Currently browsing category

Evan Turner

The Kind of Historic Season You Don’t Want: Philadelphia 76ers Season Preview

Starting Five: PG Michael Carter-Williams, SG Evan Turner, PF Thaddeus Young, C Spencer Hawes, and whoever/someone else
 
Key Bench Players: Royce White (who?), James Anderson (WHO?), Tony Wroten (WHO??!?!!?), Jason Richardson (syke!)
 
Offseason Additions: C Nerlens Noel, PG Michael Carter-Williams, Head Coach Brett Brown
 
Offseason Subtractions: C Andrew Bynum, PF Andrew Bynum’s hair, PG Jrue Holiday
 
FACT OR FICTION: This new 76ers regime that Sam Hinkie has put together will be the team of the future.
 
FACT. Fiction as hell.
 
The Sixers are going to be bad this year. Very bad, in fact. Where three years ago they were playing the Heat in the playoffs, they now will be aiming to set a new franchise record by losing more games than the 1972-73 Sixers (who hold the NBA record with 73 losses). This is a franchise that has skipped the weak ass sh*t, went straight for the heavy stuff and nuked this team’s mediocre present, to hopefully solidify an excellent future. Starting when they let Andrew Bynum and his afro walk and/or stumble away into free agency and then continuing with the whirlwind of the 2013-2014 NBA draft where they traded pre-prime/quasi-star Jrue “I-Jraw-Good” Holiday to the newly anointed New Orleans Pelicans for Nerlens Noel (effectively ruining the funniest/most clever draft choice the Nerlens’ Pelicans will ever make) and a 2014 first-rounder, the Sixers have poised themselves for a historically terrible season.
 
But that’s a very good thing.… Read more...

Will Andrew Bynum Work? – Philadelphia 76ers Season Preview

Starting Five: PG Jrue Holiday, SG Jason Richardson, SF Evan Turner, PF Spencer Hawes, C Andrew Bynum

Key Bench Players: PG Royal Ivey, SG Nick Young, SF Dorrell Wright, SF Thaddeus Young, PF/C Lavoy Allen, C Kwame Brown
Notable offseason additions: C Andrew Bynum, SF Dorrell Wright, PG Royal Ivey, SG Nick Young
Offseason subtractions: F Maurice Harkless (15th overall pick), C Nikola Vucevic, G Willie Greene, F Andre Iguodala, SG Sam Young, G Lou Williams
It’s no secret that THE GREAT MAMBINO holds Andrew Bynum in great esteem. To say the least, he’s an extremely complicated young man whose insistence on constant improvement to his game is remarkable considering his injury history. Bynum has moved along relatively anonymously the past years under bigger stars in Los Angeles, whose personalities have outweighed even Andrew’s idiosyncrasies. However, Lakers wouldn’t have won the 2010 title without the 2012 2nd Team All-NBAer, nor would they have been in contention from 2008 until 2012. When he wants to be, he’s one of the truly dominant two-way players in the league, scoring at will and exerting his full dominance on defense. Other than his health problems (which have already manifested themselves in training camp), there’s no reason why Andrew can’t be one of the top twenty players in the NBA.

But Bynum is moving onto Philadelphia. The city that’s done this:

Or this:

Needless to say, Philadelphia’s not the type of city to put up with Andrew Bynum’s bullcrap. Episodes like postponing surgery in order to attend the World Cup. Or double parking in a handicap spot. Or shooting a three-pointer in transition. Or sitting on the bench during huddles. Or proclaiming that “close-out games are actually kind of easy”, and going on to lose the next two contests.

Andrew has largely been able to live life as a care-free twenty-something, because frankly, the town was always too busy roasting Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Phil Jackson, Pete Carrol, Frank McCourt, Donald Sterling and so forth and so forth. Even if Bynum was the biggest attraction in town, which is an impossibility because of Staples Center’s proximity to Hollywood, the truth is that the intensity from the west coast fanbase could never reach the every day heights from our east coast brethren. This is a completely different discussion altogether, but I don’t need to convince anyone that Chargers, Niners and Seahawks fans are decidedly less venomous than Jets, Steelers and Patriots fans on the whole.

After the four-way trade in August brought Drew to the Atlantic Northeast, any question surrounding t… Read more...