR manager, as I said in the previous post) that this summer said Brand would have been a key player bla bla bla, then, after the season started, he said that Elton was no more a 40 min guy (usually a confidence boost to hear for a player, and a smart way to make him a friend...), only to discover that he can actually play - and well - 40 minutes when Speights went down.
Now he (Jordan) took the chance of an injury to bench Brand, while the former all star was on his way to an encouraging progress. This, while we are getting repeteadly killed under the boards: Sixers were badly outrebounded in three of the last four games, all losses of course: 32-42 vs Hawks, 35-41 vs Spurs, 29-43 vs Thunder - with the notable exception of the Mavs game, when we won the battle 60-37.
That (pretty unique case, if you ask me) takes the overall count of rebounds to a 156-163 that does not give the real picture of what is happening under our rim, because we give up tons of second chances on a nightly basis, and that costs us games. Brand simply has to be put into the starting line up again, and Sam has to play more when he has no foul troubles, at least 27-28 minutes, as much as it pains me to say this. Dalembert got only 20 minutes against Oklahoma City, and committed only 2 fouls !!!!
Enough of Green as a starter, enough of the small ball crap !!!! But with Iverson makin his "debut" soon, I think the situation will only get worse in this sense.
Tough times, Sixers fans. Let's enjoy the night of Iverson'r return, I'm afraid it will be one of the few nice emotions we'll experience this year.
