HOW lucky are the 76ers! The defending conference champions were teeming with rationalizations for their 8-14 record, including seven straight defeats going into last night’s Cavalier encounter.
Massive roster changes! A plague of injuries! Their projected starting lineup (complete now that Eric Snow has rejoined it) failed to play a single minute together till last Wednesday’s practice! Enough customized excuses to keep the harshest critics (exempting Larry Brown) on their heels and equivocating till Christmas.
Then again, to be perfectly fair (don’t think this will become a habit), the statute of limitations on those excuses has run out in this splotched space. When you’re got a generous quantity of talent and you’re aligned in the diluted East, being undermanned and unfamiliar with each other only gets you off the hook against superior competition.
Interestingly, the 76ers flaunted the proper attitude (so you know it’s there) in wins over the Nets and Pistons, the division leaders. Therefore, how do they defend losing twice to the Wizards (before getting on Michael Jordan’s acumen level), twice to Memphis (OK, one I understand, the 76ers had nobody), once to the Warriors and last Tuesday to Atlanta?
Why even give them a chance?
It’s clear lost games by players aren’t the only missing component from last season’s title titillation. When’s the last time you saw the team dig deep for loose balls and dig in for fourth quarter stops; outscored by 10 by Milwaukee, without Ray Allen who left earlier in the evening due to tendinitis? What happened to its passion for outworking opponents?
“That’s the most discouraging part of this,” GM Billy King underlines.
When accountability is in doubt, blame Allen Iverson, I always say.
It’s his job and brand to provide the answer. It’s his fault for waiting till just before training camp to get his elbow surgically repaired. It’s his fault for shooting so poorly (36 percent) and hoisting up so many unsavory shots from 3-point (20 percent) range with plenty of time left on the 24-second clock.
Only once has Iverson drained more than half (barely, 15-for-29) his field goal attempts, in the loss to Atlanta. Only once has he hit exactly half his shots, in the loss to Golden State.
Iverson’s sorry shot selection isn’t making teammates better this season. At the same time, his noticeably reduced reckless abandon at both ends has made the team worse. Everyone suffers when the MVP fails to play to a higher plateau. That’s what happened to the Lakers last season until Shaq amped it up defensively and his teammates (i.e. Kobe) responded accordingly.
“It’s hard to say we should add this or that because we haven’t had the whole team together for more than a few days,” says King, who has until Christmas Eve to spend Matt Geiger’s $4.07 medical exception and all season, for that matter, to use his team’s $4.5M exception.
“There’s nobody out there free that’s worth our middle-class exception, and, as far as trade, we’re not being offering anyone realistic, only bad contracts. We feel the East is wide open, so we still have a chance to win it if we come out of our funk. I am tinkering, though.”
As for Brown, he’s getting desperate. Sources say he’s thinking of hiring George O’Leary to pad Iverson’s stats and is begging Dan Issel to apologize on behalf of the 76ers.
*
When Jeff Van Gundy derived almost no satisfaction from the Knicks’ most impressive victory of the season in Milwaukee, he knew for sure he’d overstayed his usefulness.
“Here we’d just won six of eight and I wasn’t feeling that good about it. I couldn’t even enjoy our win over the Bucks,” he told me several days ago. “When I left the arena that night I made up my mind to resign the next day.
“If people judge my decision to be selfish, so be it. Did I do what’s best for my family? Yes. But I also did what was best for the team. I pride myself on hard work and preparation. It had become clear to me I was shortchanging the Knicks.
“Burnout is too strong a word. Did I have less energy? Yes.”
Regarding Van Gundy’s future, don’t be suckered into believing he’s planning a life in Biddy Ball and we’ve seen the last of him in the NBA. He loves the pro game, loves coaching and loves not worrying about how the bills are going to get paid. Problem is, the Knicks own his rights for the next 1½ years.
“Should I want to get back into the league the Knicks have three choices,” Van Gundy notes. “They can free me of my obligation, which is highly unlikely, agree on some form of compensation or simply refuse to let me go.”
One way or the other, Van Gundy’s isn’t losing sleep over it. For the time being, he’s just happy watching the wheels go round and round without having to diagram a defense to slow ’em down.
