Separate Ways
Maybe last night, 76ers coach Eddie Jordan saw how his team has been playing for the first time. Or maybe last night, he finally decided to say something about how he's been seeing his team. Either way, last night, Jordan seemed frustrated and angry for the first time this season.
Separate Ways
Maybe last night, 76ers coach Eddie Jordan saw how his team has been playing for the first time. Or maybe last night, he finally decided to say something about how he's been seeing his team. Either way, last night, Jordan seemed frustrated and angry for the first time this season.
I think most fans have already noticed how much the Sixers are struggling. Last night just happened to be the first time Jordan verbalized what most fans have already seen: his team is out of sync, has little rhythm, and doesn't look fully committed to what needs to happen.
So far, the Sixers had slipped past these types of games, barely beating the New Jersey Nets, winning in overtime against the New York Knicks, and defeating the Charlotte Bobcats in a game much closer than it needed to be. The Sixers won all those games, but they looked bad doing it. In an 82-game NBA season, you tend to ignore a win, regardless of the opponent, regardless of how bad the Sixers might have looked getting the win. You accept there are going to be ugly wins.
But last night was just ugly.
Over 14,000 people showed inside the Wachovia Center (obviously buying tickets to see the Memphis Grizzlies because they believed Allen Iverson would be on the Grizzlies). And I can't imaging many people, while leaving the arena, stopped by the ticket office to pick up season tickets. Losing to the Memphis Grizzlies is bad. The Sixers haven't done it at home since 2003. Memphis (still) hasn't beaten a winning team.
Considering Jordan has looked for the positive in each game this season, I think the assumption was he would do the same. Not so. He was angry. He said his team played as individuals, didn't stay committed to each other, and basically went their separate ways. He wouldn't go so far as to say they played selfishly, just that there was no leadership. He said a "coach can only do so much." The blame, as far as I can tell, was shifted entirely to the players. A few minutes after Jordan spoke, inside the locker room, the vibe from the players seemed very different. Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young seemed to shrug off Jordan's insinuation.
1. This is completely my interpretation, but there seemed to be a sense from the players that Jordan has as much responsibility in these results as they do. These are his systems he's trying to fit to this team (and are they the right systems?) and they're trying to execute them. The question becomes, how much do they believe in these systems? Is it too early to ask those questions? Jordan is the one executing the substitutions. He's the one devising the offensive and defensive schemes. And, right now, they aren't working. Is it because it's early in the season and these are intricate systems? Or is it because the players know they're running an offense that might not be suited for them? That was the vibe inside the locker room -- although I'm unsure exactly what the answer is only 12 games into the season.
2.) You can't ignore the looks on the court. The Sixers defense isn't rotating. After the game, Iguodala clearly said they aren't communicating or playing good defense, not that you need Iguodala to tell you what you are seeing. It happened with at least five players last night. I saw Samuel Dalembert, Elton Brand, Jason Smith, Willie Green, and Andre Iguodala at various points look around and wonder where the heck the help was. Dalembert would come off his man to stop someone else and nobody would pick up his man. Smith took the ball out of bounds and you could feel his frustration, clearly someone wasn't where he needed to be. Lack of defensive rotations is a downward cycle: if repeatedly you leave your man to help another and no one picks up your help then you're going to hesitate to leave your man.
More later, time to board this flight to Cleveland for tonight's game against the Cavaliers. No time to proof-read, so if there is an error, can we refrain from posting the "Ever heard of spell check?" comment? -- as fun as those comments are.
Will Tweet upon arrival in Cleveland. If you want to follow Deep Sixer on Twitter, click here: Deep Sixer.
--Kate
I think as far as "selfish" play, Iguodala is a big part of it in that he forces shots out of rythym. His shooting percentage is misleading because of all the dunks he gets. Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me Kapono is dribbling when he doesn't have to. Having said all that, Memphis is potentially a good team, and played well. I'd say this was one of the Sixers better games actually (excluding Young). Maybe Young should come off the bench for a while.— alank- I agree that Young has been disappointing so far, alank. This was a particularly poor defensive showing. No one seems to know where everyone else is going to be. But Jordan's teams have been like this before so I'm not surprised— dmanns
- they look more lost than selfish. maybe before installing over-arching offensive schemes you ought to evaluate your individual players and get the basics nailed down. like defensive rotation and distributing the rock.— rzzzzz
- Ugh. Jim O'Brien 2.0— Hugh_S
- Hey Eddie Jordan... If you wanted your team to rebound and protect the paint then why go small ball the final 15 minutes? Was 10 minutes of Brand at C and Kapono at PF your coaching answer to the rebounding problem? I guess Kapono at PF is you designated "dog with bite" on the boards? Coach has lost his team... impressive after one 3 weeks.— tktk
- Kate, #1 hit the nail right on the head. They don't believe. You combine EJ's mediocre track record, his inability to set a rotation, bizarre commentary(Brand is a "20-min" player?), bad situational lineups, head games etc. This team is tuning him out, big time. Porter in Phoenix... Disagree about Iguodala Alank. He's actually shooting better this year. His 2-pt jump shooting percentage has gone up.— rswknight
- Kate: gave comments on your column about the game, so will not repeat here, other than to say I did not like the hire of Jordan from the beginning, as I emailed to you at the time Stefanski was looking at hiring him, a middle of the road career coach for a middle of the road franchise, a coach lacking any noticeable defensive philosophy but dependent on his offensive "system" despite the likely inability of his players to execute such a system, a coach who seems to rotate his players by gut reaction, which only leads to bizarre combinations on court, often at the most inopportune times. He needs to mold his coaching philosophy to the players on the roster, not force-feed them his system. Bottom line, however: not much will change as the Sixers have no room to maneuver for free agents and will not be bad enough for a lottery pick, so stuck in the middle. You might want to retire as a beat writer and go write a book!— chuckw
- I remember the first year Pat Croce was in charge. He had a rookie GM and a rookie coach. When asked the most important thing he learned, he responded that "experience is worth it's weight in gold". Exit the rookies, enter Larry Brown. No ring, but 4-5 years of improving, exciting ball culminating with a trip to the finals in 2001. Stefanski shot his left foot when he went max for a guy coming off a ruptured achilles tendon. He shot his right foot when he hired an "offensive minded" coach with a career losing record. No rebounding, no defense, no veteran leadership. A couple of decent young players, but children don't win championship, grown ups do.— fuller11
- Very annoying loss tonight against the Cavaliers who were ripe for the taking. Jordan needs to play Smith with Brand and needs Brand on the low post in the fourth quarter, not the high post, which effectively neutralizes him, except to crash the boards after the inevitable Iguodala brick. Smith can pull out the center and let Brand go to work on the inside. Instead Jordan used a small lineup, which sacrifices too much on the defensive boards. Sixers completely stopped giving Brand the ball in the final quarter, taking brick after brick, particularly Williams and Iguodala, who are not consistently effective in the half-court game. Team must run and run, even after made baskets to put constant pressure on the defense, but when the break is not there, need to go inside to Brand who is beginning to play up to his reputation. At least Jordan had the sense to bench Dalembert, who is useless in man-to-man defense and has no offensive game. Green should never play. Above all, tonight we saw a true superstar in James and another player who thinks he is a superstar, but is not even an all-star in Iguodala, forcing too many poor shots and looking befuddled when fouls are not called. Watching the Sixers isolate for him is painful, as he simply cannot make his own shot, except on the break. Williams also forced too many shots down the stretch. Brand will need to be the go-to guy, not Iguodala. They need Jason Smith to play more and to begin taking more outside shots but at least he hustled tonight on defense. We have seen too many games like this over the past few years.— chuckw
- Iggy is not selfish, but he desparateley wants to be a "the man", particularly at end of games. He hurts the team when he goes one on one and forces shots often leading to turnovers. Watching the Cleveland game, any normal coach would have taken Iggy out to get his head back in the game. He appears so disinterested at times almost like he is going through the motions. Others have problems also, but my expectations for him are so much higher. He will always be an inconsistent jump shooter as long as he shoots with such a high arch.— gba
- You can analyze all you want. Bad GM, bad coach, bad team.— overtaxed
Comment removed.- I agree that the coach should mold his philosophy with the given talent, this team is not a Princeton offense team it is a run and gun team. That won't win a title but it will be exciting and probably put some fans in the seats, play to your strengths !!!!!!— lalleva
Keith Pompey has been an Inquirer reporter since September 2004. He takes over the Sixers beat after covering the Temple men’s basketball team for the past three years and Temple football the past two seasons. Pompey also previously covered the Penn and Drexel men’s basketball team and Villanova football team after initially focusing on high school sports.
Pompey is a native Philadelphian and a University of Pittsburgh. Follow him on Twitter @PompeyOnSixers or reach Keith at kpompey@phillynews.com.
ABOUT MARC NARDUCCI
Marc Narducci has served in a variety of roles with the Inquirer since beginning in 1983. He has covered the 76ers as a backup and a beat writer. In addition, Narducci has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and a lot in between. Narducci also has a true passion for South Jersey scholastic sports, which he has covered for many years.
