By Nic Billman, of Philadelphia, PA

The 76ers team this year has been disappointing, I'll be the first to admit that. It has been hard to watch a team that the whole country fell in love with last spring, turn into a .500 ball club. But there are a lot of reasons for their record. The first thing is injuries, people say "well good teams survive injuries", sure they do, but I guess the Lakers are not a good team then. When Shaq was out the Lakers barely even competed. It is hard for a team to survive through injuries to four of their best players (A.I., Eric Snow, Aaron McKie and D.C.). To start the season without A.I., McKie and Snow was killer for the Sixers because it was a team that did not have enough experience under Larry Browns coaching, or experience in playing at all. Raja Bell, Vonteego Cummings and Speedy Claxton are nice bench players but those three do not compare to A.I., McKie and Snow. Those three have played together under Larry Browns coaching system for 4 years. Okay so they start off with 5 losses and then they come back and get above .500 and then drop 5 games below .500. Inconsistent and no chemistry, there is no excuse for those loses. Here we are in February, almost 3/4s of the season is behind us and the Sixers are a .500 ball club.

But the writer of the above mentioned article didn't look into the facts too much, the Sixers traded Ty Hill and Jumaine Jones, and they got Matt Harpring, Cedric Henderson and Robert Traylor. Harpring has been steady and solid this season (12.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg) and has started every game. Tyrone Hill was injured until recently and has played in a total of 5 games (7.2 ppg, 12.8 rpg), this season. J.J. has played well (9.7 ppg, 6.7 rpg) but inconsistent and does not compare to Harping. So in that trade the Sixers made out with a more consistent and solid player.

Then the Sixers traded Traylor, Henderson, Jerome Moiso and George Lynch for Derrick Coleman, Corie Blount and Vonteego Cummings. Traylor (380 lbs. And counting), Henderson and Moiso have all done very little, Lynch has played in 18 games and is struggling to come back from his injury (5.2ppg, 4.6rpg). Corie Blount is a big part of Larry Browns rotation playing the 4 and the 5 at times. He has played well (3.2ppg, 5rpg) Coleman and Dikembe Mutombo. Vonteego Cummings does not play that much because of the guard rotation of A.I., McKie, Snow, Speedy and Bell, but has played well in the minutes he has gotten (3.5ppg, 1.2 apg, 9.4mpg). And then there is D.C. he is in the best shape of his life right now at 255 lbs. and he is playing just as well (14.7 ppg, 8.8 rpg, .90 bpg, 1.6apg, 35.8mpg). He has missed 15 games due to injuries and suspensions but he has played consistently and stepped up when needed through out the season. So in that trade the Sixers got a strong PF in Coleman, a good backup PF in Blount and a decent backup guard in Cummings for Lynch. I think the Sixers did well in that trade.

As far as Todd MacCulloch is concerned I think the Sixers should have put out the money and signed him and given him 25 minutes per game when Dikembe sat on the bench and some time at the 4 spot. I did not agree with letting him go to an Eastern Conference rival.

Lastly, if you really feel the need to go back to last season, the Dikembe Mutombo and Theo Ratliff Trade. The Sixers feeling that they needed a legit center and knowing that Theo was out for the year, traded Theo Ratliff, Nazr Mohammed, Pepe Sanchez and Toni Kukoc to Atlanta for Dikembe Mutombo and Roshown "you can only hope to contain him" McLeod. This deal will forever be debated, but the only fault I saw in the deal was losing Mohammed in the deal. Theo, as much as I love him, was not going to play for a while (which has been proven- 3 games played since the trade). Toni Kukoc did not fit in on this team, since he had no defense whatsoever, plus this season he has only played in 33 games and his numbers are down (10.2ppg, 3.7rpg). Pepe was a huge loss and probably the reason the Sixers are not doing well this season (please tell me you picked up on my sarcasm). And as I mentioned I wish they would have found a way to keep Mohammed. Dikembe Mutombo has been consistent and solid, not dazzling and highlighted, but consistent and solid. He has played in every game since the trade and was a huge part of the Bucks series in the Eastern Conference Finals and also a big part to the Sixers even competing in the Finals vs. the Lakers.

It was asked in the aforementioned article "What could the Sixers be doing right now if Brown hadn't gutted the eastern conference champions in search of that elusive missing piece? One has to wonder.". Nobody knows what the record would be, but I can tell you what there team would look like. George Lynch would have played in only 18 games, Ty Hill would have played in only 5. Ratliff would be out so MacCulloch (9.9ppg, 6.2rpg, 1.3bpg) or Mahommed (10.1ppg, 8.8rpg) would be starting at center instead of Mutombo (11.3 ppg, 11.5 rpb, 2.6 bpg). Toni Kukoc and Jumaine Jones would be sharing time while Lynch was out and playing inconsistent instead of Harpring. MacCulloch and Mohammed would be sharing time at PF in the games that Tyrone Hill and George Lynch missed and playing out of position, instead of Derrick Coleman.

Your roster would look like this for the majority of the season.

PF Mohammed, SF Kukoc, C MacCulloch, SG A.I., PG Snow

Bench: Rodney Buford, McKie, Jumaine Jones, Kevin Ollie

Injured List: George Lynch, Theo Ratliff, Matt Geiger, Pepe Sanchez

Yes the Sixers of '01-'02 do not compare to the Sixers of '00-'01, yes they may have traded away some of their youth, but if they had not made those traded you can bet they would be a lot worse off then they are right now. There are many points to be argued with the Sixers situations, my feeling is that the Sixers are a .500 team due to injuries, limited time playing with the whole core team, and still adjusting to Larry Brown's coaching. The Sixers are better then .500 anyone in the NBA will tell you that. M.J. himself said "the Sixers have had their problems, but they are still the team to beat in the east."

Finally, I still think the Sixers are in the top three teams in the east in a 5 or 7 game series. In that situation it would be the Bucks, the Sixers and the Raptors. The Nets and the Celtics will not last through the playoffs against teams like the Bucks, the Sixers and the Raptors.