Derek Bodner’s Blog

The shame of the Sixers 107-88 victory over the New Jersey Nets last night was that no matter which group you fall in, you’re likely not satisfied with the win.

If you still believe in the Sixers ability to win a round or two in the playoffs, last nights demolition of the Nets couldn’t have erased the doubt the previous 4 games set in your mind, and really the last month in a half.

If you’re hoping the new starting lineup propels the team to better starts, being outscored 7-12 (and playing horrible offensively) and 9-11 to start the first and third quarter isn’t erasing doubts.

If you’re trying to regain the Atlantic Division, the Celtics surprising come from behind win over the Heat in South Beach, their second strong win over the Heat in the month of April, prevented the Sixers from gaining any ground.

If you’re hoping for the Sixers to lose, either for the draft pick or to send the ownership group a message, the win showed the Sixers return to form against bad teams and saw them move 2 full games ahead of the idle Milwaukee Bucks, a bad sign for a Sixers team with a soft remaining schedule.

If you’re hoping the Sixers will fall to the 8th seed so they can face the Bulls in the first round and avoid the Heat, then the Sixers win combined with the Knicks loss which catapulted the Sixers 1 game ahead of the Knicks and into the 7th spot creates some worry as the Sixers get closer and closer to a first round matchup with the Heat.

If your focus is on the development of Evan Turner, then his 1-4 shooting night in 19 minutes certainly wasn’t what you’re looking for.

And, if you’re Orestes Meeks then, well, your boy is really struggling to make an open shot right now.

At the very least, it was nice to see the Sixers play good basketball again.

Spencer Hawes, Sixers bounce back against Nets, regain 7th seed [LibertyBallers.com]

I’ve been informed that Jodie Meeks and Nikola Vucevic will be starting tonight for Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes.

Jodie Meeks starting for Evan Turner wasn’t a shock after Doug Collins quotes after the Orlando Magic loss, although it has been hotly debated since. He said he would give the starting lineup one more chance, and the Boston game was atrocious.

More of a shock is benching Spencer Hawes, who has only played 12 games since returning from injury. Not that it’s not deserving — Hawes is shooting just 42.9% since coming back from injury — but Vucevic had been used very sparingly of late. Before his 28 minutes in the Boston blowout, Vucevic had only played 3 minutes in the last 4 games, and had only played double figures minutes once in the previous 9 games.

Meeks, Vucevic starting for Turner, Hawes tonight against Nets [LibertyBallers.com]

Losers of 4 straight, and and 10 of their previous 14, the Sixers will try to regain their footing and desperate try to head into the postseason end the season with some kind of momentum. In order to do that, they will have to collect some wins this week that sees them face relatively easy opponents, with a game against the 20-37 Raptors sandwiched between two games against the 21-37 Nets.

You want me to try to predict how the week will unfold? Impossible. This team is losing to every team possible. They’re getting blown out against good teams on the road and bad teams at home. The last 6 games, of which they have lost 5 of, they’ve gone 0-3 on the road and 1-2 at home. They’ve lost to Washington and Toronto by 21 points. They’ve lost 6 of their previous 7 on the road and are sitting at 10-15 on the road for the season, where they will play 8 of their final 10 games.

It would be virtually impossible to predict a good showing from this team. Even if they win, I have no confidence it will be pretty.

Sixers try to find footing against Nets [LibertyBallers.com]

With the Sixers 88-82 deflating loss to the Orlando Magic, losers of 5 straight heading into the game and on the verge of imploding due to the revelation of Dwight Howards’ demands, the Sixers season stands on the precipice of disaster.

Holding an 8 point half-time lead against a team missing two starters, including their second leading scorer and second leading rebounder, the Sixers appeared to be in position to right the ship. Instead they imploded, putting the starting lineup, the season, and the future in doubt.

Sixers season on the brink of disaster [LibertyBallers.com]

Looking uphill at the Boston Celtics and in the 7th seed of the Eastern Conference, the potentially dim playoff outlook and the lack of development from Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday threaten to derail what once looked like a promising season.

Sixers Need To Show Progress In Final Month [philly.sbnation.com]

Tuesday night after the Sixers game something interesting happened, and it wasn’t just Jodie Meeks near record setting night.

Our own Michael Levin was a guest on Spike Eskin’s show on 94 WIP. Michael and I have both been guests on the show multiple times, and I highly recommend giving Spike’s show a listen if you haven’t done so already. He’s the rare host with a new age way of thinking on a medium largely dominated by old school thinking. There’s legitimately good basketball talk going on in the show, and if you’ve been listening to the Philadelphia sports radio scene for any amount of time you know that’s rare.

On the show, Michael was talking about building a winner, and how winning now shouldn’t necessarily be the primary goal. Basically, all the stuff we’ve been advocating for the last 5 6 7 years to try to accelerate our path to contention.

Then, as Michael was talking about why the Sixers should be intentionally trying to lose not necessarily have winning as their top priority, Adam Aron, Sixers CEO, called in. Spike initially bumped Michael to talk to the man in charge of the Sixers, but Adam was courteous enough to let a lowly blogger (albeit one whose organization is credentialed with his team) finish talking while he sat on hold.

I was about to call into Spike’s show to offer my opinion, but for various reasons wasn’t able to. Instead, I’m going to put it in written form here. Some of it will be largely overlapping what Michael wrote about yesterday, but we have a couple of off days and this is a topic that, as a college basketball scout and a 76ers fan who wants a championship, is near and dear to my heart. It showed exactly why the owner (or ownership group) is the most crucial ingredient in building a champion.

Building an NBA champion and the curse of conflicting interests [LibertyBallers.com]

As I did for the round of 32, I will be writing about what I’m going to be keying in the Sweet 16.

To reiterate, I don’t place a whole lot of emphasis on the NCAA tournament. There are exceptions, particularly when small school players go up against NBA-level competition for what may be only the second or third time in their career, like Kenneth Faried did last year, and C.J. McCollum did this year (I did a report for DraftExpress on McCollum today).

Also, this isn’t necessarily a list of the best prospects, and certainly not all the prospects. These are the ones I’m keying on as a Sixers fan/scout, because they could be good fits with the Sixers, because I want more data on them, or because they’re going up against a matchup that intrigues me.

Sixers fans viewing guide to the Sweet 16 [LibertyBallers.com]

Playing in relative obscurity to the basketball viewing public in the Patriot League, junior guard C.J. McCollum was introduced to the national audience with an incredible 30 point, 6 rebound, 6 assist showing as Lehigh upset 2nd seeded Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

It wasn’t McCollum’s first appearance in the national spotlight, as the Mountain Hawks played Kansas tough in the first round of the NCAA tournament during McCollum’s freshman season, a season that saw him lead all freshman in scoring at 19.1 points per game. But for a player on the fence about declaring for the NBA draft who had previously struggled in his limited appearances against top competition, this was exactly the kind of coming out party McCollum needed to put his name in the basketball worlds collective conscience, and a perfect recap to what has been a very good bounce back season for the focal point of the Lehigh offense.

C.J. McCullom scouting report [DraftExpress.com]

With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the matchups I’ll be keying on in the round of 32. Note that these aren’t necessarily the best prospects, nor my favorite prospects. They’re a combination of prospects I want more information on, matchups I think could be telling, and players the Sixers could realistically have a shot of drafting and who could potentially be a good fit with the Sixers.

Sixers draft preview – round of 32