Although we’re in the midst of a weekend hiatus from our PC Coaching Search posts, we figured there was no need to quit using movie titles to name our posts. (And yes, I know that technically LeBron is “The King,” but there’s no movie called “The Return of the Answer,” so deal with it).
We’ve been trying to let the Sixers ride out their current hot streak without posting (for fear of jinxing them), but as you may have heard, Allen Iverson stepped onto the floor at the Wachovia Center last night for the first time ever in an opposing uniform. And yes, that’s kind of a big deal.
The truly ironic thing is that as far as the playoffs are concerned, the Sixers are in right now and the Nuggets are out. Of course, most of that is thanks to the God-awful Eastern Conference: Philly is 34-34 and the Nuggets are 40-28. But even though (the ever-humble) Billy King dumped A.I. for 60 cents on the dollar, it appears 15 months later that the Sixers got the better of this deal.
I’ve had occasion to catch several of the Sixers games during their current 8-1 run, and let me say: this team is at least a year and a half ahead of where I thought they’d be right now. The truly amazing thing is that they’re playing such great basketball and their roster, while certainly possessed of some young talent, isn’t overly impressive. Look at the teams behind them in the Eastern Conference. None of them — seriously, not even the Knicks — get blown away by the Sixers in terms of pure talent, and I’d venture to say that the Hawks (with Al Horford, Josh Smith, Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams) are significantly more individually talented than Philly.
That tells you something: that Stefanski, Cheeks & Co. are onto something with the style they’ve incorporated. Whatever their struggles in the half court at times, the Sixers are fantastic in the running game, and their defense has steadily improved pretty much since the Iverson deal. If the D can continue to improve, that just means more opportunities to run.
A couple of random observations from the past few weeks:
- Rodney Carney was the hero against the Pistons on March 12, canning key jumper after key jumper down the stretch to help the Sixers pull out an 83-82 win in Motown. For a four-year college player, Carney has been somewhat of a disappointment in his season and a half, but his past four games (13.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg in 22 mpg) have me hoping he’s turning it around.
- Sam Dalembert isn’t the joke he once was. He’ll never be a fantastic player, but he’s averaging a double-double (10.8 ppg and 10.1 rpg) and is somehow still only 26 years old. Sammy had the winning bucket in last night’s game, albeit on a freakish play, but the point is that he certainly isn’t considered an offensive liability anymore.
- Thaddeus Young had the big offensive rebound to keep alive the Sixers’ last possession, which ultimately led to that bucket by Dalembert. The kid’s gonna be a good ‘un, and not just because John Hollinger loves him.
- Just to state the obvious, Andre Miller and Andre Iguodala have been fantastic during the whole stretch.
If you haven’t checked the standings lately, you might want to take a look. The Sixers are 5 games ahead of 8th place New Jersey and Atlanta; they’re a mere half game behind 6th place Washington, and only a game behind 5th place Toronto. Depressed Fan took an exhaustive look at playoff possibilities the other day, but here’s the key: if the Sixers can somehow pip Washington to that sixth spot, they’d avoid a first round matchup with Detroit. And believe me, they really want to do that.
Less than a month left before playoff basketball returns to Philly. Hop on, kids, there’s still room on the bandwagon.
Oh, and here are the highlights of the Denver game (along with all of the Iverson fanfare, naturally). And if you’ve got time to kill, definitely check out this Allen Iverson tribute video:
