Oh, C'mon, Philly! Stop Your Whining! What the Sixers did right in the 2013 draft...

Look, nobody expected the Sixers to contend next year…are we all in agreement there?  Even if they had kept their nucleus and just drafted out of the number eleven spot, would they have been a serious threat to win deep into the playoffs?

Of course not.  Don’t be silly.

Ok, so now that we have that clear, it makes sense to make deals that can help you be winners two, three, maybe four years from now…right?

Nobody here is going to try and tell you that Jrue Holiday is not a great player.  Of course he is!  But if you believe you can get better value for a commodity on your team (even if it is a great player like Jrue) you have to weigh the options.

Nerlens Noel was considered by most of the ESPN experts to be the likely number one overall pick at this year’s draft.  They were shocked when he dropped to the number six pick. 

It’s not like the kid played in the WAC conference or the Ivy League last year.  He played for Kentucky in the SEC.  Not too shabby, right?

Yes, he had surgery on a knee and obviously people in Philly are hesitant to hear about big men with bad knees after the Andrew Bynum debacle.

Noel is expected to be ready to play in December.  It gives him more time to bulk up some and to learn the system.  I’m actually hoping he only plays sparingly the whole year.

The kicker here is that the Sixers ALSO get a first round pick from the New Orleans Pelicans in 2014.  This pick is GOING TO BE a lottery pick.  There’s almost no doubt that will be the case.  New Orleans is not a good team.

The potential rub is that if it’s a top three selection, the Sixers will have to wait another year to get their other part to this deal.

The 2014 draft is projected to be much better than the 2013 draft and the Sixers will almost certainly be drafting within the lottery with their own pick again as well.  That means the Sixers will have TWO lottery picks to add to a healthy Noel in 2015.

Noel and a lottery pick for Holiday?  Yep!  ALL DAY!  ALL DAY!…especially when you can draft a guy like Michael Carter-Williams out of Syracuse to take over the point guard spot for Holiday.

AGAIN, they won’t win next season, but it gives the Sixers a chance to get even younger and to spend a year or two to learn the game.  Having a guy like Holiday on the roster almost becomes a luxury that isn’t worth keeping anyway.

Here’s the last piece of the puzzle….what about the money freed up by trading Holiday?  It’s a pretty decent piece of change and it can be used to get a very nice free agent… or…and you won’t like to hear this….but it could also be used to possibly broker a deal with uhmmmm….maybe Andrew Bynum?…again?

Hopefully he will come much cheaper than his first deal and the Sixers will then have TWO productive big men that can dominate the low post and protect the rim in 2014-2015.  It could happen?

Yes, a lot of factors need to happen and the moons will need to be aligned.  But let’s face it, the route the team had been headed was not going anywhere positive.  Why not try something bold and risky? 

If nothing else, you have to give kudos to the Sixers new GM Sam Hinkie.  At least the guy is TRYING!  At least the guy isn’t afraid to fail.  At least the guy is willing to make a statement right out of the chute and is throwing ALL caution to the wind!

Hinkie may wind up looking like a genius, or he’ll resemble the same failures the collection of previous Sixers GMs have endured.   

At least there’s a reason to talk about the Sixers on the back page of the Daily News again?  That’s a pretty good start for the new guy.

Bill Mattis, owner AllStarInc

copyright 2013  Bill Mattis/AllStarInc ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Cole Hamels and the NBA Draft...What to do? What to do?

Tough times call for tough decisions.  That's why the Phillies and Sixers need to consult with the good people at AllStarInc before doing ANYTHING!

While the euphoria surrounding the return of Chase Utley to the Phillies lineup was met with the reality of another tough loss Wednesday night, the future still looks bright for the boys in pinstripes.

How you may ask?

In addition to getting Utley back, you have Ryan Howard also looming on the horizon...whenever that may be.

Adding quality players to the mix also subtracts players of lesser quality.  It's a double win.

Meanwhile, the events of the past three months should prove to the Phillies brass the EXACT reason why they CANNOT trade Cole Hamels.

Two thirds of the "big three" have had injury and game struggles this year.  Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee have shown a human side of their career that we haven't seen before.  Whether it's injury or age or whatever other reason, it does magnify the incredible season Cole Hamels is having.

Cole just keeps getting better and better. 

If the team was not prepared to compete again anytime soon, I'd THINK about possibly dealing him for a mega prospect and star studded package.  But that's certainly not the case here.

Even if the Phillies don't get back to the playoffs this season, they will still be considered one of the favorites next year with the current cast (even all one year older).

I would anticipate Phils GM Ruben Amaro making a move very soon to bolster a bullpen that is as solid as the Titanic.  As the team gets more and more healthy, the club will take care of itself.

My best guess is that when you see the team start to play their NL East foes head to head in the coming weeks, you will see some serious gains in the standings.

Across the street from Citizens Bank Park, the Sixers management is huddling at the Wells Fargo Center trying to decide what to do at tonight's NBA draft.

Please...please...please...DO NOT trade for the Raptors' Bargnani or the Lakers' Gasol.  Stay the course...stay the course....keep adding young talented players to the mix and keep getting better and better.

Believe it or not, the Sixers are in a really great spot when it comes to tonight's NBA draft, but they could REALLY improve their spot by making a move.

I'm not looking for them to trade up at all though.  I'm hoping for them to acquire a second pick in the first round in about the same area that their own pick lies.

At this time, Doug Collins and his boys select with the 15th pick.  The thought process is that they desperately need to add a big man who can score, rebound, AND play defense.  What a concept, huh?

For what they need, having a pick at 15 can accomplish their objectives.

The problem is that many of the big men available at 15 are question marks, but COULD be big winners.

Why not double your chances of being successful and find a way to take a shot on TWO different players and hope that at least one winds up working out to be what you want?

How do we make this happen?  Well, (at the time this blog was written) Houston currently has the 12th, 16th, and 18th pick in the first round.  I seriously doubt Houston uses all three picks in this year's draft. The 16th and 18th picks would be great targets for capturing what I'm talking about.

If Chase Budinger (traded from Houston to Minnesota) can land you the 18th pick in a trade, then Andre Iguodala can certainly get you more than that.  Yes, I know the money owed Andre is more than what Budinger is due, but the talent level is different too.

I'm not sure Golden State (a team with 3 picks in the top 35) will deal the 7th pick overall, and I'm really not interested in pick #30 as an alternative.

I doubt the Sixers can package their two 2nd round picks to move up high enough to get a guy worth trading for, but I suppose they could also throw in a future 1st pick to make something happen if a team isn't interested in Iggy.

The guy I would like to see in a Sixers jersey is Perry Jones from Baylor.  Jones is a super athletic kid with a very big body.  The knock on Jones is that he sometimes doesn't play his hardest.  I leave that to Doug Collins and his Sixers teammates to fix.

Another big player who could be available is Jared Sullinger from Ohio State.  Sullinger's stock has dropped sharply from a year ago when he was talked about as a "National Player of the Year" kind of guy.

The knock on Jared is that he's not quite as athletic as the rest of the bunch and isn't as explosive as many others being considered in the first round.  He kind of reminds some people of Elton Brand.

In my mind, Sullinger is a future star.  The kid knows how to score and rebound.  He comes from a big conference and is ready to step into a big role.

If Sullinger drops to the middle of the first round, I would love to see the Sixers find a way to get both Jones and Sullinger.  If they can do that, they may have TWO studs on the front line for years to come.  Both are ready right now, unlike last year's pick of Nikola Vucevic who may still workout.

Ruben & Doug...my phone is on and charged if there are any more questions.  Feel free to call anytime...well.... not after 10 PM and not before 10 AM,ok?

Cookin’ up UGLY Wins....The Sixers’ Recipe for Success!

Hand over the clipboard Doug Collins.  Let me have a crack at the Celtics! 

This series can be very easy for the Philly basketballers.  All they have to do is the SAME thing they have been doing all year...annnnnnnnnd maybe shoot the ball a bit better.

Winning ugly has been the way that the Sixers have achieved their success pretty much all year.  It was never more evident than in the series against the Bills where NOBODY will be lining up the level of play against the NBA's greatest teams.

Gritty defense, an occasional spurt of offense, and some opportunistic bounces of the basketball and voila!  The Sixers are preparing for the Celtics in round two.

Let's face it, it didn't hurt that the Bulls best two players were hurt, too.

In the Boston Celtics, you have a team that's just asking to get knocked out and the Sixers are just the team to do it.  How Atlanta, a team with some pretty good young talent, lost to Boston is beyond me.  In a way, the Celtics won much like the Sixers...ugly.

So, if you're expecting something reminiscent of the days of Dr J., Larry Bird, and all of those great Celtic vs. Sixers match-ups over the years, be sure to have the vomit bucket at arms’ length at all times.  This is not going to be pretty basketball.

The biggest advantage this Sixers team has over this Celtics team is depth.  The Celtics pretty much rely on their top five players.  That may need to change a lot since it looks as if Ray Allen may have a cranky ankle giving him trouble all series. 

Fortunately for the Sixers, the candidates to take Allen's minutes aren't anything that will remind you of a "solid NBA player."  Sorry Celtics fans; that's just the truth.

Avery Bradley?  Keyon Dooling? Marquis Daniels?  C'mon...no chance.

The Sixers should play 9 deep and run whenever they get the chance.  Throw as many fresh young bodies at the Celtics as possible.

Coach Collins should view this as a war that gets won by winning four battles.  Even in games they lose, they need to exhaust the Celtic starters to the point where they're out of gas in every second half of the game.

The biggest matchup is Hawes against Garnett.  Even at 36 years old, Garnett is still a force inside and will be a mismatch for Hawes.  Hawes will need lots of double down help from his teammates and hope that the Sixers can rotate fast enough to the open shooter.  Don't be surprised if you see Collins experiment using Lavoy Allen against Garnett early in the series.

But, Hawes can turn the tables on Garnett, too.  Kevin Garnett will NOT come out and cover Hawes at the 3 point line.  If Hawes can knock down open jumpers it will cause the Celtics lots of fits.

The matchup the Sixers can exploit is Iguodala vs. Pierce.  Iggy is much more athletic and I believe he'll send Pierce into a shooting nightmare.  Pierce is a smart player, so I don't think this is going to be a travesty, but I do give Andre the nod.

Rondo and Holiday are going to be battling each other the whole series, and it should be a very entertaining battle.  Hopefully Holiday will get the Sixers out and running.  If Collins has him slowing things down it will only play into the Celtics game plan.

The other big problem the Celtics have is that they really don't have an answer defensively for Brand (unless they decide to let Garnett cover him instead of Hawes).  If Brand asserts himself offensively he could be a HUGE difference for the Sixers.

All of the other names (starters or not) like Lou Williams, Turner, Young, Allen, and maybe even some Jodie Meeks, should be in and out of the game like a revolving door.  The Sixers shouldn't let the Celtics have enough time to figure out who everybody's covering before making another substitution.

A prediction?  The Sixers win this series in NO MORE than six games.  That would take at least one win at the TD Garden and then holding serve at home.  If they can find a way to win game one, the Sixers could win this thing in FIVE games!

Wear them down and late in games, as well as late in the series, the Celtics will be cooked.  Grind it out, and win ugly.  It's what the Sixers are good at doing....don't stop now!  Let's not try to get cute. 

There you go Coach Collins...it's easy!  Stick to the "AllStarInc Plan" and you'll be facing the Heat in the Conference Finals in about two weeks! 

Oh, and Doug...if you have any questions...hit me up anytime. 

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