| Why Elton Brand Picked Philly |
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Clipper fans will tell you that Elton Brand left the Clippers for the Sixers because he wanted more money and his agent David Falk needed to get his revenge on Mike Dunleavy for apparently circumventing him and making deals with Brand without Falk’s influence. While these reasons may be true, there are legitimate on the court reasons for Brand wanting to play with the up and coming Sixers. After the Baron Davis trade, AccuScore simulations indicated that the Clippers with Brand could expect a 25 game improvement, 48 wins in 2008-2009 which made them a borderline playoff contender in the West. /p> The Sixers finished last season under .500 (40 wins), but they were one of the hottest teams in the second half of the season. With Elton Brand and continued improvement from young players like Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young the Sixers could improve by 16 wins which would be 56 whopping games in the Eastern Conference. The chart below shows the Sixers’ simulation winning percentage against the Top 4 Eastern Conference teams from last season (Boston, Detroit, Orlando, Cleveland). Brand improved the Sixers’ winning percentage by an average of 19 percentage points. When you extrapolate 19 percentage points over 82 games it translates to nearly 16 additional wins.
Brand is having this
significant an impact because he fits in perfectly with the Sixers’
needs:
Of course this rosy picture for Philadelphia relies on Elton Brand to stay healthy. He has a history of injuries going back to his freshman year in college and he has to deal with Clipper fans’ curses. The good news is that even if Brand misses 10 to 15 games, he could still help Philly win 10 more games which would get them to the 50 win level. With Detroit potentially rebuilding rather than play second fiddle in the conference it is not inconceivable that Philly could vault ahead of Cleveland, Orlando and even Detroit. Trackback(0)
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| They were 5th in defensive efficiency and 8th in defensive rating. They allowed the 7th fewest points in the NBA. |
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