{"id":1718,"date":"2007-10-28T14:07:29","date_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/philadelphia-76ers\/"},"modified":"2007-10-28T14:15:52","modified_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:15:52","slug":"philadelphia-76ers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/philadelphia-76ers","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia 76ers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record<\/strong>
\n28-54 (Tom), 24-58 (GR)<\/p>\n

Last Year’s Record<\/strong>
\n35-47<\/p>\n

Morris Levin’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nThere must be a way to write about these 2007-2008 76ers without mentioning Allen Iverson. After all, it has been more than 10 months since the team traded him to Denver and fans stopped coming to the Wachovia Center. Even Chris Webber stopped coming but thought well enough of the club to leave his $22,312,500 salary-cap space.<\/p>\n

It may be that Kyle Korver is barely a decent Ashton Kutcher stand-in, let alone scorer. Maybe the best that can be said of Samuel Dalembert is that he is just so cute as a Canadian, and that Louis Williams will soon be able to drink legally in the United States, and that Andre Iguodala can use Allen’s old 76ers AI-monogrammed towels.<\/p>\n

With Allen on the Sixers, every play ended with Allen shooting. “Look kids, Big Ben!” This is the season we learn what happens when you take these players and let them play as a team rather than as perpetual members of the chorus. We see what happens with a legit point guard in Andre Miller running the offense from Day 1. They now have a full-season as a team rather than as parts-sold-separately on the Allen Iverson play-mobile.<\/p>\n

Eric Grunfeld’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nDid someone say “rebuilding?” When you trade one of the best and most exciting players in the NBA (Allen Iverson) for no apparent superstar and a couple of veterans, what can you expect? Well, the Sixers fans have expected it: a sub-par, non-exciting, re-building team. Lasy year’s attendance at the Wachovia Center was one of the league’s worst. Does anybody want to see a team without a superstar? Do Philadelphians want to see a team that they know is in a “rebuilding mode?” Listen, I’m a die-hard NBA fan and I find it difficult to watch this team.<\/p>\n

The Sixers have basically made no significant additions in the off-season. Andre Iguodala cannot do it all. Rodney Carney is just a shooter and still adjusting to the NBA. Samuel Dalembert has hands of stone and is lacking NBA IQ. He’s one of those players that had a good year or two, got signed to a big contract because the team doesn’t want to lose them and then never develops and anchors the whole squad.<\/p>\n

At one point this summer, I actually felt that the Sixers may improve from year to year until I saw what Boston did and until the Knicks picked up Zach Randolph. And although, Randolph is a headcase and will probably just add to the off-the-court problems of the Knicks, he is a solid player who may be able to help this team. As for the Sixers, they better think about some major moves or the basement will be their landing pad for years to come. By the way, they will not match their record from last season.<\/p>\n

Rejoinder From Tom<\/strong>
\nI’ll say whatever they want me to say about them as long as I don’t have to watch their games.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Comics Connection<\/strong>
\nMany people believe that Philadelphia is the real model for Batman’s Gotham City.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Pharma Connection<\/strong>
\nThe first annual Contract Pharma Contracting & Outsourcing Conference & Tabletop Exhibition was held in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong>
\nShouldn’t Andre Miller have more of an effect on his teams? He’s a great point guard, but his teams never seem to win much. Maybe he could be the last piece of the puzzle for a veteran team, but the guy’s also part of that 2002 World Championship team that got smoked in Indianapolis. Anyway, this team sucks and will race to the bottom of the east. –GR<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record 28-54 (Tom), 24-58 (GR) Last Year’s Record 35-47 Morris Levin’s Commentary There must be a way to write about these 2007-2008 76ers without mentioning Allen Iverson. After all, it has been more than 10 months since the team traded him to Denver and fans stopped coming to the Wachovia Center. Even Chris Webber … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Philadelphia 76ers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1713,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"nba0708index.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1718","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4C7K-rI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1713,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1718,"position":0},"title":"NBA 2007-08 Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time for the race (well, marathon) to see who will keep the Spurs from repeating THIS time! Which is to say, \"The new NBA season is upon us!\" Sure, the league's been pummeled lately, what with the referee-gambling scandal, the Knicks' ugly sexual harassment suit, and the uncompetitive finals.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1731,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/contributors","url_meta":{"origin":1718,"position":1},"title":"Contributors","author":"Gil","date":"October 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Gil Roth wishes he could grow a cool moustache and wear a hypnotic tophat like The Ringmaster did. Tom Spurgeon runs comicsreporter.com and is not a man to be trifled with. Here's his bio. * * * Eric Grunfeld is a former Event Director of Hoop-It-Up, has coached and run\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1715,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/boston-celtics","url_meta":{"origin":1718,"position":2},"title":"Boston Celtics","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 52-30 (Tom), 54-28 (Gil) Last Year's Record 24-58 Eric Grunfeld's Commentary While the summer acquisition of two all-stars in Garnett & Allen has Boston fans thinking Championship, I strongly disagree. The NBA is a league where it takes time to jell and work as a cohesive unit before\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/boston-celtics#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2781,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2008-09-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1718,"position":3},"title":"NBA 2008-09 Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The new NBA season is upon us! Sadly, the previous season was so underwhelming that your official VM NBA correspondents have decided to go with one-liners for our previews! (Plus, we jettisoned all the other part-timers, so this year's team-by-team preview comes to you courtesy of Tom Spurgeon and me,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2008-09-preview#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=141654061X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1725,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/denver-nuggets","url_meta":{"origin":1718,"position":4},"title":"Denver Nuggets","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 42-40 (Tom), 48-34 (Gil) Last Year's Record 45-37 Tom's Commentary The primary benefit of having George Karl as your coach is that he can accelerate the schedule for young players at a certain level of development 10-12 wins and two to three years ahead of the usual learning\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/denver-nuggets#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1727,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/portland-trailblazers","url_meta":{"origin":1718,"position":5},"title":"Portland Trailblazers","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 42-40 (Tom), 30-52 (Gil) Last Year's Record 32-50 Tom's Commentary I like predicting sports outcomes on the basis of how I envision future storylines rather than, well, logic, and I see two major storylines looming for this Portland squad: 1) the team banding together in the face of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1718\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}