Sixers' preseason-opening lineup offers plenty of questions

[insidehoops]

Ready or not, rookie and 11th overall pick Michael Carter-Williams is the starting point guard. Playing at shooting guard is James Anderson, with a 3.7-point scoring average in 116 games. Evan Turner will play small forward, with Thaddeus Young at power forward and Spencer Hawes at center.

If you're an opposing team, doesn't that squad scream of packing in a zone and daring the players to beat you with outside shooting? It is a very big area of concern for the Sixers, and one of many. Anderson was a scorer in college at Oklahoma State, averaging 22.3 his final season. But he is at his scoring best getting to the basket, not so much from outside.

-- Philadelphia Daily News

[SourPatchKids]

ohhhh ****kkkk boyyyyyy

[insidehoops]

Spain - It began the same way Spencer Hawes' six previous preseason openers had begun.

The 76ers center was an offensive liability and - like most of his teammates - he was getting outhustled for the loose ball. But he is also the reason the Sixers defeated Bilbao Basket, 106-104, Sunday in an exhibition game at Bizkaia Arena at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre.

The 7-foot-1, 245-pounder hit a pair of foul shots that gave his team a two-point cushion with 4.89 seconds remaining. Bilbao's Raul Lopez, a former NBA guard, missed a three-pointer at the buzzer.

-- Philadelphia Inquirer

[insidehoops]

So first-year coach Brett Brown isn't dismissing the results of the preseason games. In fact, when asked if he worries about the blowouts demoralizing his young team, Brown was nothing but honest.

"I do," he said after Friday's practice. "I think that is on me to keep it upbeat but positive and honest and all things that [are] day-to-day teaching."

So don't expect Brown to tell the players about their playoff prospects. He must, and will, deal in reality.

"It's not going to be a fake relationship, not a false environment," Brown said. "It's real, and we have to get better, end of the story."

-- Philadelphia Inquirer

[SourPatchKids]

:(