With the Sixers summer league about to begin I figure that now is as good a time as any to break down the Sixers SL roster and see who has a real shot be playing with the big boys come wintertime.

I’m going to assume that Yahoo Sports has in fact confirmed the Carney/Booth to Minnesota trade and that both players are off of the roster.  I’m also assuming that since the Sixers didn’t offer qualifying offers to Louis Amundson, Shavlik Randolph, and Herbert Hill, all three are gone as well.   If so, the depth chart as it stands now reads something like this:

Point Guard               Andre Miller

Shooting Guard          Willie Green, Louis Williams

Small Forward            Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young

Power Forward          Reggie Evans, Marreese Speights

Center                      Samuel Dalembert, Jason Smith

Now obviously this is flexible - Thaddeus Young can play the 4, Iguodala should see minutes at the 2, and Louis Williams backs up both guard spots, but those nine players are the players we should assume will be playing at the Wachovia Center starting around Halloween.  Since the Carney/Booth trade looks done, lets assume that the Sixers have also added a big man (right now it looks like that big will be Elton Brand or Josh Smith) and the Sixers have ten guys under contract and real minutes to be won at the guard spots. 

An NBA team can carry 15 players (12 active) and it is unlikely that the 76ers will not add several free agent role players before the season starts, but the team does have more spots open than most teams.  Further, the Sixers use the Summer League.  Last year’s team had seven guys who made the roster (Louis Amundson, Rodney Carney, Herbert Hill, Shavlik Randolph, Jason Smith, Louis Williams, and Thaddeus Young) and another (Bobby Jones) who was part of the Reggie Evans trade.  On top of all that, the Sixers didn’t have a second round pick, so won’t have added pressure to keep someone they don’t like.  It should be open competition at it is best.

I’ll look at the full Summer League team and try to break down who should end up where ATJ

Locks for the team

14 Jason Smith F 7-0 240 3/2/86 1 Colorado State

16 Marreese Speights F 6-10 245 8/4/87 R Florida

21 Thaddeus Young F 6-8 220 6/21/88 1 Georgia Tech

They are the Sixers’ last three first rounders and all should see minutes this year.  The summer league will be a good chance for Thad to show that he can be a go-to scorer at the three, for Jason Smith to earn minutes at both center and power forward and for Marreese Speights to show he belongs with the Sixers and not the Erie BayHawks, their DLeague affiliate.

The Good Shot

18 Jamont Gordon G 6-4 225 3/16/87 R Mississippi State

Gordon is a 6′4″ combo guard out of Oak Hill by way of Mississippi State.  He’s a tough, versatile player who can D up anyone who is not Chris-Paul quick, rebound over guys bigger than he is, get to his position on the floor and score the ball from there.  He probably shouldn’t be your number one option at the point, but he’d already be in the top half of shooting guards in passing, where I think the off-guard position is headed.

The lefty is not a jump shooter, even though he sometimes thinks he is, but does have excellent dribbling ability (which is different than handle - the man is turnover prone) which allows him to create shots when the clock runs down, which is something the current Sixer team doesn’t have.  In the League he’d be a guy who can come in at either guard spot, d up the other team’s best perimeter player and even take over a game for a few minutes if he gets hot.  He sometimes plays out of control, but it is because he wants to be the man, not because he doesn’t understand basketball.  Think of him as a poor man’s Rodney Stuckey, which I do not mean as a slight in the least.

Both Chad Ford and DraftExpress had him getting drafted (DE with the 39^th pick), so the fact that he slipped out of it completely is a boon to the Sixers.  Mike Conley Sr. is his agent and he put the kid in a good spot to succeed.  Without a true point guard on the summer league team look for him to get big minutes, it is my understanding that the organization would be disappointed if he didn’t latch on. 

And oh yeah, he did this too:

The Rest

Almost assuredly at least a couple of these guys are going to be at the end of the bench this season, and its quite possible that a few play real minutes for the Home Team. 

51 Callistus Eziukwu C 6-10 220 7/3/85 R Grand Valley State

Bean (his nickname is ‘Bean’) averaged just under 16 and 8 for DII Grand Valley.  Shockingly, I never saw Grand Valley State play this year so am going off youtube videos and scouting reports, but it looks like Eziukwu is a good athlete without a good feel for the game.  He’s big, he blocks shots, and the Sixers had him in twice, so maybe they bring the big guy in and hope he can learn something from Dalembert.  If he shows he can rebound and play D on the summer league circuit he’ll have a shot too.

17 Jawann McClellan G 6-4 204 12/13/85 R Arizona

McClellan came into Arizona as McDonalds’ All-America with plenty of hype, party due to injuries he never lived up to it.  He was never better than a third option (and rarely that) on a college team that underachieved his entire time there.  If he’s been living in the gym shooting jump shots he might find a role off of the end of the bench.  He’s athletic enough to play in the league, but he’ll never get minutes at the one and as of now he doesn’t have the size or jump shot to play the two. 

Didn’t stop Willie Green though, so anything is possible I guess.

31 Edin Bavcic F 6-10 230 6/5/84 R Bosnia

Bavcic returns to the Sixers’ Summer League team.  He played last year and didn’t show much (his high in points was three) but he just turned twenty-four and the Sixers obviously like him enough to give him another look.  He was actually a second round pick of theirs in 06 so if he shows something they have his rights. 

Basically everyone says that Bavcic is big, perimeter oriented, and that never going to be the goods.

11 Pat Carroll G 6-5 190 9/10/82 R Saint Joseph’s

The St. Joes grad from Horsham, PA is here in two parts because he’s a local guy and one part because he can shoot the lights out.  

I’d say he doesn’t have the athleticism to play in the league, but after a stint in the D-League his brother got $27 mil essentially for playing the same game. 

41 Sherman Gay F 6-7 195 7/12/82 R Loyola Marymount Roanoke 2004-05

He was a mediocre wing forward in the D-League.  He’s there to push the other guys

4 Junior Harrington G 6-4 190 10/2/80 3 Wingate

At 27 Junior Harrington is an old man by Summer League standards.  After a year with the Nuggets where he actually started 51 games he’s been bouncing around Europe for years.  He’ll run the team when Jamont Gordon isn’t and try to fill Kevin Ollie’s shoes next year.

50 Jared Reiner C 6-11 245 4/8/82 2 Iowa Sioux Falls 2006-07

Reiner has been bouncing around the DLeague for a couple years.  He’s been good enough to be an all-star there, but never good enough to stick here.  He could be this years Shav/Amundson/Hill, a big who can rebound a little in practice and doesn’t expect to see much time on the floor.

40 Dawan Robinson G 6-3 195 2/10/82 R Rhode Island

Dawan Robinson is another guy who is here because of local ties.  Back in the day he led the Pub in scoring, and he is an NBA defender today.  That said, he can’t play the 1 and putting him on the floor with Lou Williams would be dumb.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 5:03 pm and is filed under Sixers, basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.