Sports Frog

While it has nothing to do with the Sixers, it has come out that Bobcats' Adam Morrison has a torn knee ligament and may miss the entire season. I don't think it merits its own post because, even if he cried, we've all seen that before. But I digress...

Winning percentage of .218 with Allen Iverson on the roster, .508 after he was sent to Denver. Pencil the Sixers in for 42 wins this year, then, right? Well, no. It's a very young group, with only three of the 17 players on the roster born before 1980 and two of those three (Alan Henderson and Calvin Booth) filling the very important NBA role of "cap fodder." Nine of the 14 youngsters have two years of NBA experience or less and the five who were actually in the NBA last year totaled 2,461 minutes. Good thing Maurice Cheeks works well with young people, or at least he does when the national anthem is involved.

The two leaders of the team are point guard Andre Miller, the primary chip in the Iverson deal, and Andre Iguodala, the blossoming swingman. Miller is the steady veteran hand steering this ship, averaging 7.3 assists per game after moving east, including 15 double-digit games. Miller has missed five games in his eight-year career and two of them came last year in the mid-season trade.

Iguodala ramped up his game when asked to shoulder more of the load for the Sixers, boosting his per-game numbers from 13.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 2.0 steals from November to 19.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 2.0 steals after that point. This rising star, however, simply must improve his outside shooting. Iguodala shot 44.7 percent from the field and 31.0 percent from downtown, which won't cut it, especially with Miller's inadequate range (the point guard's lone trey with Philly marked the 100th of his NBA career, but I don't recall the ceremony when they stopped the game to give him the ball to commemorate the achievement). Throw in the double teams that will come as opponents try to stop him and Iguodala faces a tough test.

Kyle Korver makes up for the rest of the roster's lack of outside range, having made 132 threes last year, which was almost half the team's total. Korver not only makes a lot of threes, but he makes them efficiently, finishing ninth in the league in three-point shooting at 43 percent. The deep threat should work on developing his ability to drive to the rim, as he led the league by shooting 91.4 percent at the charity stripe, but only attempted 2.8 freebies per game.

Samuel Dalembert will start in the middle after turning in a solid season. Dalembert will never be much more than average on the offensive end, turning in a career-best 10.7 points per game last season, but if he can keep up the nine rebounds and two blocks a game while actually playing every game, the Sixers will be thrilled.

Reggie Evans came in from Denver in a late-summer trade and brings his top-notch rebounding skills (16.3 rebounds per 40 minutes last year, including 5.5 on the offensive glass) with him. Unfortunately, there's almost more crotch-grabbing (sorry, Chris Kaman) than defending the rim or scoring.

The bench is (surprise!) going to be really young. "Veterans" Rodney Carney, Shavlik Randolph, and Louis Williams are joined by rookies Thaddeus Young and Jason Smith on the bench.

Actual veteran point guard Kevin Ollie will be Miller (pass-first, poor outside shot) when Miller is resting. Ollie takes care of the ball (2.77-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio) but makes even fewer threes than Miller (0-for-2 last year, 9-of-26 in his career).

Green fills the instant offense role, but not much else. Randolph will bang down low and Carney, who started 35 games last year, provides athleticism at small forward, but is too raw to be expected to provide much assistance.

This team will have plenty of opportunities for the two first-round picks to contribute. Young will get some time at the three while Smith will have some opportunities to use his shooting touch and get called for fouls, just like every other rookie big man. Williams showed some promise in limited minutes last year and would be smart to learn the tricks of playing the point in the NBA from the wise old men.

It's going to be a rough learning experience in Philly this season. The team played well after the Iverson trade, but when you're 5-17 and your star just got sent out of town, it's easy to play free and easy. When you have expectations of being a playoff contender (you know there are some people looking at the post-AI trade record and thinking they can do it) because you overachieved last year and have brought in four rookies, it's a little tougher. The bright side is that after the season, the contracts of Chris Webber and Aaron McKie come off the books for Philly. Those two are combining for $26 million of cap space this year. The shopping list for the 2008 offseason should include a strong inside player and locking up Iguodala. That's when the Sixers will return to the playoffs.