SYSTEM FAILURE

Ok so like most Sixers fans (all 10 of us) I was a bit skeptical when the team hired Eddie Jordan in the offseason as the teams new coach. Eddie came into Philadelphia with his highly regarded (atleast thats what he said) Princeton Offense. Now for those of you that dont really pay attention to the x's and o's of basketball I will give you a run down of what the Princeton Offense is.

Its alot like the 8 second offense in affect in Phoenix. The P.O (as I will refer to it) consists of various cuts and quick screens with a minimum of 5 passes before a shot is taken. The offense is designed for a college style team with strong guard play and upper level three-point shooting. Its very fast paced and causes miss matches and isolations. The P.O. is meant to confuse offenses and create a high scoring team.

When asked about how the system works Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas had this to say "Its a thinking mans offense, it has a lot of cuts and moves and if you dont have players with high basketball IQ's the system wont necessarilly work" Arenas knows this because Jordan ran the Wizards into the ground with this system last season.

Now the P.O. does have a little bit of a downfall, which is what I am going to call the Princeton Offense Syndrome or P.O.S. The P.O.S. happens because when the offense is give to a team that dosent have strong guard play and anything other then top notch outside shooting it lacks the effenctiveness needed to make it successful, and this is where the Sixers come into play.

The team is suffereing from alot of P.O.S. This is a team that was supposed to be rebuilding for the future with strong low post play and stronger forwards that can bump and pressure along the boards to compete with the rest of the Eastern Conference. The team has come out sluggish and seems confused because with a 24 second shot clock they cant necesarilly get off the 5 passes needed to make the offense happen.

In the off season the team picked up Jason Kapono, who in his career has been a very prolifant outside shooter. That is a good step forward for the team but they are still 4 players short of whats needed to make this thing work.

The P.O.S. is running rampant because other then Kapono and a developing Lou Williams, who is now sidelined with a fractured jaw, the team does not have established outside shooting and the key to the offense (the point guard) is being shuffled between Williams, and a rookie guard with only one season of college experience in Jrue Holiday.

The next problem they are suffering from is that the team has two terriblly slow inside players (Samuel Dalember & Elton Brand). These guys have P.O.S. written all over them. They cant seem to get the cuts and passes down and both work better (If at all) when the offense slows down and they have time to think (trust me this takes a bit).

Basically the Sixers problem is this... Eddie Jordan isnt the best coach in the world and when he came to Philly he brought a system that dosent fit the team he was given. Not to mention but he dosent have the money to make it work seeing as the Sixers owe WAY WAY too much money to certain players (P.O.S. afflicted Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert).

If the Sixers have any chance of salvaging their season they need to get rid of the P.O.S and get back to an offense that works for them. You know the kind of offense that WINS GAMES.....

Be patient fans this is not the tip of the sword its just a small prick in the bleeding that will be the 2009-10 Philadelphia 76ers.

Happy Holidays Everyone.

b.chan

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