c2c basketball

Philly’s Finest is the Philadelphia 76ers’ team report written by Bill Weber.

Team reports are articles written by the General Manager of each franchise. Whether it is weekly, monthly, or after every trade or game, c2c’s team reports are an inside look to each franchise. Maybe an explanation of a trade or a week in review of how the team has faired in games, either way, these are the words of the league and owners.

Brace yourselves.

Philadelphia management made some serious off season moves to beef up the depth and strength of their roster for the 2008 season.Although some decisions came under a small amount of controversy the long term benefit of thse choices will be seen.

GM Bill Weber has seen controversy many times and thrives on people questioning him.It gives this GM more motivation to prove his critics wrong…

Although the Sixers are still a score by committee type team with no big names we still will get scoring from all over……no team will be able to focus on just 1 guy because someone else will just step up and take over.

It started with the firing of Mo Buttcheeks and the signing of Larry Smith as their new HC.After Popovich rejected our 6 mil for 5 years bid and Hubie and Adelman being taken in that 1st day we felt he was the best one left out of the remainder.We wanted someone who paid attention to defense…didn’t play a run and gun style and was able to develop our youth.We feel Larry fit right into this scheme …better then George Carl and Avery Johnson.

Philly got lucky by being able to land the number 3 pick in the draft.After fending off 20 trade offers the Sixers GM picked Al Horford.Although not a big favorite of Mr Weber he will bring in a very solid paint game with better rebounding and defense.He was the obvious choice at three and the 15 offers we got for him after he was picked proves that.

With the number 9 pick the Sixers selected versatile SF Julian Wright.This pick recently came under fire by outsiders who felt Green was the better choice.but we were happy to be able to get him.Julian may not be quite the scorer as Green (but he is close) he brings in the same tough rebounding and defense and a solid over all game…He has very good Disc and IQ levels coming in and is better now then Green will ever be in that area.This is key to have a guy being able to play under control and make smart decisions under fire..Julian helps with Bill Weber’s building of a solid well balanced and deep team.

Alando Tucker was brought in as a back up SG because our 1st pick Aaron Brooks was picked before us.Alando comes is as a 61 scorer with some potential to be better and we feel he will add production off the bench behind Hughes and Davis.

Josh McRoberts was basically picked as a best of what was left deal and will most likely be traded or used as an injury filler.If nothing else he will make our D-League team better for 3 years….

In some other off season moves Philly traded their number 11 pick and Rebraca to pick up Mehmet Okur.Okur give Philadelphia a proven double figure scorer to help their offense and solid rebounding to help Sean May and Al Horford.AS a possible 6th man at PF/CE we feel he will be a big contributer to this team

The additions of Ricky Davis and Darius Miles just add even more to the balance ,defense and depth.

Sixers Management feels that these moves will give a team that finished 39-43 in the tough Eastern Conference that extra boost we need to get into the playoffs.Although there are no championship aspirations this season we feel that a playoff appearance is in the making.Sixers still have a ton of cap room and 5 more 1st round picks in the next 2 years and we see this team becoming very good in the near future.