PhillyArena

Many more Sixers rumors coming out in the past few days, mainly revolving around Andre Iguodala and whatever bad contract the other team is willing to take back with him.

I'll quickly summarize, and then provide my thoughts on the various scenarios:

• Phoenix is reportedly very interested in Iguodala, and is willing to take back Dalembert, and may be willing to include Barbosa along with Stoudemire. The hang-up, the Sixers are reportedly the ones holding back, and Stoudemire's apparent newfound willingness not pick up his $17.7 million option for next year may in fact be a method to scare the Sixers from making a trade.
  
• The , and here's the kicker, may be willing to take back Elton Brand as well. The article makes it seem like Dallas is unwilling to include Rodrigue Beaubois, but that seemed largely the authors opinion.
  
• And, of course, there's the continued rumors of Cleveland being a possible destination
  

So, what's this all mean?

Thoughts after the jump.

Allen Iverson will miss tonight's game against the Bulls due to a sickness in the family. He is expected to be back Friday against New Orleans. Louis Williams will start in his place along with Jrue Holiday in the backcourt.

My spin
Williams and Holiday will start, Green will play 2x as many minutes as Holiday, and we'll still see a lot of small backcourt.

Nothing earth shattering, but as the trade deadline gets closer and closer, you'll start seeing much more of this.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the Sixers and Knicks are the most active in trade talks. Perhaps more relevant, the rumor that can't keep going away has popped up again, and they're claiming the Kings still have some interest in center Samuel Dalembert.

League sources polled this week said Philadelphia and New York are the most active. The 76ers are shopping the likes of small forward Andre Iguodala (four seasons and combined $56.5 million beyond this season) and center Samuel Dalembert ($12.9 million next season), with the Kings having shown some interest in Dalembert.

Link

If you were handed the keys to the Sixers kingdom, what would be your plan?

With trade rumors swirling, this is the question I asked myself this weekend.

Surprisingly, my first reaction would not be to blow it up. Trade Igudoala? Only if it gets Brand's contracts off the books as well.

After the jump I'll go over my short and long-term plan.

For once, I'm not going to sit down and complain about Eddie Jordan and his perplexing rotations the entire recap.

Iverson and Williams did not spend one second on the court together, and that was key. Young played more at small forward than he did at power forward, and Jordan really only went small when Odom came in at power forward. Dalembert played the third most minutes he has all year, a large portion with Brand at power forward. We even saw considerable time with Young and Iguodala on the wings together.

That's not to say it was perfect. I would have preferred more Holiday and less Green, not only because my primary objective at this point is player development but also because I think he could have come in handy down the stretch. I also thought the small amount of time young played at power forward was too much, , and was generally exploited every time it happened.

But, because of my low expectations (reinforced by his continual mistakes), I grade Jordan on a curve. He wasn't the reason they lost this game. The Lakers are simply better, and it would have taken a near perfect game for the Sixers to win. They're simply outclassed from a talent level.

Short pre-game post. If there was ever a time to test Jordan's stubbornness, tonight's the game. With the mismatches the Lakers through out there, with Kobe at SG, Artest at SF, Gasol at PF and Bynum at C (with Odom off the bench), this is a classic game to play a "big" wing rotation (with Andre Iguodala at shooting guard). If Young plays at the power forward against Gasol, or if either Williams or Iverson are on Kobe (or really anyone other than Iguodala, Jrue or possibly Carney), we're in trouble. This is the perfect game to get Young at small forward and find minutes for Carney.

Will Jordan? Doubtful. We need to score the ball, after-all.

Prediction: Lakers by 20.

I'm going to forgo the typical game recap this time, mainly because I'm tired of writing the usual "our starting lineup wasn't used at all in the 4th quarter", and "we saw way too much of Thad at the 4". I really don't feel like getting into the debate on WHY Dahntay Jones went off on the Sixers, a fact that Eddie Jordan acknowledged post-game without admitting fault that his crazy lineups presented Jones with a huge mismatch on Louis Williams.

Instead, I'm going to focus on what, to me, is even more infuriating than the teams play: the coach's inability to accept responsibility for this mess.

Listening to the post-game press conference, my jaw nearly hit the floor.

He starts it off by lamenting the fact that when the Sixes had the Pacers in the penalty, the Sixers didn't drive to the basket.

"We made some play calls to get the ball in the post and to open it up for drives to the basket, we just didn't do it", Jordan said.

Alright, maybe that was the case, nobody outside of the huddle can really know for sure. That being said, I don't see the need to point out that they called plays for it and it was the players fault for not executing, outside of trying to absolve yourself from blame. A simple "we needed to do a better job of being aggressive when they were in the penalty" would have sufficed.

Of course, had that been all Jordan said it wouldn't have garnered a post, and probably not even a mention. That was fairly tame in the world of the Eddie Jordan blame game, but it was only the beginning.

Following up on last week's report by Marc Stein that the Sixers are determined to make a move, Adrian Wojnarowski has reported via Twitter that the Sixers are making pitches to the Cavaliers about an Andre Iguodala deal. Below's his full Twitter chain:

The Cavs have been listening intently to Sixers pitch of Andre Iguodala for several days, sources say. Unclear what Philly wants back...
The Cavs still prefer PF's such as Antawn Jamison and Troy Murphy, but Ferry always listens and thinks hard. Iggy is a tough sell for Cav...
The Sixers are in a tough spot, cause it's very unlikely they can move Brand contract. To get much cap flexibiity, Iggy probably has to go....
In the end, most league execs still believe Cavs ultimately do a deal for a 'stretch 4-man,' who can shoot -- not another SF like Iggy.

The interesting part is the continuing implication that it's the Sixers pursuing the trading of Iguodala, and the other teams turning it down. The desperation the Sixers apparently have to move their best player is disconcerting, at least to me.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, the Sixers are one of the teams with strong interest in Suns big man Amar'e Stoudemire. He provided no indication of what the Sixers are offering or would be willing/unwilling to give up (or really how far the talks were, outside of the Sixers having "strong" interest).

Unlike previous rumors (such as the Tracy McGrady rumors), Stoudemire still has relevance on the basketball court, averaging 20.9 points per game and having just turned 27 years old earlier this season.

My thoughts are any such deal would be extremely unlikely, but merits discussion just because of the sheer impact (both on the basketball court and on the teams salary cap structure) such a move would make. Not necessarily saying it would be a positive impact, but more on that in a bit. First, let's get to the tidbit from the Yahoo Sports report:

League executives say the Suns have become more active initiating talks over the past few days, and believe the franchise will take the best offer for Stoudemire before the Feb. 18 trade deadline. The Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets and Detroit Pistons are among multiple teams that have a strong interest in Stoudemire, sources say. The Arizona Republic reported Sunday night that the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have also inquired about Stoudemire.
...
As they did when shopping Stoudemire last season, the Suns want a combination of young talent, salary-cap relief and draft picks for him. Some teams are hesitant to trade for Stoudemire for fear he won’t want to re-sign with them this summer. The Minnesota Timberwolves lead that group of teams, sources say. The Wolves are mostly eyeing small forwards, including the Memphis Grizzlies’ Rudy Gay(notes), the Bulls’ Luol Deng(notes) and the Washington Wizards’ Caron Butler(notes). No one is untouchable on the Wolves roster, sources say.

Busy day today, so this is going to be quick. I have updated the Boxscore to include the rotations, which is also in the searchable rotations database.

This entire thing needs to be prefaced with how bad the Pacers are, particularly offensively. The defensive went through periods of playing well, followed by lulls where they did just enough not to blow the lead.

A great win over a top 5 team is a rare occurrence in and of itself. 6-14 at home heading into the game, the Sixers had previously beaten one team (New Orleans) at home who was over .500 at the time of the game. But when it comes with a sensible lineup change from Eddie Jordan? That's cause for celebration. At least on the surface.

Obviously, there's a lot to discuss about last night's game. First and foremost, the lineup change. Read what I think about the new starting lineup and what I expect going forward after the jump.

Marc Stein has a little blurb reiterating that the Sixers are aggressive in trade talks, and that Andre Iguodala could be available. The new part? Apparently the Sixers are willing to talk about Lou Williams.

The news to me? Apparently Lou Williams was previously considered untouchable.

As covered further in Box 8, Philadelphia is aggressively assessing its trade options leading into the league's Feb. 18 trading deadline.

But the strict media focus on the intriguing availability of Andre Iguodala and two high-salaried Sixers who have been shopped without success (Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert) might have to be expanded.

One NBA front-office source told ESPN.com that the Sixers would also be amenable to moving Lou Williams in the right deal. The 23-year-old guard was previously thought to be a Philly untouchable.

I'm too tired to put up a long recap tonight, so I'll just post a few quick thoughts. Tired physically, but perhaps more than that tired of complaining about the same thing over and over. If I sound like a broken record, I apologize. How many times can you post "starting Iverson and Williams in the backcourt is crazy" before it gets redundant?

You can follow some of my in-game thoughts by heading over to my Twitter log.

In the end, this was the perfect loss. One game closer to a change, and one game where Holiday gains experience by playing down the stretch. Even Young and Speights got some second half burn (albeit somewhat limited).

After winning 3 of the previous 4, the Sixers were starting to gel. Playing their best ball of the year, getting after it on the defensive end, closing out games. On their way uptown, if you will.

Or, at least, that's what Eddie Jordan would have you believe.

Eddie Jordan had a momentary lapse of judgement by letting Jrue Holiday play in close wins against New Orleans and Detroit, but quickly corrected that by not playing him at all in the second half in a win against Sacramento where he played tremendously in the first half, helping the Sixers build their big lead.

Tonight, with the Sixers up big at the half, Eddie Jordan once again forgot about Jrue Holiday. The rookie didn't see the court in the second half (plus overtime) for the second game in a row.