Chapter 15: The Age of Xiao Ai

Look at what the management of the Philadelphia 76ers selected in the highly anticipated 2007 draft, you can understand whether this team can rise in the future, the 2007 draft produced a lot of stars hovering on the edge of All-Star, such as Al Horford, Mike Conley, Joakim Noah, Mark Gasol, Jeff Green, Rodney Starkey, and also produced a lot of practical role players with good skills, such as Corey Brewer, Tial Split, Al Thorton, Marco Belinelli, Gared Dudley, Aaron Afflaro, Rudy Fernandez, Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry, Josh McRoberts, Ramon Sessions, etc., if the 76ers can get these people, they can't say that they will rise quickly, but at least they can't be slaughtered, but unfortunately, the blind 76ers have successfully avoided these people, look at the Philadelphia 76ers, who have three first-round picks and one second-round pick, who have chosen.

The twelfth pick in the first round, Thaddeus Young, it is no exaggeration to say that Young is all the gains of Philadelphia in this rookie conference, Yang is a conscientious forward player, strong single ability, but it is still far from the standard of stars, averaging 8.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game in his rookie season, and his career average is stable at 14+6 standards per game.

The No. 21 pick in the first round, Daquin Cook, the highest honor in his career was the 2009 three-point contest champion, a career high of 25 points in 7 years, an average of about 6 points per game, Cook did not play a game for the 76ers, but was used as a bargaining chip, from the Heat to the 20th rookie of the year, Jason Smith, Smith later played two seasons with the 76ers, averaging 3 points per game, and it is also a big hole in defense, who sees who is happy.

The No. 30 rookie in the first round, Petri Copper, like Daquine Cook, did not wear the 76ers' jersey, and he did not even play in the NBA, and the 76ers used his signing rights to trade from the Trail Blazers for potential small forward Derrick Bayless, the 42nd pick in the second round that year, who averaged 3 points per game in his career......

With the eighth pick in the second round, the 76ers finally took a decent interior bench, but then almost gave it to the Utah Jazz, who is center Kelanlo Feshenko from Ukraine.

That's all the Philadelphia 76ers management did in the 2007 draft, they sent the team's leaders, but only got a few role players, the team's strength was greatly damaged, so the Philadelphia 76ers inevitably went into decline and degenerate. Iverson was not there, and Iguodala became the leader of the team, and it just so happened that Iguodala's abbreviation was also "AI", so he was called "Little AI" by fans. 2007-2008 Season, Iguodala averaged 19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists and 2.1 steals per game, ranking among the stars, but Iguodala was relatively taciturn when he was young, although the data is at the top level, but the character is really not the material to be the leader, the position of the locker room leader is played by the veteran Andre Miller, Miller averaged 17.0 points and 6.9 assists per game this season, Louis Williams played 80 games off the bench, averaging 11 points per game, and center Samuel Dereembert averaged 10.5 points and 10.4 rebounds per game with a double-doubleWillie Green, a second-round pick in 2003, was retained on a long-term contract after four years on the team, and this season ushered in an explosion, averaging a career-high 12.4 points per game, and rookie Thaddeus Young averaged 8.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.

Kirisek is a very talented player on the offensive end, shooting fast, and accurate, and has a very good passing skill, the most important thing is handsome, he fell out with head coach Jerry Sloan in the Jazz and was sent to the 76ers, this issue looks at Kirisek to be able to achieve a career in the 76ers, but unfortunately, Kirisek can't find the feeling of playing at all after arriving at the 76ers, he was able to average 8 points per game last season, 3 points per game this season, he only stayed with the 76ers for two months, was given up by the team.

This season, the Philadelphia 76ers achieved a 40-42 record and entered the playoffs as seventh in the East. It's not that enemies don't get together!

At that time, the Pistons' five King Kong was missing Ben Wallace, but Antonio McDyce was added, and Jason Markhill were also two very strong interior players. In the first game, the Philadelphia 76ers narrowly defeated the Pistons 90-86, Andre Miller became the key man of the game, he contributed 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the most important fourth quarter, and he got 20 points and 6 assists in the whole game, Andre Iguodala is still an all-round warrior, scoring 16 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists in the whole game, Reggie Evans, the "rebounding maniac" who was traded from the Diggers this season, played equally well in this game, scoring 11 points and 14 rebounds on 4-of-6 shooting, The Pistons played below average, shooting less than 40% from the field in this game, and Mark Hill's 12 points and 11 rebounds on 6-of-8 shooting was the best performance, and the Pistons still fought with the 76ers until the last minute.

In the second game, the 76ers defeated the Pistons 88-105, who used iron-blooded defense to make the 76ers shoot less than 40% of the whole game, and Louis Williams on the bench scored a team-high 17 points, while the Pistons Hamilton scored 20 points, and Prince, McDyce, and Rasheed Wallace each contributed 16 points.

In the third game, Derem Porter suddenly broke out, scoring 22 points and 16 rebounds on 8-of-14 shooting, Andre Miller scored 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting, and the two led the team to defeat the Pistons 95-75, Hamilton scored 23 points on 9-of-18 shooting, and Tysean Prince scored 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting, but his teammates were too scummy in this game. In the fourth game, Prince hit the brit again, scoring 23 points on 11-of-12 shooting, Rasheed Wallace scored 20 points and 10 rebounds, Hamilton and Billups both scored 18 points, and the 76ers scored six double-doubles, but the highest was only Thaddeus Young's 15 points, and the 76ers were tied with a score of 84:93.

In the fifth game, despite Iguodala's all-around statistics of 21 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals, and Louis Williams also scored 16 points, the 76ers still lost 81-98, Billups scored 21 points and 12 assists on 7-of-14 shooting, Hamilton scored 20 points, Rasheed Wallace scored 19 points, and Prince scored 17 points.

In the sixth game, the 76ers were still waiting for a fiasco, the final whistle blew, the score was fixed at 77:100, Iguodala scored a team-high 16 points on 4-of-7 shooting, Andre Miller and Louis Williams both scored 11 points, and no one scored in double figures on the team, while the Pistons, Hamilton and Billups combined to score 44 points, and Prince scored 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

After six games, the Philadelphia 76ers were defeated by the Pistons in the playoffs for the third time. This result almost collapsed the team's management, from Iverson to Iguodala, the Pistons became a hurdle they could never pass, and the management of the 76ers began to lose their minds in recent years, or they were in a hurry, and the first performance was in the recruitment.

On July 10, 2008, the Philadelphia 76ers signed Elton Brand in 1999 with a 5-year, $82 million super contract, there is no doubt that healthy Brand has the ability to average 20+10 per game, but injuries have limited his development, last year because of the rupture of the left Achilles tendon in the whole season only 8 appearances, this season after returning from injury, no one dares to make a conclusion, and later facts have proved that the 76ers spent a lot of money to sign Brand, it was a wonderful misunderstanding.

In the 2008-2009 season, the Philadelphia 76ers got off to a bad start, losing 14 of the first 23 games, Maurice Cheeks resigned, Tony D'Arena took over, Philadelphia finished 41-41 all season, sixth in the East, and Iguodala is still the representative of the league's all-rounders. Averaging 18.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, Andre Miller averaged 16.3 points and 6.5 assists per game, Elton Brand rested for a month because of a dislocated shoulder after fighting for 23 games, and after his comeback, he only played 6 games, the old injury recurred, Brand announced surgery on his shoulder, and the season was reimbursed, replacing Brand in the No. 4 position was the sophomore rookie Saidadis Young, after a season of precipitation, he ushered in an explosion this season, averaging 15.3 points and 5.0 assists per game, and the 16th rookie in the first round in 2008, Maris Speights, became an indispensable member of the interior line, averaging 7.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in 16 minutes per game, Louis Williams has played all the bench throughout the season, averaging 12.8 points per game.

The opponent of the 76ers in the playoffs is the powerful Orlando Magic, the Magic team at that time has a clear offensive and defensive banner, known as the "Warcraft", Dwight Howard chiseled the inside line one by one, the opponent wrapped Howard to divide the outside line, and the four muskets on the outside line took turns to volley, and the opponent who shot could not find the north.

On the whole, the strength of the 76ers at that time was far inferior to the Magic, but they did not give up, but went all out to play, the first game, 2.2 seconds before the end, the two sides tied at 98, Andre Iguodala faced Sido Tekoglu's close defense at the top of the arc, stepped back, stepped on the three-point line to shoot, and the basketball went into the net! Lore!

Interested friends can Baidu take a look at the video of Iguodala killing the Magic team that year, this ball has the shadow of AI, his right side of the fake crotch to return the ball, continuous shoulder shaking, the left side of the false step back, every move is very similar to the former son of Philadelphia, it can be seen from this ball, Iguodala did learn a lot of things around the AI, the so-called inheritance, about that.

PS: Personally, I really like Iguodala's look on the bunker after throwing this killer goal......