Does KG's arrival really mean there's a new beast in the east?

C’s now a favorite topic: KG deal alters standing in East(Boston Herald) - You gotta hand it to Danny Ainge. Regardless of his past failures he keeps trying bold moves. The latest move to bring Kevin Garnett to Beantown is the boldest yet. KG has publicly rejected Boston's advances earlier. What's different now? Nothing as far as I can see. It seems that Minnesota just ran out of viable options and punted. Now Ainge has the C's faithful buzzing again. It appears they will be pre-season favorites to contend for the conference title. The Celtics, boasting 3 all-stars, have vaulted over the Sixers in the Atlantic division, right?

Not so fast. While KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are formidable players, there is an extreme drop off in talent beyond them. Ainge still hasn't addressed their most glaring weakness ... point guard. Who's gonna get the ball to these guys? Who's gonna do the dirty work. Someone's getting fewer touches this year. Which one of these guys is gonna sacrifice thier game? Is Ray Allen too old? Will Pierce share the spot light? Can Doc Rivers reverse the team's psychology of losing? These are all legitimate questions marks. Team chemistry is often over looked in these quick fix deals. I can't believe the basketball gods will sit by idle and let Ainge get away with this.

Do you think the Raptors are afraid of Kevin Garnett? Is it KG's team or Paul Perice's team? KG is an incredible talent, who has a penchant of coming up small when the game is on the line. Here's a bold prediction for ya ... the C's will struggle to make the playoffs let along contend for the conference finals.

Okay, what do I know. I'm a Sixers fan, right. Well who is better qualified to see that the emperor has no clothes. We've seen a lot of that around here. The quick fix that is. Now we are in a wait and see mode. We've tried everything else.

"Hey Timmy Look! We got it on replay!" - Can this really be where we're going

No better time for NBA to institute replay (FOX Sports). To be honest ... I hadn't thought about it. With all the speculation about the fallout from the Tim Donaghy scandal, all the what ifs and the who woulda, coulda shoulda going on I have just been watching it all unfold. It' all speculation at this point. Some truth's will be revealed over time and other will never be known.

I decided I wasn't giving up my season tickets because of the scandal. Call me crazy.

But the idea that the scandal would be the motivation to institute instant replay in the NBA never crossed my mind. I am sure it's because I am so against the idea. I got no problems with the way it's used today. But further incursions in to the game can only slow it down. The NFL's implementation (tweaked every so often thru the years) still leaves me a bit wanting. Talk about disrupting the flow of the game! For a judgment call?

Please mister Stern ... Please say it ain't so!

What kind of team will the new Sixers be?

It must be the summer heat. The chatter in Sixers-ville lately has turned to optimism (albeit guarded). There is resolution that this upcoming season will be a brutal learning experience, but I'm hearing many of the Sixers faithful saying they're okay with that. The further we get from the 2007 NBA draft the better its gotten. The hoopla over free agency is over. No Joe Smith. No power froward is coming. What you see is what we got. People are thinkin' "young" as in Thadeus Young. Even Billy King is being given a pass ... okay the tone is more like "We could do worse, We could have Danny Ainge or Isiah Thomas". I'm not so sure that's really an endorsement.

From my view, the Sixers have had a prudent summer. They got squat to bargain with. Last year's house cleaning was dramatic enough. There is no thralling fan base to appease. Nothin' but die-hards like myself. Go with the "Young and Untested". Sound like a soap opera? Maybe it is.

Personally I think the youth movement is great. However, there are more than a few questions marks. But what has really been bothering me is ... What kind of team will the new Sixers be?

I'm talkin' about what is Mo gonna do. I thought Stephen A. was gonna touch on it in an article earlier this week (Cheeks has to make things go), but as fate would have it Mr. Smith let me down. Youth is not a PLAN. With all due respect to my friends in the blogosphere. Youth is not a PLAN. Players need a system to excel in the NBA. You know ... Phil Jackson the vaunted triangle offense (okay Tex Winter). The Suns play run, gun and shoot the 3. The Warriors play 5 forwards that live by the 3 die by the 3. For the Heat its just give to D. Wade and that Big guy will cover your back. For Larry Brown it was "play the right way". For the Spurs its "bore me" ball and in your face defense. Utah has a system. So it's not just players ... it's about the coach. What kind of coach will Mo Cheeks be? When asked this year about his resurrection with Dallas, Jerry Stackhouse attributed some of it to maturity and the rest to "the system". So what's Mo's system.

Coaches have a family history. Mo is a disciple of Larry Brown. Is it this gonna be a "play the right way" team. Focusing on the fundamentals. Maybe it will be molded in the likeness of the team he won a championship on as a player. I loved that '82 squad. But that was a different NBA. The Spurs and Pistons got to the promised land with tenacious 'D". Somehow I don't get the feeling the Sixers are gonna scare anybody with their defense. Taking a look at the players the Golden State Warriors could be pattern. We have six pack of players that can play small forward. But the 3 point shooting would have to improve. I am not a fan of Don Nelson and his junk ball offenses. Last year was a fluke (you can tell'em I said that).

My spidey senses are telling me the Sixers will be going with the flavor of the month. That up tempo style the Suns have made so fashionable. The Grizzles played with it last year and hired Marc Iavaroni in the hope he could bring it from Phoenix to Memphis. Fans love it. Players love it. It covers up poor defense and the Sixers did beat the Suns at their own game last year (remember the streak that ended in Philly). But ... there is always that little man in my stomach ...

Can Mo and the Sixers do it? Can you win a championship with it? The Suns have made a lotta noise, but in the playoffs ... when teams can prepare for them .... they have come up short.

I know we won't get the answer in summer ball. So I'm still sittin on my hands until the fall. Maybe I'll take up baseball again .... what the heck did I just say ... its gotta be the heat!

Thanks for the cup of coffee ... bye (Joe Smith)

Alway the bridesmaid never the bride. I'm sure Joe Smith will tell ya Philadelphia would have been his second choice. But lets be honest ... the salary cap purgatory the Sixers are in doesn't give them much to bargain with. Everybody knows what they have to offer. Just like the NBA draft. So I guess I'm not really surprised we lost Joe Smith to the Chicago Bulls. Good luck to him. After his second cup of coffee with the Sixers (joining the team part way thru the 97-98 season) Smith is leaving under better terms.

So who is left. Nobody. The Sixers' free agency period is over . Done. The Sixers brain trust can check that off their summer to do list. On with "developing our new Young talent". You know I got a phone call from Thaddeus the other day. Okay it was actually a recording, but he told how ready he was to work hard and bring a championship team to Philly. From all appearances Young seems to be a nice guy. Personal-able. Some say he may even be capable of playing a little bit. I just don't think it will play on south broad street. This has gotta be a nightmare for the folks in marketing.

Free agency will be no cure for the Sixers summer time blues

So the dog days of summer are here and interest in basketball couldn't be lower. Die hard Sixers fans are peeking at the Summer league (Passion & Pride has been doing a great job of covering it). But you can't really get excited about that. Summer League basketball is for scrubs. As Ricky noted today ... Johnny Salmons was a all-star summer league player ... enuff said.

The draft was the premier summer event for Billy King and the Sixers' brain trust. I don't need to recount for anyone how their efforts have been measured and found wanting. The consensus remains that Philly needs to shore themselves up at PF and find a dead-eye-dick shooting guard. The answer ... free agency, right? Wrong.

While the impending trades of Kobe & KG could shuffle the deck a little. This years free agency is shaping up to be a ho-hum affair. Chauncey Billups has decided to stay home with the Pistons. Darko was finally set free by the Magic and decided to settle down in Memphis (huh). With the free Dark cash the Magic sign the other high profile free agent, Rashard Lewis. IMHO, Lewis will be a bust. Too self-centered for a Stan Van Gundy team. Gerald Wallace, the perennial underachiever with potential will stay home. I guess he is buying what Micheal Jordon is selling. Oh boy ... the Blazers bought out Stevie Franchise and cast him out on the free agent waters. I wonder who's gonna take a shot at the agining star guard. Now that his pockets are fat with buyout money do you think he will settle for being a role player for the NBA minimum? Grant Hill is going to the valley of the sun. After milking the grotesque contract he had with the Magic, Hill like so many veteran players will seek a ring. Good for him I guess.

So free agency seems to be all but over as fast as it began. Yes there are still some fine players out there looking for a team ... like .... like ... like Vince Carter, Michael Olowokandi, Andres Nocioni, Matt Barnes, and don't forget Chris Webber (chuckle-chuckle). No the only fireworks we might see is the re-signing of Joe Smith. Without Smith the 76ers will be exposed at forward. I know they will be a young team and hard pressed to win anyway, but it's difficult for an unbalanced team to grow (which is the emphasis this year, right). Everyone will just exploit your weaknesses. No one will improve until you fix it. So I'm watching to see what happens with Smith. That would spice up the summer a bit. But the little man in my stomach is saying ... I can't wait to see how Billy screws this one up. It a long summer ... time will tell.