I just spoke with Dionte Christmas' agent, Andre Buck, who said his client was released early this morning. Buck said that he spoke with Christmas briefly and plans to see him later today. Buck said that the next step in this process is a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

If you need the details of this story, click here: Dionte Christmas arrested.

Buck said that it's "hard to convey" how is client is feeling, but that he's OK. Buck said, as of right now, Christmas' basketball options remain intact.

"We were and will continue to evaluate some of the opportunities that he has," Buck said. "There was nothing so immediate that we would have been leaving today or yesterday, but we are going to evaluate everything ... the lovely part about our great country is innocent until proven guilty."

"Things happen in life and we'll deal with it. He's dealt with a lot -- nothing of this nature -- but he's a positive person."

Sixers still have no comment about Marreese Speights' role in this situation.

--Kate

I went to 76ers shootaround this morning at St. John's, hoping to get a minute with Marreese Speights. In case you missed the news, click here: Dionte Christmas arrested. Right now, this appears to just be an inconvenient situation for Speights as there is no legal action against him. The Sixers and coach Eddie Jordan said this morning Speights is expected to play in tonight's last pre-season game against the New Jersey Nets, although the Sixers will not make him available to the media tonight, either. The official word coming from the Sixers is they are "aware of the situation but have no comment at this time." Calls to Speights' agent, Andy Miller, have so far this morning gone unreturned.

I watched about the last 35 minutes of shootaround and Speights looked the same as usual. The only notable difference was at the end of shootaround, Jordan brought the huddle in tight and the team appeared to be getting some words from Jordan about the situation. Afterwards, Jordan confirmed that.

"We spoke in the huddle about the situation and I don't want it to be a distraction to him," Jordan said. "He's going to be distracted just because of human nature. We want him to feel free, usually when you come to the basketball court you free yourself from all other distractions."

Jordan said he found out about the situation last night and has yet to speak directly with Speights. Jordan said he might not address it directly with Speights, so as not to distract him further. 

"We're just going to wait until the NBA and our front office comes to some sort of resolution and action after all the facts have been sorted out," Jordan said.

After the huddle broke, Speights went and sat on the scorer's table. He was quickly surrounded by teammates. Sixers swingman Andre Iguodala said the team found out about the situation today.

"We weren't even talking about that, the situation," said Iguodala when asked what was being said to Speights. "We were talking about what comes with the territory, we weren't specifically talking about what happened yesterday. We were talking about life in general. We do that everyday."

Check out the video in the video player on the right where Sixers are surrounding Speights at this morning's shootaround.

"Protect and support your teammate, that's one of our mottos," Jordan said.

--Kate

76ers General Manager Ed Stefanski announced today that the team has exercised the third-year contract option for forward-center Marreese Speights and the fourth-year options for forward Thaddeus Young and forward-center Jason Smith.

Of the extensions, Stefanski said, "Thaddeus, Jason, and Marreese are there of our young players who have done everything asked of them and contribute to show improvement every time they step out on the court. We are excited about the way they have developed to this point and we are looking forward to them continuing their careers with the Sixers."

The Sixers practiced today at PCOM and will be traveling this afternoon to Queens, NY, where they will play the New Jersey Nets tomorrow night in their final pre-season game.

--Kate

This morning, the 76ers waived shooting guard Dionte Christmas and forward Brandon Bowman.

Bowman's dismissal was expected, but Christmas, the former Temple star, looked to -- possibly -- have a shot at making the team. Here was Christmas' line during the pre-season: 4 games played (of 7 possible). 7.5 minutes a game, 12.5 percent shooting from the field, 33.3 percent from three, 66.7 percent from the line, 1.8 points a game.

Just left Sixers practice at PCOM. Sixers GM Ed Stefanski spoke about the decision to cut Christmas. He said Christmas might be someone they look at down the line, but that right now they'd prefer to go with 13 and have a possible spot available for someone more able to immediately contribute.

The Sixers roster now stands at 13 players, all of whom have guaranteed contracts for this season.

--Kate

The 76ers lost tonight, 90-89, when replacement referees called a three-shot foul with 0.3 seconds left on Willie Green. Green had just made 1 of 2 free throws to give the Sixers a 89-88 lead with 1.0 seconds left.

The Wizards called a timeout then inbounded the ball on the sideline. Wizards guard Mike James heaved a three at the buzzer, which fell short. The game appeared to be over, the Sixers PR staff even dropped the streamers they save only for victories. But, within James' final attempt, one of the referees saw a foul on Green -- who appeared to be far away from James -- and blew his whistle. Multiple replays seemed to show James went untouched, but I was squinting at the little TV box on press row, looking at the Comcast broadcast. The closest Sixer to James appeared to be Jason Smith.

After the game, we talked to Green about the call. He was very forgiving. In the video player at the right, you can check out the video of Green in the Sixers locker room post-game. In his post-game press conference, Eddie Jordan said, with a little smile on his face, "It's the pre-season, we're all a little bit rusty."

So, moving on from the end-of-game issue, let's look at the game itself.

Before the game, in his press conference, Jordan commented on how resilient his team had been, how they had managed to find a way to win this pre-season. As this game played out, that's exactly what seemed to be happening. The Sixers played poorly in the first half and even in the third quarter things weren't looking pretty. Before the end-of-game call, that's exactly what the story seemed to be: Sixers play poorly but still find a way to win. Before the fourth quarter, the story seemed to be that the Sixers were a week away from the season opener and seemed totally out of sync. This team keeps you on your toes.

(Also of note, the Wizards were missing Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas, and Mike Miller ... so, basically, their three best players.)

During the game, I made a few notes about certain plays I found interesting:

1.) There was one possession in the second quarter -- with the second unit -- where they didn't even get into a set until there were about 7 seconds left on the clock. Royal Ivey called "horns" (interesting, since he's from UTexas), which is a high 1-4 set. Ivey gave it to Green, who took one dribble and shot a bad jumper going left. The Sixers called this "horns" play at least three times tonight. On one occasion, Lou Williams waited until the left wing cleared, dribbled off the on-ball at the high post, and got to the basket.

But, back to the reason for the discussion of this second-quarter possession: There were too many possessions like this tonight, where the Sixers were trying to get into a set with under 10 seconds on the 24-second clock. There just seemed to be too many wasted possessions. But what can you say? It's pre-season, so it's tough to tell what is being done as exercise and what is being done for real. Guess we'll know the answer on Oct. 28, at the Orlando Magic.

2.) On one play, also in the second (the Sixers scored only 17 points in each of the first two quarters), Elton Brand grabbed a rebound on one end, ignored Iguodala and Williams, dribbled up court to the elbow, penetrated to the block, tried to make a move, and missed a bad shot. This appeared like a frustration possession from Brand, clearly. He played 23 minutes tonight and went 1 for 4. Four shots? Four? Four shots for the power forward who's supposed to take this team to the next level? Tonight, Brand was like the 4th option, at best. There did not seem to be a place for him in this Princeton Offense.

Marreese Speights looked effective, per usual. He sure does like to shoot, but at least he's shooting a high percentage -- 6 for 12 tonight. Jason Smith played very well in the fourth quarter, I'd go so far as to say he sparked the comeback and definitely played his strongest minutes since returning from the torn ACL.

It's tough to say exactly where the Sixers are right now. Just when they look bad, and you think they're far behind, they have an amazing quarter and steal the game. Hard to question a team that started the pre-season 5-1. The played strong defense tonight and their presses (both full-court and three-quarter) were effective. I will say that I think the Princeton Offense is not as far along as Jordan is claiming. He said before the game that he's taught this team, in three weeks, what usually takes other teams two months to learn. Maybe they know it and they aren't using it? But what they showed tonight -- for much of the game -- was not a mastery, or even the beginnings of mastery, of this offense. It barely looked like comprehension.

That's it for now. I'm feeling like there won't be too many answers until Oct. 28,

--Kate

Two of the Washington Wizards best players, Gilbert Arenas and Mike Miller, are out of tonight's pre-season game with "flu-like symptoms." 

The probable Wizards starters: DeShawn Stevenson, Randy Foye, Caron Butler, Andray Blatche, and Brendan Haywood.

Sixers will start the same five they've been starting: Lou Williams, Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young, Elton Brand, and Samuel Dalembert.

Only Sixer on the roster not suiting up tonight is Rodney Carney, who is still out with a strained left hamstring.

Just finished pre-game conference with Eddie Jordan. As we all know, the last team Jordan coached was the Wizards -- they fired him early last season.

Here's another thing to keep an eye on tonight: The Wizards will know the Princeton Offense, probably better than the Sixers do at this point. Last Friday night against the New York Knicks (the Knicks had a couple of players who ran the Princeton under Jordan), the Sixers went away from the PO. Jordan called tonight a "unique challenge" because of Washington's knowledge of the offense. Jordan mentioned the team might run a lot of pick-and-roll stuff.

Just uploaded a video of the beginning of Jordan's press conference. It should be in the video player at the right.

(For Statman, 127, etc. ... I'm in the process of trying to get cleared to post comments on the new site, as soon as I do, I'll try to jump on there for comments as well.)

--Kate

Just finished at 76ers shootaround, they play the Washington Wizards tonight at the Wachovia Center. When the curtain first lifted this morning at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, it looked like Rodney Carney might be 100 percent back: He was on the second team, running through some sets. Alas, upon talking with Sixers PR, Carney still won't suit up tonight. If you want such information quicker, feel free to follow Deep Sixer on Twitter. Click here: Deep Sixer.

It's been about a week since we were back on Sixers here. First, the Sixers went to Phoenix and then Mexico. Next, I spent a couple of days at Citizen's Bank Park covering the National League Championship Series. Now, we're back. I don't believe I'll be leaving Sixers/Deep Sixer again, so we'll try to get this blog going like we did last year.

Obviously, I'm a little behind on how the Sixers looked in their last two games. The box score really doesn't help too much in that regard. But there's 8 days left before the season opener and two games: Tonight's and Friday night's against the New Jersey Nets in Queens, NY. If you're going to tonight's game, or following it, here's some storylines: 

1.) The Wizards are Eddie Jordan's most recent team: They fired him in November of last year, only a handful of games into the 2008-09 season. There was a decent amount of D.C. media at this morning's shoot around -- more D.C. media than Philly media. (But we know where the Philly media is.) Jordan had success with the Wizards, where he ran the same Princeton Offense he's running here with the Sixers. That's a storyline, sure, but let's look at the on-court ones: 

2.) I know I'm interested to watch Elton Brand again. His numbers on the two-game swing were light, almost like he was the 3rd, 4th or 5th option. And maybe he is. That would be fine -- I can see Iguodala, Young, and Williams scoring more than Brand -- but it would be a huge shift from the Brand the Sixers thought they were getting.

3.) More Princeton Offense. There's only eight days until the Sixers open at the Orlando Magic. They've been adding sets daily, they even added one this morning at shootaround. It's always a storyline to see how the offense is flowing, how it looks, how effective it is. It'll be especially interesting to see how the Sixers can run it against the Wizards, a team that ran it themselves for the previous 5 years. I'm still not sure what stage the Sixers are in with this offense, not sure if they are running it well or struggling. Not sure if they are going away from it a lot, or working through the kinks. We'll try to get a better reading on that tonight -- as much as is possible during pre-season games.

4.) Jrue Holiday. Last time I watched a game, Holiday, the Sixers rookie, did not get off the bench against the New York Knicks. He got a ton of minutes on this latest swing, and appeared to be efficient and effective with those minutes. Does this mean he might actually get some minutes this year? Was Jordan trying to build up his confidence? Still unsure of these answers.

5.) Washington's Agent Zero ... Gilbert Arenas ... he's always interesting.

More tonight ....

--Kate

76ers rookie Jrue Holiday received a DNP-Coach's Decision last night against the New York Knicks. He was the only player suited up that didn't get in the game. After today's practice, Sixers coach Eddie Jordan talked about not playing Holiday. He said he felt bad he didn't get him in the game. His reasoning was that New York's guards -- Chris Duhon, Nate Robinson, etc. -- were playing at a high, intense level. Higher than is usual for a pre-season game. Jordan said he didn't feel comfortable tossing Holiday into that situation. It sounded like he was uncomfortable with it not because of potential mistakes/turnovers, but moreso to preserve Holiday's psyche.

Jordan said before today's practice he addressed some "behavior" issues from last night's game. Some "exhibited frustration" by his players. Jordan said that as the team's leader he thought it important to quickly talk about some of these things ... early in the season. On this point, I have to agree with him. It seemed in the second quarter -- when things really weren't going well -- that some unnamed Sixers were having less than positive energy. In fact, that's a term Jordan used: don't bring negative energy to the court. On one play, I believe it was the second quarter, Willie Green and Andre Iguodala went up for the same rebound. Iguodala snatched it from Green -- barely -- but when he came down, he glared at Green then stole a look to the Sixers bench as if to say, "what's he doing trying to take that rebound from me?" (That's how the interaction looked from press row, about 10 yards away.) I'm assuming these are the types of interactions that Jordan would want to eliminate. Awesome that he's addressing them so early.

Overall, Jordan said he took a lot of good things from Tuesday night's game: how the team responded in the second half, how the big players stepped up and got things done, how Lou responded to a poor start shooting, how Brand played. Sure enough, it's the pre-season, you gotta find the good things to take away, but having actually seen the game, and not actually being paid to coach the Sixers: it wasn't very good. Although a lot of the poor play belonged to the Knicks.

(Also of note, both Willie Green and Jason Smith were getting over flu symptoms ...)

The Sixers practiced about 90 minutes today. They looked to be practicing at a higher intensity and it seemed as if it was important to get in a good practice after the Knicks game.

The Princeton Offense: Jordan took the team out of the PO after the first quarter. Jordan said he is still learning how to coach this team and that the move was an "in-game feel," based on some of the Knicks knowing the Princeton. He explained that because he hasn't installed all of the options, his guys were out there without the proper counters. He also said that some of those Knicks would still know the calls for plays and because his guys weren't at the point where they could run the offense without calls (based on reads), he felt like continuing to run it would put them at a disadvantage. That all makes sense.

Rodney Carney won't be making the trip to Phoenix/Mexico. He is still out with a strained left hamstring. He's still officially listed as day-to-day, but I'd be surprised if he was back before the end of the pre-season games. He looks a little gimpy. Samuel Dalembert was wearing some sort of tape around his right calf today, and at times he looked to be limping, but the Sixers did not report any injury to Dalembert.

Still doing the Twitter thing. If you want to join, click here: Deep Sixer.

--Kate

Starting this blog post in the third quarter of the 76ers vs. Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.

It was not a pretty second quarter. In the quarter, the Sixers scored 13 points and had 14 turnovers. If this had been a regular-season game, those 14 turnovers would have been a franchise record for most turnovers in a quarter. Besides the turnovers, the Sixers just mostly looked lost. On offense and defense. The Knicks (who are not really very good) scored 28 points and led at halftime, 43-35, after trailing 22-15 after the first quarter.

Tonight, the Sixers just weren't getting great shots out of their offense. There doesn't appear to be as much movement as is necessary. Sixers were looking a little frustrated. Like when power forward Elton Brand, upon getting a rebound, delivered a pretty hard elbow to the side of Jared Jeffries' head. Jeffries was not pleased. He walked away for a second then confronted Brand. You could tell, right when Brand got the rebound, that he was going to be swinging some elbows. After the game, Brand said he was "clearing space." Yes he was.

I think the best thing we can say about this game is that it eventually ended. And that the Sixers did win, 93-85, although I'm still unsure if beating the Knicks counts as a victory. Sixers are 4-0 halfway through the pre-season.

Scoring-wise, Brand looked the best he has all pre-season. Before the game, coach Eddie Jordan spoke about Brand in his press conference and mentioned that he felt Brand was putting pressure on himself. And that the team needed Brand to incorporate himself into the flow of the offense. With his words, Jordan seemed to be saying that within the offense, Brand needed to eventually do less for his own game and more to help his teammates. (Although, realistically, I'm sure Jordan would say that about everybody on the team, considering the offense.) Brand didn't have any assists tonight, but he looked as effective scoring as he has all season.

Thaddeus Young finally broke out tonight -- 26 points. He scored those 26 like he did last year: without anyone noticing. 

Sixers had 28 turnovers.

Just came up from the post-game conference with Jordan, as well as the locker room with Iguodala and Brand. Jordan said that after the first quarter, the Sixers went into their regular NBA sets and out of the Princeton Offense. He said they were missing some reads and that it would be better for the matchups to go with some regular NBA sets. All three insinuated that the team is more comfortable with these NBA sets. Iguodala, in the locker room after, seemed frustrated. Iguodala did say the team needs to stay committed to Jordan's offensive principles. Some observations: 

1.) Jrue Holiday didn't play. After the game, it seemed like some of the Sixers were taking a few seconds as they were getting ready to keep up Holiday's spirits. Lou Williams stopped for a second to talk to him.

2.) The second unit struggled. Individually they struggled and collectively -- in the second quarter when they were in as a unit -- they struggled. Willie Green (0 for 3, 2 turnovers) had a rough game, but he did miss practice yesterday with the flu.

3.) The Knicks shot 41 three-pointers. 41. They made 7. But they shot 41.

4.) The Sixers were 3 for 9 from three, with Kapono going 1 for 1. Dionte Christmas didn't shoot a three, but he played 5 minutes in the third quarter. He finished with 1 rebound and went 1 for 2 from the free throw line. It's a good sign that he even got some minutes, although so did Brandon Bowman. Holiday was the only DNP-Coach's Decision.

5.) Here's my two cents on the Princeton Offense. It seems like the over-arching principle of the Princeton is to immediately go backdoor if you're denied. Especially with an NBA clock of only 24 seconds, it would seem essential that if your defender denies you a pass, you get the heck out of there, cut, and fill the other side. Tonight, a few times, the Sixers were fake cutting backdoor, stuttering with their defenders, and trying to get open to get the ball. Each time, it killed like 7 seconds off the clock and absolutely destroyed any sort of rhythm and flow within the offense. Of course, sometimes, the play is a dribble handoff, so your goal is to come get the ball. It just felt like a few times tonight, nobody was making the backdoor cuts, flocking instead to the basketball. Jordan pointed out afterwards that a couple of the Knicks defenders had run the Princeton under him, so they probably know the offense better at this stage than some of the Sixers.

All right, time to log off at MSG. The Sixers will practice tomorrow at PCOM.

--Kate