Kate, exactly! Plus I would have them trap from the tip-off to force them to remember WHO THEY ARE! I would also have Reggie and Royal as the first two off the bench to reinforce DEFENSE! I would work Sam and Lou in after that. By the way, Lou is "squeezing" his jumper instead of a flowing release...TELL HIM WILL YOU!

kate: the proposed change makes sense, either with your line-up or some variation. having young and iguodala at the 3 & 4 should allow the starters to run from the start. i just hope it wouldn't lead to giving up our usual rebounding edge w/o dalembert starting off (and usually he pounds the boards early). and williams is in serious need of coaching/descipline. it's really inexplicable how he can play so poorly-his descision making is beyond terrible. hugh: i understand the point regarding young but combining him with brand and iguodala allow all three to be offensive options. k,m: agree about rush and marshall-marshall should see some real minutes. he knows how to play and is our best shooter-what's the issue with not playing him!? just b/c he may not be the future?! kate: there is no reason this team cannot be a running/transition team with brand-other teams with bigger/slower 4's/5's have done it with ultimate success. and brand can be an effective trailer. we are near that mythical 20th game and they are just as inconsistent as they started the season. at some point, the sixers need to shake things up either with starters/rotation or coaching. unless these players aren't as good as we think, which shouldn't be the case after what they accomplished last year and then added brand and other components that should elevate the team.

The Dalembert/Speights question is an interesting one. According to 82games.com, the Sixers score 99.4 points per 100 possessions (pp100p) with Speights on the floor, one of the highest marks on the team (no regulars are higher). Sam's number is 93.6. The problem is that when Speights is in, the Sixers give up 105.6 pp100p, one of the worst marks on the team and MUCH worse than Sam's number of 89.7 (one of the best on the team). It's not a fluke either -- Speights gets a few blocks and draws some charges, but he's often out of position and doesn't rebound particularly well on the defensive glass. I'm convinced that the real problem on this team right now is the bench, even though it's easier to point fingers at Iguodala, Dalembert, or Miller. It was a 5-point game (71-66) on Sunday in the 3rd when Cheeks took out Miller, Brand, Young, and Green all around the same time (with Iguodala already out because of foul trouble), leaving a lineup of Ivey, Lou, Speights, Evans, and Rush. The Bulls, who still had D-Rose in the game, quickly went on a 12-0 run to end the quarter up 17. Whatever Cheeks does, he needs to think about his rotations so he does NOT leave a powerless, defenseless lineup out there for long stretches of time. My suggestion: work out the rotations to start the 2nd and 4th quarters with Iguodala, Young, Speights, Lou, and Ivey and get that unit to press on D and run on O. This means sending either Iguodala or Young to the bench and resting the other at the end of the 1st/3rd, letting Brand and Miller play most of the 1st/3rd. Thoughts?

statman: well-reasoned points. what is willimas' impact on the points for/against? he is just playing poor basketball at the moment? allowing brand & miller to play most of the 1st/3rd could be stablizing. i still believe marshall needs to see some time to make defenses be honest.

Statman, agree that we see too many starters on the bench at once too often. I do not like this "hockey line" sort of rotation at all. I'm not sure that you can put much faith in Marshall's on/off court - I'm just going off the top of my head, but i doubt if he's got more than 20 minutes for the season, and most of that is garbage time. I do know that when he's been in, he hits the three reliably. Interesting observations about Speights. I think to a certain extent poor defense is to be expected from a guy who didn't spend much time in college & jumps right into an NBA rotation, & i think he will come around to be a better all around player than sam, but obviously that doesn't help us now. Interesting that the bench is the issue, since starting the season everyone (myself included) seemed to think the bench was solid and deep. Have to think a good portion of this comes back to going long stretches without any, or with just one or two starters in. Very tough to keep a flow going when you are essentially playing two different teams over the course of the game.

a brand/young frontcourt is very small, but iguadala is not a 2. if we can acquire a 2, move thad to the bench and still get him 30 minutes and majority of shots with the second team would be best IMO

Kate, even though there's no word out there officially, how healthy is Sammy D? And is health an element of his poor play since the beginning of the regular season? My friend who's watched more games than me so far pointed out that Sammy was hurt in the training camp, and appeared to leave the floor several times during the regular games due to discomfort/minor injuries. So, is Sammy hurt, or is he just playing bad? Keep up the good work!

Have to agree with the post and the comments on here. This is after the game tonight which we won and the 4th quarter/OT lineup was different. Speights saw a lot of minutes and Thad was on the bench in favor of Green. Maybe this is a wrong impression but it seems once the team struggles...then you have multiple problems to overcome. Lack of confidence and low morale on the court leads to missed shots, bumbling turnovers and poor passing/communication. I gotta believe that confidence is the major factor for Lou. The team seems to easily get into the "here we go again mode". I tend to think that right now these things are as much of a factor as anything else. What this team really needs is some games of all out energy and aggressiveness that turn into wins. The team has talent, so shaking things up might get things going. I wonder what kind of game Sammy might have after sitting out late in the game tonight.