Sixers should use remainder of season to evaluate personnel

FIRST OF ALL, it would not be quitting.

Not exactly.

As they exit the All-Star break, the Sixers find themselves in an odd fix. They stand on the edge of playoff contention. The trade deadline is approaching, 3 p.m. on Thursday.

And they aren't very good.

The temptation is to make a big deal; they probably will not, said coach Doug Collins.

The temptation is to run their horses into the ground so they can play a couple of extra weeks.

That temptation should be avoided.

The Sixers have not beaten a primo team fully stocked, unless the Knicks are considered primo, and that would be ridiculous.

After losing Thaddeus Young to a hamstring injury, the Sixers cannot even muster respectable efforts against more complete teams, such as the Pacers and Clippers, who beat them by a combined 36 points just before the break.

It could as easily have been a combined 50 points.

There can be no telling when Young will regain his inspiring form, or if that can happen this season. There can be no telling whether Andrew Bynum and his arthritic knees ever will play for the Sixers. Jason Richardson has been lost to a knee injury.

There is no cavalry.

There should, then, be a retreat.

Again: not quitting. Just using players differently. Prudently.

It would be not playing every game to win, at all costs, to qualify for the playoffs. If they make the playoffs, fine. Bonus. To what end? A first-round exit?

At best, Bynum and Young return for the playoffs, the Sixers somehow steal the No. 7 seed and outlast those Knicks.

Better to maximize the rest of this season to better situate themselves for the next few years. Not to play for the overvalued NBA lottery; to play to discover what they have in their hands.

That's why Bynum has not been rushed, right? To save him for his future, and the team's. That's what the Sixers have said, anyway.

If that, then, is the mindset, they now should extrapolate.

Whenever possible, limit Jrue Holiday's minutes.

Give Dorell Wright every chance to fail.

Let Nick Young carry the offensive load.

Put the ball in the hands of Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes and see, finally, the extent of their limitations.

Missing the playoffs would be unfortunate. Postseason play greatly accelerated the development of Holiday, and it more completely informed the Sixers of the deficiencies of Hawes, Turner and Lavoy Allen.

Postseason play also further exposed the limitations of Andre Iguodala, whom they traded last summer to get would-be playoff assets Bynum and Richardson.

In-season play has exposed the limitations of this team.

The Sixers routinely play to the level of their competition, as long as that level isn't too high. Charlotte, Sacramento, Washington and Toronto all gave them a scare, and Phoenix, Toronto and New Orleans all beat them.

They are 1-6 on the road since Jan. 1, 6-16 overall.

They have 19 road games among their last 31.

They are 1-3 since Thaddeus Young injured his hamstring. They will have at least two more games without Young, maybe three. Even then, Young's speed and leaping might be diminished, and, after 2 weeks of no running, Young's conditioning will be lacking.

Sometimes, the hill is too steep; the cost is too great.

Holiday is a legitimate franchise point guard, the team's first indisputable All-Star since Allen Iverson, capable of controlling a game against all but the league's elite teams. The only point guard averaging as many minutes is Portland's Damian Lillard, also 22, but Lillard is in his first NBA season. Holiday has been an NBA horse the past three seasons.

He is known.

So much remains unknown.

And they never know whether Nick Young will show up . . . or his useless alter ego, Swaggy P. At 6-7 and 210 pounds and devoid of conscience, Young, 27 and facing free agency, is the type of weapon which, if correctly directed and focused, can be an invaluable second piece on the perimeter. He has shown that since he won a starting role nine games ago, averaging 15.9 points and hitting the 20-point mark three times.

The problem is, "Swaggy P" never is focused and cannot be directed. Give Young the last 31 games to decide whether to bury Swaggy P.

Wright is in the same position. He is a free agent. He can shoot, he can defend . . . and he can detach.

Collins on Monday indicated that opponents victimize a leg injury that Wright plays with; an injury that compromises Wright's defensive agility on the perimeter (he is a gangly 6-9) and his strength in the post (and a waifish 200 pounds).

Wright has not been listed with a leg issue this season. He has missed time with minor knee surgery in 2008 and with a bruised knee last season.

Leg issues were not the reason why Collins benched Wright earlier this season. Wright was just playing poorly.

No one understands better than Collins how hard it will be for the Sixers to reach the playoffs.

"You look at Milwaukee, we're actually five games behind them, because they hold the [head-to-head] tiebreaker,'' Collins said. "So, you start working the numbers.''

Collins, of course, has done that. If the Sixers went 18-13, the Bucks would have to go 13-18 to give up their lead; the Celtics, in the seventh spot and 5 1/2 ahead of the Sixers, would have to totally collapse.

Given his nature, Collins will coach every minute to win until the Sixers are one more game out than they have left to play.

"We have to take care of our own business, but at the same time, those teams have to lose. Milwaukee has to lose,'' Turner said. "We just have to not hurt ourselves.''

They've already done that, in every possible way.