Indiana Pacers put it all on Paul George

Paul George is not yet an NBA superstar. 

He took some solid steps in that direction last season, and his impressive play against LeBron James and the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals served as his coming out party of sorts. But, he still has a while to go before he is on LeBron’s level. 

Heading into his fourth season in Indiana, George certainly seems poised to continue the climb up the steps towards superstardom, and he’s built up quite a buzz around his skills since the Pacers were pushed out of the Playoffs.

The Pacers predict that George will continue his climb to superstar status, and rewarded him with a max-level, $80 million contract; the type that is usually reserved for superstars. 

Jrue Holiday welcomes Pelicans fans on behalf of the Sixers

Jrue Holiday spent his first four seasons in the NBA with the Sixers, and was the focal point of the franchise before being traded away in a rebuilding effort this past summer.

Although Jrue is embracing his position as a Pelican, he has not forgotten his Sixer roots, and while adressessing the Pelicans crowd in New Orleans on Wednesday night, Jrue made a small slip up:



It seems Jrue still has some Sixers in him. While it was tough to see the 2013 All-Star leave this summer, the opening night performance of his replacement, Michael Carter-Williams, gave fans of the franchise much to be optimistic about.

Sixers Prediction League participation

The Sixers seasons was bound to start sometime, and it currently sits less than a week away.

In advance of the season, Andrew Unterberger of the 700 Level came up with an idea to make this struggle of a season slightly more entertaining.

Enter: The 1st annual Sixers Prediction League.

Predictions are made prior to every season, but the SPL actually includes accountability. The League has a scoring system that will track all of our predictions throughout the season, in order to determine which pundit's predictions were actually most accurate.

16 sports writers from across the Philadelphia sports landscape will be competing in the Sixers Prediction League this year.

A list of all the participants, as well as the questions and all of our predictions, can be seen here:

http://the700level.com/top-posts/the-700-level-hosts-the-first-annual-sixers-prediction-league/

The Sixers aren't just bad, they're 'Breaking Bad'

I thought of this idea while writing about the Sixers upcoming season and watching Breaking Bad reruns on Netflix; logical correlation, no?

Check out the original article, from Philly.com, here. 

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Albuquerque, New Mexico was the home of the television greatness that was Breaking Bad. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is home to the 76ers, who are just bad. 

Breaking Bad came to its dramatic conclusion a few weeks back, just as the Sixers were getting ready to kick off their struggle of a season. Watching Vince Gilligan’s small-screen masterpiece was extremely enjoyable, while watching the Sixers this season will likely be quite the opposite. Still, some similarities exist between the two. 

If you are unfamiliar with Breaking Bad, then this post may not make much sense, but if you’ve ever heard Jesse Pinkman exclaim, “yeah,  bitch!” then it may make some sense.

Without further ado:

Sam Hinkie is Walter White: 

The evil genius. Like Walt, Sam is neither in the meth business or the money business, but rather in the business of building the Sixers into a basketball empire. Taking a page out of Heisenberg’s book, Hinkie values secrecy. He keeps his activities under wraps, and likes to keep people in the dark, even those who his decisions have a direct impact on. Frustrated Sixer fans pined for information during the summer’s elongated coaching search, just as Skylar scoured for facts after Walt inadvertently referred to his second cell phone.  The Sixers seem to have done pretty well for themselves with Brett Brown. Now if only Hinkie can make his product as desirable as Walt did. 

As great as it was, Allen Iverson's career could have been better

This article was difficult to write. Allen Iverson is not only my favorite basketball player, but my favorite athlete of all time. The drive with which he played the game of basketball was unparalleled, and his presence on the court is greatly missed, especially by the struggling Sixers.

Be sure to check out the full article, which originally ran on Philly.com, here.

Allen Iverson was an extremely productive NBA player. Anyone who had the pleasure of watching him effortlessly put up points can attest to his abilities. He was that rare, once-in-a-generation superstar who was able to transcend the league and leave one hell of a legacy, controversy-ridden and all. 

With an MVP, a Rookie of the Year award, 11 all-star games and four scoring titles under his waistband, Iverson’s spot in NBA history is secure. He was one of the greatest scorers the game has ever seen, piling up 24,368 points over 14 seasons, which is currently 19th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. 

As gaudy as Iverson’s numbers are (remember, he put up all these points while playing in under 1,000 NBA games), the fact of the matter remains that they could have been better. 

Iverson’s career took a steep tumble after the 2007-08 season. During that year in Denver he averaged 26 points and seven assists while playing in all 82 games for the first time in his career. After the season however, Iverson was shipped to Detroit, and the downward spiral began. Despite some solid play with the Pistons, Iverson lost tick to Rodney Stuckey and other young players, and became unhappy with his role with the team,; a situation that should have served as a sign to A.I. that times were a-changing. The league had new breeds of superstar (LeBron James, Kevin Durant) and superteams (Boston) to contend with, and Iverson’s me-against-the-world style wasn’t the most appealing game plan, to put it lightly. 

Unable to relinquish his alpha-dog status, Iverson continued to bounce around the league’s landscape, stopping briefly in Memphis and finally back in Philadelphia, searching for the a flame to re-light his career torch. 

Needless to say, the flame was never quite found, which is why we find Iverson, following three years of NBA inactivity, unceremoniously announcing his retirement at the start of another season that he won’t be a part of. 

It didn’t have to be this way. Hell, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. But, a plethora of problems, decisions, and off-court issues, many of Iverson’s own doing, have the future hall-of-famer facing his retirement from the outside looking in. 

Sixers lack of size provides an opportunity for Daniel Orton

Check out the entire article, from Philly.com, here. 
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"Daniel Orton’s current contract with the Sixers is non-guaranteed, meaning that the team can still cut ties with him, but the former Kentucky Wildcat may very well stick with the team heading into the season.

The Sixers, a team made up of a plethora of unproven players, including many guards, desperately need big bodies. Kwame Brown and flattop phenom Nerlens Noel are both out indefinitely. Royce White’s fear of flying may limit his availability to the team, and Lavoy Allen is overweight, or oversleeping, or some combination thereof.

Report: Allen Iverson to officially announce his retirement at the Sixers home owner against the Miami Heat

After a couple seasons of inactivity, preceded by over a decade of dominance, Sixers legend Allen Iverson is apparently ready to announce his retirement from the NBA.

Rumors have been circulating about A.I.'s possible retirement for the better part of a month, and today league sources confirmed the decision to NBA.com's David Aldridge. The official announcement is planned for October 30th when the Sixers host the defending champion Miami Heat in their home opener.

Evan Turner could lead the Sixers in scoring this season

Post originally published on Philly.com. Check out the full article here.  

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"Evan Turner will likely lead the Sixers in scoring this season. 

Okay, that’s not really a revelation as there are a grand total of about three players on the team that could compete for that distinction. If he was given enough open three-point opportunities and allowed to take as many off-balanced turnarounds as he wanted maybe Spencer Hawes could lay claim to the Sixers’ scoring title. Thaddeus Young is the other viable option in this area, but throughout the first two preseason games Turner has outshot Young 31 to 18, and with Young not being known for his assertive nature on the offensive end, this trend will likely continue throughout the season. Or until Turner gets traded.

Sixers intentions to struggle should open opportunities for unproven players

Read the original article, published on Philly.com here.
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"One silver lining of the Sixers’ intentions to struggle this season is the opportunities opened up for young, developing players and prospects. 

Teams intending to contend may fill their training camp roster with a few fringe players, but usually such rosters are mostly made up of the prerequisite stars, proven starters, and ready role players. The Sixers, as currently constructed, don’t really have any of this. 

There is no central star on this squad; Nerlens Noel is probably the most well-known player at this point, and he has yet to play a single NBA second. And while the roster does include some starter-status players such as Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes, and Evan Turner, it has far fewer of such players than the average camp roster of a team in contention. 

As a comparison point, the defending champion Heat have five players on their camp roster with one year or less of NBA experience, the Sixers have 11. That’s a whole lot of inexperience, which doesn’t usually correlate to on-court success. But, looking at it another way, it is also a whole lot of potential for the Sixers to sift through. 

Former Sixers coach Doug Collins defends the Andrew Bynum decision

This article originally published on Philly.com. Check out the article in its entirety here.  

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Former Sixers coach Doug Collins has officially signed a multiyear deal with ESPN to return to television sets nationwide this season. 

Collins will join Magic Johnson, Bill Simmons, and Jalen Rose on the set of “NBA Countdown,” a role filled last season by Michael Wilbon. Collins will also serve as a game analyst for several ESPN-televised games throughout the season; a role he has received recognition for. 

While discussing his new position with ESPN.com, Collins fondly reflected on his tenure as the head coach of the 76ers.

“I loved it, I absolutely loved [my time coaching the Sixers],” he stated. 

“To go back there, it was a circle-of-life thing for me. I went there as a player when the team was 9-73. And then to be in the NBA Finals in 1977, I got to play with some great players and some great coaches. So to go back the second time as a coach, going back to so many established friendships in the city and the fans and getting back into the playoffs, I just love the place. I’ve always loved the passion of the fans and just how much they love their teams in Philadelphia.”

Collins received a lot of support throughout his first two seasons, the second one culminating with the Sixers falling one game short of the Eastern Conference Finals. That support however began to fade each day that Andrew Bynum sat on the sideline as the Sixers struggled their way through last season. Unjustly or not, Collins has taken a lot of heat for the Bynum debacle, another issue he addressed with ESPN.