Now we know The Plan

So what have we learned since draft night?

• The fans "plan" and Billy King's "plan" aren't the same. I, for one, like Billy King's plan. I'm going to call it the "Chicago Bulls" plan...keep drafting good players, let them develop into assets and TADA!, you've got some flexibility to improve. They got rid of Chandler and Curry when they were at their "upside" peak in exchange for Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and got the cap space to sign a premeire free agent (although thats now a questionable signing). The fans want to do what I'll call the "WIP" plan...fire everybody, its their fault, and get someone in here who knows what they're doing, and try to get the first overall pick while worrying about every free agent out there. Both plans do not follow Larry King's "today is worth 3 tomorrow's plan", which is good for all. People...Ed Snider is running a business. Right now, the business simply isn't in good condition relative to the competition within the league and on the open market (vs. NFL / MLB teams). I'm sure after sitting down with the team, the plan was to try to move up in the draft, but if not, Thad Young was their guy. We all HATE upside...but we need it right now. Its got value to other teams. Case in point - Darko. I mean, he's marginal, and might turn into servicable...we all know this. Memphis gave him a contract based on UPSIDE, not what he's worth now. One more thing in defense of the scouting and drafting - they haven't missed too much in the last few years since Larry left.
  
• Let's not get too excited about the Summer League. Please. Sure its neat to read the stories etc...but who is guarding Lou Williams? Let's see LW play some defense and not turn the ball over consistently in the winter. I hope they don't trade Andre Miller and let Williams get his backup minutes....its really too much for a 21 year old to be put in that spot. (Tony Parker has Tim Duncan)
  
• 2007-8 is a throw away year. Every team has to have one to "purge" a former core of players and develop a new identity, both within and without. The culture change promised by Billy King is taking place before your eyes...just a hunch, but Thad Young's att-I-tude definently endeared himself to the brass. I posted earlier that the starting lineup in 2009 could be Williams, Igoudala, Young, Smith, Dalembert ... if I told you that a year ago, you almost wouldn't believe it. Getting back to my first point, until the team generates wins (Wins = TV ratings), the team will be undervalued in the marketplace. The brass decided that they were going to need to take a step back to take three steps forward. The plan is to let that young core develop, get another draft pick, maybe find a D-League type free agent, and save cap room for 2008. I wouldn't run out to get a FA unless it was a perfect fit in 2008 either (Elton Brand!)
• I'm excited to watch the young guys play...hearkens me back to 1997/98 when the team was developing a personality.
  
• This planning takes some patience from management. The executives in Boston and New York are going with the WIP plan and its going to bite them while the Sixers are young and improving. Within 24 months, the Sixers will be better than both those teams for the better part of the decade. So my kudos to Ed Snider for fixing my favorite team
• Now that we don't have Joe Smith, our rebounding is really bad. Like worst in the league bad. We stunk last year and he was one of the better rebounders on the team.
  

The Sixers were never not for sale

I had to chuckle at the article today in the paper regarding the Sixers being for sale.

Guess what? The Flyers are for sale too...and the Eagles. If someone walked up to Jeff Lurie with 2 Billion dollars cash they'd be sold.

The reason the Sixers will not be sold (which is good for the fans) is that the real value of any sports franchise is not in operating profits but from year over year increase in the value of the entire property. These days, entire property means the team, the arena, and the rights to broadcast them and rake in advertising. Comcast Spectacor has painted themselves in a corner with this - they can't let go of the TV station and arena. Without them, the team is worth less than 200 million dollars, and that's for someone to come in and lose money year over year. To quote the first president Bush - "not gonna happen".

So the team isn't going anywhere in terms of ownership any time soon. The facade they went through last year was a joke - someone I'm sure ponied up half a billion or so for the team but they'd need the arena and tv revenues.

More later on the basketball aspect of our basketball blog.

Billy King's Contract

I'm just getting back from a long weekend out of the muck and filth of the city and listening to one of the worst crossovers in the history of radio - Sandy Penner > Paul Jolovitz. I was stuck between two old girlfriends last night at a party and that sounded more appealing than these two tools.




But I digress...

Much like the college football season, there is a lot of hand=wringing about the status of the current GM of the Sixers, Billy King. Folks, he's not going anywhere...why? I can't tell you why (thanks Glen Frye) other than I think Mr. Snider is going to keep King for another few years (at least 3). I can't tell you why they don't end the college football season with a playoff like every other sport in the world. I just accept it and not let it stop me from enjoying the sport.

Tomorrow we'll dig into the whats whys and hows of what this season might look like.

One final note - should be an interesting summer league...Usually the results mean absolutely nothing, but the list of players who are going all have something to prove quickly for roster spots.

• 4 Derrick Byars G/F 6-7 220 4/25/84 R Vanderbilt
• 11 Bobby Jones F 6-7 215 1/9/84 1 Washington
• 14 Jason Smith C/F 7-0 240 3/2/86 R Colorado State
• 20 Louis Amundson F 6-9 225 12/7/82 1 UNLV
• 21 Edin Bavcic F 6-10 230 6/5/84 R Bosnia
• 23 Louis Williams G 6-1 175 10/27/86 2 South Gwinnett HS (Ga.)
• 25 Rodney Carney F 6-7 205 4/15/84 1 Memphis
• 30 Thaddeus Young F 6-8 220 6/21/88 R Georgia Tech
• 35 Herbert Hill F/C 6-10 240 10/1/84 R Providence
• 42 Shavlik Randolph F 6-10 240 11/24/83 3 Duke

D.A.

Is it just me or is it a treat to have David Aldridge writing about the hometown 15? He did a great job this morning of summing up where Billy King is.

Mr. Snider showed faith in Paul Holmgren...it seems to be paying off. Because of the nature of the beast, King's rebuilding should take about 2 years, but the results MUST be evident or he'll start to feel the heat in the one way Mr. Snider will pay attention to - season tickets and luxury boxes revenue.

Also, Bill Simmons is doing a podcast; great chat with Rick Bucher about what the NBA is all about in 2007.