Impact of Brand Going Down; 2nd Half Preview

   

Even though it was already burning, yesterday the Elton Brand experiment officially went up in smoke.

It was announced yesterday that Brand is going to undergo season ending shoulder surgery. In theory, this leaves the Sixers with out the player they brought in to bring them to the next level, the low post presence, and the player that would help them advance in the playoffs.

In reality, they lost done of those things.

The Sixers are better without Elton Brand. This is no fault of Brand's, it's just reality. However, this still hurts the Sixers in many ways. The most important way it will hurt the Sixers is in their pocket. They are now paying almost 14 million dollers a year for what is now a big question mark. Even though this is not the same injury that cause Brand to almost all of last season, this will still be the second year in a row Brand has missed a large portion of the season due to injury.

That is not what you want from a 14 million doller investment.

Another way this will hurt the Sixers in the long run is how the team will grow without him. The Sixers have a young core, and they will continue to grow this year. Players like Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young and Mareesse Speights will grow into better players, and establish their roles on the team. So what happens next year when Brand is forced back into the mix?

These are all huge questions that will continue to hang over the Sixers head well into next season. But for now, the Sixers must move on. The Sixers managed to overcome a bad start to the season, the firing of Maurece Cheeks, and the Brand debacle to stand at 24-24. If the playoffs started today, the Sixers would be 7th in the East, and a first round matchup with the Celtics would be waiting for them.

The Sixers nearly beat the Celtics a few nights ago, and while I think the series would be closer then people think, chances are the Sixers would get bounced out of the first round again if they had to play Boston.

So how do I see the second half of the season playing out?

At the beginning of the year, I picked the Sixers to finish 4th in the Eastern Conference. I made that pick because I thought Brand would be able to take them to the next level, which obviously has not happened. However, I still don't think that 4th place is out of question for the Sixers.

Ahead of them in the standings are the Heat, Pistons, and Hawks. They are currently 4 games out of the 4th spot. Considering you could not have made up a worse way for the season to start, to be in this position says something to me about this Sixers team. I think the Sixers will play much better basketball the second half of the season.

I think the Brand situation was a dark clound over the Sixers head, and now that the solution is clear, the Sixers will be able to play better. If the last fe games are any indication of how the Sixers will play, the future is bright. Iguodala, Miller, and Dalembert have all stepped up their games. I think Speights will start to contribute to this team more and more, and I see the Sixers making a big second half push.

Where will that push lead them? I see the Sixers finishing 5th in the East. The Sixers have a better record then the Heat, Pistons and Hawks in their last 10, and that was with Brand in most of those games. Finishing 5th would be huge for the Sixers, because it will allow them to avoid facing one of the big three (Celtics, Magic, Cavs), in the first round. Could the Sixers advance past Miami, Detriot or Atlanta? To be honest, probaly not. But I like their chances now better then before.

This city has seen the Phillies and Eagles make big second half pushes this year, and I think the Sixers will continue the trend. However, I do not see the Sixers making it out of the first round.