Off-Season Grades: Philadelphia 76ers

This is the fourth of the five off-season grades we at Nets Take Over will do. The first one was of the Boston Celtics, followed by the Toronto Raptors and the New York Knicks. Today, we examine the Philadelphia 76ers. But first, a review of the grading system:

Grading System:

It goes on a scale of 1-100. 

Above a 50 means the team is taking steps in the right direction, whether it be intentionally going towards rebuilding or powering up their team and becoming contenders. A 100 means the most epic off-season ever, so nobody gets a 100.

A 50 means the team had an average off-season. They may have improved, but they hurt their flexibility, or something similar where the result balances out.

Anything lower than a 50 means that the team took steps backwards and took the wrong moves. That's bad, so they get a bad score. Simple as that.

Here's where the semi-complex part comes in. We add three new "variables" to the grades so to speak. Potential, Flexibility, and Depth. These are three main components that a team should look at in the off-season and can affect the grade of a team. Potential meaning how well the team is expected to play during the season, depth meaning how the team did in terms of depth, and flexibility meaning how the team's future looks in terms of cap space. Depending on how the respective team did, it will get a positive or negative P, F or D, with a positive letter being a good thing and a negative letter being bad.

Example: 71 +P +D -F means they had a good off-season and increased their depth and potential, but lost flexibility along the way.

Let us begin.

Key Additions:

• Andrew Bynum
• Jason Richardson
• Dorell Wright
• Nick Young
• Kwame Brown
• Arnett Moultrie
• Royal Ivey

Key Subtractions:

• Andre Iguodala
• Lou Williams
• Elton Brand
• Jodie Meeks
• Nikola Vucevic
• Tony Battie
• Sam Young

Though the Brooklyn Nets have been probably the loudest team in the offseason, trading for Joe Johnson and re-signing Deron Williams, Gerald Wallace and Brook Lopez all the while promoting the hell out of their Brooklyn move, it was the Philadelphia 76ers' acquisition of Andrew Bynum that ranks as the Atlantic Division's biggest transaction. Obtained in the Dwight Howard mega-deal that sent longtime franchise cornerstone Andre Iguodala to Denver, Bynum arrives with huge expectations on the part of the long-meddling Sixer fans. Mediocrity had become the norm in Philadelphia, and much to the fanbase's delight and surprise, the Sixers front office finally made a move to mix things up, and drastically at that. Optimism amongst Sixers fans is the highest it's been since the days of Allen Iverson, but will the new look Sixers take a step forward or remain just an okay playoff team?

It's hard to argue from any standpoint that the Bynum-Iguodala trade was a bad one, even if it raises some interesting and unanswered questions. The team had been treading water somewhere between the deep and shallow end for half a decade, its ACL tear-assisted defeat of Chicago the only playoff series victory of Andre Iguodala's eight year career in Philadelphia. Even with the expected improvement of Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner, it was unlikely that the Sixers could do much better than that 2nd round exit. The franchise made a bold move in trading their long time best player, but did so at exactly the right time. Following Iguodala's first all-star appearance and in the midst of his gold-medal run with Team USA, his value was at its peak. Considering that the Sixers in years past entertained the idea of swapping him for Monta Ellis, to come away with who most consider the second best center in the league was nothing less than a coup. The Sixers are younger with more upside and flexibility than they've had in a long time. Why then am I not convinced that Philadelphia will actually be a better on court team next year?

I actually am someone that considers Andrew Bynum to be the second best center in the NBA, but at this point, I don't consider him to be a better basketball player than Andre Iguodala when it comes to his total effect on the game. I've long been of the opinion that Iguodala is incredibly underrated, especially among Sixers fans disappointed that he was not the "next A.I." he was billed to be. Iguodala is one of the best do-everything players in the league with elite defensive skills at the wing position, but he is not, nor has he ever been a guy to carry the offense. A fanbase who grew up watching Allen Iverson cross over the opposition for 30+ points a night naturally would be disappointed by this, as they gravitated more towards (the now also departed) Lou Williams' isolation heavy scoring while ignoring all the great things Iguodala does for a team's defense and transition offense. No where was it more clear than for Team USA what exactly Andre Iguodala can bring to a team with his jack-of-all-trades style, but Philadelphia and its fans craved a guy who could anchor an offense. They got that in Andrew Bynum, but the departure of Iguodala from the team's defense might hurt  them more than Bynum helps them offensively.

So long as Andrew Bynum remains healthy (no easy guarantee in itself but for the sake of argument we'll assume that's the case), there's little doubt that he will be the offensive star Philadelphia needs. What's more uncertain is how Evan Turner in particular will respond to being thrust into Iguodala's old role as the defensive-minded wing. Turner has shown signs of growth over the last year, but in no way has he performed to levels typically expected of a no. 2 overall pick. For the last two years, the knee-jerk defense to Turner's stalled development has been that Iguodala has been in his way in the rotation; this year we'll finally get to see if that cleared roster room and increased role will lead to a new level in Turner's game. The Sixers were often atrocious offensively last year, but were also elite at times defensively. Bynum should improve the team drastically offensively, but it's up to Evan Turner to ensure that the defensive level does not drop too far in Iguodala's absence. 

The Sixers did get other new players, by the way. In fact, only 5 players remain from last year's team: Holiday, Turner, Spencer Hawes, Thaddeus Young, and LaVoy "Chips" Allen. All are relatively young, so the odds of internal improvement are pretty good. The amnesty of Elton Brand earlier in the off-season seemed like an odd decision at the time, especially when they appeared to only use the newfound cap room on the likes of Hawes and eternal bust Kwame Brown, but with Bynum's acquisition, that decision makes much more sense, and was probably necessary in order to make salaries work. Stranger still was the decision to let fan favorite Lou Williams walk to Atlanta for the tune of only $5 million a year, a very manageable salary considering the oft-needed bench scoring that Lou brings. Williams may be a bit of a chucker at times, but he's no where near the level of his replacement Nick Young, who adds literally nothing but high-volume, low efficiency shooting. The Sixers did also add Jason Richardson, acquired in the Bynum trade, as well as the free agency signing of Dorell Wright, both underrated additions that should add some much needed wing shooting.

Before the acquisition of Bynum, head coach Doug Collins infamously threatened to employ a starting frontcourt of Spencer Hawes and Kwame Brown, and though Bynum will thankfully knock Kwame to the backup role, I'd argue that Kwame should fall even further in the rotation. Lavoy Allen showed great promise in his playoff duel with Kevin Garnett, and was far more effective in his on-court time than likely incumbent starter Spencer Hawes. To see the emerging Allen lose his playing time to a journey man has-never-been would be unfortunate, to say the least. This is also to say nothing of Thaddeus Young, who always appears to be on the verge of a break-out but can never quite find his niche. Perhaps playing alongside Andrew Bynum will prove to be the role that finally fits him.

As training camp approaches, the optimism level of most fanbases is at an all-time high, but Philadelphia 76er fans seem to have most beat in that apartment. And with good reason; anytime your team makes a franchise changing blockbuster trade, there's no reason not to be hopeful that the change will be a positive one. As far as this coming season goes, however, I'm not convinced that the Sixers have enough elite talent to compete with the rising tides in the Atlantic Division. They will likely be right there in the thick of things, but too many questions abound, especially regarding Andrew Bynum's health and the Holiday/Turner combination's ability to make the leap to that next level. The Sixers have surely added depth, flexibility and youth, but it may take some time for those factors to pay off. All things considered, however, I would not be surprised to see Philadelphia land anywhere between a 2nd and 8th seed in a wild Eastern Conference. Realistically I'd put them somewhere around the 6th seed, but it should be interesting to see how the team performs in this rapidly approaching season.

Grade: 75 +P +D +F