So, I just opened the door and found a nice little UPS package sitting on the ground. I've been dealing with packages all day long, so it wasn't what I wanted to see. Then I opened it up to find myself starring at a new pair of shoes! Sweet! These aren't just any shoes, they're Elton Brand's signature shoes. Kathleen Neuman of Converse was nice enough to hook me up with a pair, and I greatly appreciate it. Here's a video with Elton and his kicks.

Here's a picture of my pair. Hopefully this is the break Sixers fans have been waiting for. As of right now the Sixers are 0-0 with these bad boys in my possession. Let's see if they don't start bringing us some luck, starting tomorrow against the Bulls. Again, thanks Kathleen!

Derrick Rose blocks and breaks Andre Miller's ankles (via DRose1Bulls)

The Bulls, a bad road team, coming off a their circus trip, came into Philadelphia tonight and beat down the struggling Sixers. The Sixers are a bad, bad team right now. Like a handful of other games this season, they built themselves a nice lead in the first quarter (13) and went downhill from there.

The problems remain the same and I'm not going to continue to point them out each and every night. If you really want to know why they lose games like this, read any of the past couple recaps.

If you didn't catch the game, check out the first half-highlights via NBA.com. You'll get to see Derrick Rose own Andre Miller on offense and defense. Speaking of Derrick Rose, he is incredible. I really wish we had a point guard, or a player for that matter of his caliber. He was poised, made all the right decisions and sprinkled in some spectacular plays. He's only a rookie and almost single-handedly led his team to a victory tonight.

Ben Gordon and Drew Gooden also looked like all-stars tonight. Larry Hughes caught the ball at the 3-point line and was able to make himself a sandwich before shooting. Perimeter D anyone?

The Sixers will get another shot at the Bulls in Chicago on Tuesday night and I don't see anything that leads me to believe they'll win. This team is very depressing right now, and I hate to beat the dead horse, but they need a change, change, change!

Player of the Game: Elton Brand

Box score

Record: 7-10

Favorite Open Thread Comment: none

via assets.espn.go.com

I'm still disgusted over the loss to the Celtics the other night and the season in general. Tonight the Sixers play another mediocre Eastern Conference team in the Chicago Bulls. The difference between the Sixers and the Bulls is a young point guard named Derrick Rose. I'm excited to finally see him in action tonight and wouldn't be surprised if he absolutely abused Andre Miller on both ends of the court.

The Sixers and Bulls are both 7-9. The game is in Philadelphia, so I guess they're considered the favorites, but with the way the season has gone I don't expect it to be easy.

This team needs a shakeup. Read my recap/rant after the Celtics game for more on that. Read this dope game preview over at Blog a Bull. And check out Derrick Rose highlights for a taste of what he's going to do to Andre Miller tonight. Hopefully Andre plays such an embarrassing game, he's traded. One can only hope.

TV: NBA TV

Record: 7-9

Prediction: 102-95 Bulls

This is an open thread.

via assets.espn.go.com

I've seen enough. The Sixers were out-played, out-classed and out-coached in every aspect of the game tonight. The Celtics showed why they are the defending champs, playing ferocious defense, displaying intensity, hunger, heart and all those cliche terms used to describe a championship team. The Sixers were the anti-Celtics tonight. They looked confused and one of my least favorite announcers, Tommy Heinsohn put it best when he said the Sixers looked like they were thinking, "We cannot beat this team." He was absolutely right. As currently assembled, the Sixers are not a championship team, they are not contenders and they might not even be a playoff team.

(Here are a couple quick things I liked that I didn't want to get lost in the shuffle of the horrible game:

-Elton Brand came to play tonight. He's starting to look like the guy we all thought he would be. He came out and score 18 points on 8-14 shooting, grabbed 8 boards and did not commit a single turnover. Bravo Elton, bravo.

-Lou-Will had a vintage Lou-Will line. I'm not worried that it was in garbage time, because that's where he got most of his playing time at the beginning of last season. This game can be a nice confidence builder and maybe he'll get back on track. Tommy Heinsohn was obsessed with him. He scored 15 points on seven shots, dropped 6 dimes, got 3 steals and went turnover-less. Love me some Lou-Will.

-Marreese Speights had some nice dunks in garbage time, and a hard foul with 43 seconds remaining. It got him ejected, but at least he showed he isn't afraid of the big, bad Celtics. He has a lot of elements. He needs more playing time.)

I'm fully aware that 16 games into the season is not a good time to pronounce and team dead and I'm not doing that. I'm saying, without some sort of change this team will not be good and I think that is very evident after watching the first 16 games. A change needs to be made, and made soon. I cannot reiterate that point enough. Before I delve into anything else I want to look at the upcoming schedule.

Next 7 games:

Chicago

@Chicago

Lakers

@Pistons

New Jersey

Cleveland

@Cleveland

If the Sixers play like they have been, they could easily lose six of their next seven or all seven. The Bulls are all of a sudden playing solid basketball and I don't know if you've heard, but they have a monster point guard by the name of Derrick Rose. I can't wait to see how badly he destroys Andre Miller. The Lakers are probably the best team in the NBA. The Pistons are still good and you know Iverson is going to get himself up for that game. The game against the Nets is winnable, but not a foregone conclusion with a backcourt of Devin Harris and Vince Carter able to go off any given night. Then two straight vs. the Cavs, who are destroying every one in their path right now, led by King James. That would leave this team sitting at either 8-15 or 7-16. If that happens and a move isn't made immediately, I'd be shocked.

What kind of changes are we talking about? Well, there are some possibilities.

1. Fire Maurice Cheeks.

The consensus among Sixers fans has been this change indeed. The poor half-court offense can be put on Cheeks for not having good enough plays, if any, or offensive sets. The poor defensive rotations can be put on Cheeks for not coaching the players on when to leave their man and when not to leave their man. Ray Allen shot 21,567 uncontested shots tonight and while it was good for my fantasy team, it should never happen with a shooter as good as Jesus Shuttleworth. The poor substitutions are definitely all Mo's fault. He needs to stop playing Willie Green, Reggie Evans and his new favorite player Theo Ratliff. Marreese Speights needs to be on the court; he brings so much more to the team. So what if he makes a couple rookie mistakes, he's still way better than Evans and Ratliff. I'm still convinced that if Stefanski didn't step in last year, Thad and Lou would still be stuck on the end of the bench and Philly wouldn't have sniffed the playoffs.

No one is questioning whether Cheeks is a good person. I like him as a person, just not as a coach. We all remember this. He seems to know his players and his players seem to like playing for him. He's probably pretty basketball smart, being the point guard of a championship team, but for whatever reason it doesn't translate to his coaching. Usually when a team with a lot of talent and expectations fails to live up to the hype, the finger is pointed at the coach. There is no way this team should be 7-9 and possibly even worse in the next week or so. It might not be completely Mo Cheeks' fault, but he'll be the first one to go if things continue.

Possible replacements are Avery Johnson, Jeff Van Gundy or Eddie Jordan. I have no explanation on why I threw those names out there. They seem like logical choices, but as I've learned throughout my sports fandom, things never work out the way I think they should. If Cheeks was fired the Sixers would probably hire someone the fans like even less than Cheeks. It'd be a change nonetheless, and that is what's needed.

2. Trade either Andre Miller, Samuel Dalembert or both.

Andre Miller has been garbage all season. From the games where he tried to take over to the stupid half-court shot with three seconds left (sorry, I just can't let it go) he completely sucks. He's shooting 42% on the season and if history tells us anything, it's that his shooting percentages aren't very good when he's teamed with Elton Brand. When they played together on the Clippers his field goal percentage dropped from 45% the previous year to 40%. Sound familiar? Last year he shot 49%. That's far from his 42% this year. The common denominator in the huge drop off is Elton Brand and he isn't going anywhere.

The question remains, what kind of trade value does Andre Miller have? Not much. The only two contenders I can find that might be interested in a veteran point guard are the Blazers and Rockets and I'm not sure they'd rather have Andre Miller instead of Steve Blake or Rafer Alston respectively. Both Blake and Alston stretch the defense. Miller doesn't. The only value Miller might have is an expiring contract, which carries a little more weight these days with the summer of 2010 fastly approaching.

What would I want in return for Miller. A capable shooter with enough talent to be our starting point guard for the time being. I even like the idea of acquiring a shooting guard who can actually shoot and start the Andre Iguodala-point guard experiment. That would never happen though; the Sixers aren't that desperate yet.

On to Samuel Dalembert. He's overpaid. He has the lowest basketball IQ in the NBA and is just standing in the way of a Marreese Speights explosion. I realize that sounds a bit inappropriate, but I'm going to leave it for comedy purposes. Point being, Speights is just as good, if not better than Dalembert at this point and much cheaper. Yes, Dalembert is a better defender... sometimes. Dalembert has shown stretches, or quarters where he absolutely shuts down the opponent's best big man, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett specifically, but that was last year. This year he has failed to do barely anything of value and if we aren't going to contend, we might as well get rid of our horrible contracts and get a little younger. Give Speights some time to develop and he will be a monster. 

The market for Dalembert would be higher than for Miller. The Pistons could use a center, the Heat could use one, the Mavericks, the Spurs, just to throw some names out there.

3. Make a lineup change

This could go hand-in-hand with number two. If Miller or Dalembert is traded, obviously their would be a change in the starting lineup. Otherwise, I think this is the least drastic and most realistic change possible. Cheeks might attempt to save his job and bench Dalembert for Speights. Dalembert did play very well off the bench early in his career. Thad or Iguodala could also be moved to the bench, not necessarily as a demotion, but to help the second unit. The first unit obviously isn't clicking and a Lou-Iggy backcourt in the second unit would be pretty productive. I'm open to nearly any lineup change as long as it doesn't involve Willie Green. Don't even get me started on him. He needs to be cut.

Something needs to be done and I think it will be after the upcoming seven game stretch. I have faith in the greatest GM on planet earth.

Player of the Game: Elton Brand

Box score

Record: 7-9

Favorite Open Thread Comment: "And that was goaltending on the pussy"-jemagee

Tonight the struggling Sixers travel to Boston to face the 14-2 Celtics. At first glance, a struggling seven win team, on the road, against the defending champion Celtics looks like a huge mismatch, and it is, but I have hope.

First off, I'm an overly optimistic Sixers fan that believes they'll turn it around soon and begin living up to expectations. Secondly, I remember what happened last year. The Sixers went into Boston and went toe-to-toe with the champs. They came out with a huge victory, one that ranked third on my top 10 games of the season. There's no reason they can't do it again, especially with Elton Brand on their side. A dramatic win in Boston would be the perfect remedy to the disappointing start to the season. This team can't suck forever right?

Check out CelticsBlog for the other point of view.

Keys to the game:

-The Sixers have to use better judgement on defensive rotations play better perimeter defense. They cannot leave Ray Allen or Paul Pierce to double-team, especially at the end of games. We've already seen it happen with Mike Miller and Rashard Lewis and both made the Sixers pay. Ray Allen is on my fantasy team, but I'd rather not see him drop 25 threes on the Sixers tonight.

-The Andres have to play better. Both players are shooting under 43% on the season. One of them needs to stop trying to show off and committing stupid turnovers. The other needs to not jack up half-court shots with three seconds remaining in the game. (Sorry, I had to do it.) Both guys need to step it up if Philly has a chance.

And here's an interesting little nugget regarding Andre Miller. Andre Miller's field goal percentage sucks. Did you know that Andre Miller has had a worse field goal percentage only once in his career? The season was 2002-2003. A teammate of his was Elton Brand. Coincidence? I'm not sure, but something has to be said, when Andre Miller has his two worst shooting percentages with Elton as his teammate. He shot 40% that season, by the way.

-The bench has to play better, specifically Lou Williams. A field goal percentage of 33% just isn't going to cut it.

-Substitutions. Marreese Speights deserves more minutes. Stop playing Reggie Evans and give his minutes to Speights.

-Half-court offense. Most times the Sixers look confused and discombobulated in the half-court set. The possession usually ends in a horrible, low percentage shot. That's on Cheeks.

-Maybe Willie Green will sit out with indigestion from to o much green bean casserole. One can only hope.

Let's go Sixers!

TV: Comcast SportsNet

Record: 7-8

Prediction: 98-87 Celtics (Going with the anti-jinx tonight)

This is an open thread.

Man, I don't even know where to start. The Sixers sucked in the first half, but were somehow still in the game. Then the Magic started sucking in the second half and the Sixers took the lead. (In depth analysis, I know.) And in the end, Rashard, or Rasheed Lewis, as Hubie Brown likes to call him, hit a corner three pointer to give the Magic a two-point lead. Thaddeus Young left him, bad perimeter D yet again. The game wasn't over though. There was still 4.7 seconds remaining, which is plenty of time to get a clean look at the basket. Plus, the Sixers can call timeout and advance the ball right? No. Mo Cheeks decided to leave zero timeouts for the end of the game. Surprise. Regardless, 4.7 seconds is a reasonable amount of time to dribble the ball up court, make a pass or two and get a good shot off. That's far from what happened. The Sixers supposed veteran, savvy, point guard decides to dribble for a total of 1.7 seconds before throwing up a contested half-court shot with 3 seconds remaining. Don't believe me? Take a look at the picture above, courtesy of my iPhone. It was a bonehead move, but I can't blame the loss on a single play, because there were plenty of other reasons Philly lost, and they are the same reasons why They've been losing games all season.

-Bad perimeter defense. 

-Nonexistent three point shooting.

-Lack of offensive sets.

-Horrendous coaching.

-Substitutions.

-Bench play, even though they did better tonight.

Bottom line is, the team has a ton of issues and they were lucky to even be in the game tonight. It's going to take some time to fix these problems and most people on this blog think firing Cheeks would resolve, or at least improve all of them and I really can't disagree. I'm not 100% on the "Fire Cheeks" bandwagon just yet, but I mean, how much more mediocre basketball does Sixers management have to see before making a change. This team obviously has some talent, but aren't showing it right now. Is that the players' fault or the coach's? It remains to be seen.

My two favorite things about this game were the play of Elton Brand and Marreese Speights. Brand had a really nice second half and put the team on his shoulders for stretches of the game. He's starting to show signs of the old EB. And Marreese Speights, wow. I predicted a big game for M16. I just felt it. Hubie Brown put it best when he said, "It's just his night." In 13 minutes Speights dropped 12 points, grabbed three boards, had a nice steal, took a charge and hit a half-court-buzzer-beater. Hmmm, maybe he should get some more playing time, just a suggestion.

By the way, Hubie is a lame announcer, but he was entertaining. He was eeriely aroused by Dwight Howard's body and uttered the sentence, "I like Willie Green." Your a bad man Hubie. 

I'm sure I'll have some posts up tomorrow, but if not, or if everyone's too busy to comment, have a happy Thanksgiving and don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Player of the Game: Elton Brand

Box score

Record: 7-8

Favorite Open Thread Comment: "Dwight Howard has the most beautiful arms/shoulders in the NBA. Like a greek god. And no, I am not gay."--FuquaManuel