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Bob Cooney: Who plays most minutes will tell final story of Sixers' season

PROFESSIONAL players, coaches and general managers are very, very competitive people. They don't get to the positions they are in without that being one of their strongest qualities.

Jrue Holiday got major minutes in the 76ers' win over the Spurs on Friday. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)
Jrue Holiday got major minutes in the 76ers' win over the Spurs on Friday. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)Read more

PROFESSIONAL players, coaches and general managers are very, very competitive people. They don't get to the positions they are in without that being one of their strongest qualities.

So don't hold your breath waiting for any of the above people to say that not winning many games for the rest of the season is a good things for the 76ers. "Tanking the season" is not a phrase that will be uttered by them.

However . . .

With Saturday's embarrassing, 122-90 loss at Chicago, the Sixers dropped to 21-34 and are now 6 1/2 games behind the eighth and final playoff spot in the East.

Can the Sixers make a big enough push in the final 27 games to get into the postseason? Probably not.

When will we know that they have finally realized this? Keep an eye on the playing minutes for youngsters Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young, Lou Williams and Marreese Speights. That will tell a lot.

The organization did practically nothing when the trade deadline came and went Thursday. Though he cannot and will not come right out and say it, general manager Ed Stefanski's big moves are coming after next season, when contracts such as those for Sam Dalembert ($12.2 million), Willie Green ($4 million) and Jason Kapono ($6.6 million) come off the books. Also, with Andre Iguodala still expected to have big trade value, that might be an option Stefanski could also have at his disposal.

That means a big part of the future of this team will be Holiday and Young and Williams and Speights - all nice pieces, but certainly not superstars to build around. Stefanski will have to find that via drafts, free agency and trades, it appears. The more minutes those players get, the more evident it is that the brass is looking at the distant future more than the one that includes the 27 remaining games.

Holiday played a season-high 45 minutes in Friday's impressive, 106-94 win over the San Antonio Spurs, posting 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. He also held Spurs point guard Tony Parker to just 1-for-9 shooting from the floor.

At 6-4 and a solid 180 pounds, Holiday has the size, strength and speed to supply the on-the-ball defense this team needs in order to get out and do what it does best - run. For the rest of the season he should be on the floor closer to the 45 minutes he posted on Friday, not the 19 he has averaged.

No one's season has been as inconsistent as Young's. The main reason is his poor outside shooting, which seems to hurt the rest of his game. Like many others on the team, Young is at his best when he's running out on the break. More than anything, he needs to be out on the floor a lot for the rest of this season to find his confidence, and, hopefully for him, his outside shot.

Williams was given the keys to the team after it was decided not to bring back Andre Miller. His season was thrown off-kilter when he suffered a fractured jaw back in November, which cost him 12 games. He is as good as just about anyone in the league at beating people off the dribble, but he has proved to be a defensive liability at times. Coming off the bench, which Williams has done for the past 14 games, might be best suited for him in the future.

While at times this season it has been curious as to why certain players weren't getting much or any playing time, there is no secret as to why Speights' time has been depleted: defense. A wonderfully gifted scorer, Speights has hurt the team more than helped because of his defensive inadequacies. That will be the main focus during the offseason, but he could also benefit by being out on the court for extended minutes for the rest of this season.

Six shots

The Sixers have now lost three of four after a season-high five-game winning streak . . . The four-game road trip continues tomorrow night at Golden State. They'll play at Phoenix on Wednesday and close out the trip against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday . . . In his three games back since missing five games due to his daughter's illness, Allen Iverson is 7-for-28 (25 percent) from the floor, averaging 8.0 points, and the 76ers were outscored by 42 points while he was in the games.

Send e-mail to cooneyb@phillynews.com