Philadelphia 76ers Must Lock Up Jrue Holiday to Avoid Overpaying Rising Star

 Philadelphia  No Responses »
Oct 172012
 

As the 2012-13 NBA season hastily approaches, very few teams have experienced as severe a culture shock as the Philadelphia 76ers. After trading franchise player Andre Iguodala and receiving All-Star center Andrew Bynum in return, the organization made it clear that they were headed in a new direction.

A direction that required their youth be locked up as they build around Bynum in the paint.

With this being known, a major hurdle approaches as the Sixers hope to keep their new-found core in tact. Next offseason, 22-year-old point guard Jrue Holiday will join a deep class of NBA free agents.

In order to protect the best interest of the team, it is imperative that the 76ers do not allow such to transpire. 

Should Holiday become a free agent, he would be available to receive contract offers from any team. According to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, that does not bode well for the Sixers, considering Holiday is in search of a max contract.

Sixers guard Jrue Holiday added to USA select team roster. Holiday also is seeking a max contract extension from Sixers, source tells Yahoo!

— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) July 2, 2012

Per a report via Philly.com, Holiday’s agent was at the Wells Fargo Center discussing his client’s future with the team. Whether or not this will lead to a max contract is unclear, but the early talks are encouraging ones.

For the Sixers’ sake, let’s all pray that this leads to a more reasonable agreement.

 

Point Guard is a Hot Commodity

If one thing has become clear over the past half-decade, it is that the point guard position has become the most sought-after position in the NBA. Although Jrue Holiday may not be the top name on the list of free agent point guards, he remains a name to consider.

He’s just 22 years old and has great size for the position. He also has two postseason appearances under his belt and helped lead the Sixers to a near-upset of the Boston Celtics in the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals.

With Andrew Bynum leading the way and a surplus of additional depth, the 76ers are a virtual lock to make the postseason once again. With even more experience behind him, Holiday can expect to see his stock rise.

In turn, his price tag will rise significantly, and the Sixers will be forced to overpay.

 

Lou Williams is Gone

During the 2011-12 NBA season, the Philadelphia 76ers had the luxury of putting forth two quality players who can run the point. Along with Holiday, the Sixers had Sixth Man of the Year candidate Lou Williams.

The same Lou Williams who led the team in scoring with 14.9 points per game.

That luxury has been lost, as Williams is now a member of the Atlanta Hawks. In turn, re-signing Holiday becomes extremely importance due to the fact that the Sixers are in store for a mid to late first-round draft choice in 2013 and beyond.

Unless they plan on gambling on Royal Ivey, it is Holiday or bust at the point guard position for the 76ers.

 

Hasn’t Approached Elite

Through his first three years in the league, Holiday has posted career averages of 11.9 points, 5.0 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. Although solid, Holiday has never approached elite status at this stage in his career.

Yet another reason that the 76ers must lock him up before they overpay.

If Holiday receives a max contract offer from another team in free agency, the Sixers would be forced to match it or let him go. If they matched it, they’d be paying big-time money on a player who has yet to be consistently “big time.”

Without early action, this team leaves themselves in a very vulnerable position. It is re-sign him before the offseason or face a severe overpayment.

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Are Philadelphia 76ers Experiencing Buyer’s Remorse with Andrew Bynum?

 Philadelphia  No Responses »
Oct 152012
 

The Philadelphia 76ers are getting a crash course in Andrew Bynum 101, one with which the Los Angeles Lakers were all too familiar.

The Sixers are learning that the All-Star center’s knees are bad and he’s not always in a rush to get/keep them up to snuff.

Two years ago, Bynum put off much-needed knee surgery after the Lakers’ NBA Finals triumph over the Boston Celtics so that he could attend the World Cup in South Africa. This time around, Bynum waited until September to return to Germany for the same blood-spinning therapy that he, Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez had previously pioneered.

As a result, Bynum is scheduled to miss the entirety of the Sixers’ preseason slate, if not a few games that actually count thereafter, to rest his knees, per Tom Moore of phillyBurbs.com.

Furthermore, according to John N. Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bynum will receive another injection of Synvisc-One to treat the osteoarthritis in his right knee prior to the start of the season.

Which, understandably, has some folks wondering whether the gamble Philly took on ‘Drew in facilitating Dwight Howard‘s flight to L.A. isn’t already biting the team in the behind.

Bynum was bound to be an odd fit with the Sixers, regardless of how soon he’d be able to step onto the floor. Doug Collins’ club was arguably better equipped to succeed with a low-post scorer like Bynum before it severed ties with Elton Brand, parted ways with Lou Williams and brought in the likes of Nick Young and Dorell Wright.

‘Drew aside, the Sixers are built to run. Their roster features an abundance of guards and wings, most notably Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner, who can force turnovers on the perimeter and make hay in transition.

How Bynum factors into that equation is unclear, and his prolonged absence can only delay the discovery and institution of a satisfactory solution. Surely, asking a big guy with knee problems like Bynum to run—especially when he wasn’t particularly swift afoot in the first place—doesn’t make a ton of sense for the Sixers.

Not that his mere presence won’t help plenty in the half court. He’s one of only a handful of pivots in the NBA today to whom a team can dump the ball and expect to come away with points.

The problem with Bynum, as always, will be making sure he’s present to begin with—physically, mentally and otherwise. Last season marked the closest to a full campaign that Bynum had played since his sophomore season, when he appeared in 82 games for the Lakers. If not for a four-game suspension to start the 2011-12 season, as penance for pummeling J.J. Barea in the 2011 playoffs, ‘Drew might’ve nearly seen time in all 66 of L.A.’s regular-season tilts.

But such was the case with Bynum in Lakerland. The specter of injury was constant, and if his body wasn’t bogging him down, his mind probably would be.

How else do you explain a player who goes for 30 rebounds one game and comes up with “just” eight the next? A player who launches three-pointers against his coach’s wishes and is prone to “getting [his] Zen on” during in-game timeouts.

The hope for the Sixers is that a change of scenery will inspire Bynum to take his game to another level. Granted, last season’s stats (18.7 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.9 blocks) were nothing to sneeze at.

But that was as the second option in L.A., with Kobe launching jumpers and Pau Gasol getting touches from time to time. Bynum’s numbers should only improve as he grows into a role as the go-to guy in Philly.

They’ll certainly have to if the Sixers are to take full advantage of their newest asset and take another step up in the Eastern Conference. Should Bynum fail to deliver, be it on account of his knobby knees or his meandering mind, it won’t take long for his narrative to shift from that of a savior-son of New Jersey to that of another pariah to be pushed out.

And don’t think fans in the City of Brotherly Love won’t turn on Bynum in a heartbeat. Just ask Santa Claus about how loving and welcoming sports fans in Philly can be.  

Follow @Josh_E_Martin

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