This is the team that surprised everybody by going 19-7 during one stretch that spanned February and March last season and surged into playoff position in the East. This is the team that added Elton Brand this summer to fix their biggest shortcoming: halfcourt offense. This is the team that should be right behind the Celtics and Cavs in the Eastern Conference standings.

But a little more than a month into the season, the Sixers stand at 8-11, in last place in the Atlantic Division. To just about everyone’s surprise, they’re worse than both the Nets and Knicks.

Brand was supposed to help the Sixers’ offense (their defense was already very good), but the offense is still where Philly has issues.

They rank 26th in offensive efficiency, even though they rank near the top of the league in both fast break points and points in the paint. The problem is clearly perimeter shooting.

The Sixers have talent in their lineup, but Brand is probably their most consistent shooter and his range only extends out to 18 feet or so. The Sixers rank 25th in three point percentage and only the Thunder make fewer threes per possession.

The lack of perimeter shooting keeps the Sixers from being able to space the floor and give Brand room to operate. Brand is Philly’s leading scorer, but the career 50 percent shooter is shooting just 45 percent and he’s had some off nights, like Wednesday’s 1-for-7 performance against the Lakers.

If Sixers President Ed Stefanski had his wish, he would have a shooter or two in his rotation.

“You cant have enough shooting,” he admitted before his team’s loss to the Lakers on Wednesday at the Wachovia Center, part of a state-of-the-team media session courtside.

The problem is that Stefanski traded Kyle Korver to Utah a year ago in order to create the cap space that eventually allowed the Sixers to sign Brand, and then Brand’s contract left no cap space available to sign the shooter that the team still needed. They brought in Kareem Rush and Donyell Marshall as cheap alternatives, but neither has cracked Maurice Cheeks’ rotation this season.

“We threw all our eggs in one basket,” Stefanski said, “and that being Elton Brand.”

No regrets, though.

“I would do it again in a New York second,” Stefanski added. “I think Elton’s getting better every game. But we still have areas that we have to improve upon and we didn’t have obviously after that, we made a huge commitment and we didn’t have the money under the collective bargaining agreement or the cap in order to do any more than that. We have to keep tinkering with this. We’re not perfect yet, but that’s where we’re going. But getting a guy like Elton, there is no question it’s helped us.”

And of course, the season is not 19 games long. There is time for the Sixers to sharpen things up offensively, even if they don’t make a roster move.

“I knew it was going to take us a while,” Stefanski said. “We’ve had [19] games now. We’ve got to start putting it together. We’ve had stretches of good basketball. We’ve got to make them longer stretches.”

Still, you have to think that Stefanski’s phone is busy.

“You’ll never hear patience come out of my mouth,” he admitted. “I’m one of the fans, I know how they are, so I’m not going to use that word.”

(nba.com)

Popularity: 1% [?]