Playing For The 76ers? No Tanks

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Playing For The 76ers?  No Tanks Empty Playing For The 76ers? No Tanks

Post by bobheckler Wed Nov 19, 2014 7:41 am

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/boston_celtics/2014/11/celtics_notebook_playing_for_the_76ers_no_tanks



Celtics Notebook: Playing for the 76ers? No tanks




Tuesday, November 18, 2014
By:  Mark Murphy


WALTHAM — Some consider Sam Hinkie a visionary, though more people across the league consider the Philadelphia 76ers general manager’s open tanking philosophy to be a travesty.

The onus on opponents like the Celtics, who play in Philadelphia tonight, is not to lose to a team that has yet to win, and may not for quite some time because of its D-League talent level.

Evan Turner was a Sixer until his trade to Indiana last winter, and believes he can speak for those players unfortunate enough to be stuck in the middle of Hinkie’s plan.

“It’s different,” Turner said yesterday of Hinkie’s approach. “It goes the right way, or not. That kind of trend can make or break certain situations. Hopefully they don’t get penalized for what they’re doing, but if they do put the right guys on the team they can be really successful thanks to the leadership of coach (Brett) Brown. The biggest thing is having the unity. That’s all you have and you have to stay focused on going to battle with who you have.”

Turner especially has faith in Brown in this respect. He doesn’t believe the coach or his staff have been placed under an impossible form of pressure.

“I don’t think there is any pressure,” Turner said. “The thing Brett Brown tried to do was to focus on making the players he had better, and just keep developing players.”

And that, according to Turner, is all that can matter to his former teammates right now.

“Any player who is competitive is not OK with losing,” he said. “One thing you learn when you play sports, losing can be the easiest thing to do. At the end of the day it hurts. It’s kind of tough for everybody. Hopefully it plays out in their favor, but you never know.

“The thing is that everyone has their own way of doing things. (Sixers ownership) gave Sam the keys to the car, to take them in the right direction. I think it’s understood that the plan is rebuilding. When I was there our thing was to play our hardest and put ourselves in the best possible position to succeed. We weren’t practicing two-and-a-half hours a day to go get blown out.”

Dreadful defense

His team has developed the implosive late-game personality of long-ago Red Sox closer Heathcliff Slocumb, but Celtics coach Brad Stevens is trying hard not to take these failures to close too much to heart.

As Stevens has discovered, maintaining a clear mind is easier said than done in the wake of Monday’s loss to Phoenix — the 3-6 C’s third straight loss.

“We’ve talked about not overreacting in November a long time ago, and I find myself every morning overreacting,” Stevens said before sitting his players in front of a video screen yesterday morning to relive Monday night’s sins. “It’s good that I get a chance to talk to (the media) and put some perspective on it.”

Stevens does face a dilemma here. The Celtics have lived up to his aspirations for an accelerated pace, and remain third in the league in scoring average at 107.4 points per game. But they also rank 29th in scoring defense (109.4). Though he doesn’t see a relationship between the two numbers, he admits that statistics may eventually prove him wrong.

“I can’t see any correlation between the two of those things,” he said. “That may be statistically proven. Look at some of the higher scoring teams in the league. But if you looked at the totality of one of our practices, it’s probably 60/40 the other way. We’re trying to emphasize the other end of the floor more. We just have to get better at it.”

On-line difficulties

Rajon Rondo may have fallen to a career low from the foul line with his 2-for-10 performance against the Suns, which dropped him to 30 percent (6-for-20) for the season.

The point guard went from the Garden to the team’s training facility after the game, and spent his time shooting free throws. That’s the only response a coach can ask for.

“Coming back in and getting shots, being able to say you believe the next one’s going in,” Stevens said of Rondo’s path to improvement. “You take your time, you focus on the little things you can control, and you shoot the ball with confidence. That’s easier said than done when you’re on that line by yourself. But he was back in here last night shooting. He’s a guy who’s going to take that personally.”





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Playing For The 76ers?  No Tanks Empty Re: Playing For The 76ers? No Tanks

Post by Sam Wed Nov 19, 2014 1:31 pm

I hope Sam Hinkie is "rewarded" with a succession of the worst drafting positions it's possible for him to acquire for the rest of his life.  I hope he hasn't begun to feel the impact of how great a crap shoot the draft can be.  The people of Philadelphia are rabid fans and deserve better.  I guess it shows that I'm not a fan of people who try to succeed by beating the system rather than earning success.

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