Sixers Win in Milwaukee

Andre Miller’s  3-pointer over Michael Redd with 28 seconds left helped the Philadelphia 76ers hold on for a rare road win Wednesday night, 110-105 over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Miller led the Sixers, finishing with 28 points and 9 boards and 6 assists.  With only 49 seconds left, Miller went down the floor and Redd barely reacted, looking for a pick and expecting a drive when Miller pulled up and answered with a 3 to push the lead to 107-103 and seal the deal.

Lou Williams scored 12 points and Thaddeus Young 10 for the Sixers. Milwaukee got 26 points from Charlie Villanueva, 18 in the second quarter, 20 from Redd and 11 from Ridnour.

Sixers Beat Defending Champs

YOUR Philadelphia 76ers opened the pre-season with a thrilling victory over the defending champion Boston Celtics in Beantown on Wednesday night.  To my dismay, this game was NOT televised (WTF Comcast?), a freakin’ Meet and Greet with the Flyers over THIS, the first game of the ELTON BRAND era in the 215.  Christ.

Lou Williams scored 27 points and Thaddeus Young added 21 to help the Philadelphia 76ers beat the NBA champion Boston Celtics 98-92 on Wednesday night in the preseason opener for both teams.

Williams was 7-of-12 from the field and 12-of-13 from the line.  Leon Powe led the Celtics with 12 points and Tony Allen had 11.  The Celtics’ Big Three: Jesus Shuttlesworth, The Truth and KG — got off to a fast start, but played limited minutes. Allen had nine points, on three 3-pointers in an opening burst, while Pierce had eight and Garnett six.

Elton on the win:

This was an important game for us.  Boston has those three great stars. This gave us a barometer to see where we are.

Sixers Re-Sign Williams for Five

A source confirmed Thursday that the Sixers have locked up one of their two restricted free agents and signed guard Lou Williams to a five-year contract.

Additional terms of the deal were not known.

Williams averaged 11.5 points as the first guard off the bench for the Sixers. Although he wasn’t a starter, the slender 6-foot-2, 175-pounder often finished games during his third NBA season which garnered him some national attention this offseason.

Ed Stefanski must now focus on re-signing the key to the starting five, the spark on the court, Andre Iguodala.  Stay posted for updates.

UPDATE: Derrick Gunn on Comcast SportsNite is reporting that the deal is worth $25 million over the 5 years.

Sixers get ‘Poison’ Ivey

The Sixers reached an agreement with journeyman Royal Ivey for the minimum contract. The 6′4″ guard will join Willie Green and Louis Williams as combo guards coming off the bench for the new-look Sixers next season.

Ivey, 26, spent last year with the Milwaukee Bucks averaging 5.6 points and 2.1 assists in 75 games.

Royal Ivey

Offense isn’t his forte but he prides himself on defense.

I know the Sixers had to sign somebody since they only have 9 players under contract, but I hope management has their priorities straight. Signing Iguodala and Lou Will have to get done or this offseason tastes a little less sweet. We had a little scare with Lou Will, but the Warriors opted to go with Marcus Williams. Hopefully, Louis doesn’t take note of other signings and get any ideas of raising his asking price. My question is, were there no guards that could shoot that were cheap?

Golden State Gets OTHER Williams

The New Jersey Nets have traded point guard Marcus Williams to the Golden State Warriors for a future first-round draft pick, sources told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

Hopefully this acquisition of a young and talented PG will nix the interest the Golden State Warriors are said to have in Lou Williams, the 76ers backup point guard.  In my opinion the 76ers NEED to re-sign Lou Will and Andre Iguodala in order to keep their contention hopes alive in the East.

Warriors Express Interest in Lou Will

According to an ESPN.com report, the Warriors may be considering making an offer to 76ers restricted free agent Louis Williams.

The ESPN story quoted one “plugged-in” source as believing the Warriors “are planning to make a “big run’ at (Williams).”

Golden State is roughly $4.5 million under the salary cap after the Lakers declined to match the Warriors’ offer sheet to Ronny Turiaf, meaning it could offer Williams as much as $26 million over five years.

The Sixers would have seven days to match a signed offer sheet for Williams or Andre Iguodala, who is also a restricted free agent.  Golden State is looking for another point/combo guard to help Monta Ellis share the load after Baron Davis signed with the LA Clippers.

In other Sixer News: The Sixers inked Marreese Speights, the 16th overall pick in June’s NBA draft on Friday.

Speights, a 6-foot-10 PF from Florida, will earn about $2.6 million in the first two years of the contract. The team holds an option for two additional years.

To Make the Playoffs, or Not Make the Playoffs?

As the 76ers start their unofficial second half of the season tonight in Minneapolis, we seem to have deja vu about how the Sixers should approach the final 29 games of the NBA season.

Last year, the dust was still settling from the Allen Iverson trade to Denver, and the Sixers found themselves within punching distance of the 8th and final playoff spot in the East. However, the census around the city was the Sixers should play their young talent extensively and try to position themselves for the best LOTTERY pick possible. In other words; TANK.

They finished the season playing hard and inspired basketball and ended up 35-47.  This landed them five games out of the final playoff spot, gave them very few balls in the lottery drawing, and knotted them the 13th overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. Not quite what the ferocious Philly fans (myself included) had in mind.

Coming off this years All-Star break the Sixers are 23-30 and are in a three-way tie for the 7th seed in the pathetic Eastern Conference at the moment.

So what to do this year???

After landing two additional first round picks last year, people were foaming at the mouth at the chances of a top 7, or 8 pick, a mid-first rounder, and a late first rounder. They ended up with the13th pick and the 21st pick after the lottery and a couple draft day deals.

This year, the Sixers need to build for the future going forward.  The best way to do this in my mind is to do all they can to get that into the playoffs and gain some experience (however short it will be) that is so valuable to a young and growing team.  The Sixers have been sort of stuck in sports hell; that being mediocrity. And once again,  the Sixers are on pace (even if they don’t make the playoffs) to be assured an 11th, 12th, or 13th pick again. However, a team full of Lou Williams, Thaddeus Youngs, Andre Iguodalas, and Rodney Carneys; gaining playoff knowledge from most likely the Pistons or Celtics over four games, is something that could potentially be extremly valuable to the growth process of these young players and could pay off huge dividends down the road. 

Back in heyday of Larry Brown, when Allen Iverson was running the team with a flurry of randoms and in-experienced guys at his side, playoff disappointments were a normal conclusion to the end of a few boring, middle of the pack seasons.   They were swept back to back years by the Pacers, but they continually matured and grew together as a team and eventually put it all together and made that memorable 2001 Finals run.

In order to have that the same growth and learning curve  like the ’01 Sixers had, a playoff berth for this years version (no matter if it is a 4 game sweep) will definitely be more beneficial to this group, then falling out of the playoff picture and into another lottery debacle like last year.