Collins Can't Wait To Get Started
LEXINGTON, KY -- Doug Collins is always excited by another basketball season but the 76ers coach has even more enthusiasm going into this year.
Collins Can't Wait To Get Started
LEXINGTON, KY -- Doug Collins is always excited by another basketball season but the 76ers coach has even more enthusiasm going into this year.
The Sixers have revamped a unit that took the Boston Celtics to a seventh game in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Obviously the Sixers did get a break when Derrick Rose was injured in the first playoff game against the Chicago Bulls and then later center Joakim Noah was sidelined.
Still, the Sixers won that series and extended a Boston team to the limit. That's a Celtics squad that that took NBA champion Miami to a seventh game of the Eastern Conference finals.
The feeling around the NBA was that the Sixers probably got as far as they could with last year’s roster and apparently the team felt that way as well. That is why the Sixers made so many changes.
Just since that final game with the Celtics, the Sixers are bringing in veterans Andrew Bynum, Kwame Brown, Jason Richardson, Dorell Wright, Nick Young, and Royal Ivey, and rookie Arnett Moultrie.
Pair that with projected rotation players, Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes, Thaddeus Young and Lavoy Allen, and the Sixers appear to be a much deeper team than last year. In Bynum, they have a viable all-star capable of impacting the game at both ends of the court.
It’s not unrealistic to consider the Sixers a top-four team in the Eastern Conference. And Collins is raring to go.
“My mind is always going and I am a crossword puzzle guy, how to solve a puzzle,” Collins said last week during the 1972 U.S. Olympic team reunion in Lexington, Ky. “We have new pieces and I like our pieces.”
Of course Collins also wanted to praise a number of key players who have departed.
“Anytime you change your team you have to give up talent and we lost an incredible professional in Elton Brand,” Collins said. “We lost a tremendous all-star, Olympian and world champion Andre Iguodala. We lost one of the best sixth men in the NBA in Lou Williams and lost a guy who helped us win a lot of games in Jodie Meeks.”
Now the challenge is to mesh all these new players, which makes training camp that much more important this season.
“We think we have added size, we think we have added shooting,” Collins said. “If we have our health I think we can do a lot of things.”
It appears as if one of Collins' most difficult tasks will be to appropriate playing time.
“I like our versatility, I think we can play big, we can play small and I think we have the best low post player in the NBA,” he said obviously referring to Bynum. “The big thing is how quickly we can put it together.”
The season begins with the Oct. 31 opener at the Wells Fargo Center against Iguodala and the Denver Nuggets.
“We have to be ready when the season starts but I think our guys are committed to that,” Collins said. “I am looking forward to it.”
-- Marc Narducci
like the new look especially the big guy— OldCoach
Good job for the. Sixers— Dave31- Finally! 14 days and not a blip in the blogosphere about the local NBA team. I seem to remember at one time ... an ex-basketball player ... a shooter ... a girl ... didn't she, like, write for this paper, about this team?
Or was that some movie?
It's late, there's no hay, and I get confused.
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— Quixote II - Been reading the philly sports pages for 45 years and don't remember anyone covering the sixers as well as Kate Fagan did. What a breath of fresh air she was if only for a short time. I can think of so many things to ask of anyone in the sixer family but settle for these little tidbits. I have not been this jazzed over the sixers in a long time. Man, we are lucky this year. Come on philly writers, talk to some of the guys on the team and let us know what they are thinking. It's been a long freakin time since we've had this talent and coaching. This year could really be magic. Find some stories and amp us up. Thanks everyone, you people sure are fun to read— spear1
- @spear1. I agree with you that these writers need to take advantage of the enthusiasm regarding this upcoming season. Give us some stories to REV us up. I respectfully disagree with you regarding Kate Fagan being the best beat writer for the Sixers. No one tops the Late Great Phil Jasner. — rwilson065
- I like our team with all the changes. Having a big man in the post who can score, rebound and block shots is the missing piece that we haven't had since the days of Moses Malone. We added good shooters and hopefully the defense will not suffer with Iggy gone. Go Sixers— miketrip
- i love what the front office did and wouldn't be surprised to see us and the heat in the conference finals. but i'll be very surprised if this team hits the ground running. there's been a complete roster overhaul and DC took two years to figure out his starting lineup with virtually the same players before the overhaul. i see us staying around 500 the first few months and then if things click you'll see that 48-52 wins. Hope that's good enough for a 3 see b/c otherwise, it's miami in the second round and i think we know how that plays out.— 76ers in 2076
- Like a restaurant that needs to staff more cooks and servers to take care of a busy dinner rush,Philly.com is learning that the interest in the upcoming season for the Sixers (what a big man can do!)...as the hardcore fans here have been asking for MORE, not less during the waning days of the off season....Intersting to note DC has a common theme talking about "crossword puzzles",first at the PC with the draftpicks, then again last week in Lexington when he made smalltalk to Narducci, who was doing all these 1972 Olympic stories that were posted this week....DC now has this team in the direction he wants...low post monster surrounded by a plethora of able catch and shoot perimeter shooters that have serious range, the potential for the twin tower effect (play big),the potential for physicality off the bench (Kwame/LaVoy), the ability to go small with 3 wings (albeit, being BIGGER when going small), and now having the ability to lean on his two primary ballhandlers Jrue and ET, who now carry the brunt of minutes/facilitation.....But of all, DC still keeps his "control" in the name of "keeping busy", micromanaging every detail and exhausting every option, as there are many...Despite glee with Rod Thorn over the Bynum acquisition, we all know DC has had his handprints ALL over this Summer's moves...Let's hope he gets his puzzle solved pretty quick for 12-13..>Go Sixers!— bearsfriend
- BTW,Hoopshype reports Celtics' AGM, Mike Zarren has taken his name off the Sixers' list for consideration as GM/DC pet, and it appears to be a recurring theme that potential candidates who appeared close to getting hires (Ferry,Penn, now Zarren) felt that the arrangement wouldn't be a fit...Capologists need apply.— bearsfriend
- Collins scares me. Can he keep it together or will he become unhinged if he can't find a go-to guy other than Andrew. Would I rather have Van Gundy screaming instead of Doug?
I wouldn't mind having Elton here now that he would have another body on the floor with him.
Defense? Do we have any?
Turner and Hawes for a Maurice Lucas-type body?
Maalik excites as a quick weapon who can shoot a little. Great first step and floor vision.
Thaddeus finally becomes an answer? or a question?
Can Jrue flourish under Collins and aside Turner? He may yearn to graze on Western grass.— lake - Great questions...DC's strength as a coach is instituing "team" and insisting on "buy ins" from players in regards to details like the extra pass,shot clock management,and defensive hustle with attention to the most minute details..but now he has to re-blend 8 new faces to his schtick, as well as enforcing his beliefs (and I'm sure he's been devising new offensive sets and flow patterns) that Andrew Bynum is THE centerpiece, as the red carpet will be out at all times...With quite a few players potentially here in an expiring situation, does that make it harder?(this could be a NY Times crossword puzzle)....New faces need to know the way thru DC's rotations is TEAM DEFENSE, so minutes will probably flow that way....Also excited that Wayns brings an element the rest of the guards don't really have..EXPLOSIVE first steps...Hoping Jrue lets the game come to him, and doesn't try to become Russell Westbrook in the first 15 games of the season...While there are so many moving parts around the anchor in the middle, still interested to see if the Sixers might tweak it a bit after mid December (ahem,Hawes) if the positive matchups of the twin towers has conflicting results. — bearsfriend
- I know rotation and starting lineup questions will not be answered difinitely this early. But my curiosity about minutes, roles, chemistry and if Spencer really will be our poor man's Pau Gasol are very intriguing to me. Looking forward to seeing Jru and ET play with Bynum to see if the better inside spacing will help them slash with more efficiency. Should be, at the very least, a very interesting season.— Bobby V
- Sixers should probably have a good start like 20:8. DC and Sixers players have no problem to do that. But I hope DC do not go back to his eight/nine man roster after the good start. Sixers have deep bench. Better keep it that way.
Sixers defense will be fine. We are not going to get out-rebounded every game like the 2011-2012 season. Defensively, Holiday and ET are still top 10 best guards in the NBA.
Van Gundy is a great coach. If DC could not learn from his past, i.e. could not get along with his best player, Bynum is not going to go anywhere and DC has to go. Bynum is no Elton Brand or Iguodala. He is a spoiled big kid.— cchere - Despite starting 10 out of 15 at home, I'm not so sure they run the table so fast as to the chemistry thing..,Your point about a concern over tight rotations is spot on, as I feel plenty of offensive malaise could be attributed to defensive energy sapping players..This team SHOULD have enough guys the coach should trust, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out....Regarding "DC has to go", I don't feel this ownership group feels that way..I believe DC has carte blanche, until he's fried of course, which can come with the territory. — bearsfriend
- Agree that Kate was great, but Jasner was pretty damn good in his prime, too. On a different note, has anyone read "Sacred Hoops" by Phil Jackson? Jackson comes across as a hero/Zen-master while Collins -- before he was fired by the Bulls -- comes across as somewhat of a control freak. My primary concern going into this season is whether Collins has learned to go with the flow, rather than try to pound square pegs into round holes (like he did with ET at shooting guard last year).— iceman
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.
