Inside the Sixers: What's the game plan for the fading season?

Nothing about this 76ers season has gone smoothly: not the team's on-court play, not the off-court reaction to that play.

Since October, it has been a downhill, sometimes out-of-control, ride.

With last week's news that coach Eddie Jordan and general manager Ed Stefanski are sizzling on the hot seat, there's now an added element of struggle.

The Sixers have 17 games remaining, including tonight's against Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat.

But 17 games of what?

Attempted winning? Calculated losing? Talent evaluation? All of the above?

The best would probably be a mesh of the first and third. Although it sounds temptingly naughty and actually quite intelligent to finish this season, say, 4-13 - a poor record considering the number of winnable games still on the slate - it would likely destroy the remaining fabric of this roster.

And because a good portion of this roster will be back next season, playing the rest of this season to lose - as opposed to playing to win and losing anyway - would affect next season, too. Something akin to declawing a cat and tossing it back into the wild.

These last few weeks should be a combination of pursuing victory while slipping in sneak peeks of the roster's few question marks.

While there are plenty of frustrations with Jordan's coaching this season, never could he be accused of not playing to win: at times he's appeared so focused on pulling strings toward victory that his decisions have backfired into losses.

Jordan will be preparing to win and coaching to win.

But we'll still likely see quick hits of talent evaluation within that effort: a chunk of minutes for Jason Smith; Jodie Meeks playing the final eight minutes of the first half; Jrue Holiday logging 40-minute games; maybe extended minutes for Marreese Speights when he returns from his knee injury.

But from where should these minutes come? And from where should they not come?

They can't come from Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand, or Thaddeus Young. If you "rest" the first two, you're not as competitive on the floor; if you take time from Young, who lately has looked better and better, he could slip backward to a place the Sixers should be glad he's dragged himself out of.

Iguodala and Brand are, whether you're pleased about it or not, the cornerstones of the roster. It should be their burden to hold the rope, to keep this season from plummeting all the way into the abyss.

There are still Sixers fans - thousands applauded the team's effort Friday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers - who would welcome a scrappy effort these next three weeks.

The Sixers are already a lottery team. Their odds of landing a top-three pick will not be high. Even if they were to keep losing, they'd earn only a few more ping-pong balls, increasing their odds only from really bad to bad.

The talent-evaluation minutes need to come from Willie Green and Samuel Dalembert. Both are known quantities. Each has proven that, in some games, he can be a deciding factor and in others he can be a nonfactor.

Jordan needs to identify early in the game which kind it might be.

For Green, he often scores early, defers later. He often starts 4 for 4 and then misses his next few. Once you get that early contribution, it might be a perfect time to slide some of his minutes to Meeks, see if the kid can make shots as efficiently in games as he does everywhere else.

Dalembert has proved his worth this season, both on the court and off. The question marks are Smith and Speights. Slammin' Sammy tends to get himself in early foul trouble, and maybe it's time to let him play out the first half even if he collects two early. Let him go after every shot and try to snag every board.

If he gets whistled repeatedly, as he has a habit of doing, bring in first Smith, then Speights.

This season has been rough-and-tumble; it's not salvageable as a whole.

But tanking the final three weeks will rip apart whatever is left of this roster.

Read Kate Fagan's 76ers blog, Deep Sixer, at www.philly.com/sixers.

Posted 09:05 a.m. 03/10/2010

ChangeISNeeded

Sixers need to clean house! Dump Jordan & Stefanski. Hire a defensive minded coach - Jay Wright, Avery or Van Gundy (if you want a recycled guy). Keep Holiday - the kid is going to be an all-star. Decide which guy they want to keep, Thad or Iggy, & trade the other. I still believe in Brand, the guy has been hurt for 2 years & this year has played totally out of his comfort zone in this EJ offense. In the right system Brand will be fine. So. IMO, there are 3 of next year's 5 starters - everyone could/should be gone!