Any stats guys who might put this defense in perspective considering they play in the East and still give up so many pts.
Sixers aren't the worst (27th). Bucks and Jazz are technically worse defensively. Sixers do have the worst offense though (30th)
They are overtly tanking. Wish Silver would make his first move to take their pick away to put a stop to this bs.
They are horrible in modern perspective, in historically perspective, they're merely average or slightly worse. 110 points allowed per game...you realize there were teams that allowed 120-130 ppg in mid 80s, namely the Nuggets and Warriors. They along with a few other team believed in some concept of matador defense (which is why always laugh when people say a scorer nowadays would've had a harder time in 80s, channeling Rodman's "LeBron would be an average player in the 1980s). I keep telling people NBA defenses really didn't evolve until late 80s with the Pistons...Bulls... Jazz...Knicks (later in 90s). You only had about 4-5 teams that played good to exceptional defense by today's standards. The rest of teams were very average to ABSOLUTELY dreadful defensively. Just watch some of the older games between bad teams or defenses and you'll see what I am talking about. It's often overhyped in reality...alot of things were better...but defense wasn't one of them. The defenses I've seen in my lifetime are still more modern teams, like Spurs (w/Duncan); Pistons (w/Larry Brown); Celtics (w/KG and Co); Heat (w/LeBron) and The Bulls of the 90s...are really only few examples of where I've seen defenses completely take teams out of game or series. I'll even give a few honorary marks ton JVG-lead team (Rockets/Knicks); the Rockets (93-96); and at times when motivated the Lakers championship teams with Kobe. Basketball is far and away a game that favors offense, alot more than football and baseball does by the nature of the sport and rules.
I think he let Les make that call. Not sure how Morey himself felt, except that he's said tanking would have been the easier way. Here's a thread where lots of people weigh in on that story: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=241177
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>This guy is actually here the Sixers game in the front row: <a href="https://twitter.com/TasMelas">@TasMelas</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jeskeets">@jeskeets</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LeighEllis">@LeighEllis</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/treykerby">@treykerby</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/StartersMatt">@StartersMatt</a> <a href="http://t.co/VXxNcuJ2f6">pic.twitter.com/VXxNcuJ2f6</a></p>— Bill(a)Self(ia) (@mrdangdang) <a href="https://twitter.com/mrdangdang/statuses/438130073280217088">February 25, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
These three are the worst. It's disgusting. I wonder if you could even form a competent rotation by combining the Bucks and 6ers' rosters?
not that I respect tanking but I don't see it as big a deal others. ****ty organizations tend to stay ****ty even when they tank (Detroit, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Sacramento, Cleveland, Washington, Toronto, etc..). If it where more successful, I may have stronger feelings on the subject. A lot of smarter organizations are tanking this year (Philly, Boston). I'm curious to see what comes of it.
MCW / Wolters Knight Ilyasova / Alphabet Young Sanders / Henson It's not terrible, but it's something. lol
To me, it's more about the viability of the league as a whole. How many fans would the Bucks or 6ers alienate this year? It's as bad when, as you said, a well run franchise is doing it. But I think it hurts the league to have all these perennial losers constantly tanking (like Milwaukee- who didn't even try to tank as I recall).
One thought is that starting at a particular point in the season (let's say game 51), the non-playoff team with the best record in their last 32 games gets the best lottery chance and it goes from there - 2nd best, 3rd best, etc.
The Sixers aren't just tanking this year, they're setting themselves up to go OKC on the draft. People quickly forget how damned awful you were 5 years ago.
Most wins after being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs would be best, but that's not what i'm talking about. The person I responded to wants to punish the Sixers this season.
Agreed. The problem isn't necessarily that teams are tanking but that tanking has become almost a necessity for teams to get back to prominence quickly. The draft must be altered to account for this. The league might also need to consider shortening the possible time for rookie scale contracts (or making the contracts larger). The value of a draft pick now goes way beyond the possibility of having a good young prospect and is now about getting players on the cheap.
I agree, and that's why tanking is a problem. If it worked, I would be a bit more ambivalent. But it often doesn't, so you have franchises like Sacramento and Cleveland constantly blowing it up and never being good. I think if players were more developed coming in, it wouldn't be as bad. Maybe that means changing the D-League or NCAA rules or reforming how we teach youth basketball here. I don't know. Back to the OP, I think the bottom feeding teams this year are, talent wise, historically the worst. The league now, due to expansion, has more players in it than it did in the '80s or '90s. I would imagine that, even accounting for the influx of foreign players, some of the guys on NBA rosters now would not be playing 20 years ago (most would, I'm sure, but not everybody). Then, when you consider the fact that the only true rotation players on Philly's team this year are Thaddeus Young, MCW, James Anderson, and maybe Bryon Mullens- you'll looking at a team with a severe lack of talented players that would probably lose against other historical teams with worse records.
