Thursday Morning Links

Thursdays news fresh off the presses.

Sixers:

Here's all the coverage of the Sixers' game 2 loss to Orlando.

ESPN's coverage is here, Rich Hofmann both blogs and writes a column, and Kate Fagan gives us this piece from the Inquirer.

Phillies:

The Phillies managed to get two consecutive games with decent starting pitching, of course the squandered Blanton's effort, which you can read about here.

Joe Blanton's outing isn't enough according to Andy Martino of the Inquirer.

David Murphy of the Daily News talk about the Phillies lack of a rhythmatic offense.

We also have a pair of pitching updates, one on Brad Lidge trying to regain his form, and this piece on the progress of young starters Kyle Kendrick and Carlos Carrasco.

Eagles:

The Eagles talk these days seems to surround three topics:

1. The latest on Sheldon Brown, who now claims that there are other disgruntled Birds around the nest.

2. The Draft. There is speculation whether the Eagles will keep their pick or trade it. If they keep it, here's a peek at what their draft board may look like for offense and defense.

3. The quest for receiving help. ESPN insider reports that the Eagles are the front-runners to land Tony Gonzalez, with an offer on the table of the 85th pick in the draft. The article speculates that one of the Birds' fifth rounders may have to be added to make the deal worthwhile for Kansas City.

Flyers:

Just a pair of stories for the orange and black, first about their impending elimination, and this piece from Phil Sheridan explaining that the Flyers not improving like many of their Eastern Conference foes.

Wednesday Morning Links

Here's this morning's links following a busy sports day that featured a Phillies win, a Flyers loss, and continued drama surrounding Sheldon Brown.

Flyers:

From Philly.com, here's the game 4 recap, as well as a pair of opinions; Sam Donnellon wondering about Jeff Carter's scoring touch, and Phil Sheridan writes about how the Flyers are in a tough spot with only themselves to blame.

ESPN's Scott Burnside gives Marc-Andre Fleury his due.

Phillies:

The Phillies sat through the rain Tuesday to collect a big win.

A few words on the early success of Raul Ibanez from Paul Hagen.

Sixers:

There's a decent amount of Sixer's stuff today.

First Kate Fagan writes about the Andre Iguodala bandwagon filling back up.

Rich Hofmann talks about the injured Jameer Nelson of the Magic.

Marcus Hayes talks about the strategy being planned before tonight's game 2 match-up.

Eagles:

Fan-favorite Dave Spadaro wonders about whether the birds will pick a corner due to the Sheldon Brown situation.

Speaking of Brown, here are random thoughts from Paul Domowitch.

ESPN insider leaves just three teams in on the Boldin sweepstakes, The Jets, The Giants, and The Eagles. (Subscription required.)

Speaking of trading WR's ESPN's Len Pasquarelli thinks Reggie Brown may be moved soon, and the Eagles own website gives the breakdown on the WR's that the fans have clamoured for this offseason.

Tuesday Morning Links

Here's todays news and notes for Philly Sports.


Eagles:

Sheldon Brown has made it clear he wants a raise or a trade because he feel unappreciated, ESPN covers it here, and Bob Brookover covers the Eagles response, and it wasn't positive.

Still hoping for Anquan Boldin, maybe Ochocinco? Check out this about the costs of getting either receiver.

Also, if you have ESPN Insider, check out this piece about the Eagles being a likely Boldin destination.

Bob Ford credits Donovan for prodding the Eagles into spending this offseason.

Phillies:

With the rainout there's no new news, but Charlie Manuel talks about being concerned about the team's attitude and performance. The Inquirer has a version here.

Sixers:

Here's a piece from Rich Hofmann about Lou Williams importance this offseason.

ESPN's Daily Dime starts off with David Thorpe talking in depth about Donyell Marshall.


Flyers:

Apparently Penguins forward Chris Kunitz will not be disciplined for his hit on Kimmo Timonen.

Sam Carchidi writes about Briere and the rookies coming up big in game 3.

Pick Your Poison: Walk-off or Buzzer Beater?

Philadelphia was treated to two of the coolest ways to win in all of sports this Sunday, but which is better? You be the judge...

The Buzzer Beater:



or the Walk-off:

It's Late Night with... Andre Iguodala

Check out Philadelphia 76er Andre Iguodala on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.



By the way, Andre is a small forward.

Inside the mind of the Philly sports fan

During the research and the subsequent debates that were a part of doing our “Greatest Philadelphia Athlete” podcast, I repeatedly came across a common storyline, that we as fans turn on our superstar athletes and run them out of town. Its uncanny how many times the fan base here in Philadelphia have found something wrong with a premiere athlete and how often popular opinion has swung against a player whose performance should grant them some sort of immunity from that type of uprising. Successful or not, over time it seems as if Philly fans just get sick of the same players being the focal point of their teams.



If you try to hypothesize why this is the case, your first instinct would be to say it’s because the fan base demands a winner, and unless you win it all you get the label of a failure. This isn’t actually the case when you look further into this behavior. Mike Schmidt, for example, had a very vocal crowd of detractors throughout the ‘80s despite being a World Series champion, MVP of that World Series, a 12-time all-star, a 10-time gold glove winner, and a 3-time NL MVP. Schmidt was the greatest player of his time, yet still faced the wrath of the Philly crowds. They claimed he didn’t hustle and that he seemed nonchalant in the field, despite his records for fielding. At the time Schmidt grew frustrated with the crowds, calling them a mob scene and saying they were beyond help. Well, 25 years later not much has changed, a new generation of fans has come to be, and they are just as tough as their predecessors. 25 years later, I wonder if the great Michael Jack Schmidt was right, are we beyond help?

I’m not sure if we’re beyond help, but Michael Jack has nothing on today’s superstars. Today we live in a world with a television channel and two radio stations that are dedicated to covering Philadelphia sports exclusively. You think we used to nitpick in the ‘80s Mike? You ain’t seen nothing. Today every facet of professional sports is picked apart and criticized as a part of an endless 24-hour news cycle. Nobody feels this scorn and criticism any harsher than Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb. This pair represents the best the Philadelphia Eagles organization has ever put on the field, the winningest coach and the best quarterback. So why do we as fans do nothing but rip these two apart day in and day out. I often criticize McNabb for things not related to his play, and I claim to know better. Who am I to say that he isn’t a leader, or that he doesn’t command respect like other quarterbacks? Why do fans think that Andy Reid is a smug, arrogant bastard even though all he ever does is win football games and take all criticism on himself. That’s what a real man is supposed to do, chin up, don’t complain, just continue doing what you feel in your heart is right. Andy Reid is a very good coach (although a flawed one), and Andy deserves to get better treatment from Eagles “fans”. If you raise this point to an Eagles fan, they’ll tell you it’s because he has never won a Super Bowl, but ask Mike Schmidt how long the bloom stays on that rose, and he’ll tell you not very long. Once Philly decides your aren’t a “Philly guy”, the chances of escaping that determination are slim to none.

Just ask Scott Rolen. Rolen came up to the big leagues at the end of 1996 and showed flashes of greatness, those flashes materialized into a rookie of the year award in 1997 and Scott was on his way to becoming a Phillies legend. Then something odd happened, Scott won a few gold gloves and blossomed into one of the best young third basemen in baseball when the fans started saying that he wasn’t hard-nosed enough. After time Rolen began to bristle at this distinction and that was a huge mistake. It’s all well and good for the fans to slander you, but if you dare even hint that you resent their opinion, then you’re dead to them. It got to be so bad, that when Rolen started to question the team’s commitment to winning the fans took THE TEAM’S SIDE! So Rolen decided he wanted out, and he got a crybaby label for it. The label was further cemented by his feud with fiery manager Larry Bowa, who had never been a successful manager, yet is still loved by Phillies fans due to his passing the feisty personality litmus test with flying colors.

Scotty Rolen was just the tip of the iceberg. Remember Eagles’ star Randall Cunningham, who went from MVP to pariah in about three years. What about Eric Lindros? He went from hockey god to pansy-ass Daddy’s boy in about three years. You only need to look at The Answer himself. We named Allen Iverson the greatest athlete of the last 20 years, yet he was exiled too. He was labeled lazy for not making a handful of practices, yet all anyone talks about when he’s mentioned is how hard he played and how much effort he gave night in and night out. So what gives? Why do we continue to vilify our stars? Who is next to face the wrath of the infamous Philly backlash?

If I had to guess, the next in line is World Series MVP Cole Hamels. I vividly recall the fans declaring that Hamels wasn’t a big game pitcher, and that he was a pansy and cowardly for not pitching a day early last season, a move that would have matched him up against the Mets instead of the Marlins. That’s right, Cole Hamels had his heart and big-game ability questioned a mere weeks before he carried the Phillies to a World Series title. I remember arguing that if the kid isn’t comfortable pitching early, then respect that he has the maturity to recognize his limitations. Cole didn’t want to risk messing up his routine, and I think that decision worked out pretty well. Brett Myers, meanwhile, returned to the big-league roster after being sent to AAA to straighten out a horrible season as popular as ever, despite having a terrible season and recent legal troubles of a disturbing nature. Part of that was us fans knowing that Myers needed to perform well down the stretch for the Phillies to have a chance to win the East, and we decided that we were going to be behind Brett all the way for the good of the team. Then again, how often are we positive for positivity’s sake, I think as big a part of his maintained popularity is that Brett Myers always had that feisty demeanor on the field, and Philly fans respond to that.

The scary part is that those toughness related criticisms probably aren’t behind Cole. If Cole only makes 50 starts over the next two season, and the Phillies don’t win the East in those two years. I would not be at all surprised if the questions of his toughness crept back onto barstools and into the radio waves of the sports talk world. I heard Ike Reese on Monday evening say that Hamels is “overly cautious” when it comes to his body. This is before he’s thrown a single regular season pitch after a dominating World Series run that you’d think would have granted the kid some sort of a pass. If Cole isn’t currently immune, then is anybody in the Philadelphia sports scene ever going to be safe? After a few seasons without repeating as NL East champions, I could easily see the current group of Phillies falling out of favor. It won’t take much for Manuel to return to being Charlie from Mayberry, and Ryan Howard’s giant strikeout totals could very easily become a reflection of how he doesn’t work hard enough to get better, rather than a natural byproduct of a non-steroid era slugger.

So I ask, are we wrong? Are we hurting our teams more than we help with the way obsess like we do? As much as I love my teams, and as much as I love dissecting every move and game, maybe I’m not helping either. Should I restrict my opinion making data to what happens between the white lines? To answer this questions let’s consider the end of Andy Reid. I feel like when/if Reid is ever released by the Eagles, it will be due in part to the large, vocal group of fans who don’t like Reid because they find him arrogant and condescending. Odds say that our next coach will not be as good as Andy, since he is the winningest coach in team history; in fact odds are the next five coaches won’t be as good. So when Andy goes, if public opinion based on his personality is a factor in that decision, then we as fans will have chosen to have an inferior coach who is a better interview or who is a fierier guy on the sidelines, than a winner who is stone faced and boring. How insane is that? How insane are we?

Well, insane enough to spend countless hours picking apart every angle of the Eagles offseason, insane enough to pack Lehigh every year at mini-camps, insane enough to sell out every game for an entire 81 home game schedule despite a collapsing economy, and insane enough that three guys with full time jobs spend most of their free time building a website about Philly sports. We are very dedicated, is that so wrong? Is it wrong for fans of Lost to pack message boards and go over every frame of every episode? Absolutely not. The only thing that would be wrong is if the producers of Lost read those message board postings and make knee-jerk reactions to the feedback. It’s also wrong if the show’s producers completely ignore what those message boards say, not acknowledging what the show’s most hardcore fans believe.

In the end when you commit to following a team on a daily basis, you are also deciding that the team will be your primary entertainment source. Fans want a payoff for their time, money, and troubles. That is why we dislike boring Andy Reid, we want entertainment, and while the game day on-the-field product may usually be a quality one, what about our entertainment on the other 349 days of the year? If we aren’t working towards a title, the triumph of which is our ultimate payoff from this entertainment, then we need to be getting something else for our commitment, namely drama. The drama of the big game, the drama of the offseason where characters are added or removed from the roster, and sometimes we just need to add the drama ourselves. Drama, after all is second to triumph in what we hope to experience from watching sports to begin with.

That’s really the answer, I think, that when triumph isn’t an option, we want drama, and we are willing to create it ourselves as necessary. When that drama is created it is a pretty basic idea that the bigger the star involved, the bigger the drama. It works in Hollywood, it works on television and it works in Philadelphia sports. That why Scott Rolen was a superstar in the making who got the boot, but Pedro Feliz is a huge underachiever who gets a pass, because one was a leading man, and the other is playing a bit part. I think it really is that simple: we want drama, so we create it, and when we create it, we create it around our biggest stars. So when Philly’s brightest stars find themselves knee-deep in the quicksand of public opinion, don’t blame their downfall on us. After all, it’s our job as fans to follow along with the drama and even to embrace it. It is our right as fans to start the drama when it looks like that triumph we long for isn’t coming anytime soon, or when things are getting boring.

Top 10 Spectrum Moments

As the Philadelphia Spectrum slowly marches towards it's demise later this year, let's take a look back at the 10 most memorable moments that happened within the famous arena. Click below to take a trip down memory lane.



The last event to be held at the Spectrum is a concert scheduled for September 30, 2009.

AI # 1?

After watching AI2 beat the Lakers in yesterday's highlight about 10 times, I was thinking that is definately my second favorite shot ever against the Lakers. What's number 1? Well, check it out...




Iverson may be the greatest Philly athlete of my generation. I think we're going to have to debate this on the podcast. If you have a nominee for greatest Philly athlete from the past 20 years I'd love to here it. Email me Gkentz@hotmail.com.

Oh HELL YEAH!!

Remeber Ray Allen from the corner? Do you recall Devin Harris from beyond halfcourt? Well, it was our turn on Tuesday night!




With this impressive victory in LA, the Sixers are now winners in four straight. The Sixers also have a good chance of coming back from this west coast trip with at least 3 wins. Tonight they head to Phoenix to play the Suns. Since I brought up how good it feels to get a taste of what happened to us earlier in the season, I should mention that the Suns are probably eager to face us, since last time we played the Suns it was the second game of a back-to-back for them. Phoenix came to Philly on 2/9/09 after playing in Detroit the night before, needless to say the Sixers handled them fairly easily winning by 17, 108-91.

Do the Sixers have a pulse?

Why should I care about the 76ers?
Do you?
Really?
I doubt it.

The 2008-09 Philadelphia 76ers season is over. And while we're writing the obituary, let's add in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons while we're at it. You know what, enough with the formalities...the 76ers are dead to me! And as much as I'd prefer to leave this article at that, I have to post something semi-intelligent for the sake of the site. So here it goes. If you think I'm off base, if you're one of the "14,000" believers allegedly paying for a seat at the half-empty Wachovia Center for each Sixers game, then by all means, make me a believer. Make we want to "Come Run with Us," as the 76ers have so eloquently put it.


I admit that I'm not the biggest NBA fan, but I do love Philly sports! I'm a 'homer' and proud of it. The Philadelphia 76ers were the NBA as far as I was concerned. But this year, when it comes to the Sixers, the interest is just not there. And worse than that, I don't see this getting any better.

When the Sixers made their run in 2001, I was out every night, adult beverage in hand, screaming and cheering the team on as they marched through the East and squared off against the Lakers. That team had character, it had heart and of course it had the league MVP. But the joy of that memorable run quickly evaporated and has been lost and forgotten in just eight years. The team quickly deteriorated, and since the departure of Larry Brown in 2004, has had five different head coaches. Now, due to the atrocious state of the Sixers franchise, basketball, to me, is essentially dead. Does anyone feel differently throughout the city? When I look at the fact that the Sixers' average attendance is 14,790, 25th in the league, it seems like there are a lot of other people out there who also think the Sixers have been given their last rites. Prove me wrong.

Because of the overall mismanagement and poor play of the team, my interest in professional basketball now focuses on tuning in whenever Lebron is playing, holding off on flipping the channel if Kobe happens to be on, and from time to time allowing the man formerly known as Shaq to remain on my TV screen for a few minutes longer than I probably should be permitting at this point in his career. Turning on Comcast Sportsnet and seeing that the Sixers are playing hardly causes a pause in my nightly channel surfing. I may take a quick peek at the score, follow that up with a fast "they stank" comment, but I am quickly flipping back to reruns of Family Guy.

Don't tell me that they're not that bad. They are once again below .500 and have no chance at winning a playoff round. I'm sorry, but making it to the NBA playoffs and getting bounced in the first round should not be considered a success. Looking at this team from top to bottom and looking at the salaries that are attached to this second rate squad only leads to further frustration. The problems surrounding this squad are not going away any time soon. I'm not focused on who is getting minutes over who and I don't want to have to figure out how this team will gel next season when Brand comes back. I want Ed Stefanski and whoever the coach will be next year to fix the problems so I can enjoy a Sixers game once again. To be honest, I do have one bit of advice, this gem coming from a guy that knows only the basics: Can we please sign someone who can make a 3-pointer from time to time?

This team overpays at the wrong times, they cannot evaluate talent and they have no idea which identity they want their team to grasp on to. With only a limited repartee of basketball knowledge and salary cap regulations, I know that this team is stuck for at least the next three seasons; bogged down with the salaries of Brand, Iguodala, Dalembert, Williams, Evans and Green. Between those six players, the 76ers have already spent $55,005,349 in guaranteed money for the 2010-11 season, which we are still two years away from. In case you were wondering, this season's salary cap is $58.68 million with the luxury tax threshold set at $71.15 million. The cap has generally gone up about $3 million per/season over the past few seasons. But anyway you look at it, unless the Sixers deal at least one of those salaries away, they're not going to be able to make any major changes to bring this franchise back to life.

What's that? You say they could have attempted to dump one of those contracts this year by packaging someone along with Andre Miller? Wow. What else was there? Oh, they just lost their fourth game in a row, on a last second half court shot to the Nets? Forget it. Tag em' and Bag em', the Sixers are dead.

Sixers Frustration

I watched the Sixers lose their third straight game this afternoon, and I can’t seem to get over it. What is the deal with this team? I feel like I am fairly knowledgeable when it comes to the four major sports, but I have no idea what is going on with this team. I have a lot more questions than I do answers, and all I can think to do is put those questions out into the world and see if an answer gets back to me. So here goes


Why didn’t I see Marreese Speights until half way into the third quarter?

I’m not the biggest stat-head, but those who are seem to love John Hollinger’s PER statistic which can be found on ESPN.com. It measures a player’s statistical impact based on playing time. According to this formula the 11th most effective big man in the NBA (PF or C) is Marreese Speights. If you were wondering Samuel Dalembert comes in at 86th of the 122 players who qualify. Not the Sabermetrics type? Not a fan of these new-fangled formula based stats? Okey-dokey, how about just some numbers that are as basic as they come: points per game. Speights averages 8 a game, meanwhile Sammy scores just 6.1 and Sammy averages 25 minutes a game to Speights’ 15! It drives me crazy, because we’re not maximizing the team’s talent. I don’t even really want Speights starting over Sammy, because I’d rather use him to spark the offense from off the bench since Sammy is untradeable and has to get minutes. For Marresse not to get a single minute in the first half is unfathomable to me. By the way, here’s a gem from today’s box score:

Sammy: 22 mins, 1-3 shooting, 7 rebs, 0 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 2 points
Marreese: 20 mins, 6-10 shooting, 6 rebs, 1 assist, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 12 points


Who do you want on the floor for more minutes? The thing is, when Sammy’s having a good night, he’ll get you a double-double and a few blocks, but when he’s off his game he is terrible, much like tonight. I mean 2 points in 20 minutes, if he’s not playing aggressive ball then make a change, get somebody else in the game.

What happens to the front court rotation when Brand comes back in 2009?

We have a problem here. We have Sammy, Brand, Speights, Young, Evans, Marshall, Ratliff, and Smith as our potential big men next year. Obviously I don’t expect Ratliff or Marshall to play next season for the Sixers. So how do you share 96 minutes between those six, the obvious answer is to limit greatly what Evans and Smith get in terms of minutes, but Smith will be on the return from injury and next year is your chance to see if the 7-footer has a future in this league. Reggie Evans makes $5 million each of the next two seasons, so that’s a lot of money to not play. Young and Speights need to play, and are both potential all-stars that must be allowed to blossom, of course that leaves few minutes leftover for a pair of guys in Brand and Dalembert that will make $26 million combined in 2009-10. So if benching Evans seems like a waste, find the adjective for what sitting either of those guy would be. I believe the Sixers would be best served with Iguodala, Young and Speights as the starting front court from here on out. The problem with that scenario is that the three forwards I left out will be $31+ million of next season’s $57 million (ish) salary cap. Something needs to be done about this logjam.

With limited aspirations for the 2009 playoffs, why didn’t the Sixers make a trade?

The Sixers should have done something, they could have traded away Andre Miller, who is a free agent-to-be and aging. In return they could have gotten either draft picks, or a young point guard from a borderline team that can’t wait for a youngster to develop. How about trading Miller, Evans, and a first round draft pick to Portland for LaFrentz’s contract and Rudy Fernandez? Now Portland’s starting five is Miller, Roy, Outlaw, Aldridge, and Oden. How doesn’t that make both teams better? Fernandez shoots almost 40% from 3-point range, he’s exactly the type of player the Sixers need, and Miller is the veteran leader to take Portland through the playoffs. After writing my first draft my editor told me this trade was discussed as Miller and Evans for LaFrentz, and Ed Stefanski decided to pass. I think you could have sweetened your end with a pick or Lou Williams and gotten Fernandez, who would be on the bench behind Miller and Roy in Portland’s back court anyway. Portland is one of the few teams with the financial backing to withstand the current economy without making payroll cuts. So losing the LaFrentz insurance payment isn’t as big a deal to them as it would be to another team. LaFrentz is salaried at $12 million, but he is injured so insurance will pay the owner of the contract 80% of that salary. So his contract is worth $12m in trading rights, but only $2.4 or so in real dollars, making among the most valuable assets in the league. So valuable, in fact, that if the first trade worked the Sixers could have traded it immediately and probably solved the point guard problem they just created. The Sixers missed an opportunity here.

How can the Sixers improve their team enough in the upcoming off-season to have a chance to be a factor in the 2010 playoffs?

The short answer, as far as I can tell, is that they simply can not without making some tough choices. They’ll have a mediocre draft pick, no cap space, and no movable assets aside from Thaddeus Young and Marreese Speights, the two players they least wish to trade. Somehow the team needs to rid themselves of either Brand or Dalembert, although neither has any trade value. Brand’s value is low because of injuries and a high salary, and Sammy because he may be the most overpaid player in the NBA. I doubt anyone will trade for Dalembert until the 2010 draft class signs, and he is a big expiring contract with one season remaining. Trading Brand seems like tough challenge because you won’t get value for him. Brand’s stock is at an all-time low, and he won’t be worth anything until he plays again at a high level. So I guess if I’m in charge I’d resign Miller in the off-season, then I’d trade for a starting shooting guard by packaging Young or Speights and salary, as much as parting with one of those two hurts, it’s really the only way. So hypothetically let’s say Thaddeus Young, Jason Smith, and Reggie Evans for Kevin Martin of Sacramento. I’d offer a pick if that’s what it took to get the deal done, although to add a young potential all-star along with some decent role players would probably be enough for Sacramento to accept. This gives you a starting five of Miller, Martin, Iguodala, Brand, and Dalembert with Lou Williams behind each guard and playing 25 minutes a game, and Speights behind Dalembert and Brand while logging about 35 minutes a game, and the starting big men splitting the remaining hour of playing time. That team can be a 2-4 seed in the Eastern Conference, and maybe could get to the conference finals considering the Celtics aren’t getting any younger. Of course that leaves just one final question about the Sixers future.

With LeBron James playing at a level that can only be desribed as "Jordan-esque", how can the Sixers manage to get to the NBA finals while LeBron is in the East?

Yeah, about that... This may be the biggest problem for the Sixers, that no matter what they do, it won't ever be enough to get over the top. The answer is you need to get lucky and have one of your young big men develop into a top-10 NBA talent. Unless Speights becomes the next Tim Duncan, (or at least a close knock-off)I can't see you ever passing the Cavs. The Cavs can be beat by a dominant center, as it's the only position LeBron can't defend. Aside from that unlikely scenario, I'm back to being out of answers.

Greg