The Season that may or may not be happening.

The sad part is we really used to care. Had this team of played any year in the 1990's the sixers would have been the talk of the town, Our Wachovia center heroes headed towards the playoffs. Instead it's second page news behind the struggling Phils, and the draft preparing Eagles. I dont know exactly where it went wrong either. Larry Brown leaving? A.I's practice rant? Maybe having to watch Big Dog or Van Horn? But whatever it was the fact remains the Sixers mean very little in Philadelphia right now.

Watching the Sixers is like watching a movie you already know the ending too. If its good and well done with a solid cast there exists a possibility for multiple views eventhough you know whats going to happen. Well the sixers cast has become not exciting and game plots never changing. Ive come to expect a few Iverson scoring outbursts, no defense, or ball movement. Maybe if this squad was a scrappy underachieveing bunch there'd be some interests, but the quality of defense dispels that theory right there. The bottom line is we know we are headed nowhere, a first round upset against the Heat or Pistons ( Pleaseee) a total blowup like the Knicks (not as long as A.I is here). Whether or not you think Iverson is the problem his desire and scoring is what is saving us from a 22 win season.

Being in NBA limbo team isnt even as fun as being the worst team in the league. At least then the lottery and the draft was exciting. Now sixers fans are regulated to watching 5 game playoff seasons, or being one of the last lottery teams getting the 10-14th player in the draft where maybe another Johnny Salmons is available.Last years acquisistion of Chris Webber was suppose to give a jolt to a team headed nowhere. It ended up like adding a guest star to a doomed sitcom. So, now the sixers are in salary cap hell with 60 million in Samuel Dalembert (Yep you read that right), 40 million in Webber, and 86 million in Iverson. How can a team possibly rebuild with those contracts. When the current cast of characters is on the court together it is somewhat awkward. All Samuel Dalmbert does is block shots, A.I over plays for steals and shoots too much, Kyle Korver takes threes, Chris Webber is a 6'10 power forward who only shoots jump shots, Johnn Salmons does nothing, and Andre Iguodola dunks the ball and plays defense. How in the world is the group supposed to mesh together?

So while the great debate lingers of whether it is better to miss the playoffs and head to the lottery or lose in 5 to the Pistons. I offer this humble solution to fix the repeat performance. Create an identity. Establish a way you want to play basketball. Larry Brown got this, and got the Sixers to the NBA finals. Either become a team that is trying to outscore everybody and run a fast break game, or do what worked in 2001 and add all hard nosed defenders and rebounders around Iverson.

With four games remaining there is another sublot in the script of the last 5 years, but in case your busy just checkout last seasons DVD.

Jro's hit streak over.
I guess I was right with there is no way in hell this goes past April 10th. Jimmy is a fantastic player who got very hot last year, but if you thought this was getting past 45 your nuts. There was some discussion about if he passed Dimaggio if it should count as a different record. Well Jimmy took 5 months off from hitting in August and September and came into a 40 degree and windy day in Philly. Had he of reeled of 20 straight the record should have been all his.Dissapointed about the Phils start.

The one thing everybody said before the year, was they cant get off to a bad start. So now there catching up from the start, and even 2/3 from the Dodgers and their still 2 games under .500. Oh well i guess that annual 5-16 stat vs. the marlins will probably be a little more slanted in our favor this year.

Interested to see how the young guns pitch this weekend. Madson and Floyd both have a chance to be very good, and for the bold prediction of the week I say they win a combined 30 games this year. Madson is one of those guys who wont over power Jim from Marketing at the company softball game, but just knows how to get guys out. Everything coming out about Floyd has been positive from switching back to his high school and minor league mechanics to his mental make up being where it should be (whatever the hell that means). Apparently he tried to increase his velocity last year, so he started throwing like Billy Wagner and burned his arm out. Which makes me wonder why they even have pitching coaches. You think Rich Dubee couldnt have said last year, "Ehh Gav thats not your usual mechanics and maybe you should stop throwing first pitch fastballs 90% of the time."

The back 9 at Augusta and the Phightins at home, should be a good weekend.