Philadelphia 76ers Playing For Second Place Already?

As fellow B/R Featured Columnist Harrison suggested  a few days back, the absolute beating the Sixers received at the hands of the Celtics the other night suggests an alarming trend for Philly fans: that the Celtics are simply too talented for the Sixers to compete with this year.

The discrepancy in talent became painfully obvious as the Celtics continued to grind against the Sixers , turning a two-point lead after the first quarter into a 30-point blowout in the fourth quarter.  The Celtics shot nearly 57 percent (compared to 36.3 percent from the Sixers), had 12 more assists than the Sixers, and had their bench score 64 points on the Sixers in the rout.

We also can't fail to account for how invincible Boston has looked at this early point in the NBA season.  Before a seven-point home loss to Phoenix last night (one of the early surprise teams of the 2009-10 season), the Celtics had rolled to a 6-0 record, with three of those wins coming by at least 28 points.

Okay.  So, barring injury to one of the Big Three, the Sixers aren't catching the Celtics any time soon.  But second place in the Atlantic Division still likely makes the playoffs.

What can the Sixers do to distance themselves from the rest of the Atlantic Division pack?

First, LEARN DEFENSE

The Philadelphia Inquirer  had an excellent article  on Thursday detailing the Sixers' defensive woes, but some quick stats for you: Sixers have allowed opponents to shoot 43.3 percent from three-point range (4th highest in the NBA) and 48.9 percent overall (5th highest in the NBA).  Philly has allowed opponents to score an average of 103.3 points per game (while they only average 99.7 points per game)—this -3.60 point scoring discrepancy is eighth worst in the NBA.

Basketball-Reference.com has the Sixers' defensive rating as the 23rd out of the 30 NBA teams, with opponents averaging 109.6 points per 100 possessions.  And ESPN's John Hollinger predicts similar defensive stats for the Sixers so far: his stats predict 106.5 points per 100 possessions for Sixers opponents.

In the department of completely obvious statements: a team will not be winning many games if they average giving up more points than they score.  The Sixers must be concerned with their defense most of all after the first week.

Once they address their defensive woes, new coach Eddie Jordan must work on setting a consistent lineup .  Understandably, a new coach working with an entire roster of unfamiliar players will take a few weeks to find learn how to best utilize the talents of his players.

However, a few things are clear about the lineup, even this early on.  Jordan himself acknowledged his need to establish a first guard off the bench .  With PF Marreese Speights as the first big man off the bench, and sharp-shooting Jason Kapono the first forward, Jordan has his choice between rookie Jrue Holiday, Willie Green, Royal Ivey, and Rodney Carney.

Whoever he chooses (Green has gotten the most minutes early, but has arguably been least effective; Holiday's 13 minutes against the Celtics resulted in seven points, three assists and one rebound, something Coach Jordan should consider moving forward) must be an adequate passer and shooter to run Jordan's Princeton offense.  Most importantly, this bench guard must know his role—someone who hits a few key baskets, makes an energy play, and makes no major mistakes.

Also, it's time to get Speights some legitimate minutes.  Coming off the bench last year in his rookie season, Speights averaged 19.3 points per 40 minutes, good for third among all rookies in Hollinger's PER (his statistic to determine per-minute statistical production), behind Kevin Love and Greg Oden. 

Now, in an average of 22.3 minutes/game this year , Speights is the Sixers' third leading scorer with 13.5 points/game on 64 percent shooting, leads the team in boards with 6.7 rebounds/game, and he's notched an average 1.3 blocks/game to boot.  He's been so coolly effective this season that he ranks FIFTH OVERALL in Hollinger's PER ...right above two guys named Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant.

The kid needs to be playing 30 minutes a game to give the Sixers their best chance of winning.  He started the second half in the loss to Detroit on Sunday after the Sixers were destroyed on the glass in the first half, however; Speights suffered a "knee contusion" after banging knees with the Pistons' Will Bynum in the fourth quarter and did not return.

Perhaps most importantly,  at this early juncture, is for the Sixers players', staff and management to remain calm.

Jordan's Princeton offense was not going to start running perfectly overnight.  While the defensive woes are a bit less explicable (and in no way related to the spacing-oriented offense), the Sixers have plenty of time (76 games, to be exact) to get things straightened out this season.

SF Thaddeus Young will not continue shooting 40 percent (nearly 10 percent lower than his average last year).  PF Elton Brand will begin averaging more than the career-low 11 points and five rebounds that he's averaged so far (as long as all his tendons and limbs remain intact).  C Samuel Dalembert will eventually get the message that the Sixers don't want him taking 10 shots in a game.

Sixers fans should not be calling for the head of Jordan in 10 more games, no matter if the Sixers go 0-10 (... reverse jinx, reverse jinx...).  And Sixers fans should not be ready to call the Elton Brand experiment a complete and conclusive failure, as the Sixers will continue to develop an on-court rapport with each other with more game time.  

So what if they won't be taking home first place in the Atlantic Division?  With the Raptors tied at second place in the Atlantic with an identical 3-3 record to the Sixers, Philly simply has to keep pace with the rest of the league, forget about Boston, Orlando (possibly Miami or Cleveland too?), and shoot for a fourth to sixth place finish in the Eastern Conference.

After all, anything can happen in the playoffs in the league "where amazing happens."