Wizards acknowledge difficulty of Princeton offense
The 76ers are still learning Eddie Jordan's Princeton offense. The Washington Wizards, who worked in the read-and-react, pass-and-cut schemes for five seasons-plus, can relate.
"When we first got in Eddie's offense, we struggled that year," Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas told reporters yesterday. "We struggled bad that year. Then the next couple years we got better. It's like when you're in a system for a while and you're transferring to a new system, things take a while.
"There are so many 'reads.' You have to read each other. I call it the thinking man's offense. If you don't have a very high IQ, you're always going to be lost. It took me and Larry [former Wizards and Sixers guard Larry Hughes] the whole summer to depict and figure out how we could move without running into somebody, because it's so many cutbacks that, if you back-door at the wrong time, you're running into players. You need five passers, five shooters. Athletes don't work in that offense, to be honest."
Said forward Antawn Jamison: "There was still a lot of room for improvement for us, and we've been with the system for a while. But that's one thing about Eddie - he's going to be very passionate about his system and what he's trying to do. I don't know how well [the Sixers] are running it, but any time you have guys like Elton Brand and [Andre] Iguodala, it's going to be tough for any team."
Six Shots
Jason Kapono, who sat out Saturday night's loss in Cleveland with a sprained ankle, went through yesterday's full practice and was expected to be available tonight . . . The Sixers play tomorrow night in Boston, then return home Friday night against Atlanta before heading out on a four-game trip that starts Nov. 29 and takes them to San Antonio, Dallas, Oklahoma City and Charlotte . . . ESPN has dropped the Sixers' Dec. 9 game against Detroit from its TV schedule, replacing it with Chicago at Atlanta.
- Phil Jasner
