State of The Sixers

The Sixers come back, dream season has not started how it was supposed to. The excitement of signing Elton Brand, and resigning Andre Iguodala and Louis Williams is gone. Now, after last nights loss to the Lakers, all that is left is a 8-11 team, who have lost 5 of their last 6.

Before we go into whats wrong with these Sixers, lets compare them to last seasons version. Last season, no body was expecting anything out of the Sixers at all. At this point last season, without Elton Brand, the Sixers were 6-13. That is only two games worse then this team. This years team has been over .500 1 time, while last years team did not manage to get over .500 until the 71 games into the season.

At this point last season, the Sixers were averaging 92 points per game, and allowing almost 95 points per game. This season, the Sixers are giving up the same amount of points, but are scoring 2 points less per game. Last years team finished 40-42, and were bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Does anyone see anything to make you think this year will end any differntly? The only differnce in my opnion is that the Sixers are now tied to the Elton Brand, Andre Igoudala combo for about 5 years.

No one on the team is having a particularly good season. Elton Brand is averaging 16 and 10, but came up small last night with only 3 points in a loss to the Lakers. Andre Iguodala is averaging 6 points less then last season, and is clearly adjusting to having Brand down low.

But with almost 1/4 of the season completed, its time to ask if maybe this team is what it is: a .500 team. Last time Elton Brand and Andre Miller were on the same team, it was with the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2002-2003 season. That team won a total of 22 games. While this Sixers team is better, it does show that maybe the Brand, Miller, Iguodala combination might not work. It hasn't so far. So far, all you can ask is, was it the right move to re sign Iguodala for all that money? Or would the Sixers have been better off signing Josh Smith?

There is still along to games to be played, but so far, this team looks like a failed experiment.